Current News & ANNOUNCEMeNtS
Visiting Student Wins Grad School Medal
Jill Palzkill Woelfer, a Fulbright Canada Scholar who has chosen to spend her research year at the UBC iSchool, has been selected for the prestigious Graduate School Medal at the University of Washington, where she is working on her Ph.D. Only one student is selected each year for this award, which recognizes "Ph.D. candidates whose academic expertise and social awareness are integrated in a way that demonstrates an exemplary commitment to the University and its larger community." Jill's research for her dissertation examines homeless young people's use and access to technology, and the restrictions imposed by agencies in teens' lives. She is in Vancouver collecting data on homeless youth here, examining factors related to technology use, risk-taking behaviours, mental health, and music preferences.
For more information, see the article at the University of Washington iSchool site at http://ischool.uw.edu/feature/jill-woelfer-awarded-graduate-school-medal.
Ninety Attend UBC Children's LIterature Conference
MACL and MLIS students and alumni --along with graduate students in LLED, Creative Writing and English -- organized and presented papers at Stranger in a Strange Land: Exploring Texts and Media for Young People Across Cultures and Continents, the 2012 Graduate Research Conference on Children’s Literature and Media, held April 28 at UBC Barber Learning Centre.
The all-day conference, which attracted over 90 participants from across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and France, was co-chaired by MACL students Rob Bittner and Stacey Matson and MLIS student Rachel Balko. The conference organizing committee included MACL students and alumni, Saeyong Kim, Lara LeMoal, Phoebe Li, Laura Quintana Crelis, Kathie Shoemaker and MLIS students Anita Chan, Katie Kinsley, Alice McGougan, Megan Sorenson, and Justin Unrau, as well as representatives from other departments.
Papers were presented by MLIS students and alumni Rachel Balko, Kate Conerton, Eleanor Crumblehulme, Devon Greyson, Katie Kinsley, Lindsey Krabbenhoft, Julia McKnight, Megan Sorenson, Justin Unrau, and Rachel Yaroshuk, and MACL students and alumni Rob Bittner, Naomi Hamer, Phoebe Li, Stacey Matson, Cynthia Nugent, Karen Taylor and Kay Weisman.
Papers were also presented by students from across UBC departments, nationally and internationally.
Congratulations to all involved.
Graduate Chosen for Dance Heritage Fellowship
MLIS student Jessica “Penny” Huffman, who will be conferred her degree at the May 25 convocation ceremony at UBC, has been chosen one of seven North American recipients of Dance Heritage Coalition Fellowships for 2012. The DHC’s mission is to preserve and document dance history by developing partnerships among the dance, library and scholarly communities. The DHC Fellowships in Dance Documentation and Preservation offers those recipients interested in dance history and preservation to gain experience processing dance materials in two dance library, archives or companies. As a DHC Fellow, Penny will be working with dance materials at the Museum of Performance & Design in San Francisco.
Student Perspectives on IFLA Meeting
SLAIS MLIS students Alice MacGougan, Samantha Mills and Ehlam Zaminpaima provided student perspectives as part of the 2012 IFLA Presidential Meeting on Indigenous Knowledges, held April 12-14 at UBC. They attended all three days of the event, listening to a variety of speakers from around the world discuss the intersection of library and information science with indigenous information and materials. The students interacted with information professionals from a variety of backgrounds and fields and were exposed to the major issues in indigenous knowledge organization, preservation, and revitalization, as well as to alternatives to mainstream thinking about information, through speeches, case studies, stories, and songs. As the volunteer Student Perspectives team, they crafted and presented a short talk to help conclude the conference, offering their perceptions of the issues surrounding the preservation and revitalization of indigenous knowledge, and of what they learned throughout the weekend. Additionally, Samantha served as a volunteer writer for the weekend, and created newsletters summarizing the two main days of the meeting. Both the talk and the newsletters were well received by the delegates in attendance. The newsletters are slated to be republished on the main IFLA website in preparation for this summer’s conference in the Hague, and will also be translated into Spanish to reach a wider section of IFLA’s membership. The Student Perspectives talk, as well as the newsletters, and other presentations by delegates, are available at http://iflaindigenousknowledges2012.ok.ubc.ca/. The students’ newsletters, presentation and other webcasts are available at http://iflaindigenousknowledges2012.ok.ubc.ca/Webcast%20and%20Publications.html
Alumnus Honoured for Distinguished Service
SLAIS alumnus Paul Whitney, recently retired as the Vancouver City Librarian, has been chose for the 2012 Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award by the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. The award recognizes people who have made a significant contribution to the book industry in B.C. In an interview with The Vancouver Sun, Paul said he was honoured to be chosen for the award. “"It is especially rewarding when you receive this kind of recognition from outside your professional community," he said, adding, "I have always believed in the important role that books play in shaping people's lives. The award is named for pioneering publisher and founder of Gray's Publishing, Gray Campbell. The full article is available at http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Former+city+librarian+honoured+
contribution+publishing/6459883/story.html.
