Several SIM people have won awards recently. Details below. Congrats to all! We are privileged to have such dedicated students, alumni, faculty, and staff here at SIM.

Vivian Howard: This month, Dr Howard was awarded the 2022 ARUCC Next Best Practice & Innovation Award as nominated by your colleague Adam Robertson. The award was bestowed in the team category, in recognition of her work as co-chair of the Credit/No-Credit Initiative (as part of her role as Associate Vice-President, Academic). From the ARUCC: Early in the pandemic, Dalhousie invoked and re-purposed elements of its existing grading scheme (i.e., GPA neutral grades of PASS and ILL) in response to the emergency shift to online teaching and associated disruptions for students. While this approach was sufficient as a quick, interim measure, it highlighted a critical gap in our grading policy: the dearth of any holistic, student-centred GPA-neutral grading option as a tool for supporting students whose grades have been impacted by serious extenuating circumstances. The grading option was overwhelmingly supported by the University Senate in October 2021. It has already proven a tremendous tool for academic leaders and advisors to use in place of a letter grade to support students in challenging circumstances when other solutions are not appropriate. In terms of impact, clear and systematic procedures have reduced student anxiety and instructor workload, and have supported student retention and degree completion.

Kim Humes: In May, Kim was awarded the Faculty of Management Impact Award for Supporting Colleagues. From the nomination: We feel Kim has consistently provided outstanding service to her faculty and staff colleagues, during a time of constant change. The past couple of COVID years have been difficult for everyone. Kim, as the key administrator for the School has faced many disruptions due to COVID, and managing life with a toddler, but in addition has been the key lynchpin during many changes in SIM. Over the past year in particular she had to keep things running smoothly as leadership in SIM transitioned between Vivian and myself, as we added new faculty members, as we significantly increased the number of students involved in research, and the number of public lectures we typically hold. All of these pieces fell to Kim to lead, while she also maintained her usual workload. Our recent Research Day highlights the many ways that Kim works tirelessly to ensure the success of others, her commitment to professionalism, and her excellence in service. Over the past number of years Kim has taken on a much larger roles with our Public Lectures and our Events. Kim has also taken on ownership of our social media channels and has been a critical part of the School’s hiring team.

Poppy Riddle (MI ’22): In May, Poppy was awarded the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Research in Librarianship Grant (student category). The Graduate Student Research Grant was created to support library school students’ active engagement in research activities pertaining to research and/or academic libraries with the intent to publish the results and to promote research in the field of academic librarianship by and/or about Canadians. It is intended to support projects involving structured, evidence-based research, which propose answers to real-world issues. CARL is very pleased to support Poppy Nicolette Riddle’s (Master of Information Management Student at Dalhousie University) usability study on visual idioms to reduce uncertainty, anxiety, and frustration during exploratory search by scholars.

Hannah Steeves (MLIS ’16): Hannah received the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) Nancy McCormack Emerging Leader Award. The Emerging Leader Award honours the memory and work of Nancy McCormack who was a long-time and contributing member of CALL/ACBD. Nancy was the Head Law Librarian at Queen’s University as well as a professor of legal research and of torts. She was a warm and empathetic person who embodied a love of teaching, knowledge and scholarship. She was very supportive of the newer members of CALL/ACBD and mentored many of them over the years. Nancy encouraged members to look beyond the ordinary and to excel in their roles as librarian, teacher and researcher. She was admired by her staff, her students, faculty at Queens University, and members of CALL/ACBD. The Nancy McCormack Emerging Leader Award will be given to a CALL/ACBD member in good standing who is normally in the first ten years of their law library career and who has demonstrated the qualities embodied by Nancy. They must have made significant contributions to the Association and have shown excellent potential for continuing service and leadership.

Courtney Vienneau (MLIS ’19)/Nicole Marcoux (MLIS ’20)/Nicole Slipp (MLIS ’20): In April, Courtney, Nicole M, and Nicole S were recipients of the 2022 Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries (CAAL-CBPA) Collaborative Research Grant awarded. They were awarded $1,000 to help support their project, Business database subscriptions at CAUL-CBUA member libraries and their alignment with institutional values. They propose to investigate business-related database subscriptions in the Canadian context, factors influencing these subscriptions, and alignment with institutional values and other critical alignments. The CAAL-CBPA Collaborative Research Grant is intended to encourage collaborative research by librarians and staff working in academic libraries in the region through projects which involve structured, evidence-based research.