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Archives for Laurel Sampson

Cassandra Larose Chosen as the 2019 Recipient of the Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Fund

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39287276_1329139653887502_2958770444427067392_nThe School of Information Management is pleased to announce that Master of Library and Information Studies student, Cassandra Larose, has been selected as the seventh 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.

Cassandra Larose is a part-time student currently in her third year of studies. Originally from Perth, Ontario, Cassandra spent many childhood days at the local library and almost always brought a book to the dinner table. Cassandra holds a Law Clerk diploma from Algonquin College and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology from Carleton University. Her first professional library experience was working at Carleton’s MacOdrum Library, supervising student staff in Stacks Services.

After working for several years in Academic Quality Assurance at Carleton and Student Affairs at Dalhousie, Cassandra began her Master of Library and Information Studies degree in 2017. She has served on various committees during her time in the School of Information Management, including leadership roles on the Information Without Borders Conference Committee and School of Information Management Student Association. Cassandra completed her practicum at Halifax Public Libraries’ Central branch.

Cassandra is passionate about serving others and supporting students. One of the highlights of her professional career was serving as a Team Advisor for Carleton University’s Alternative Spring Break program, travelling with groups of students to South and Central America to complete community service learning projects. She currently works as an Evening and Weekend Supervisor at Dalhousie’s Sexton Design & Technology Library.

When she is not working, studying, or joining yet another committee, Cassandra enjoys reading, knitting, running, and sharing pictures of her cats. She expects to complete her studies in 2021 and looks forward to continuing to serve her community by working in academic or public librarianship.

This award will be presented at the Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Lecture in January 2020. Stay tuned for more details!

SIM 50th Anniversary Outstanding Alumni Award Winner

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MJ DElia PortraitThe Associated Alumni of the School of Information Management are delighted to announce that M.J. D’Elia (University of Guelph Library) is the 2019 winner of the Outstanding Alumni Award.

M.J. will receive his award and be speaking during Associated Alumni Reception for Students on Monday 30th September.

M.J. D’Elia (class of 2004) has long been recognized both for his leadership and his remarkable creativity and innovation in support of learners, libraries and the profession. His clear-thinking, passion, humour, and engaging approaches to persuasion make a material difference to types and levels of service, to the careers of others, and to the expansion of professional roles for librarians.

Please join us on 30th September to learn more about how entrepreneurial thinking, leadership and courage can transform organizations and professional lives.

Did you know that SIM is turning 50 in 2019? This is a time of reflection and celebration. We invite you to accompany us on the journey by following this blog, our website, and the #SIM50 hashtag on Facebook and Twitter.

“Assessing government training needs for the future of digital service delivery” – Report by Drs. Roy, Sharaput, & Toze now available

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“As the Government of Canada (GC) works to improve how it designs and delivers services, we can look to use new tools, methods and practices to help us build our capacity to get there. People — public servants — remain at the centre of these efforts. So, when we teamed up with the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University late last year to better understand and assess the current training needs for digital disciplines across the GC, we started by talking to public servants. By directly engaging with them, we’re able to build a better understanding of their needs and how we can meet them. The full Report can be found on Dalhousie’s website.”

 

Click here for the rest of the article.

 

 

Introducing the Master of Information: New name reflects evolving library profession

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MI students Dan Phillips, Lydia Hunsberger and Crystal Vaughan at the Killam Library's data visulization wall. (Danny Abriel photo)

MI students Dan Phillips, Lydia Hunsberger and Crystal Vaughan at the Killam Library’s data visualization wall. (Danny Abriel photo)

“Students come to Dalhousie’s School of Information Management (SIM) for many reasons: to become a librarian, an archivist, an information architect, a museum collections specialist or a data management expert. They have one thing in common: a passion for connecting people with information.

That’s why the school is changing the name of its MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies) degree to the Master of Information.”

Click here for the full press release.

Did you know that SIM is turning 50 in 2019? This is a time of reflection and celebration. We invite you to accompany us on the journey by following this blog, our website, and the #SIM50 hashtag on Facebook and Twitter.

