Congratulations to Dalhousie’s GISciences Centre for winning the 2012 ESRI Inc. Special Achievement in GIS. SIM has a close connection to the Centre: Director James Boxall and Jennifer Grek-Martin are SIM alumni (MLIS), and James has been a part-time instructor in the School for several years. Jennifer Charney is completing her MLIS program and is also a research assistant to Dr. Black. Please read this post for further information about this prestigious award,
Dalhousie SIM 2012 Outstanding Alumni Award–Call for Nominations
Celebrating outstanding alumni achievements
Dalhousie SIM 2012 Outstanding Alumni Award–Call for Nominations
Help us recognize a fellow alumnus for the work they do for the profession and in their job. Nominate a fellow alumnus to be the next illustrious recipient to join the honour roll that includes: Margaret Murphy (2011), Terri Tomchyshyn (2010) Penny Logan (2009), Ilga Leja (2008), Donna Bourne-Tyson (2007), Mark Leggott (2006), Judy Dunn (2004), Marie DeYoung (2003), Catherine Quinlan (2002), and Marilyn Rennick (2000).
The Outstanding Alumni Award recognizes a member of the Associated Alumni who has made an outstanding contribution to Library and Information Studies.
Details for eligibility and criteria for nominations can be found on the website.
Nominations will be received by email only, dated no later than May 31, 2012.
Nominations of persons previously nominated but not chosen may be resubmitted. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged by email.
Nominations must be emailed no later than May 31, 2012 to:
Amber Butler Lannon, Chair of the Selection Committee, Dal-SIM Outstanding Alumni Award
E-mail: amber.lannon@mcgill.ca
SIM Alumna Jennifer Richard to Receive the 2012 APLA Merit Award
The Atlantic Provinces Library Association is pleased to announce that this year’s recipient of the APLA Merit Award is Ms. Jennifer Richard, Head of Research Services at Acadia University’s Vaughan Memorial Library in Wolfville, NS.
The APLA Merit Award is presented annually to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to library services in our region. This year, APLA has chosen a candidate who has shown herself to be a passionate and engaged advocate for libraries, and someone who never hesitates to volunteer her services on behalf of libraries and the library profession. One supporter writes of Jennifer, “She believes deeply that libraries make a significant difference in the lives of students and the lives of the public.” She is highly regarded by friends and colleagues alike and is a familiar name in the Atlantic Provinces library community.
Jennifer’s accomplishments include having served as President of APLA in 2005-2006; establishing the APLA Grow-a-Library project which provides financial support to libraries in developing countries; organizing not one but two successful APLA conferences; and laying the foundation for, and continuing to maintain, the APLA archives. On the wider stage, Jennifer is the Founding Editor of Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, and has been both a Member-at-Large of the Canadian Library Association Board and a CLA conference organizer. Closer to home, Jennifer was instrumental in establishing Acadia’s e-theses project, as well as in developing the E. C. Smith Digital Herbarium database.
Please join us in congratulating Jennifer Richard for her many accomplishments, and thanking her for her service to our region and our profession. And come celebrate with us as the award is presented on Wednesday, May 24, 2012, at the annual Merit Award Banquet to be held during the APLA conference in Wolfville.
Dr. Fiona Black promoted to Full Professor
The School of Information Management is very pleased to announce that Dr. Fiona Black has been promoted to the rank of Full Professor, effective July 1, 2012. Since her arrival at the School of Information Management in 2001, Dr. Black has worked tirelessly to move the School forward, both in her capacity as a “regular” faculty member, and as former School director. Dr. Black teaches in two of the programs offered within the School of Information Management (the Master of Library and Information Studies and the Master of Information Management). The high quality of Dr. Black’s teaching is supported clearly by the glowing recommendations she has received from current and former students, as well by the consistently high SRI (student rating of instructor) scores that she has earned over the years. Dr. Black places a very high value on engaging students in the learning process, and is always innovative, flexible, and responsive to student needs.
Dr. Black’s scholarly activities are prodigious, timely, and innovative; more importantly, perhaps, is their positive impact on the discipline. Of particular note is the continued high quality of Dr. Black’s research productivity even when she carried a significant administrative load. Dr. Black typifies the Renaissance model of scholarly research in the true meaning of diversity and breadth of scope.
Dr. Black’s contributions to the School, the Faculty of Management, the University, and Information Management discipline and profession have been nothing short of exemplary. Dr. Black can always be counted on to work collaboratively and collegially in a large number of capacities, and to do so with good grace, humour, compassion, intelligence, and kindness. We at the School are fortunate to work with such a gracious, giving, collaborative, and generous colleague.
Louise Spiteri
Director
School of Information Management
SIM Digital Libraries Showcase
Today I want to share with you some interesting digital libraries created by my students in the Digital Libraries course from this past academic year. They were created using Greenstone, an open-source suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections.
As part of this project, students work in groups to select a topic for their digital collections, decide what items to include and, if needed, to digitize them, prepare and assign metadata to digital items, customize search options, and user interface.
As you will see from this Virtual Showcase, students in the class mastered a number of important skills which are highly in demand in our digital economy, including digital collection development, digitization skills, document representation, multimedia formats and standards, information retrieval, interface design, and copyright issues.
The Digital Libraries Showcase is available at http://bit.ly/gsdl12
Hope you will enjoy it!
Anatoliy Gruzd