Dissertation Successfully Defended
The School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, The iSchool at The University of British Columbia, is pleased to announce the successful defense of the Ph.D. dissertation by student Talal Al-Haji on March 26. The title of his dissertation is: Exploring the Relationship between Research in Information Retrieval and Information Seeking Behavior, 1979-2008. The defence was held March 26, and only minor revisions were required. Talal will be conferred his doctorate at the May 25 Convocation ceremony at UBC.
Ann Curry Named UBC Professor Emerita
The School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, The iSchool at The University of British Columbia is pleased to announce Dr. Ann Curry has been named a UBC Professor Emerita. Dr. Curry was a faculty member at SLAIS from 1990 to 2007, and is also an alumna of the School, earning her MLS from UBC in 1980. She holds a BA and BLS from the University of Alberta, and her Ph.D. is from the University of Sheffield. Dr. Curry is renowned for her inspirational teaching, for which she received both the prestigious UBC Killam Teaching Award and the ALISE Award for Teaching Excellence in Library & Information Science. Her research focuses on censorship and intellectual freedom, as well as access to information issues associated with controversial topics and with restricted access for specific groups. She has a lengthy and successful association with the Library Association of Alberta, the British Columbia Library Association and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, where she worked to defend and promote the principles of intellectual freedom in Canada. Currently she is examining information ethics and the influence of the internet and social media on the changing nature of information access. Dr. Curry left the University of British Columbia in 2007 to take the position of Director for the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta. She served in that role until 2011, and is currently a Professor in the Faculty of Extension Graduate Program in Communication and Technology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
Student Wins Haycock Conference Award
MLIS student Nicole Brazeau has been awarded the 2012 Ken Haycock Student Conference Award by the British Columbia Library Association, in support of her attendance to the British Columbia Library Conference May 10-12. The award includes a cheque as well as full conference registration, and Nicole will provide volunteer time to the BC Library Association at the conference. Named in honour of Ken Haycock, Director of SLAIS from 1992-2002, the award is for a BCLA student member and is intended to encourage leadership and professional activity among students.
MACL Students Presenting at Conferences
Faculty and students in the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature (MACL) program are presenting papers at various conferences in the next few weeks. Student Lara LeMoal is attending the Children’s Literature Society conference May 24-27 in San Francisco, where she will present paper based on her MACL thesis, "Rendering the Visible World: A Critical Examination of Order, Internalization, Representation and Naming in a Selection of Metafictive Alphabet Books." Classmate Kay Weisman is presenting a paper at the Children’s Literature Association Conference in Boston June 14-16, one of four iSchool representatives presenting at the conference. Her paper, "Alice-Heidi, Dollegates, and Donkey Contests: The Child Audience and Horn Book," was done in conjunction with her thesis on Horn Book reviews, supervised by Judith Saltman. Also at CLA, MACL graduate Robert Bittner is presenting his paper, “‘I'm Just Human!’: Twenty-First Century Young Adult Bodies as Sites of Binary Gender Rebellion.” Faculty member Professor Judith Saltman is presenting her paper, “Reworking Canonical Poetry Texts as Picture Books: Kids Can Press Visions in Poetry Series,” and adjunct faculty member Gail Edwards, who is Chair of the History Department of Douglas College, is presenting “Erasing the Other: Aboriginality, Wilderness and the Construction of History in Canadian Children’s Print Culture.”
Video Recreates iSchool Research Day Energy
Students, faculty and guests presented posters, talks, and demos at the iSchool's 3rd annual Research Day on March 2. Working with still images of the event, student Jonathan Kift has recreated a sense of the energy and excitement of the day. Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOeOqYTzlew.
iSchool at WLA Conference, Texas Grad Schools Fair
Potential applicants considering graduate studies at the iSchool are invited to attend one of the information booths the iSchool is hosting in April, in Washington and Texas. Meet a SLAIS representative and find out more about our programs, admissions, research, faculty, funding and other topics of interest. We are hosting a booth at the Washington Library Association Conference April 19-20 at the Tulalip Resort Conference Center in Tulalip WA, just north of Seattle. Show hours are 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 19, and 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Friday, April 20. For more information, see http://2012conference.wla.org/. The following week, UBC and the iSchool will have a booth at the 2012 Graduate Schools Fair at University of Texas at Austin. The fair is open 1-3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. View the Grad Fair poster for more information at http://www.nagap.org/conferences/documents/NAGAPGradFairposter.pdf.
Students Win Conference Travel Awards
Four students are getting financial support from the iSchool@UBC to support their travel to national conferences. Jessica Flank (Dual MAS/MLIS) and Joy Rowe (MAS) have each received the SLAIS ACA Travel Award, in the amount of $250 each, to assist with travel costs. Both are attending the Association of Canadian Archivists annual conference in Whitehorse, YT; Joy is presenting a paper and Jessica is presenting a poster. Anna Babluck (MLIS) won the Student to CLA Award. This year's conference will be held May 30 -June 2 in Ottawa. The award, presented by the Canadian Library Association, provides Anna with a full conference registration and shared accommodation with another Student to CLA. She will also receive SLAIS funding to help cover her travel to Ottawa. While at the conference, she will be volunteering for the CLA as well as benefiting from the conference activities and networking opportunities. And Lara LeMoal (MACL) is attending the Children’s Literature Society Conference May 24-27in San Francisco, where she is presenting a paper.
