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News from the Department of Information Science (formerly SIM)

Category: Alumni

SIM Faculty & Alumna Awarded IJEDE Best Paper Award

Read the full post on CFAME Connection. You can also read a synopsis of the research findings here:

A paper, entitled “Strengthening Deeper Learning through Virtual Teams in E-learning: A Synthesis of Determinants and Best Practices”, by Joyline Makani (MLIS Instructor), Martine Durier-Copp (CFAME), and co-researchers Deborah Kiceniuk and Alieda Blandford (MLIS ’15) has received the IJEDE Best Paper award for 2016. The award was announced at the CNIE conference May 18, 2017 in Banff, Canada.

The prestigious IJEDE Best Paper Award seeks out cutting-edge research that responds to current realities.  “Strengthening Deeper Learning…” offers an e-learning framework, one that could serve as the foundation of future empirical studies in e-learning. Congrats to all!

Joyline

Alieda

 

Job Posting: Tenure-Track Lecturer or Professor (Information Management)

Please share.

The Dalhousie School of Information Management (SIM) seeks a dynamic and innovative colleague to join our team. SIM invites applications for a probationary tenure-track, tenure-track or tenured position at the rank of Lecturer, Assistant Professor or Associate Professor commencing January 1, 2018 (negotiable).

This position combines teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities. The School seeks candidates with a strong interest in, and capacity for, interdisciplinary research. Candidates will be expected to teach in at least two programs at the graduate or undergraduate levels. Professional information management experience will be an asset.

The successful candidate will have a PhD (or ABD status) in information management or a related discipline, with research expertise and/or teaching experience in one or more of the following areas:

  • Data management: analytics and visualization, curation, preservation
  • Information risk management
  • New and emerging media
  • Other relevant areas including digital transformation, organizational learning, collaboration, and knowledge management

The SIM (http://sim.management.dal.ca) offers two graduate programs: the American Library Association-accredited Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program, and the mid-career blended learning Master of Information Management (MIM) program. At the undergraduate level, the School provides core and elective courses in the Bachelor of Management program, delivered collaboratively with the three other schools in the Faculty of Management. The School also participates in Dalhousie’s Interdisciplinary PhD program.

The SIM is part of the interdisciplinary Faculty of Management (http://www.dal.ca/faculty/management.html), which also includes the School of Public Administration, the School for Resource and Environmental Studies, and the Rowe School of Business. The Faculty of Management’s mission is to collaboratively advance management knowledge and practice, and its vision is inspiring managerial solutions to transform lives. We seek an additional colleague who will contribute to, and thrive in, this environment.

Dalhousie University (http://www.dal.ca/) is one of Canada’s leading teaching and research universities, with four professional faculties; a Faculty of Graduate Studies; and a diverse complement of graduate programs. Inter-faculty collaborative and interactive research is encouraged, as is cooperation in teaching. Dalhousie University inspires students, faculty, staff and alumni to make significant contributions regionally, nationally, and to the world.

Dalhousie University is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Halifax is a vibrant capital city and is the business, academic, and medical centre for Canada’s east coast.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. Dalhousie University is committed to fostering a collegial culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness. The university encourages applications from Aboriginal people, persons with a disability, racially visible persons, women, persons of minority sexual orientations and gender identities, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversity of our community.

Deadline for applications: August 14, 2017

Applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, copies of past teaching evaluations, and statements of teaching philosophy and of research interests. (Each statement should be approximately one page.) Applications must also include a completed Self-Identification Questionnaire, which is available at www.dal.ca/becounted/selfid. Applications should be directed to:

Ms. Kim Humes

School of Information Management

Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building

6100 University Avenue, Suite 4010

PO BOX 15000

Halifax, NS B3H 4R2

sim@dal.ca

Fax:  902-494-2451

Voice:  902-494-3656

Electronic applications are preferred.

Thank You from the 2016-2017 Researcher in Residence

Public Lecture 10_17_Ken Field PhotoBy Kenneth Field (Librarian, Trent University Durham)

This past year, I have had the great good fortune to be Researcher in Residence at the Dalhousie School of Information Management. Thanks to the wonderful Faculty and Staff at the School, I have been welcomed, engaged, and exposed to many new people and ideas.

