Nicole A. Cooke

Nicole A. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and a Professor at the School of Library and Information Science, at the University of South Carolina. Cooke is a 2012 graduate from Rutgers University with a PhD in communication, information, and library studies, where she was one of the first 12 American Library Association Spectrum Doctoral Fellows. She holds the MLS degree from Rutgers University, and a M.Ed. in Adult Education from Pennsylvania State University. Previously, Dr. Cooke was a tenured professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Cooke is professionally active in ALA, ACRL, the Association of Library and Information Science Educators (ALISE), and several other professional library organizations. Cooke was awarded the 2017 ALA Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award, presented by the Office for Diversity and Literacy Outreach Services, and the 2016 ALA Equality Award. She has also been honored as the University of Illinois YWCA’s 2015 Leadership Award in Education winner in recognition of her work in social justice and higher education, and she was selected as the University’s 2016 Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Award for Teaching and Mentoring in Diversity. She was the 2013 Recipient of the Norman Horrocks Leadership Award given by ALISE, and Library Journal named her a Mover & Shaker in 2007.

Cooke’s research and teaching interests include human information behavior (particularly in the online context), critical cultural information studies, and diversity and social justice in librarianship (with an emphasis on infusing them into LIS education and pedagogy).

​She has published articles in journals including JASIST, The Library Quarterly, InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information, Polymath: An Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Journal, Library and Information Science Research, Information Research, and New Review of Academic Librarianship. Cooke coauthored Instructional Strategies and Techniques for Information Professionals (Chandos Press, 2012), co-edited Teaching for Justice: Implementing Social Justice in the LIS Classroom (Library Juice Press, 2017), and her latest books are Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals (Libraries Unlimited / ABC-CLIO, 2016), and Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-Truth Era (ALA Editions. 2018).