Congrats Joyline Makani (SIM lecturer and alumna, Dalhousie Librarian) on your award. Learn more about Joyline’s research successes here.
Rita Ugbebor Awarded the 2017 Stephanie Downs Memorial Award
Congrats to Rita (MLIS ’18) from everyone at SIM! More information about SIM’s awards and scholarships can be found here.
When Stephanie Downs returned to Canada from the UK to become a librarian, she chose to enter the MLIS program at Dalhousie for its sense of community, welcoming faculty and Maritime culture. Diagnosed with cervical cancer at the end of her last year at SIM, Stephanie graduated with her MLIS but lost her hard-fought battle to her illness on May 27th, 2007.
Remembered for her enthusiasm, Stephanie was a “doer” and very active in school life, serving as 2005-2006 Co-Chair of SIMSA and SIM Team Captain for the 2005 Halifax “Run for the Cure”. She was also awarded the Student-to-CLA travel award to attend the 2005 CLA Conference in Calgary. This award was established by Stephanie’s family and friends in her memory.
Rita Ibifuro Oghene Ugbebor is a full-time MLIS student, with over 18 years work experience in the banking and financial industry in various capacities including Customer Experience Manager, Relationship Manager Sales, Banking Hall Operations Head, Retail Products Manager, Consumer Loans and Portfolio Manager, and Regional Head Retails Operations. Her desire is to acquire additional competences in data, information, and records management, to better manage industry challenges in money laundering, expatriate account funding, and general customer/personnel privacy information management. Rita recently completed her practicum experience at the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services (NSDCS), where she executed a mini project on inter-departmental records transfer and records policy reviews. Rita is an international student from Nigeria, with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Port Harcourt and an MBA from Lagos State University. She is well traveled, fluent in English and a basic understanding of French language. She is widowed and blessed with 3 adorable children.
Congratulations SIM Class of 2017!
MIM grads at the ceremony (photo: Michelle Hunter)
The School of Information Management would like to congratulate all of our newest MLIS & MIM graduates! It was an eventful few days with a reception hosted by the Faculty of Management Monday night, followed by our breakfast and awards ceremony, and finally the convocation ceremony and reception on Tuesday. As was highlighted at the ceremony, our students are impressive, and it was wonderful to meet and celebrate your achievements with your friends and families. We extend our best wishes to those graduates were not able to attend.
We encourage you to read these wonderful profiles about our grads Deborah Hemming (MLIS) and Ade Oyemade (MIM), produced by Nicole Maunsell in the Dean’s Office, Faculty of Management.
We welcome all our new graduates to the SIM alumni family, look forward to hearing about your successes and supporting you in your ongoing careers. Please continue to communicate with us via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (@dalsimnews), and this blog.
Special thanks also to our Award sponsors including APLA, NSLA, SLA, the Vagianos and Harrison families and our alumni. And special congratulations to the 2017 convocation award winners (see full list below).
Well done, Class of 2017. We are very proud of all of you!
– Dr. Sandra Toze
Atlantic Provinces Library Association Award: Deborah Hemming
MLIS Director’s Award: Lauren Bull
MIM Director’s Award: Doug Gallant
Information Technology Leadership Award: Keri McCaffrey
J. Clement Harrison International Award: Lauren Bull
SIM Leadership Award: Nicholas Manuel & Alice Albarda
Louis Vagianos Medal: Domenic Rosati
Nova Scotia Library Association Graduation Prize: Katie Gallant
SIM Research Award: Deborah Hemming
SIMSA Outstanding Service Award: Keri McCaffrey & Jacob Ericson
Special Libraries Association (Eastern Canada Chapter) – Anne Galler Award: Diana Doublet
Beta Phi Mu Candidates: Lauren Bull, Jacob Ericson, Katie Gallant, Deborah Hemming, and Domenic Rosati
MLIS Grad Profile: Connecting with Researchers (Deborah Hemming)
By Nicole Maunsell.
