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In Memoriam: Lawrence J. (Lou) Duggan
From Dr. Sandra Toze (SIM Director): The School of Information Management (SIM) joins others within our community mourning the loss of Lawrence J. (Lou) Duggan (MLIS 2000). Since his arrival at SIM, Lou became one of our most active and accomplished members. His impact has been tremendous. Lou was an outstanding student, receiving the Research Award, and was awarded a position as Associate Fellow at the National Library of Medicine, Washington, DC. As an alumni, Lou was an ever-present contributor to our School, and our students. He guest lectured in classes, pushing students to think in new ways, actively participated in our committees, was a professional partner, researched with faculty, and was Chair of our SIM Associated Alumni. When he was not supporting SIM, Lou was actively involved in APLA, and other key organizations across Canada. Lou’s dedication to research as a vehicle for moving our profession forward was constant throughout his life. Lou was awarded the SIM Associated Alumni Award in 2014, recognizing his leadership within the School, the region, and across the country.
I have been fortunate to work with Lou in his many different roles, and was much enriched by the experience. Dr. Bertrum MacDonald, who collaborated with Lou on several research projects, speaks for all of us when he says, ” I have considered it a distinct privilege to have been his research colleague and friend.”
Lou – we will miss your intelligence, your passion, your creativity and your music. You have left us far too soon.
Lou’s obituary can be found here. There will be a celebration of his life at the Halifax Central Library, Paul O’Regan Hall, Friday June 30 at 7 pm. I am sure we will see many of you there.
150 Books of Influence: A Celebration of Nova Scotian Literature
From NSLA: In honour of the 150th Anniversary of Confederation, NSLA and Nova Scotia’s nine regional library systems present Libraries 150, a province-wide project to promote reader engagement in the celebration of Nova Scotia’s writers and citizens, ideas and attitudes, culture and environment, stories and treasures.
The cornerstone of Libraries 150 is the 150 Books of Influence, a compilation of 150 books that Nova Scotians feel have somehow influenced or defined them. The titles on the list will be those books that have captured Nova Scotians’ hearts and minds; books that tell Nova Scotia’s stories and inspire its citizens.
To find out more about the project, or to suggest a title for the list, visit www.150booksns.ca
Council of NS Archives “Community Albums” Project Launches June 27th
By Michelle Boychuk (MLIS ’16)
See Michelle’s interview about the project on Global Halifax.
I moved Halifax 3 years ago—I braved the 4 day drive from Edmonton to Halifax to pursue a Master of Information and Library Studies at Dalhousie University. I succeeded in that regard, and stayed in Halifax to work on a project for the Council of Nova Scotia Archives titled “Community Albums.” The project launches on June 27th. Please keep an eye on the Council of Nova Scotia Archives Facebook for the link!
The project takes advantage of the digital medium to provide anyone with an internet connection a glimpse into a variety of communities across Nova Scotia through their archives. Using a virtual exhibit format, readers can delve into albums to see the stories and images that archives have curated to tell the story of their communities since 1867. Although many communities already have their rich histories up for display through their museums, their archives are often left unexplored by those who are not enthusiasts or researchers. Giving archives a chance to shine on their own was one of the things that originally drew me to this project. Readers will be able to search for names, places, industries, or anything they can imagine in a specific album, or even across all albums at once, allowing readers to see connections between seemingly disparate communities.
1 Map of Current Participants
The beginning of this project was a whirlwind lesson on Nova Scotian history and geography. I visited over 20 archives who had responded to a call for applications in 2015 and early 2016. These trips took me to every edge of Nova Scotia, from Bridgewater to Church Point to Port Greville, and from Antigonish to Lake Ainsley to Isle Madame and back. I was welcomed into each archives and told stories about each community; I gave them the tools to share those stories through this project. One of my fondest memories from this part of the project was being invited for tea after consulting with Cathy Maclean for Lake Ainsley Historical Society and being told the latest goings-on of the area.
2 Submission from the Girl Guides of Canada
Putting the project together has been mostly a combination of data entry, discussion, and scanning. After the initial consult, I left each participant to run wild in their archives, limited to choosing only 50-60 items out of their extensive collections that they felt could encapsulate their communities over the last 150 years. To foster a replication of the uniqueness I saw in the communities I visited I did not place many limits on how the albums were created. Standard metadata elements, archival scope, and a set time period provides a conceptual structure that allows the project to have one cohesive purpose, but the standards are loose enough to allow for the natural differences between each community to be displayed. The organizational structure, temporal focus, item types, and topics covered all come together to create a vast array of combinations which serve to delineate each community, while the structural and thematic similarities between albums will serve to bring them together as part of a provincial whole.
Thank You from the 2016-2017 Researcher in Residence
By 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.