The School of Information Management is pleased to announce that Master of Library and Information Studies student, Dominique Taylor, has been selected as the second recipient of the Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Fund. This Fund was established in 2007 to honour Dr. Norman Horrocks, OC, PhD, FCLIP (1927-2010) for his outstanding leadership in the field of librarianship in North America, Australia, and Europe. Over several decades Dr. Horrocks, former Director of the School of Information Management and Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University, pursued a distinguished career of very active involvement in professional associations in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Australia, the United States, and Canada. His many contributions, for which he received local, national and international recognition, have advanced the field and the careers of countless individuals. The fund supports a scholarship and an associated lecture series through an endowment donated by the many former students, colleagues, friends and admirers of Norman Horrocks.

Dominique Taylor, a returning MLIS student, draws from a wealth of experience to inform his interests in information management. For instance, he graduated from the University of Prince Edward Island with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and McMaster University with a Master of Arts in Philosophy. He also was awarded a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Canada Graduate Scholarship for his Masters research on metaphor and language use. Dominique’s background in philosophy has led him to probe standard definitions and theories of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom within the field of information studies. Specifically, it has pushed him to explore the notion of libraries as places of both information consumption and creation rather than merely as knowledge institutions.

Prior to entering the MLIS program and following his Philosophy MA, Dominique worked for roughly two and a half years as an archivist at Library and Archives Canada. During this time, he assisted government bodies, academics, and the public in navigating the archives’ extensive holdings. This experience made Dominique keenly aware of both the multivalent power of information as evidence and the notion that freely accessible information is a necessary public good in any democracy. From here, he started to explore the principles and ideals of public librarianship; this eventually brought him to Halifax, where he currently works at Halifax Public Libraries while completing his MLIS degree.