Peggy Whitley

Background

Whitley was born on September 3, 1938, in Wyckoff, New Jersey, the daughter of John Kroeze, a minister, and Ethel Lant, a homemaker.

Education

Whitley received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University in 1961, and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Sam Houston University.

Career

Whitley reflected on the changes in librarianship caused by the information revolution. "With the advent of the Internet and the many electronic databases available online, today’s libraries are moving outside their walls. Librarians must be prepared to do so, too. Students and library patrons are now inundated with too much information. It has become the role of the librarian to teach users ‘information literacy' or how to select the best sources and evaluate the information they find." To help meet this need, Whitley teamed up with Catherine Olson and Susan Williams Goodwin to write Ninety-nine Jumpstarts to Research: Topic Guides for Finding Information on Current Issues. This work provides a plethora of information. It is divided alphabetically into two-page sections by such topics as abortion, politics, gun control, immigration, medicine, and crime, among many others. Each topic contains information on library search terms, relevant questions, agencies to contact, and sources of information from the print media and from Web sites.

As an adjunct to her information services work, Whitley, dean of educational services at Kingwood College, has also co-created and taught the "Whodunit Series." These college literature classes focus on mystery literature and have examined the development of the mystery as a genre, British historical and regional mysteries, and American historical and regional mysteries.

Achievements

• Longtime teacher and librarian, Whitley has been part of the late-twentieth-century information revolution. She was one of the authors of an important work on how to teach people "information literacy."

Works

More photos

• book

  • 99 Jumpstarts to Research: Topic Guides for Finding Information on Current Issues

    (This book provides research assistance for 99 current and...)

Membership

• American Library Association , United States

• Texas Library Association , United States

Connections

Whitley was married to Gilmer S. Whitley, and the couple had three children: Brette, Penn, and Maggie.

Father:

John Kroeze

Mother:

Ethel Lant

Spouse:

Gilmer S. Whitley

Son:

Penn Whitley

Daughter:

Maggie Whitley

Daughter:

Brette Whitley

colleague:

Susan Williams Goodwin

References

• Contemporary authors Volume 211
  2003