Deborah Hemming knows a lot about uniting people with the information they need, whether it’s what makes researchers want to share their data, or how to find a new audience for a classic book. She’s also one of the few people you’ll hear describe writing her thesis every day as “a real treat.” But she’s always been at home in an academic environment. After earning an MA in English from McGill University and working as a freelance writer in Montreal, she came back home to Halifax to study for a Master of Library and Information Studies(MLIS) degree at Dal, drawn by the small program size, which she says fosters a “supportive and highly collaborative community.”
Hemming’s ambition is to be an academic librarian, and her time at SIM gave her a chance to work in two different university libraries. For her practicum, she worked at the Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia University, where she got to see the inner workings up close: “attending meetings, talking to librarians and library staff, and working on interesting projects.”
She also did an internship at Dal’s Killam Library, where she worked at the reference desk, created instructional content for the website, led orientation sessions and worked on assessment projects to help better understand library users’ needs. She also enjoyed making themed book displays. Her favourite was “Blind Date With a Book,” which promoted the library’s fiction collection and helped match readers with books they might not have considered otherwise. Hemming and her colleagues wrapped classic books such as The Great Gatsby, Anne of Green Gables and newer ones like The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison in brown paper and wrote “dating profiles” describing each without revealing the name or author. “It was a real highlight,” she says, noting that it prompted some students to register their library card for the first time. “That in particular was very rewarding.” Read the full profile here.
Why archives are using police investigation techniques to preserve our digital past
Creighton Barrett – SIM alumnus (MLIS ’11), instructor and Digital Archivist at Dalhousie University – recently stopped by CBC Radio to discuss ways librarians like him are using police forensic techniques to solve the mystery of data storage in the 21st century.
MLIS Alumna to Present at 2017 CALL Conference
SIM alumna, Hannah Steeves (MLIS ’16) will be presenting at the 2017 CALL (Canadian Association of Law Libraries) Conference in Ottawa, May 6-11th.
Her lightning talk, Lawyers, Gymnasts, and Researchers: Using a Flipped Classroom to Teach LRW, discusses the current landscape of how legal research is taught to law students across Canada and how a flipped classroom approach can add value to their education and simultaneously improve soft skills. From Hannah: “The poster below, Canadian Legal Information Professionals’ Information Activities: What do they do and how to they tweet?, outlines a research paper completed during my time at SIM as a student on a topic that continues to interest me today. I am grateful for the opportunity to present these items and thank those at SIM for getting me started.”
MLIS/MPA Student Wins FASS Essay Competition
Scarlett Kelly (MLIS/MPA) has been chosen as the 2017 recipient of the “Irving and Jeanne Glovin Award” from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Dalhousie. This $4,000 award is part of the annual FASS Essay Competition for registered Dal students. Scarlett won for her essay submission entitled “Stereotypes in the Age of Diversity: “Re-examine the Relations between Natural Identity and Social Identity“.
The award was presented by Dr. Frank Harvey (Dean, FASS) at a special ceremony on April 18th, 2017.
Congrats Scarlett!
Dr. Mike Smit Appointed Acting Associate Dean (Research)
Official announcement from Dr. Sylvain Charlebois (Dean, Faculty of Management):
Dominika Wranik will be on administrative leave for one year, starting July 1, 2017. During her time as Associate Dean (Research), she has pioneered many of our new research initiatives and has allowed our achievements in research to be shared and celebrated. Her leave is certainly well deserved.
In her absence, I am pleased to report that Mike Smit will be stepping in as (Acting) ADR for a full year, starting July 1, 2017. Mike will be a great addition to the Dean’s Office. Mike is likely one of the most well-known Dalhousie academic researchers in the area of cloud-data, IT, and open data. As an associate professor in the School of Information Management, he is involved with the newly established Ocean Frontier Institute. He completed his PhD at the University of Alberta, was a postdoctoral fellow at York University, and holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Dalhousie University.