 

A Time of Change – SIM Welcomes new Faculty and Staff and Celebrates Retirees

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This past few months have seen the face of SIM changing.  We are excited to welcome Colin Conrad to our SIM Faculty in a probationary tenure track position, and Dr. Cheryl Stenstrom who joins us in a limited term position. We are also excited to welcome Janet Music, as our MI Program Coordinator. At the same time we are sad to announce the retirements of Dr’s Bertrum MacDonald and Fiona Black, as well as JoAnn Watson.

New Faces at SIM

Faculty Profile_Colin Conrad

Colin conducts interdisciplinary research into how our brains interact with information technology. He is currently investigating how attention or other cognitive mechanisms impact the effectiveness of learning technologies, with the goal of improving and advancing open education. His research blends techniques from neuroscience (such as EEG and eye tracking) and information science (such as behavioural techniques and data mining) to answer these questions. Colin Conrad successfully defended his PhD dissertation “A Neurophysiological Study of the Impact of Mind Wandering during Online Lectures” in May. Congratulations to the soon-to-be Dr. Conrad on this significant achievement. Colin can be reached at Colin.Conrad@dal.ca

 


Faculty Profile_Cheryl StenstromCheryl brings a mix of professional and academic experiences to SIM. Cheryl may be well known to many in our community through her past role as CEO/Chief Librarian for the South Shore Regional Library.  Cheryl’s PhD thesis examined Factors Influencing Funding Decisions by Elected Politicians at the State/Provincial Level:  A Case Study of Public Libraries in Canada. She has been teaching since 2012 at the School of Information, San Jose State University.

 

 


Staff Profile_Janet Music

Janet has been with the Faculty of Management in key roles for the past 5 years, and has a Bachelor of Management, and a Master of Public Administration from Dalhousie. She just completed her Master of Arts (MA) in International Development Studies at Saint Mary’s University. Janet can be reached at janet.music@dal.ca.

 

Join us in welcoming Colin, Cheryl and Janet to SIM.  We look forward to adding to our capacity to deliver innovative programs in data, analytics, policy and librarianship .

Celebration of our Retirees

As we welcome the new, SIM recognizes the significant contributions of our long time colleagues. Both Bertrum and Fiona are former Directors’ of SIM, as well has having held significant administrative positions within the Faculty. Bertrum served as Associate Dean Research, as well as Interim Dean for the Faculty, while Fiona held the positions of Associate Dean (Research), and Associate Dean (External Programs) for the Faculty. Fiona most recently was the Associate Vice-President Academic, for Dalhousie from 2013 to 2018.  In addition to their academic leadership, both Bertrum and Fiona had significant research accomplishments, were strong teachers, and gave significantly to the School and our communities.  We are happy to announce the transition to full retirement will be gradual.  We are excited that Bertrum has agreed to stay with us for the next year in a 50% Post-Retirement position. Fiona can be found for the next year, in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, as Associate Dean (Acting), Faculty of Graduate Studies.

JoAnn joined SIM in 2005 and has overseen significant changes with our MI (MLIS) program.

In her role as Program Coordinator JoAnn has strategically managing all academic matters, for our recruitment and retention processes, and for ensuring we are collecting and evaluating the information and data we need to support accreditation and change. In her role as academic lead for our Practicum program, JoAnn ensured all students are matched with a work environment that fits with their career goals and needs, and has expanded our practicum settings and initiated new internships.

Recognition of the significant achievements of our retirees will be included in the SIM 50 celebrations on October 26th. Stay tuned for details.

 

 

Jill Liu Awarded the 2019 Stephanie Downs Memorial Award

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Jill LiuCongrats to Jill 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.

Jill Liu is a 2020 candidate of the Master of Library and Information Studies program at Dalhousie University. She had ten years’ experience teaching ESL in China before she came to Dalhousie. Highly aware of the significance of cultural understanding in learning English, she endeavoured to improve Chinese students’ English by building their knowledge of English culture through various class activities and extra-curricular events. Meanwhile, she took a leadership role to establish teaching goals, supervise teachers and organize semester events. She also had four years’ experience of working as a librarian assistant at Sino-Canada High School (an offshore school run by the BC government). As her library skills expanded from shelving and circulating books to assisting students with information literacy in an English environment via diverse activities, she decided to pursue a professional calling of librarianship at an academic university.

