Constantia Constantinou, Chief Librarian, Department Chair, Stephen B. Luce Library at the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College has received a Fulbright Senior Specialists grant in Library Science at University of Cyprus. The Fulbright Senior Specialists Program offers two-to-six week grants to leading U.S. academics and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at academic institutions in 140 countries around the world. Created to compliment the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program which was started in 1949, the Senior Specialists Program aims at increasing the number of faculty and professionals who have the opportunity to go abroad on a Fulbright.

Constantinou's project is to develop a Reference and User Services Library Department at the University of Cyprus. The objective is to cultivate a climate that fosters Bibliographic Instruction and Information Literacy; maximize the use of library’s resources through teaching and learning and transform the University of Cyprus Library into a highly research library with the UCY Librarians as the experts in research techniques and information retrieval. Areas of project concentration include “Pedagogy of Reference Research Techniques”, “Art and Science of Reference Interview”, “Marketing and Promoting Reference Services’ and “Assessment for Reference Services”.

Ms. Constantinou joined SUNY Maritime College 3 years ago and prior to that held senior management positions at Rutgers University Libraries, The City University of New York (CUNY) and Iona College in New Rochelle. Ms. Constantinou is also an adjunct faculty at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College, The City University of New York.