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Jayme Spencer

Brief Biography

Jayme Spencer retired December 31, 2015 from The American University in Cairo with the title of Librarian Emerita after serving the AUC Library for slightly more than 43 years as the director of public services. After completing the retrospection conversion from Dewey Classification to Library of Congress Classification, she cataloged and classified the Creswell Collection, oversaw the development and implementation of a dual language online system and ended up in the public services area. Combining her TEFL and Library degrees, she created a program for information literacy classes, which was adopted by the Senate as mandatory for all students. In 1993, she coordinated the first Office of Information Literacy in the AUC Library. In the late 1990's, she implemented a successful Library Week program, featuring locally sponsored and produced READ posters of famous Egyptian public figures and outstanding AUC students.  Over the years, Jayme served on a wide variety of university committees, task forces, and selection committees, and was a member of the Academic Integrity Committee. She also served as the chair of the Working Group on Instruction and Information Literacy of AMICAL, a consortium of 20 American-style libraries in Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East).  She now calls Baton Rouge, Louisiana home. "Laissez le bon temp rouler!"

Research Interest
  • Code-switching
  • Crafts of Egypt
  • Information Literacy 

Houlihan, M. (Ed.), Furno, C. (Ed.), Spencer, J. (Ed.), et al. (2016). “Information Literacy in the Middle East: A Case Study of the American University in Cairo and the American University of Sharjah.”  Pages: 113-137. In Library and Information Science in the Middle East and North Africa. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Saur.2016.

Spencer, Jayme R. “Khan al-Khalili and al-Qahira” in Lababidi, Lesley. Cairo, the Family Guide. new, rev. ed. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2006.

Louisiana State University      1961      BA American History

University of Denver              1968      MLS

College of William & Mary    1970      MA Early American History

American University in Cairo 1976     MA-TEFL