With perseverance and determination, she managed to overcome many cultural and academic difficulties in the first school year, which was her first experience in an English speaking country. Besides academic accomplishment, she actively participated in public lectures and activities, worked part-time at Killam Library as a collection assistant, served as the incoming logistic chair at the Information Without Borders Conference (IWB), and volunteered in off-campus events.

Congrats to the SIM Class of 2019!

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The Spring 2019 Faculty of Management convocation ceremony took place on Saturday, June 1st.

SIM extends congratulations to the 19 MLIS/MI students and the three MIM students who graduated this week. Your future is bright and you should be very proud of your accomplishments!

Special thanks also to our Award sponsors including APLA, CNSA, NSLA, SLA, the Vagianos and Harrison families and our alumni. And special congratulations to the 2019 convocation award winners (see full list below).

2019 Spring Convocation Breakfast and Award Ceremony - Graduates

2019 Spring Convocation Breakfast and Award Ceremony – Graduates

2019 SIM Convocation Award Winners

Anne Galler Award (Special Libraries Association, Eastern Canada Chapter): Kristy Hancock

Atlantic Provinces Library Association Award: Jillian Pulsifer

Council of Nova Scotia Archives Award: Emily Hines

MLIS Director’s Award: Rachel Fry & Jillian Pulsifer

MIM Director’s Award: Stephane Huppe, Wendy Gauthier, & Jianghong Zhang

Information Technology Leadership Award: Courtney Vienneau

Clement Harrison International Award: Yichao Liang

SIM Leadership Award: Amy LeMoine

Louis Vagianos Medal: Zara Pahlevani

Nova Scotia Library Association (NSLA) / SIM Graduate Award: Jennifer Hill

SIM Research Award (MLIS): Diana Castillo

SIM Research Award (MIM): Stephane Huppe

SIMSA Outstanding Service Award: Laura Little

Beta Phi Mu Candidates: Emma Craig, Rachel Fry, Jennifer Hill, Amy LeMoine, & Jillian Pulsifer

 

To all alumni: We consider you to be part of the SIM family and look forward to hearing about your successes and supporting you in your ongoing careers. Please continue to communicate with us via email, Facebook, Twitter (@dalsimnews), and this blog.

Alberta Letts Winner Discusses Conference Presentation

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Each year, SIM awards up to two $500 prizes to current MLIS students to fund conference travel. The Alberta Letts Conference Travel award is named for past Provincial Librarian, and Past President of CLA (1957/1958), Alberta Letts. Ms. Letts was a strong supporter of the foundation of the School and was very engaged during its early years. After her untimely death in 1973, Dalhousie University established this award to recognize Ms Letts’ contribution.

Our most recent recipient is Kristy Hancock. Read on to learn more about her conference experience:

Kristy Hancock

I am delighted to have attended and presented at the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) annual conference that took place in Ottawa from June 4-7, 2019. As a Research Assistant for librarians Robin Parker and Melissa Helwig from the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library, I have been helping to evaluate the impact of individual research consultations in academic libraries using a web-based survey tool that we created. I presented the preliminary findings of this research in the form of a lightning talk, and it was a very positive experience. Given it was my first time both attending and presenting at a professional conference, I was nervous about speaking in front of such a large group of people (about 150), but everyone was very supportive and encouraging.

A wide range of topics related to health librarianship were presented upon, but I most enjoyed the sessions related to systematic reviews and open educational resources. I was able to network with health librarians from across North America, and to learn about their research and the types of programs they are implementing at their places of work. Attendees also came from a range of health information settings, including academic and hospital libraries, research institutes, professional associations, and vendors. A key theme that I took away from the conference was the importance of knowledge sharing with colleagues in your field. By sharing your research in a safe space, you can obtain constructive feedback and develop collaborations with others who have similar research interests.

My interest in health librarianship began while working as a Reference Intern at the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library, and attending the CHLA conference has further fueled my drive to become a health sciences librarian. For current MLIS students interested in exploring this area of librarianship, the Maritimes Health Libraries Association offers a free student membership! I am also grateful to the School of Information Management (SIM) for granting me the Alberta Letts Conference Travel Award, and I recommend that other SIM students take advantage of the stellar opportunity that is this award.

For more information about the research that was presented at CHLA, see the abstract and presentation slides on DalSpace: http://hdl.handle.net/10222/75720