My work this year has been primarily focused on a citation analysis of resources used by faculty in the humanities and social sciences at Trent University between the years 2012 and 2016. Thanks to guidance from Dr. Ryan Whalen, I was able to efficiently gather citations to the articles of the target group and begin the job of extracting the data from the cited references. Having access to Dal’s information resources expanded the data available for the analysis; I the scope of data would not have been as broad at my home institution. Dr. Whalen also provided me with some data visualization software that I hope to use as my research progresses.

Dr. Lori McCay-Peet enlisted me early on in my tenure to present a guest lecture on copyright in her Information and Society class and to do a research presentation as part of the IM Public Lecture series. These opportunities to share my knowledge and talk about my research with students and faculty greatly enriched my work and would not have been available to me otherwise. It was also Dr. McCay-Peet who suggested I contact Dr. Vincente Lariviere at the University de Montreal. Prof. Lariviere does research in the areas of scholarly publishing and citation analysis and through this contact, I obtained a trove of data related to Trent faculty citation practices that will provide much greater insight into journal use by Trent faculty.

Dr. Bertrum MacDonald had several conversations about citation analysis, and he exposed me to very current work being done in the area of bibliometrics that will definitely inform my work. On a tangential note, through Dr. MacDonald that I had the opportunity to sing in the choir for the Symphony Nova Scotia performances of the Messiah, a great privilege and pleasure.

Thanks to Dr. Sandra Toze (SIM Director), I was included in the regular life of the School; I was invited to attend and participate in regular faculty meetings, and included in social events. I was made to feel a part of the community by all its members.  Thank you also to Kim Humes (SIM Administrative Assistant) for so ably providing me with the facilities and the resources that made my work possible.

Lastly, a big thank you to Prof. Carla Heggie for sharing her knowledge and expertise on privacy and access to information with me.

All in all, being Researcher in Residence at SIM has been tremendously rewarding. I have had opportunities to engage with new scholars, researchers and students, and I have been a part of a wonderfully collegial and active community. Once again, thank you to everyone at Dalhousie’s School of Information Management for a wonderful year.

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.

Dr. Mike Smit Appointed Acting Associate Dean (Research)

Faculty Profile_Mike Smit (cropped)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:

Faculty Profile_Joyline Makani (214x210)“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 Research Day: April 6th, 2017

Please join us for SIM Research Day to hear about the exciting research projects our graduate students are working on. All are welcome – no cost – no RSVP required. Full presentation schedule below.

Thursday, April 6th, 2017 from 11:30am-2:00pm
Room 3087/89, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building
6100 University Ave

2017 SIM Research Day_Schedule

 

MLIS-Assisted Archives Project Featured on CBC

MLIS student Domenic Rosati worked with SIM Lecturer Patti Bannister and her team on this project as a reading course this past fall. Congratulations to all involved – a very successful pilot.

“Lovers of handwriting have long cursed computers for spelling the end of the ancient craft, but a new crowdsourcing program from the Nova Scotia Archives lets them put their passion for penmanship to work in deciphering historic documents.

John MacLeod, senior archivist at the archives, said they’ve put scans of many documents online, but reading them can be tricky.

“The handwriting is at times challenging. Increasingly, in a computer world, people’s appreciations and ability to decipher handwriting is lessening over time,” he told CBC.

Earlier this year, with help from a student from [MLIS student Domenic Rosati], the archives came up with an idea to invite members of the public to read the scans online and type a transcription beside it.”

Read the full article here. 

MLIS/MPA Alumnus Defends PhD

Public Lecture 03_15_Ryan Deschamps PhotoRyan Deschamps (MLIS/MPA ’05) has successfully defended his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) thesis at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (University of Saskatchewan), in the field of social media and policy agenda setting. The thesis title is: “Policy Agenda Setting and Twitter: Three Cases from Canada.” Former SIM Professor, Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd (now of Ryerson University) was the External Examiner. Ryan was the first graduate of the combined MLIS/MPA (Master of Library & Information Studies/Master of Public Administration) program.

Congrats Ryan, from everyone at SIM!

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