Menu

INFORM

News from the Department of Information Science (formerly SIM)

Archives for Louise Spiteri

Diana M. Priestly Memorial Scholarship

Established in honour of the late Diana M. Priestly, a distinguished Canadian law librarian, and in recognition of her distinctive contribution to Law Librarianship, the Scholarship is intended to support professional development in the field and is awarded to a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant:

  • who has previous law library experience and will be enrolled in an accredited Canadian Library School during the next academic term/year; or
  • who has a degree from or is currently enrolled in an accredited Canadian Library School and will be enrolled in an approved Canadian Law School during the next academic term/year; or
  • who has a degree from or is currently enrolled in an approved Canadian Law School and will be enrolled in an accredited Canadian Library School during the next academic term/year; or
  • who will be concurrently enrolled in an approved Canadian Law School and an accredited Canadian Library School during the next academic term/year.

For further information, please go to: http://www.callacbd.ca/en/content/diana-m-priestly-memorial-scholarship

AALL Educational Scholarships

Educational scholarships are available from the American Association of Law Libraries  to assist individuals studying to become law librarians with their educational expenses. Candidates may apply for more than one scholarship where appropriate. The following AALL Educational Scholarships are available each Spring.  All scholarship materials must be received by April 1 in order to be considered by the committee. Please see here for additional information.

AASL Conference student award

Purpose
The AASL Conference Student Award is intended to introduce a library school student interested in a career in architecture school librarianship to the membership and activities of AASL through attendance at the organization’s annual conference. The upcoming conference will be held in Miami, FL, April 10-12, 2014.

Award

  1. $500 for travel expenses (disbursed to the recipient following the annual meeting after the post-conference report is received by the Awards Committee Chair).
  2. Waiver of the annual meeting registration fee
  3. Waiver of annual AASL dues for a period of one year

Eligibility
Any student who is currently enrolled in an ALA accredited graduate program and alumni of ALA accredited graduate programs who have graduated within twelve months of the application deadline are eligible to apply.

Guidelines
Prior to the deadline applicants must submit:

  1. completed online application form
  2. a current résumé to the AASL Awards Committee Chair Elizabeth Schaub: eschaub@austin.utexas.edu

Requirements

  1. The recipient of the award must confirm in writing via e-mail that s/he is able to meet the requirement of full conference attendance.
  2. The recipient of the award will submit a brief post-conference report for posting on the AASL Website. The report should outline conference activities and experiences and include an account of how the award supported professional development goals.

Deadline Friday, February 14, 2014, 12 am PST

Inquiries about the award should be directed to:
Elizabeth Schaub
Director, Visual Resources Collection
School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin
310 Inner Campus Drive, B7500
Austin, TX 78712-1009
e-mail: eschaub@austin.utexas.edu
phone: 512.471.5003

Closing of science libraries

The  Department of Fisheries and Oceans has announced that it will close 7 of it 11 regional libraries to save an annual cost of $430,000 by consolidating these resources into two locations.

Dr. Peter Wells, an adjunct at SIM, is quoted in this article that discusses the closure of seven regional libraries by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Below is a summary of some of the impact statements that have been made in the news media:

Peter Wells: I see this situation as a national tragedy, done under the pretext of cost savings, which, when examined closely, will prove to be a false motive… A modern democratic society should value its information resources, not reduce, or worse, trash them.

Burton Ayles: It’s a loss of historic material, it’s a loss of the grey [not widely published] literature.

Tom Siddon: I call it [closing libraries] Orwellian, because some might suspect that it’s driven by a notion to exterminate all unpopular scientific findings that interfere with the government’s economic objectives …You do not extinguish national libraries of knowledge or history in an arbitrary way any more than the government would be allowed to extinguish the record of cabinet deliberations or to burn the books of Hansard.

David Schindler: Paranoid ideologues have burned books and records throughout human history to try to squelch dissenting visions that they view as heretical, and to anyone who worships the great God Economy monotheistically, environmental science is heresy.

