Antiracism & Decolonization in Archival Studies: Open Classroom Series

October 13, 2022 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

Join us for the Fall 2022 edition of the open classroom series on antiracism and decolonization in the information professions, with a focus on archival studies in the 2022-2023 academic year. The first open classroom is scheduled for October 26 and features a presentation by Riley Linebaugh (PhD), Research Associate, Leibniz Institute for European History on “Race, Capital & Empire: Placing Hilary Jenkinson into History.”

Registration is free and open to all!

Check out the full details here!

The Fall 2022 open classrooms are hosted at the University of Manitoba’s History Department, and sponsored by Dalhousie’s School of Information Management and CUNY’s Archival Technologies Lab. They are taking place as part of graduate courses taught by Dr. Jamila Ghaddar, which are: HIST7372 History of Archiving & Archival Records (Fall 2022) at the University of Manitoba’s History Department, and INFO6370 Records Management (Winter 2023) at Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management.

Contact: Dr. Jamila Ghaddar at jghaddar@dal.ca or jamila.ghaddar@umanitoba.ca.

Fall 2022 Schedule:

Note: CDST refers to local Winnipeg time and ADST refers to local Halifax time.

Wed 26 Oct @ 11:30am CDST / 1:30pm ADST: “Race, Capital & Empire: Placing Hilary Jenkinson into History,” a presentation by Riley Linebaugh (PhD), Research Associate, Leibniz Institute for European History. Register today!

Abstract: This presentation provides a critical biography of Hilary Jenkinson with a focus on his 1912 publication, “The Records of the English African Companies,” his participation in the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section during WWII, and his 1948 memo on colonial archives. Read more

Wed 16 Nov @ 11:30am CDST / 1:30pm ADST: “Displaced Archives, Repatriation & the Vienna Convention: Global South Perspectives,” a panel with Dr. Ellen Namhila (Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Namibia), Dr. Nathan Mnjama (Professor, Department of Library & Information Studies, University of Botswana), and Dr. James Lowry (Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Library & Information Studies, CUNY). Co-hosted with CUNY’s Archival Technologies Lab. Register today!

Abstract: Contestation over archival access and ownership have been a feature of the relationship between European countries and their former colonies in Africa and Asia because records displaced to Europe in the context of Third World political decolonization in the mid-20th century have rarely been repatriated. How to imagine a future in which such archival legacies of colonialism are redressed? This open classroom explores this question with renowned personalities and leading experts. Read more

Wed 7 Dec @ 11:30am CDST / 1:30pm ADST: “Multiple Provenance, Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Archival Protocols,” a conversation with Dr. Vanessa Watts (Assistant Professor of Sociology and Indigenous Studies, McMaster University) and Krystal Payne (University of Winnipeg, Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre). Co-hosted with Dr. Amber Dean, Professor of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University. Register today!

Abstract: How can archivists and archivists be more responsive and accountable to Indigenous peoples and communities? This open classroom explores this question in relation to a variety of archival principles-based guiding documents, and the project based out of McMaster University, “The Challenge of Reconciliation: What We Can Learn from the Stories of the Hamilton Mountain Sanatorium and the Mohawk Institute Residential School.” Read more

Conference Recap: International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators, September 7-9, 2022

October 4, 2022 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

Submitted by Maddie Hare (MI student and Alberta Letts Conference Travel Award recipient):

In early September I travelled to Granada, Spain with members of the Quantitative Science Studies Lab (QSS) for the 26^th International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators hosted at the Universidad de Granada. The conference featured three days of oral communication sessions, an event dedicated for Women in Science Policy (WISP) and a PhD student round table.

The QSS Lab presented four studies at the conference. Director of the QSS Lab, Dr. Philippe Mongeon, presented his work “On the Impact of Geo-contextualized and Local Research in the Global North and South”. MI graduate Kydra Mayhew presented a study entitled “On the Citation Relationship Between Industry Funded and Publicly Funded Canadian Food Research Publications” and a poster session for her work “On the coverage of historical journals in Web of Science and Scopus”. I presented my research-in-progress “The Impact of Mentorship on the Research Performance of LIS PhDs”.

The QSS Lab was represented by those of us from Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management, as well as its collaborators from around the world. The conference was a fantastic opportunity to meet established members of the bibliometrics and scientometrics community and meet fellow researchers new to the field. I received useful feedback on my study from conference participants, broadened my academic network, and gained valuable experiencing presenting in an international academic setting. STI 2022 was a deeply formative experience for me as an early career researcher. I will reflect on this conference as an event that crystallized my desire to continue in academia and contribute to global efforts directed towards the advancement of knowledge.