Thesis Analyses Impact of Horn Book Reviews
MACL Candidate Kay Weisman has successfully defended her master’s thesis, titled “Shaping the Children’s Literature Canon: An Analysis of the Editorials from the Horn Book Magazine, 1924 – 2009.” Her supervisor for the thesis is SLAIS Professor Judith Saltman, and committee members were Gail Edwards, Chair of the History Department at Douglas College and Theresa Rogers, Professor with the UBC Language and Literacy Education Department and a member of the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature program committee.
Congratulations to Kay on her achievement. She will be conferred the degree of Master of Arts in Children’s Literature at the May 2012 convocation ceremony.
Faculty Members Defend Dissertations
The UBC iSchool is pleased to announce two faculty members have successfully defended their doctoral dissertations. Aaron Loehrlein has formally submitted his dissertation, entitled “Priming Effects Associated with the Hierarchical Levels of Classification Systems” to the University of Indiana Bloomington after defending in January. He will be conferred his doctorate at the Spring Commencement Ceremony in Indiana in June, and holds the rank of Assistant Professor at UBC.
Rafa Absar defended her dissertation, entitled “Enhancing Navigation using Auditory Feedback: A Case Study of a Hierarchical Information Visualization System”, at McGill University last month. She is currently making minor revisions, and expects to be conferred her doctorate at Spring Convocation at McGill in June. She holds a 12-month Lecturer position at the iSchool, for a leave replacement.
Congratulations to both Dr. Loehrlein and Dr. Absar on their achievements.
SLAIS Co-op Awards Two Students of the Year
The UBC Arts Co-op Program has chosen two SLAIS students as Co-op Students of the Year. Each year, two prizes of $1000 are awarded to SLAIS Co-op students, one to an MAS student and one to an MLIS student, for excelling in their co-op work term or terms in the preceding year. A sub-committee of our Arts Co-op Advisory Committee—composed of SLAIS employer representatives, SLAIS co-op alumni, and co-op staff—adjudicated the awards. The sub-committee members noted an impressive level of quality among the applicants, but ultimately decided on the following:
MAS Co-op Student of the Year: Dan Gillean (Dual MAS/MLIS) for his Summer 2011 work term at Records Management Operations for the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government. Read his profile at http://artscoop.ubc.ca/2012/02/02/dan-gillean/.
MLIS Co-op Student of the Year: Naomi Schemm (now an MLIS graduate) for her Winter 2011 and Summer 2011 work terms with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Read her profile at http://artscoop.ubc.ca/2012/02/02/naomi-schemm/.
MAS Honourable Mention: Helen Brown (Dual MAS/MLIS) for her Summer 2011 work term at Library and Archives Canada.
Congratulations to all three for their achievements of excellence in their SLAIS Co-op work positions.
Alumna Receives ACRL Innovation Award
Dual MAS/MLIS Alumna Adrienne Lai has been chosen as one of three recipients of the 2012 ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award
The award is also being presented to her North Carolina State University Library colleagues Anne Burke and Adam Rogers, as the award is to all three for their work on the NCSU Mobile Scavenger Hunt. It is awarded annually by the Association of College and Research Libraries’ College Libraries Section, honouring an American Library Association member(s) who demonstrates a capacity for innovation in their work with undergraduates, instructors, and/or the library community. ProQuest will present the $3,000 award and plaque at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 23 during the CLS program at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. The NCSU Mobile Scavenger Hunt combines the use of the iPod Touch and the free app Evernote to create a dynamic experience for the students as they are oriented to the library and its services. Prompts lead the students to different areas of the library in order to complete tasks or to answers questions. Responses are submitted in real time via text or photographs using Evernote.
More information regarding the ACRL CLS ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award, including a list of past recipients, is available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/awards/achievementawards/clsproquest.
Join Us for Research Day at the iSchool
SLAIS is joining The University of British Columbia’s Celebrate Research Week March 2-9, an engaging public showcase of events and activities that represent UBC’s strengths and diversity in research.
The iSchool is helping to kick off the week-long research showcase with its 3rd Annual Research Day this Friday, March 2. The day's theme is "Information & Power: Designers, Disseminators, and Stewards". This event is a yearly showcase of iSchool faculty and student research, as well as the work of researchers from related areas associated with the school. It is be a day of sharing ideas – as well as food and a bit of fun – and a time for reflecting about the work of designers, disseminators, and stewards of information.
