October 18, 2006
Prof. Andrew Sankowski
has been part of the St. John's University community since 1985,
holding a variety of positions in the University Libraries. Currently he is the
Director of Collections and Information Management; his previous
positions have included Head of Technical Services, Head of the
Department of Collection Development and Acquisitions, and
Collection Development Librarian. Prior to his employment
with St. John's, Prof. Sankowski had an extensive career at
Columbia University's Teachers College (1972-1985).
Prof. Sankowski’s
educational background includes a bachelor’s degree from Gymnasium
(Cracow, Poland), a master’s degree in Law from Jagiellonian
University (Cracow, Poland), a master’s degree in political science
from Queens College, and a master’s degree in library science from
the Columbia University School of Library Service. In addition, he
has completed 24 credits in education at Columbia
University's Teachers College. He is fluent in English and
Polish, and has a reading knowledge of Russian.
Prof. Sankowski
coordinates the development of the University Libraries'
collection of print and electronic resources. His concentration is
on the acquisition and accessibility of digital materials for the
University community, both on campus and remotely. He
spearheaded the development of the University Libraries’ web
resources and led the team of librarians who developed online
resource pages. Prof. Sankowski's trips to the Rome
campus have facilitated that library’s efforts to provide not only
a traditional print collection but also improved access to
electronic resources for St. John's students studying
abroad. While working
at Columbia University's Teachers College, Prof. Sankowski served
as Library Planner, responsible for the planning and redesign of
the library, as well as Head of the Resource Center, where he was
instrumental in implementing educational technologies and
developing programs that supported interactive teaching and
learning.
In support of the
University Libraries' teaching initiative, Prof. Sankowski has
provided both bibliographic and course instruction to the St.
John's community. In the Spring semester of 2006,
he team taught a course in collection development for the Division
of Library and Information Science, during which he coordinated a
special project where students used a serials evaluation tool to
determine the breadth and depth
of the Libraries' online collection. In addition, he was an
instructor for the Department of Political Science at Queens
College for one semester.
Prof. Sankowski has
been very active in both University and Library Committees. He has
served on the University President’s Dinner Committee for the past
5 years, devoting his time to fundraising for the event. He serves
as a liaison to the Tobin College of Business Committee on Learning
Resources and Technology and the Interdepartmental Linguistics
Committee. He was selected as the first University Libraries
faculty to be a Fellow of the Center for Teaching and Learning
(1997-98). Within the
Library he is a member of the Web Working Group, the Voyager
Steering Committee, and the Electronic Resources
Committee. In 1994-95,
Prof. Sankowski played a major role as Coordinator of the
Libraries’ Self Study. He is also actively involved in professional
associations, including Metropolitan Catholic College Librarians
Chapter (President, 1995-96); New York Technical Services
Librarians; American Library Association; and the Westchester
Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO).
His research interests
include government, politics, and history in addition to collection
development. Prof.
Sankowski has written articles for Acquisitions Librarian,
Catholic Library World, Leads, and Wilson
Library Bulletin. Additionally he has contributed to
The Kosciuszko Foundation Newsletter. He has given
numerous presentations to various organizations. His presentations include:
“Electronic Imagery in Education” delivered at the BOCES
Conference, 1983; “Microcomputers in Libraries” delivered at ASIS
Seminar MICRO, 1984; “Redesigning Your Work Space” delivered at the
Long Island Library
Conference, 1992; “Towards 2000: The Library as an Agent for
Change” delivered at Stop Surfing, Start Teaching Conference in
South Carolina; and “Solidarity and the East European Revolution of
1989” presented for
the Queens College Department of Political Science, 1992. Recently,
he co-authored “Collection Development at SJUL: Compromises,
Missions, and Transitions” which is part of the monograph
Collection Development Policies: New Directions for Changing
Collections, Haworth Information Press, 2003.
Prof. Sankowski has
done extensive charitable work for the needy people of Poland
during the post-Communist period. He has been a member of the
nonprofit organization, The
Friends of Poland, Inc. since 1989, serving on its Board of
Trustees since 1991 and as its liaison to Poland. This organization
has provided medical, educational and other humanitarian aid,
sending approximately $23 million worth of medical supplies and
equipment to Poland. Additionally, the Friends of Poland, with
Prof. Sankowski’s initiative, arranged for tons of overstocked
books from American publishers to be sent to schools and
universities in Poland. These materials were
crucial to advancing the education of youth during this country’s
period of transition from socialism to capitalism. He was active in securing
an equipment grant for the blind students in Poland which led to
the establishment of the Center for the Blind in Warsaw. This later
became the Computer Centre for Visually Impaired Students at
the University of Warsaw, which was the first and as yet
the only such center in Poland.
For his community and
charitable work, Prof. Sankowski was awarded the Silver Cross of
Merit of the Republic of Poland in 1996 by the President of Poland
and received a Congressional Citation by the U.S.
Congress.
Between 1989 and 1998,
Prof. Sankowski acted as group leader for American students who
attended summer courses at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow,
Poland. This program, sponsored by the Kosciuszko Foundation, is
for students from various colleges and universities in the United
States to participate in summer study abroad
in Poland.
Dedicated to advancing
access to the ever expanding array of information resources, Prof.
Sankowski plans on
continued development of the University Libraries’ digital
initiatives to support
the 21st century academic communities’ needs.