Congrats Mike!
Dr. Joyline Makani: Research Takes Courage
Re-blogged from CFAME Connection:
“To be engaged, today’s citizen needs to be able to tease out fact from fiction. Notably, it is not just about obtaining information and being able to cite the sources of one’s ideas but being able to digest information, think critically, and participate in dialogue among others with different perspectives.”
Dr. Joyline Makani
The Merriam Webster on-line dictionary defines “research” as a studious inquiry or examination; especially: investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws. Given the solemnity of that definition, we rarely recognize that we engage in “important” research daily, whether we are buying shoes, planning a trip, or considering food choices. In the end, we are what we research.
Is research for everyone? Or just academics? For answers, CFAME Connection reached out to Dr. Joyline Makani, the Management Librarian (Dalhousie Libraries) and Adjunct professor (Faculty of Graduate Studies) at Dalhousie University. Dr. Makani shares insight into why research is essential in a world that revolves around complexity and change. Join us as we begin a theme dialogue on the importance of research.
Dr. Joyline Makani:
Research is for everyone and is very necessary in the world today. Thanks to advances in information technology, we are witnessing an increasingly complex online information landscape with blurred lines between information consumers and information creators or producers.
Simply stated, anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can put anything they want onto the Internet. To heighten the complexity, there is no one, in most cases, evaluating or approving Internet content before it is made public. Thus, this type of landscape presents everyone with the challenge to develop and harness basic research skills in-order to successfully maneuver, gather and understand information and not just wait for academics to verify the truth.
In other words, analyzing information, and not just collecting it, is paramount in today’s world dominated by “fake news and alternative facts”. Each one of us engages in research daily, whether we are buying shoes, planning a trip, or considering food choices. In the end, we are what we research. As academics have long argued, research helps to shape our society.
More important, building a solid research skill set is increasingly becoming necessary for civic life, i.e., the ability to gather data and information, examine multiple perspectives and re-evaluate prior beliefs is the foundation for responsible and community-minded citizens. To be engaged, today’s citizen needs to be able to tease out fact from fiction. Notably, it is not just about obtaining information and being able to cite the sources of one’s ideas but being able to digest information, think critically, and participate in dialogue among others with different perspectives.
Research takes courage because we challenge ourselves to look beyond the obvious. It is human nature to feel comfortable with what we know or what we believe in. It takes courage to question our beliefs/biases and pay more attention rather than ignore information that does not confirm our beliefs – this is what research entails – requires checking your biases, following and interrogating the evidence where ever it leads you.
SIM Professor Emeritus, Mary Dykstra Lynch, Added to Marquis Who’s Who
Read the full press release here:
Mary Elizabeth Dykstra Lynch has been included in Marquis Who’s Who. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
As a professor emeritus of the School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Dr. Lynch has proven her commitment to the principles of higher education and learning throughout her distinguished career.
Before starting in the field as head cataloguer for Dalhousie University Library, she earned a BA from Calvin College in Michigan and a Master of Library Service degree from Dalhousie University. Shortly after receiving her master’s degree she was appointed as an assistant professor at Dalhousie’s School of Library Service, later called the School of Library and Information Studies. She was an associate professor there from 1978-1982. The following year she left to become senior audiovisual librarian at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, returning to the Dalhousie University school in 1983. In 1986 she became director of the same institution, at the same time graduating with her Ph.D. from Sheffield University, England. From 1987 she served as a professor at Dalhousie for ten years, seven of those years continuing as director.
Throughout the course of her notable and lengthy career, Dr. Dykstra Lynch has had the opportunity to parlay her knowledge into marketable works such as “Access to Film Information” and “PRECIS: a primer” (published as the textbook of its indexing system by the British Library, London). She has served on various boards and as consultant to several libraries and other institutions in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Additionally she has been featured in Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering.