Menu

INFORM

News from the School of Information Management

Category: Faculty

Welcome new faculty members: Alison Brown & Jamila Ghaddar

Leave a Comment

SIM is pleased to welcome our two newest faculty members!

Jamila Ghaddar: Dr. Jamila Ghaddar is a long time archivist and librarian. She was recently awarded a PhD from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, where she completed a Master of Information in 2014. Jamila successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on July 16th, entitled “Provenance in Place: Archives, Settler Colonialism & the Making of a Global Order.”

Her research interrogates the complex dynamics between information and heritage domains, on the one hand, and issues of race, colonialism, gender, history, and memory, on the other. She is eager to contribute to the interdisciplinary environment at SIM at Dalhousie University through her teaching, research and service.

Alison Brown: Alison graduated from the Dalhousie Master of Information (MI) program in 2017 and has been a sessional lecturer since 2020.

Where are you from? What did you do before coming to Dalhousie? I come from the small village of Petitcodiac, New Brunswick. I have lived, worked, and played in many places – with street-involved youth in Tanzania and Thailand, feminist lawyers in Kenya, community journalists in Vancouver, social justice educators in Toronto. Before coming to Dalhousie in 2015, my partner, two kids, and I drove to Costa Rica where we lived for a year eating pineapple (that grew in our yard!) and helping to protect sea turtles.

What drew you to the School of Information Management and Dalhousie? A continued strong focus on librarianship (unlike some other ISchools I considered). The small size of the school with engaged and dedicated faculty. A return closer to home

What are your research and teaching interests? Research interests: picture books and critical empathy; community-led librarianship; social justice, action research, collaboration

Teaching interests: community-led services, children’s and youth services, research methods, collaboration, human information interaction, information society

Tell me about something you’re proud of accomplishing. Raising ridiculously lovely children

What’s something your new colleagues might be surprised to learn about you? In 1998, I hitchhiked from Tanzania to South Africa. There are many stories 😊

Dr. Mike Smit Awarded NSERC Research Grant

Leave a Comment

Dr. Mike Smit (SIM Professor) has been awarded an NSERC research grant for his project “Assessing the quality of research data infrastructure software”. More details below. Click here to read the full announcement.

Congrats Mike!

Pushing back and exploring the frontiers of knowledge

A total of 44 Dal researchers are the recipients of over $7.3 million in funding from NSERC’s Discovery Grants and Research Tools and Instruments Grants Programs.

The Discovery Grants (DG) program is NSERC’s largest and longest standing program. By supporting ongoing research programs with long-term goals, Discovery Grants give researchers the flexibility to explore promising avenues of research as they emerge. Recipients are not only making an impact on their field of study, but are specializing in research with the potential to impact the world.

The Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) grants program fosters and enhances the discovery, innovation and training capability of university researchers in the natural sciences and engineering by supporting the purchase of research equipment.

Some of the successful projects include:

Researcher: John Frampton
Faculty: Engineering
Project: A bioprinter system for fabricating advanced biomaterials

Researcher: Kimberly Brewer
Faculty: Medicine
Project: Development of quantitative multi-contrast molecular imaging

Researcher: Julie LaRoche
Faculty: Science
Project: Renewal of essential flow cytometry instrumentation for the study of marine microbes

Researcher: Mark Obrovac
Faculty: Science
Project: New chemistries for metal matrix composites

Researcher: Mike Smit
Faculty: Management
Project: Assessing the quality of research data infrastructure software

More on NSERC’s Discovery Grant program can be found here.

Job Posting: Part-Time Academics, Fall 2021 & Winter 2022

Leave a Comment

SIM is hiring part-time academics to teach the following courses:

Please apply through PeopleAdmin, via the links above. Questions? Email sim@dal.ca

Research News: June 2021

Leave a Comment

We are happy to share the following recent research accomplishments by SIM faculty/students:

*SIM students names in bold

  • Dr. Colin Conrad (Assistant Professor) was awarded a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant from the Dalhousie Centre for Learning and Teaching.
  • MI students Poppy Riddle and Kendell Fitzgerald have been awarded scholarships from Coalition Publica for their theses.
  • MI student Tamanna Moharana accepted a Research Assistant position with the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) group, where she will assist with a project in partnership with the California Ocean Science Trust. MI student Lisa Long will also continue as a Research Assistant with EIUI.

Congratulations to all!

FoM Researcher of the Week: Sandra Toze

Leave a Comment

This week’s Faculty of Management researcher of the week is Sandra Toze (SIM Director/Assistant Professor):

Dr. Sandra Toze is exploring how key changes including social, mobile, analytics, cloud and automation are affecting how we find, interact and use information to solve problems and to learn. Her research centres on three related themes: 1) collaborative information and data processes of groups; 2) digital governance; and 3) user-specific, social and mobile information interactions.

Her thesis work focused on better understanding how groups work with information. Outcomes included a better conceptualization of group information processes, which identified how and when information needs emerge, the tools and sources used to facilitate the finding of information and the tasks and activities required by groups to use information collectively. This work identified points where interventions can be made to enhance group effectiveness and provided specific evidence of the features and tools needed to better support group information process.

Dr. Toze was a collaborator in a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant – Transforming Government Work for the Digital Era, which facilitated discussion across Canada. More recently Dr. Toze was the primary investigator for a training needs analysis that examined digital competencies across the Government of Canada. Recommendations included the need to broaden and deepen digital literacy and to foster a more proactive training culture.

Based on her prior work experience, Dr. Toze also serves as an expert in examining and offering insights into the effect of interruptions on search, in designing task-sensitive retrieval systems, and in researching further aspects of social and mobile information interactions.

(re-posted from here)

Workshop: How to Foster Creativity and Better Learning Experiences from Group Work

Leave a Comment

Wednesday, April 21, 2021
12—1 p.m. Atlantic
Online via Teams Meetings
Register


Rachel Moylan
School of Information Management
Faculty of Management		 Colin Conrad
Colin Conrad
School of Information Management
Faculty of Management

Group assignments can help students develop the soft skills valued by employers, such as creativity, collaboration, and communication skills. However, many students and instructors find group assignments to be frustrating and difficult to manage.

It doesn’t have to be this way! Join us for an interactive discussion about designing and facilitating meaningful (and maybe even enjoyable) group work that fosters creativity and learning.

After a brief presentation outlining research-based recommendations, we will work in groups to discuss a sample assignment. We will then invite attendees to share their own experiences with group assignments that were successful, failed, or were somewhere in between. Please bring examples of group assignments you’ve used or are considering using to help stimulate our discussion.

REGISTER

Registration closes Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 10:40 a.m. Atlantic.  A link to the Collaborate Ultra site will be sent at least 1-hour prior to the event.  If you did you not receive the link, or wish to register once it’s closed, please email clt@dal.ca.

Location: Online via Teams Meetings

Contact: clt@dal.ca

SIM Faculty Awards & Promotions

Leave a Comment

SIM wishes to congratulate the following faculty members:

  • Jennifer Grek Martin (SIM lecturer and alumni) has received an Award for Facilitating Excellence in Student Learning in Exceptional Times. From the Dean (Faculty of Management): “Your clarity, sensitivity, and passion all shone through. Students appreciated your effort to make the courses accessible and to offer accommodations and adjustments.”
  • Dr. Mike Smit has been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1st, 2021. Mike is also currently the Associate Dean (Academic) for the Faculty of Management.

Well done, Jennifer and Mike!

Louise Spiteri appointed to ALISE EDI Taskforce

Leave a Comment

From SIM Acting Director, Vivian Howard:

I am delighted to announce that Dr. Louise Spiteri (SIM Professor) has been appointed to The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Taskforce.

The taskforce is charged with advising ALISE on strategies for increasing the profession’s “diversity” footprint. The goals are to increase participation from and provide better support to people of color, under-represented groups across equity, diversity, and inclusion lines, as well as to identify strategies for infusing more diverse thinking and strategies in pedagogy, curriculum, programs, and other ALISE activities. Members of this taskforce are appointed to serve through the end of the ALISE 2021 Conference.

A former President of ALISE, Dr. Spiteri will be the sole Canadian on the taskforce, whose membership includes Maurice Wheeler, University of North Texas (Chair), as well as members Kawanna Bright, East Carolina University;  Melissa Wong, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign;  and Carl Haynes, University of Michigan.

EDI is a significant priority of both the University and the Faculty of Management, and we are so pleased that Dr. Spiteri is representing Dalhousie and undertaking this important work.  Please join me in congratulating her.

IM Public Lecture: On the Never-Ending Serial Crisis and the Need to Re-Think Scholarly Publishing (Dr. Philippe Mongeon)

Leave a Comment

The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are free of charge and open to all, unless otherwise stated.

All 2020-2021 lectures will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the full schedule. Lecture will be recorded and posted on our YouTube channel.

Dr. Philippe Mongeon
Dalhousie University

Lecture Details
Thursday, March 18th, 2021
6:00pm
Microsoft Teams (click link at above date/time to join)

Abstract: Academic libraries around the world have been in an enduring “serial crisis” for now more than three decades. Despite the massive decrease in the costs of publishing brought by technological advances, the rise of the Open Access movement, and the “big deals” negotiated with scholarly publishers, the costs of access to scholarly literature never ceased to increase and the crisis remains unresolved. This talk will provide a quick overview of the evolution of scholarly publishing over the last 30 years and present the results of an ongoing study on the costs of access to scholarly literature in Canadian universities. The talk will also provide a critical perspective on the so-called transformative agreements (some prefer the term “big deal 2.0”) that recently emerged as a solution proposed by scholarly publishers.

Bio: Dr. Philippe Mongeon is an assistant professor at the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University. He is Director of the Quantitative Science Studies Lab, an associate member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST), president of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS), and member of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research group. His research revolves around the use of bibliometrics and other quantitative methods to study the dynamics and practices of knowledge production, dissemination and use. He is an open access and open science advocate.

Job Postings: Limited-Term Appointments (2) for Lecturer or Assistant Professor

Leave a Comment

The Dalhousie School of Information Management (SIM) invites applications for two limited-term faculty appointments (Lecturer or Assistant Professor) – a 1-year term appointment, and a 2-year term appointment, both commencing July 1, 2021. Click the links below for full details and to apply.

Both postings close March 18th.

Questions can be directed to sim@dal.ca.

TOP