Laura
Clark Hunt

As an Assistant Professor at The University of Southern Mississippi School of Library and Information, Dr. Laura Clark Hunt has served in libraries for over ten years. Her experience has involved in both public and academic libraries in roles of management, programming, and collection development. Her dissertation focused on emergent literacy in public libraries and was celebrated as one of the most Notable Dissertations for 2017 by American Libraries https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/05/01/2017-notable-dissertations/.

 

She was a Fellow at the University of West Florida from 2017-2018 working with archaeologist at Florida Public Archaeology Network assessing public outreach programs throughout the state of Florida. This project focused on reaching the public with the message of cultural heritage. She assessed programs varied from children’s programming in museums to underwater preservation programs for dive masters. Her last position, before coming to USM, was an academic library director in the University System of Georgia.

 

She is positioned to pursue research in libraries and cultural heritage. Collaborative research projects are of special concern to her because they offer opportunities for interdisciplinary discovery and impact. Evaluation and assessment that focus on Needs-Based Research is at the core of her interest. Some of her research interests are cultural heritage, assessment in libraries, censorship, library users with disabilities, and management in libraries.