Organized by iSchool assistant professors Lisa Nathan and Aaron Loehrlein, Research Day will explore how, as designers, disseminators, and stewards of information, we seek to discover and shape the relationship between power and information in individual’s lives, community institutions, and the wider world. The day begins with a keynote address by Professor Cheryl Metoyer, Associate Dean of Research at the University of Washington Information School. The title of Dr. Metoyer’s talk is "All Things Connected: Relationality in Native American Knowledge Organization." The full Research Day program includes posters, presentations, and demos featuring the work of the school's Masters and Doctoral students, faculty, adjunct instructors, and professional colleagues. See the full schedule at http://sipstudio.ca/researchday2012/index.php/slais/2012/schedConf/schedule
Coffee and a light lunch will be served. Please RSVP to slais.reception@ubc.ca.
‘Green Washing’ Poster Wins at iConference
Congratulations to UBC iSchool Assistant Professor Eric Meyers and MACL graduate Robert Bittner, whose poster presentation “Green Washing the Digital Playground: How Virtual Worlds Support Ecological Intelligence...or Do They?” was one of five chosen for a Best Poster Award at the recent 2012 iConference in Toronto. The iConference is an annual gathering presented by the iSchools organization, a worldwide collective of 33 Information Schools dedicated to advancing the information field, and preparing students to meet the information challenges of the 21st Century.
UBC iSchool Storms iConference
SLAIS, The iSchool at UBC is making a big entrance at iConference 2012, the first iConference held since UBC joined the iSchools Consortium in March 2011. This year’s conference, “Culture – Design – Society,” is February 7-10 in Toronto, and a total of 19 faculty, students and others from the UBC iSchool are attending, with more than a dozen of these presenting.
Faculty presenting papers, posters and workshops are Luanne Freund, Rick Kopak, Aaron Loehrlein, Eric Meyers, Lisa Nathan, Edie Rasmussen and Judith Saltman. Adjunct faculty member Gail Edwards, chair of the history department at Douglas College, post-doctoral fellow Michael Huggett, and MACL graduate Robert Bittner are also presenting.
Students Danielle LaFrance (MLIS), Jade Guan (MAS), Jacqueline Huck (Dual MAS/MLIS) and Schuyler Lindberg (MLIS) are also presenting. Attending but not presenting are students Justyna Berzowska (Ph.D.), Florian Ehrensperger (MLIS) and Alex Garnett (Ph.D.), and faculty members Caroline Haythornthwaite and Vicki Lemieux.
MLIS Student Chosen for ALA Conference
Sarah Fallik (MLIS) is one of 40 students chosen from American Library Association student chapters to assist ALA staff during the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. In exchange for working four hours a day during the conference, these students participating in the ALA Student to Staff Program receive conference registration, housing, and a per diem for meal expenses. The ALA student chapter at SLAIS, The iSchool at UBC, is one of 60 student chapters of ALA. It was formed in 2010, with Dr. Eric Meyers serving as faculty supervisor. Find out more at the association’s site, http://blogs.ubc.ca/alaplace/.
iSchool Research Work Featured
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada has chosen to feature SLAIS faculty member Dr. Luciana Duranti's research in its spotlight on The University of British Columbia. One of three projects featured for UBC, the article notes the work involves developing guidelines "for the creation, maintenance and preservation of digital records." The article then provides a link for readers to learn more at Dr. Duranti's research page on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council site.
Focus on Visiting Fulbright Scholar's Work
The Canadian Studies Center has featured Fulbright Scholar Jill Woelfer, a visiting graduate student this year at the iSchool, on its website. Jill is a PhD candidate at The University of Washington iSchool, where she is investigating the socio-technical aspects of information systems, studying the experiences people have using facebook or mobile applications. The full article is available at http://jsis.washington.edu/canada//file/Woelfer%20Article%20Canadian%20Studies
%20Center%281%29.pdf
Two Faculty Win Major ALISE Awards
Two SLAIS faculty members are being presented with awards at the 2012 Association for Library Information Science Education (ALISE) conference to be held in Dallas this month. Eric Meyers won the prestigious ALISE/Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition Award. This is a competitive award and it is the first time it has been presented to a SLAIS faculty member. Dr. Meyers completed his dissertation, “The Nature and Impact of Information Problem Solving in the Middle School Classroom” at The University of Washington iSchool, and has been a faculty member at UBC since 2009.
Heather O’Brien, along with 2011 MLIS graduate Mahria Lebow, won the ALISE/Dialog Methodology Paper Competition for their co-authored paper, “Is There a Role for Physiological Methods in the Evaluation of Human-Information Interaction?”
Both awards will be presented at the 2012 ALISE Conference, January 17-20 in Dallas.
Call For Participation for iSchool Research Day
SLAIS, the iSchool@UBC, invites UBC faculty and students to participate the iSchool's Research Day, part of Celebrate Research Week at UBC. The iSchool’s Research Day will be held on Friday, March 2, showcasing the recent contributions of iSchool faculty and student, and other researchers at UBC. Presenters and participants will share ideas and thoughts about the work of designers, disseminators, and stewards of information.
