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News from the Department of Information Science (formerly SIM)

Archives for Louise Spiteri

SIM student Alieda Blandford featured in Halifax Metro

MLIS student Alieda Blandford is featured in today’s Halifax Metro about her brainchild, The Little Free Library Project. The Little Free Library outside the Open Mic House on Agricola Street has been stocked with free reads since September when Alieda Blandford and friends constructed the roughly two-foot wide space where anyone can pick up a book to keep, return for some one else, or drop off ones they no longer want.

Congratulations to Alieda and all the MLIS students involved in this important project.

Society for Scholarly Publishing: 2015 Travel Grants to Annual Meeting

If you are a student in a publishing or library/information science program, or have been working in this field for three years or less, please consider applying for a grant to attend the SSP Annual Meeting (see details below).  If you¹re not a potential candidate, but know someone who is, please share this announcement with your fellow-student, colleague, or protégé. 
 
SSP’s 2015 travel grant program has grants for up to 13 successful applicants. The awards will support travel to and attendance at SSP¹s 37th Annual Meeting, to be held May 27-29, 2015 in Arlington VA, as well as SSP membership for 2015.   The travel grant program is designed to introduce students of publishing and information science and early career publishing professionals to the many educational and networking opportunities available at the popular and informative SSP annual meeting. 
 
Successful applicants will be granted free registration at the Annual Meeting and will be eligible for reimbursement of up to $1,300 for travel and lodging expenses incurred to attend the meeting.  Higher rates of reimbursement are available for applicants located overseas, and the Society offers special encouragement to applicants from outside North America.
 
Applications must be completed online; see the link to the online form at  http://www.sspnet.org/careers/travel-grants-recipients, where a list of previous grant winners is also available.
 
The application deadline is Wednesday, April 1st, 2015.  Grant awardees will be selected and notified as early as possible in April.
 
The SSP Board has developed several supporting programs that will help grant awardees optimize their experience. Awardees will be paired with mentors who hold senior management positions within SSP member organizations. Mentors will help grantees plug into the educational and networking opportunities available at the Annual Meeting.  Additionally, the meeting program will offer several opportunities designed to engage those who are relatively new to the industry.
 
SSP Annual Meeting 2015:  “The New Big Picture: Connecting Diverse Perspectives”
To be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington VA, May 27-29, 2015.
Plenary speakers:
 
•Charles Watkinson, AUL for Publishing, University of Michigan Libraries
•Ken Auletta, author and New Yorker columnist
•Jennifer Lawton, CEO Makerbot Industries
 
For details of full program, tracks, sessions, abstracts, speakers, and accommodation, see http://www.sspnet.org/events/annual-meeting/event-home/
 
SSP is a dynamic membership organization, working to advance the development of members through education and networking.
 

Congratulations on the 2015 Information Without Borders Conference

I would like to extend my congratulations to the Information Without Borders team for organizing such a successful 2015 conference.  The conference theme and presentations were highly relevant and timely.  The student poster competition and presentations were of a high calibre.  The event was very well organized; a sentiment expressed repeatedly by the conference speakers and participants. We are proud of all of you.

Louise Spiteri

Student research opportunity: Sharing of child health information over social media

Social media facilitates information exchange and is increasingly being used by scientists, health care professionals, and the public for communication, collaboration, information, and social support. Despite its increasing use, little is known about child health social media interaction.

Dr. Christine Chambers of the IWK Pediatric Pain Centre is inviting an MLIS student to work with her research team to assist in the exploration of social media interaction about pediatric pain and pediatric sleep.   Specific tasks would include identifying and categorizing the main themes in social media (YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook) related to pediatric pain and sleep, and describing user interactions with these themes across social media platforms.  Netlytic, a social listening program, will be used to identify the main themes, keywords, topics, and trends over time.

 This project will be conducted in the spring/summer of 2015 and could be undertaken either as a SIM directed reading class for academic credit or as a paid IWK summer student assistantship  (the deadline for submission of applications for IWK student assistantships is Feb. 12th: 

http://www.iwk.nshealth.ca/research/summer-studentship-program)  Note that a minimum GPA of 3.3 is needed if students wish to pursue the directed reading class option.

 

This project will be co-supervised by Christine Chambers and Vivian Howard.  If you are interested in this research opportunity, please send an expression of interest to Vivian Howard (vivian.howard@dal.ca) by January 12, 2015.

Call for Applications: 2015 Lucille M. Wert Scholarship

Deadline: February 1, 2015

Designed to help persons with an interest in the fields of Chemistry and Information to pursue graduate study in Library, Information, or Computer Science, the Scholarship consists of a $1,500 honorarium. This scholarship is given yearly by the Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society.

The applicant must have a bachelor’s degree with a major in Chemistry or related disciplines (related disciplines are, for example, Biochemistry or Chemical Informatics). The applicant must have been accepted (or currently enrolled) into a graduate Library, Information, or Computer Science program in an accredited institution. Work experience in Library, Information or Computer Science preferred.

The deadline to apply for the 2015 Lucille M. Wert Scholarship is February 1, 2015. Details on the application procedures can be found at http://www.acscinf.org/content/lucille-m-wert-student-scholarship

Applications (email preferred) can be sent to: marge.matthews@outlook.com

Contact address:
Marge Matthews
CINF Awards Committee
633 Dayton Rd.
Bryn Mawr, PA  19010-3801
Phone:  610-527-0686

 

Dr. Louise Spiteri elected vice-president/president elect of ALISE

On December 5, the Board of Directors of the Association for Library & Information Science Education (ALISE) announced that Dr. Louise Spiteri had been elected to the position of vice-president/president elect, 2015.  Dr. Spiteri has been an active member of ALISE since pursuing her doctoral studies at the University of Toronto. Dr. Spiteri’s recent contributions to ALISE have included serving as chair of the ALISE Service Award, the ALISE Award for Teaching Excellence, and the ALISE/Norman Horrocks Leadership Award. Dr. Spiteri served as the Director of External Relations on the ALISE Board from 2011-2014, and established ALISE’s social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the online discussion board.

Dr. Spiteri plans to continue work to implement the four strategic directions of ALISE: Consolidating and expanding the membership base; enhancing collaboration and extending ALISE membership; focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning and the promotion of outstanding research; and providing sound fiscal management, fostering administrative best practices, and advancing effective communication strategies for ALISE and its members. Library and Information Science (LIS) faculty (both full time and adjunct) and doctoral students have plenty of options when it comes to choosing to which associations they should belong, and which conferences they attend. Dr. Spiteri’s primary focus will be to work with ALISE members and the Board to continue to build strategies to ensure that ALISE serves as their focal point for all matters pertaining to LIS education, research, and career development. The LIS academic landscape continues to change and expand into different disciplines and environments; this diversity speaks to the increasing importance of information management at all levels of society and government. Dr. Spiteri believes that ALISE has a critical role to play to ensure that LIS graduates are equipped to promote, manage, and grow information management and

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