Included below are a few photos from the conference; many new friends were made, old ones reunited, and tapas eaten!

Maddie Hare presenting her work “The Impact of Mentorship on the Research Performance of LIS PhDs.”

Dr. Philippe Mongeon, Kydra Mayhew (MI ’22), and Maria Henkel with their poster “On the coverage of historical journals in Web of Science and Scopus.”

A dinner with members from the QSS Lab, the Scholarly Communications Lab, the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, and Aarhus University.

Provenance in Place: A Symposium

February 24, 2022 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

Provenance in Place: A symposium
12pm – 5pm Eastern Time
Monday March 7, 2022

Globally, the archival legacies of colonialism look much the same today as they did sixty years ago. Records displaced to Europe have rarely been repatriated, and in still colonised countries, the record-making and -keeping practices of the colonizer continue to attempt to inscribe settler power over Indigenous sovereignty. How to imagine a future in which the archival legacies of colonialism are redressed?

Powerfully articulating a new conceptualization of provenance as “provenance in place”, JJ Ghaddar offers “an understanding of provenance that embraces the commitment to undo the colonial occupation of one people’s land by another today, and the archival legacies of such occupations in the past”. Against the globalization of western European archival tenets “established at a time when the vast majority of people within and beyond Europe were not at the table”, Ghaddar offers a vision of provenance that is grounded in the Third World project and its anticolonial aspirations.

The Archival Technologies Lab at the City University of New York, together with the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University, is holding a virtual symposium to discuss provenance-in-place and its possibilities.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the symposium. This event will not be recorded.

Program

All times in Eastern Time:

12:00 Welcome

12:10 Keynote: “Provenance in Place” JJ Ghaddar (Dalhousie University)

13:00 Respondents: TL Cowan (University of Toronto), Michelle Caswell (University of California, Los Angeles), Tonia Sutherland (University of Hawai’i at Manoa)

13:50 Break

14:00 Places as Provenance
Moderator: Nadia Caidi (University of Toronto)
Maria Montenegro (University of California, Irvine)
Forget Chaterera-Zambuko (Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi)
Raymond Frogner (University of Manitoba)
James Lowry (Queens College, CUNY)

15:00 Break

15:10 Imagining Provenance Otherwise
Moderator: Jamie A. Lee (University of Arizona)
Gracen Brilmyer (McGill University)
Riah Lee Kinsey (Queens College, CUNY)
Jessica Lapp (University of Toronto)
Jess Guijarro (Queens College, CUNY)

16:10 Break

16:20 Roundtable Discussion

17:00 Close

Speaker biographies available on the event page.

Contact: james.lowry@qc.cuny.edu

Dr. James Lowry
Assistant Professor
Information Studies, Queens College
City University of New York

Invite (lecture series): Decolonization in the Info Professions

January 31, 2022 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

The following lectures and seminars are open virtual classrooms taking place as part of the courses, INF06610 Information Policy (Fall 2021) and INFO6850 Antiracism & Diversity in Information Professions (Winter 2022) taught by Dr. Jamila Ghaddar, Assistant Professor in Dal SIM. This speaker series has been generously sponsored by the Master of Information (MI) and the Master of Information Management (MIM) programs at Dal’s School of Information Management.

Registration required. Click here to register on Eventbrite.

Register for as few or as many of the lectures as you prefer (see full list below). A link will be sent to all registrants prior to each event.

Contact Dr. Jamila Ghaddar at jghaddar@dal.ca with questions.

Full details on each event can be found at this link.

Schedule:

Wednesday, February 9 @ 10am AST: “Hidden Voices – The Plurality of Provenance & the Deconstruction of Colonial ‘Truth’” with Jesse Boiteau, Senior Archivist, National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation
Wednesday, February 16 @ 10am AST: “Identity Captured in the Archives” with Elder Harry Bone, Elder Florence Paynter and Raymond Frogner (Head of Archives) from the National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation
Wednesday, March 9 @ 10am AST: “Trans-feminist/Queer Praxis in the Information Fields”, a conversation with Dr. Rebecca Noone (Postdoctoral Fellow, University College of London), Mariam Karim (Doctoral Candidate, University of Toronto), Dr. Danielle Allard (Assistant Professor, University of Alberta) and Carina (Islandia) Guzmán (Doctoral Candidate, University of Toronto)
Wednesday, March 16 @ 10am AST: “Confronting Historical Metadata Debt”, with Itza A. Carbajal, PhD Student, Information School, The University of Washington Seattle
Wednesday, March 23 @ 10am AST: “Provenance as Whiteness? Colonialism and the ‘Migrated Archives’ Problem”, with Riley Linebaugh (PhD), Research Associate, Leibniz Institute for European History