At the iSchool, scholars focus on the creation, collection, organization, preservation,
and use of physical and virtual cultural materials. Power constrains human action, but it is also what makes action possible. Individuals and institutions access, possess, control, and use information to acquire, negotiate, and maintain power. Interaction with information artifacts and records is also a path to empowerment: the First Nations community that regains control over their cultural heritage materials, the community member who acts after learning about the actions of her government, or the child whose world opens through reading. Throughout Research Day participants will explore how, as designers, disseminators, and stewards of information, we seek to discover and shape the relationship between power and information in individual’s lives, community institutions, and the wider world.
Organizers seek contributions that address (but are not limited) to these broad areas of inquiry central to the theme of Research Day:
• Creation, sharing, and stewardship of physical and virtual cultural materials
• The interaction of information and power on individuals and communities
Those interested in participating in the iSchool’s Research Day are asked to submit an extended abstract via http://sipstudio.ca/researchday2012. Questions about Research Day can be directed to Dr. Lisa Nathan, lisa.nathan@ubc.ca, Dr. Aaron Loehrlein, a.loe@ubc.ca, or Ph.D. student Alex Garnett, axfelix@gmail.com.
SLAISmatters Winter Newsletter Now Available Online
The Winter 2012 edition of SLAISmatters, the newsletter of the iSchool@UBC, is now avialable in PDF format as a downloadable file. Current and past issues are always available on the SLAISmatters page of our site.
SLAIS and Partners Co-host UNESCO World Memory Conference
SLAIS, The iSchool at UBC, is partnering with several other organizations to host the UNESCO Memory of the World 20th anniversary conference in Vancouver September 26-28, 2012. Prospective speakers for The Memoray of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation are invited to submit abstracts of proposed presentations by email to either of the two Programme Chairs: SLAIS faculty member Dr. Luciana Duranti, luciana.duranti@ubc.ca, or Jonas Palm, Director and Head of Preservation for the Swedish National Archives, jonas.palm@riksarkivet.se. The deadline for submitting abstracts is February 29. Abstracts may be in any of the areas related to the following Challenges to be discussed as key issues at the conference: technological challenges, legal and ethical challenges, economic challenges, political challenges, and cultural and professional challenges. For more information on these challenges and other details, download the Call for Papers.
Students Win Bursary Awards
SLAIS students Victoria Ostrzenski and Megan Sorenson have recently won bursary awards in support of their education at the iSchool. Victoria, a first-year student in the MAS program, won the Archives Society of Alberta Bursary; Megan Sorenson, in her second year as a student in the MLIS program, won the Marion Sherman Bursary. The ASA Award provides support for students in graduate archival education programs. The Marion Sherman Bursary is awarded to an MLIS student enrolled pursuing children’s literature coursework. It is presented by the Wapiti Regional Library System of Saskatchewan, and was established to encourage students to consider careers in youth services.
SLAIS Announces Dodson Visiting Professorship
SLAIS, The iSchool at The University of British Columbia, is pleased to invite applications for the inaugural Dodson Visiting Professorship, named in honour of Suzanne and Earl Dodson. This fellowship provides funds to enable the successful candidate to spend a term engaged in Teaching and Research at the iSchool and with the UBC community.
The inaugural position will be for a Visiting Professor in the field of Children’s Literature, to work with the Chair of our Master of Arts in Children’s Literature, Professor Judith Saltman, well known as an award-winning researcher in the area of Canadian literature for children.
Expertise in the area of children’s or young adult literature or media and an understanding of the issues surrounding children’s or young adult literature scholarship are required. The successful applicant will also have an active record of scholarship in children’s or young adult literature or a related field. This research will be showcased at a colloquium, which will be open to all faculty, librarians, students and alumni. This is a formal call for applications for the inaugural Dodson Visiting Professorship. The full posting and application instructions are available until March 1, 2012.
Two New Faculty Members Welcomed
SLAIS is pleased to welcome two new faculty members in January. Dr. Giovanni Michetti will be joining the iSchool at UBC as an Assistant Professor. He is coming to UBC from the University of Rome, where he has been Assistant Professor of Archival Science at the Special School for Archivists and Librarians. His research interests focus on digital preservation and records management, and his teaching areas have focused on markup languages in archival functions, informatics and cryptography. Dr Michetti is teaching two classes for the Winter II Term, ARST 515: Arrangement & Description of Archival Documents, and ARST 556D: Archives and the Web.
Also joining the faculty is Rafa Absar, who has accepted a position as a 12-month visiting lecturer for the period January to December 2012. She is completing her doctoral dissertation in the School of Information Studies at McGill University in Montreal. Her dissertation is in the area of human-computer interaction, addressing ‘Enhancing Navigation using Auditory Feedback." In Winter II term she will be teaching two courses, LIBR 553: Understanding Information Users in Diverse Environments, and LIBR 554: Database Design. Please join us in welcoming both to our School and city.
Student Work Published in BCLA Journal
The Winter 2012 issue of YAACING, the journal of the Young Adults and Children's Services Division of the British Columbia Library Association, includes two articles by current or recent SLAIS students. Recent MACL graduate Robert Bittner is the author of "Censorship and Picture Books: An Annotated Bibliography of Frequently Challenged Titles for Children," and current MLIS student Courtney Novotny provided guidance on using Pinterest.com, a web-based software allowing users to create virtual pin boards or bulletin boards. The Winter 2012 edition is available online at http://www.bcla.bc.ca/YAACS/YAACING/documents/2012_Winter_YAACING.pdf.
