Vikki Terrile

Vikki Terrile, Assistant Professor

Rosenthal Library, Room 241

Graduate School of Library and Information Studies

Queens College, City University of New York

E-mail: vikki.terrile@qc.cuny.edu


 Education


Work Experience


Previous Courses Taught


Invited Guest Lectures


Research & Professional Interests

My primary area of research is family homelessness and its intersection with libraries and education. I began this work as a public librarian doing outreach to family shelters in New York City and have continued to investigate the provision of library services to people of all ages experiencing homelessness. My dissertation research explored how youth services librarians in the United States understand “the library” and “the homeless” as symbolic objects in the hope of explaining why targeted outreach and other services to families that are homeless are rare in public libraries. I found that even youth services librarians understand “the homeless” primarily as adults with mental health, substance abuse, and hygiene challenges, in keeping with the broader social context that allows child and family homelessness to be ignored. This project built on an earlier study that used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore how librarians who work with families in homeless situations understand and experience that work. In my interviews with participants, I learned that the librarians felt deep professional and moral responsibility for doing this work, but felt unsupported by the profession and in their individual libraries. Additionally, the librarians both understood the causes of family homelessness in the United States and judged the families they worked with in ways consistent with prevailing cultural beliefs around homelessness and poverty. Other research I’ve conducted in this area looked at if and how homeless shelter providers receive library services from their local public libraries, how community college faculty teach homelessness as a curricular topic, and how school district homeless liaisons support students’ transitions from high school to college.

Beyond my research work around homelessness and poverty, I have interests in information behavior, especially embodied information practices. My first CUNY research grant explored how performers and artisan vendors at Renaissance Faires find and use information in their work. Findings from this study ed that the participants use embodied, self-taught information practices, and also exhibit protective behaviors around certain aspects of their work, in line with Elfreda Chatman’s theories of information poverty. These findings situated Renaissance Faire performers and artisan vendors in the larger world of contingent workers who must navigate the conflict between their own expert power and the reward/coercive power of management, which often results in information being denied or withheld. As a lifelong crafter and maker, I am also interested in how making is portrayed in popular culture. I recently published a book chapter on how making is used as acts of love and resistance by professional and amateur craftspeople in the Disney Star Wars universe, and am exploring how similar themes are revealed in the animated sitcom, Bob’s Burgers.


Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed Papers

Terrile, V. (2023). Public Library Outreach with Homeless Shelter Providers. Public Library Quarterly, 93(3), 333-351. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2023.2168463

Terrile, V. C. (2023). Finding the answers: Community college students’ non-Academic information behaviors. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 47(3), 165-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2021.1985014

Terrile, V. C. (2023). Gigging it in the shire: information practices of Renaissance faire performers and artisans. Journal of Documentation, 79(4), 937-954. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2022-0164

Terrile, V. C. (2023). It’s Meaningful Work, but It’s “Really, Really Hard”: Librarians’ Understanding of Their Work with Families Experiencing Homelessness. The Library Quarterly, 93(3), 333-351.https://doi.org/10.1086/725066

Terrile, V. C. (2023). Teaching Homelessness: How American Community College Faculty Approach Housing Insecurity as a Curricular Topic. College Teaching, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2023.2224547

Terrile, V. (2022). Information Behaviors of Homeless Education Experts for Supporting College-Bound Students. Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention, 29(2). https://doi.org/10.24926/jcotr.v29i2.3576

Terrile, V. C. (2022). Scenes from the class struggle in picture books: Depictions of housing and home in books for young children. Children's Literature in Education, 53(4), 526-546.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-021-09458-5

Terrile, V. C. (2020). " One Day You and I Will Let Them All OUT": Attitudes Toward Animals in Hilary McKay's Fiction. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 45(3), 261-280. https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.2020.0031

Terrile, V. C. (2009). Library services to children, teens and families experiencing homelessness. Urban Library Journal, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.31641/ulj150202 


Book Chapters

Terrile, V. C. (2023). Saving what we love: The hope and resistance of makers and craftspeople in Disney’s Star Wars. In E. Strand & A.H. Sturgis (Eds), Star Wars: Essays exploring a galaxy far, far away (pp. 27-50). Vernon Press. (peer-reviewed)

Terrile, V.C. (2022)  Faculty inquiry at the library: Connecting social justice and information literacy. In S.P. Alvarez, Y. Kuchirko, M, McBeth, M. Tarafdar, & M. Watson (Eds.), Literacy and learning in times of crisis: Emergent teaching through emergencies (pp. 299-314). Peter Lang.

Terrile, V. C. (2021). Academic libraries supporting students experiencing homelessness and housing and basic needs insecurity. In J.C. Skinner & M. Gross (Eds.), Underserved patrons in university libraries: Assisting students facing trauma, abuse, and discrimination (pp. 123-136). Libraries Unlimited.

Terrile, V. C. (2021). The thing with feathers: Small moments, hope, and purpose in a career in libraries. In R.F. Hill (Ed.), Hope and a future: Perspectives on the impact that librarians and libraries have on our world  (pp. 3-12). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Terrile, V.C. (2014). Reaching kids who are experiencing homelessness, In K. Harrod & C. Smallwood (Eds.), Library youth outreach: 26 ways to connect with children, young adults and their families. McFarland


Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications (selected)

Terrile, V.C. (2021). As Communities Reopen, Remember the Library. Guest blog at SchoolHouseConnection.org https://schoolhouseconnection.org/as-communities-reopen-remember-the-library/

Terrile, V. C. (2021). The display’s the thing: A successful interactive, analog community college library display. College & Research Libraries News, 82(2).

Terrile, V. C. (2019). Critical pedagogies to combat the deficit model in community college libraries: A perspective. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(5). 

Terrile, V.C. (2016). Public library support of families experiencing homelessness. Journal of Children and Poverty, 22(2), 133-146.


Webinars


Conference Presentations (selected)

 

Professional Service

 

Grants and Fellowships