Invite: Virtual lecture featuring Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress (Feb 1st)

January 11, 2022 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

Please join us for the Dalhousie–Horrocks National Leadership Lecture: Library Engagement in a Pandemic & Post Pandemic Virtual World – Dr. Carla Hayden

February 1st at 12:00 PM AST.

Bio: Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library, was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2015, and her nominations was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 13.

Prior to her latest post she served, since 1993, as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed to that post by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Hayden was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. She was an assistant professor for the Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991. Hayden was library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago from 1982 to 1987. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the young adult services coordinator from 1979 to 1982 and as library associate and children’s librarian from 1973 to 1979.

Hayden was president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an after-school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.

The 2021 Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Awards will also be presented at this event. This Fund was established in 2007 to honour Dr. Norman Horrocks, OC, PhD, FCLIP (1927-2010) for his outstanding leadership in the field of librarianship in North America, Australia, and Europe. Over several decades Dr. Horrocks, former Director of the School of Information Management and Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University, pursued a distinguished career of very active involvement in professional associations in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Australia, the United States, and Canada. His many contributions, for which he received local, national and international recognition, have advanced the field and the careers of countless individuals. The fund supports a scholarship and an associated lecture series through an endowment donated by the many former students, colleagues, friends and admirers of Norman Horrocks.

This event is free and open to all.

REGISTER NOW

[Lecture] Raising our Hands: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Relationality in LIS

September 9, 2021 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

This is part of an open lecture series, entitled Decolonization in the IM Professions, co-sponsored by the School of Information Management (SIM) and the Centre for Executive and Graduate Education (CEGE), Dalhousie University. Everyone is welcome! Keep an eye on our website for info on future events.

Tuesday, September 14 @ 1pm ADT

Virtual via Brightspace Collaborate. Click this link to join. Read instructions above before accessing.

Kayla Lar-Son, Indigenous Programs & Services Librarian, X̱wi7x̱wa Library (UBC): “Raising Our Hands: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Relationality in LIS”

This lecture is an open classroom taking place as part of the course, INFO6610/MGMT4611 Information Policy taught by Dr. Jamila Ghaddar at Dal’s School of Information Management. Everyone is welcome! Stay tuned for future events!

Abstract: LIS institutions have long been the stewards of Indigenous cultural materials including Indigenous stories, Knowledges and Indigenous research that may or may not have been ethically conducted. But are libraries actually the best stewards for these collections? In this talk we will explore the concept of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and how it relates to libraries, as well as discover ways in which libraries can work with Indigenous communities to evaluate our own institutional priorities and procedures to develop culturally appropriate data protocols, and repatriate digital and non-digital collections.

Biography: Kayla Lar-Son is Metis and Ukrainian settler and originally from Treaty Six territory. Currently she is the Indigenous Programs and Services Librarian for X̱wi7x̱wa Library at the University of British Columbia, and the Program Manager Librarian for the Indigitization program.

MI Student Creates Interactive Index Map to Historic Halifax Aerial Photographs

May 5, 2021 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

Soon-to-be Master of Information (MI) graduate, Jesse Burgess, shared his recent experience creating an interactive index map to historical aerial photographs for the Halifax Municipal Archives. Originally intended as a summer practicum placement, the opportunity was shifted to a volunteer position in the fall term, due to the pandemic.

• Screen-capture of the Halifax Municipal Archives’ Historical Aerial Photograph Index Map

The map presents a geographic index to digital images that Jesse described and uploaded into the Archives Database. The 350 photos centred over Halifax Harbour were done in two surveys, one in 1955, the other in 2001. Jesse geo-referenced the historical photos and created shapefiles that HRM’s GIS Team used to generate the online index map.

“I really enjoyed working on the project, and it meant a lot to be able to see how my home city has grown over time,” said Jesse. “With one set of aerial photographs taken before my time and the other reflecting the period of my childhood, the project allowed me to contrast the areas I am familiar with and their origins. In the summer, I took the Government Information Resources course (INFO 6300) to give myself exposure to the other types of materials which I might encounter at the Archives. While completing the project in the fall, I took SIM’s Archives II (INFO 6860) and Geographic Information Systems (INFO 6681) courses; I considered this alignment to be very fortunate, as it helped bring everything I was learning and working with into sharper focus.”

Where the content of the photographs focused upon different areas within the HRM, finding a means to make them accessible naturally related to considering maps and the flight paths used to create the series. Both series of aerial photographs were managed by working with spreadsheets of associated metadata. Alongside the administrative metadata, Jesse sought out geospatial coordinates (latitude, longitude) of the photo-centres to facilitate mapping the images. Coordinates were obtained by cross-referencing Google Maps data and Natural Resource Canada’s “The Atlas of Canada – Toporama” (https://atlas.gc.ca/toporama/en/index.html) with the centres identified in the photographs.

Georges Island; Tom Alfoldi aerial photograph, 2001, CR70-237, Halifax Municipal Archives

The map was built from an Esri ArcGIS shapefile based upon the geospatial coordinates identified for each image; each point plotted in the shapefile was labeled with the associated reference name and linked with a URL field to the archival holdings. Already the index map has helped users find images to support their research, or just have fun exploring all the changes in Halifax over the past 65 years.

From Municipal Archivist, Susan McClure: “This project was a perfect match of Jesse’s skills and our need to provide better access to these valuable historical images. We were delighted and grateful that despite COVID cancelling the practicum, Jesse was willing to volunteer his time to do the project. We really appreciate the practicum opportunity to work with SIM students; it is rewarding to see them apply their classroom learning and complete needed projects for the Archives. First-year student Jordan Audas just finished his practicum with us, and we now have some great new descriptions, digitized material and social media posts available to the public.”

“Having the opportunity to explore those time periods using the skills developed in the MI program really solidified my joint interests in archives and data management,” says Jesse. “The staff at the Halifax Municipal Archives were supportive not only of my work on the project, but of my understanding of broader archival principles and how municipal records are managed; it was an opportunity for which I am immensely grateful.”

Check out Jesse’s work here: https://www.halifax.ca/about-halifax/municipal-archives/exhibits/historical-aerial-photos. The Archives plans to add more aerial photos to Jesse’s map, so let them know if you want to practice your GIS skills!

1955 aerial photo over Eastern Passage – Lawlor Island – McNabs Island – Fort McNab, 102-105-1A-32164-02, Halifax Municipal Archives

SIM Research Day Highlights Breadth of Management Research at Dalhousie

April 6, 2021 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

SIM held its annual Research Day event on April 1st, 2021. A total of 15 presenters including students and alumni from the Master of Information (MI), Master of Information Management (MIM), Master of Electronic Commerce (MEC), and Master of Science (MSc) programs gave dynamic 3-minute presentations of their research, in various stages of completion. Topics covered a wide range of disciplines, including predatory publications, quantum safety, ocean researcher twitter habits, ethics, online group work, information literacy, Irish language and music, and online dating (full list of participants below). Judging by the intriguing questions from the audience, these topics struck a chord and connected to many current social issues.

“SIM has a long history of supporting student research and our annual research day highlights and celebrates this,” says Dr. Vivian Howard (SIM Acting Director). “As usual, I was so impressed by the range of topics and by the presenters themselves as they summarized their research in three very short minutes. This year’s presenters included alumni as well as students in various programs. The virtual delivery format meant that we were able to include presenters and audience members from a wide variety of locations and it really expanded the reach of this event, and, I hope, inspired a lot of excitement about the kinds of research taking place within our School and our Faculty as a whole.”

Special thanks to Dr. Keith Lawson (SIM Assistant Professor) for acting as MC, and to Dr. Dominika Wranik (Associate Dean-Research, Faculty of Management) for welcoming attendees.

Want to learn more about research initiatives at SIM? Visit the research page of our website.