SLAIS Mourns Passing of Longtime Friend Jeff Stokes
SLAIS is saddened to announce the passing of a long-time friend of the School and the Faculty, Mona “Jeff” Stokes. She passed away November 19 at the age of 91.
Jeff, as she was affectionately known, was married to Roy Stokes, who served as Director of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies from 1981-1991. She has been a stalwart supporter and participant in several School events, most recently in May to award the annual Roy Stokes Medal for the top graduating student in Archival Studies.
Jeff was born in Cardiff Wales and grew up in Manchester. She worked in libraries in England, having met her husband while studying for her library degree. She and Roy moved to Vancouver 40 years ago. A member of the UBC Faculty Women’s Club, she worked at UBC as a librarian for many years. Her leisure activities ranged from mountain climbing to Scottish dancing, and she never missed an opportunity to gather with friends at SLAIS events.
A funeral service for Mona “Jeff” Stokes will be held at St Mary’s Church at 2 p.m. on Saturday November 26.
SLAIS Faculty Publishes New Book
SLAIS Assistant Professor Victoria Lemieux has published, with several co-editors, an important new resource addressing records and risk. Managing Records in Global Financial Markets: Ensuring Compliance and Mitigating Risk explores current regulatory, legal, and governance issues associated with managing records in today’s global business, banking and finance industries. The book includes examples of best practices and case studies. The co-editors with Dr. Lemieux are Lynn Coleman, Rod Stone, and Geoffrey Yeo.
Managing Records in Global Financial Markets (August 2011; 256pp; paperback; 978-1-85604-663-3; £59.95) is published by Facet Publishing. It is available from Bookpoint Ltd, Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | www.facetpublishing.co.uk. The book is available in Canada and the US from Neal-Schuman Publishers by visiting www.neal-schuman.com.
SLAIS Alumni Elect New Executive
The SLAIS Alumni Association held its first Annual General Meeting in many years. SLAIS Director Dr. Caroline Haythornthwaite was guest speaker at the October 26 event. She updated the alumni on the School’s activities, faculty news, and plans for the future. That was followed by executive reports to the association and an election of officers for the alumni association, generating involvement by several new members. The 2012 executive committee for the SLAIS Alumni Association is as follows: Chair Dawn Ibey (MLS 1993), Chair-Elect Jennifer Borland (Dual MAS/MLIS 2010), Past Chair Jill Teasley (MAS 2007), Treasurer Chris Middlemass (MLS 1979), Recording Secretary Daniela Esparo (MLS 1989), and four members-at-large, Melanie Hardbattle (MAS 2000), Leanna Jantzi (MLIS 2010), Amanda Leinberger (MAS 2010) and Kathie Shoemaker (MACL 2006). Michelle Mallette (MLIS 2002) is appointed to the board as SLAIS Liaison. Anyone interested in getting involved in SLAIS Alumni Association activities is encouraged to contact any member of the executive committee.
Student Paper Accepted for Conference
SLAIS MLIS student Jennifer Rempel, who is currently on a student exchange term at the University of Oslo, has had a paper accepted at the International Journal of Arts & Sciences conference. Jennifer will present her paper, entitled "Towards the Hybrid Library: e-Books in Digital and Libraries ", at the IJAS meeting in Rome next week. Founded in 2005 as a double-blind refereed journal, IJAS welcomes submissions from universities around the world. IJAS recognizes the best research papers and contributors to international education through competitive awards. Congratulations to Jennifer on this achievement.
SLAIS Alumna Joins SLA Board
SLAIS MLS alumna Debbie Schachter has been elected Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect for the Special Libraries Association, at the national board level. Currently Director of Learning Resources at Douglas College, she has been active in the SLA Western Canada Chapter and nationally for many years. She is also the author of a regular column in the national SLA journal Information Outlook, on business and management issues.
Ronald Jobe Scholarship Presented |
|
SLAIS Director Speaks at Alumni AGM
Caroline Haythornthwaite, Professor and Director of SLAIS, the iSchool at UBC, will be speaking at the UBC School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies Alumni Association Annual General Meeting. The meeting will be held Wednesday October 26, with all alumni invited to attend and participate in the Association's election of executive committee members. The meeting will be held at the Vancouver Public Library's boardroom on the seventh floor. Alumni unable to attend who wish to skype into the meeting should contact co-chair Jill Teasley (jill.teasley(at)gmail.com) or SLAIS liaison Michelle Mallette (michelle.mallette(at)ubc.ca). The meeting starts at 6 p.m., with a welcome by the outgoing executive committee at 6:10 p.m. Dr. Haythornthwaite will begin her remarks at 6:15 p.m., followed by questions from the audience. The AGM, including the election, will follow.