We at SIM welcome an open discussion about these closures and their impact.

Norman Horrocks Inaugural Lecture

 

Capture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madeleine has been Chief Librarian of Ryerson University since 2007, following eight years in Halifax as Saint Mary’s University Librarian. Prior to that she spent twelve years at Mount Royal College in Calgary as Director of Library Services. From 1980-87 she served in a number of reference and public services roles at Okanagan College in British Columbia. She has always been active in professional associations in a number of volunteer roles, and served as the 2003-4 President of the Canadian Library Association.

Ryerson University has been expanding rapidly in the last decade, and Madeleine is currently engaged in the planning and development of Ryerson’s exciting Student Learning Centre in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Madeleine holds Master’s degrees in Classics from the Universities of Edinburgh and Alberta, as well as an MLS. She is an Associate of the Australian Library and Information Association and a Fellow of the (UK) Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. In 2005 Scarecrow Press published her book, The Romance of Libraries.

Madeleine is a recipient of the 2006 Atlantic Provinces Library Association Merit Award.

Gold Series – Alumni Enrichment.

Dear SIM alumni,

I have the pleasure to announce our newly-launched Gold Series – Alumni Enrichment.

We are very proud of this new initiative, created exclusively for our alumni, and based on exit surveys from alumni like you. Our first offering in January 2014 is a state of the art Transformational Leadership online course offered through a flexible e-learning format, which you may complete at your own pace. Presented by Dalhousie Leadership expert, Dr. Elizabeth Kelley, this course includes a personal assessment, as well as an individual, specialized coaching session. Unlike other leadership programmes, scientific research on Transformational Leadership has consistently demonstrated that participants’ behaviour – as assessed by subordinates – is positively affected by this training. Leading through complex, turbulent times requires leaders such as you to have the most effective, and evidence-based managerial knowledge.

Recognised for two consecutive years as the Most Innovative Faculty of Management in Canada, Dalhousie is proud to continue to be your learning partner.

I hope you will consider this unique opportunity; I encourage you to contact me should you have any questions.

Louise Spiteri

 

 
 

SIM alumna Lori McCay-Peet successfully defends her doctoral dissertation on serendipity research

Lori McCay-Peet, an Interdisciplinary PhD student at Dalhousie, successfully defended her dissertation at a public examination on  December 9, 2013. Lori’s dissertation, Investigating work-related serendipity, what influences it, and how it may be facilitated in digital environments, reports on a suite of studies of factors in digital environments that facilitate serendipity. A complex phenomenon, serendipity is often instrumental in scientific discovery, innovation in industry, breakthroughs in artistic and creative initiatives, and scholarship in the humanities. Creating mechanisms to support serendipity in digital environments, such as websites, databases, and social media, reflects a desire to nurture serendipity. As almost every aspect of society is increasingly affected by digital developments, Ms. McCay-Peet’s findings could have significant implications at personal and global levels.

Lori’s research was supervised by Dr. Elaine Toms,  with the Information School at the University of Sheffield, co-supervised by Dr. Bertrum MacDonald, School of Information Management, and committee members, Dr. Stephen Brooks, Faculty of Computer Science, and Dr. Kevin Kelloway, Canada Research Chair in Occupational Health Psychology, Saint Mary’s University.

A 2008 graduate of Dalhousie’s Master of Library and Information Studies program, Lori has been recognized for her innovative doctoral research by prizes such as the Thomson Reuters Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship, awarded by the American Society for Information Science and Technology. During her studies, Lori obtained a prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Fellowship, awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and she received additional support from grants to Dr. Toms from the Graphics, Animation and New Media Network of Centres of Excellence (GRAND NCE), and the Canadian Foundation of Innovation. Lori’s research has been published in several journal articles, and she has presented work at numerous conferences.

Congratulations Lori.

TOP