Thank you to our Presenters

Miranda Angelski & Katie Kehoe (MI): Temporary Caregivers and the Child(ren) in Their Care: Fostering an Engaging and Supportive Library Environment
Andrew Battershill (MI): Ethics in Action-Wealth Inequality and Solidarity
Leah Boulos (Alumni): Predatory Publications in Cochrane Systematic Reviews
Ryan Deschamps (Alumni): An Introduction to the Quantum Threat and Quantum Safety
Pallavi Gone (MI): Scholar’s Interactions on Twitter: A Case Study on Ocean Researcher’s Conference Participation
Lisa Holmes (MIM): Swipe, tap, and scroll: Supporting the transition to university for Gen Z student
Molly MacDougall (MI): Ethics in Action: Starting from the Ground Up
Rachel Moylan (MI): Presence, Agency, and Context: Students’ Experiences Engaging in Creative Group Processes in an Online Educational Environment
Lisa Mullins (MI): Municipal Food Gardening Policies and Programs across Canada
Cora-Lynn Munroe-Lynds (MI): Information Literacy in Nova Scotia: Systematic Mapping of High School Learning Outcomes
Kate Newhook (MI): Ceol Agus Teanga: Examining the Relationship Between Irish Music, Irish Language Learning, and Personal Knowledge Management
Tasnim Nishat (MSc): “What will they think?” Fear of identity misclassification keeps men from choosing female Uber bike drivers in Bangladesh
Gabriel Orellena Diaz (MEC): Dating Apps and Online Communities and the Impact of Covid-19
Zhensong Zheng (MSc): The Effect of Managers’ Experiences During 2007-2009 Financial Crisis on Firm Performance

SIM Research Day 2021: Call for Presenters

January 25, 2021 Kim Humes Leave a Comment

SIM RESEARCH DAY 2021: Call for Presenters (please share)

Attention: All researchers in the SIM community

Mark your calendars!

Thursday, 01 April 2021 will be SIM Research Day.

Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm via MS Teams *link coming soon*

SIM Students: Showcase a research project you are working on or have recently completed—a thesis, poster, or other project. Research Day can accommodate a mix of presentation formats (lightening talks, posters), but the focus will be on brief focused presentations and lively audience engagement. Think about how you might be able to present your research to be part of this celebration of research at SIM.

Research Day is open to all students—incoming and returning, MI/MLIS and MIM.

Other students, alumni and IM/LIS professionals: Please consider sharing your research with us!

Faculty: Encourage your research students to sign up for this event!

If you would like to present at Research Day, please email Kim at sim@dal.ca by 15-March. If you don’t yet know your topic or format, that is fine! You will have time to confirm those details.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

SIM student featured in National Post & The Star

October 23, 2020 Kim Humes 1 Comment

MI student, Shannon Faires, is a research associate with the Dalhousie Agri-Food Analytics Lab. She is quoted in two recent articles in the National Post and The Star, respectively. Both articles discuss a survey the Lab conducted with Canadians about local food. Excerpts are shared below.

From the National Post (read the full article here)

We may see the value in buying local food, but that doesn’t mean we will open up our wallets: report

Contradictions cloud our relationship with local food, a new report from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) suggests. While four in five Canadians say they’re ready to pay more for “locally grown” fruit and vegetables, few put weight on point of origin in their decision-making.

“We talk a good talk, but what goes on in grocery stores is very different,” says Sylvain Charlebois, professor of food distribution and policy, and senior director of the AAL.

Their survey of 10,266 Canadians in early October showed that while 79.5 per cent are open to paying more for locally grown produce, only one in four (25 per cent) actively seek it out while grocery shopping. The researchers describe this discrepancy between attitude and behaviour as “the local food paradox.”

“When a lot of people buy food at the grocery store, they’re not looking for where the food was grown. They’re looking for what food is cheapest,” says AAL research associate Shannon Faires. “People may value local food more, and think it’s worth more money, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re looking for it.”

From The Star (read the full article here)

Canadians are hungry for locally grown food, but high costs curb our appetite for it, study finds

Four in five Canadians say they’re willing to pay a premium for local food, yet only a quarter of them are making a priority of buying it. So what’s stopping them?

Ironically, the cost.

“We’ve been promoting the hell out of local foods across the country,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a Dalhousie professor in food distribution and policy. “So are these programs working? Well, yes and no.”

A new study led by Charlebois for Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab with research firm Caddle asked 10,266 Canadians about local food: how they define it, whether they would pay extra for it, whether they actively seek it out, and more.

Faires said while people say they’re willing to pay extra for local food even if it’s grown in a controlled environment like a greenhouse, that kind of food is still more expensive because of the high costs involved to grow produce year-round north of the border.

That’s why Faires and Charlebois would like to see more investment in Canadian-grown food year-round to increase the country’s food autonomy — and to decrease the price of local food.

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