Judith Saltman Promoted to Professor
SLAIS is very pleased to announce that Associate Professor Judith Saltman has been promoted to the rank of Professor. In announcing the promotion, UBC President Stephen Toope specifically highlighted Professor Saltman's "contributions to teaching, graduate supervision, research and service," noting they assist UBC "in meeting its vision as a globally influential university." He congratulated her on "helping create an exceptional learning environment" for students. The announcement follows on the heels of a number of awards and accolades for Professor Saltman. She was among six finalists for the International Institute for Children's Literature, Osaka's International Brothers Grimm Award for 2011, and was selected for a 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award by the SLAIS Alumni Association. Additionally, Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing, published last year by Professor Saltman and co-author Gail Edwards, Chair of the History Department at Douglas College and adjunct faculty member at SLAIS, won the International Research Society for Children's Literature Book Award, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) Canada Prize in the Humanities.
SLAIS Faculty Speaks with Business Students
SLAIS Assistant Professor Victoria Lemieux is speaking at the UBC Sauder School of Business this Friday, October 14. Part of the MIS Friday Workshop series, the workshop will be held 9:30-11 a.m., on the topic "Organizational and Human Behaviour Risk Factors in Electronic Document and Records Management System Implementation." After discussing the issue of human factors in EDRMS implementation, Dr Lemieux will be meeting with PhD students following the workshop. For more information, visit http://mis.sauder.ubc.ca/research/workshop/
iSchools Hiring LIS Faculty
Increasing student interest in the programs offered at iSchools in Canada and the US has led to a growing need for faculty members. An informal survey of the 32-member iSchools organization has revealed that a significant number of its member-schools are actively seeking teaching and research faculty, including SLAIS, the iSchool at UBC. At this writing, iSchools’ online jobs directory lists more than 36 openings at 15 member institutions, with several schools saying they expect to add more in the coming weeks. These openings range from non-tenured researcher and instructor positions to tenure-track professorships. There’s even an opportunity to apply to become dean of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Most of the deans responding to the informal survey reported that this surge in hiring was directed at increasing the size of their faculty, as opposed to filling vacancies in response to normal attrition. Several stressed that their hiring was due to significant increases in undergraduate and graduate applications.
Four Students Win ARMA Foundation Awards
SLAIS students have again been successful in this year's competition for the ARMA International Educational Foundation Scholarships. Of this year's eight awards, four have been given to current SLAIS students: Jana Grazley and Tom Jackman in the MAS program, and Dan Gillean and Michael Grutchfield in the Dual MAS/MLIS program. The awards are in support of advanced study in the fields of information and records management. Since the program's inception in 2007, SLAIS students have consistenly been among those selected for these awards. Congratulations to all eight winners of this year's ARMA International Education Foundation awards.
Thesis Explores Queer Christianity in YA Lit
MACL candidate Robert Bittner has successfully defended his master's thesis, titled "Queering Christianity: The Journey from Rigid Doctrine to Personal Theologies in a Selection of YA Literature with LGBTQ Content." His co-supervisors for the thesis were MACL faculty members Margot Filipenko and Theresa Rogers. Committee members included Judy Brown of UBC and Beth Marshall of Simon Fraser University. Rob is also the recipient of the MACL Ronald Jobe Children's Literature Scholarship for 2011. Congratulations to Rob on both achievements.
Students Publish First Book, Articles
SLAIS student Danielle LaFrance (MLIS) is publishing her first book of poetry, while new graduates Jennifer Goerzen and Sara Hathaway have published articles based on MLIS course papers. Species Branding, Danielle's first book of poetry, is being published by Capilano University Editions, with a launch date of Saturday, October 1. The launch event will be held 7-9 p.m. at Pulp Fiction, 2422 Main Street in Vancouver, and the book is also available from CUE at http://www.cuebooks.ca/new_titles.php. Jennifer and Sara published their articles in the Fall 2011 edition of YAACing, the newsletter of the Young Adult and Children's Services Section of the BC Library Association. Jennifer's article, "Here She Comes: Unforgettable Females in Picture Books for Children," and Sara's article, "Poetry or Prose: Dissecting the Verse Novel" may be viewed at http://www.bcla.bc.ca/YAACS/YAACING/documents/2011_Fall_YAACING.pdf. Congratulations to all three on these achievements.
Alumni to Discuss 'Life After the MACL'
Wondering what you might do with a Master of Arts in Children's Literature? Five SLAIS alumni will offer their views at a panel discussion, "Life After the MACL: What Do You Do with a Master of Arts in Children's Literature Degree?" The panel will include Genevieve Brisson (doctoral student, sessional faculty member and teacher-librarian), Kallie George (author and editor), Kathie Shoemaker (author-illustrator, doctoral student, sessional faculty), Michele Superle (academic, author) and Vikki VanSickle (author, bookseller, and editor). It will be held Friday, September 23, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in the Dodson Room on the 3rd floor of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
SLAIS at ASIS&T Conference, Grad School Fairs
Thinking of applying to SLAIS? SLAIS will have representatives at several locations in the next few weeks. Potential applicants can get answers to questions about programs, the application process, research areas and more at a number of Graduate School Fairs this fall, as well as at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) in New Orleans, October 9-12. We are particularly interested in meeting with Ph.D. applicants at ASIS&T, and SLAIS Faculty will also be attending the conference. We are also welcoming applicants to all programs at our booths at the following Graduate Schools Fairs: Simon Fraser University September 28-29; in the Student Union Building at The University of British Columbia October 5-6; in the Jack Simpson Gymnasium at the University of Calgary October 18; and in the Lister Hall Conference Centre at the University of Alberta October 19. Can't attend any of these? Join our Virtual Information Session on Monday, September 26. Thursday November 4.
