Joyce Valenza, Ph.D., SLJ  blogger and early adopter of helping children to create a “robust academic digital footprint,” will join Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information (SC&I), the university announced today. Valenza, who SLJ once dubbed a “rock star librarian,” will use her extensive experience in education and technology to lead courses in school media, social media and learning, and digital youth in SC&I’s undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. programs. Valenza, a high school teacher-librarian at the Springfield Township High School Library (PA) since 1998, will join SC&I in January 2014 with a wide array of research interests, including youth information seeking and communication behaviors in mediated and socially networked environments. “At this challenging and exciting time for education and libraries, I am thrilled to join Rutgers’ dedicated faculty, and honored to be invited to contribute to the future of its highly respected school library media program,” Valenza says in the announcement, noting that she is eager to collaborate with Ross Todd, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL), in exploring critical research questions relating to libraries, young people, and learning. “Dr. Joyce Valenza is one of the most eminent school librarians whose research and professional practice has charted new territory for the future of school libraries,” Todd says in the announcement. Adds Library and Information Science department chair Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., in the announcement, “Dr. Valenza is an internationally recognized scholar in digital youth, technology, and information literacy, with an impressive career as a school media specialist, author, researcher, and dynamic speaker.”