Latest Edition of SLAISmatters Available
The Summer 2011 edition of the SLAISmatters newsletter is now available as a downloadable PDF. Inside you will find photos of our 50th anniversary celebration, a discussion by Director Caroline Haythornthwaite on the School's new status as a member of the iSchools, news on students and faculty, and the announcement of a new award honouring our founding Director, Samuel Rothstein. This issue is available both in print and online - for a print copy, send a request to slaistk@interchange.ubc.ca. You will also find a persistent link at
www.slais.ubc.ca/news/slais-matters.htm. Please feel free to forward this widely.
Four Students Win Haltom Awards
Three incoming students and one current student at SLAIS have won scholarships from the Alice L. Haltom Educational Fund,<http://www.alhef.org/> in support of their studies in records and information management. Current MLIS student Cynthia Ng, new MAS students Coralee Louko and Victoria Ostrzenski (both starting in September) and new MLIS student Eng Sengsavang (starting in January) are among the 18 winners chosen for this award. Established by the Houston ARMA Chapter, the scholarship supports students specializing in the field of records and information management. Congratulations to all the winners. For more information, visit http://www.alhef.org/.
SLAIS Alumna Wins Vanier Scholarship
SLAIS MLIS alumna Devon Greyson, currently a Ph.D. student at UBC's College of Interdisciplinary Studies, has won a prestigious Vanier Scholarship, one of only 25 awarded to UBC Ph.D. students. The award is in support of her doctoral research into information needs and use for perinatal youth (during pregnancy and after childbirth). Devon is a 2006 MLIS graduate of SLAIS, and says she chose her research topic in hopes of generating "usable theory that can be applied to improve the way we communicate health information to pregnant youth and their health care providers, in order to improve the health of teenage mothers and their babies." For more information, visit http://www.grad.ubc.ca/campus-community/meet-our-students/greyson-devon.
Picturing Canada Wins Top Award
SLAIS Faculty member Judith Saltman and co-author Gail Edwards, Chair of the History Department at Douglas College and adjunct faculty member at SLAIS, have been honoured with the most prestigious global award for children's literature research. *Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing* has won the International Research Society for Children's Literature Award for a distinguished book by an IRSCL member published in the two years prior to the Congress. The award was announced at the recent IRSCL Congress held in Brisbane Australia, announced by outgoing president Clare Bradford.
In making the announcement, Dr. Bradford stated, "The authors have plotted the evolution of Canadian publishing for children against the cultural and political shifts which have characterized Canadian history. They focus in particular on how illustrated books and picture books have negotiated Canadian debates over nationhood and national identities, with particular reference to Indigenous peoples and texts, and ethnocultural diversity. The distinctive contribution Edwards and Saltman make is that this is not merely a literary history, but *Picturing Canada* investigates the networks of publishing, librarianship, education, retail, reviewing and research which attend the production and reception of Canadian books for children." *Picturing Canada* was published by University of Toronto Press in 2010.
Student Selected as ARL Diversity Scholar
MLIS student Jennifer Garrett has been selected as one of only 13 ARL Diversity Scholar under the Association of Research Libraries 2011-13 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce. The program is intended to attract LIS students from racial and ethnic minorities to careers in academic libraries by providing funding, leadership development, mentorship opportunities and career placement assistance. Scholars are also hosted for a research library visit at Purdue University Libraries. The IRDW's goal is to a diverse academic and research library community that will better meet the challenges of changing demographics in higher education and the emphasis on global perspectives in the academy. For more information, visit http://www.arl.org/news/pr/IRDWjuly11.shtml. Jennifer was also selected last year for a fellowship from the ARL's Career Enhancement Program's final year, which includes an internship in an ARL member library.
Student Article Published in Online Journal
Congratulations to MLIS student Siri Hiltz, whose article "Curiouser and Curiouser: An Exploration of Surrealism in Two Illustrators of Lewis Carroll's Alice" was published in the current issue of the online journal, The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature. The article was developed from a paper Siri wrote for LIBR 520 Survey of Literature and Other Materials for Children. The article is available at http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/viewFile/275/272
Visiting Professor Discusses 'Wikification'
SLAIS is presenting a summer colloquium with Ian H. Witten, visiting professor from the Department of Computer Science at Waikato University in New Zealand, on the topic of wikification and applications for information retrieval. T he talk will be given Wednesday July 6, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. , in the Lillooet Room, located on the 3rd floor of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC. Dr Hamilton's research interests include language learning, information retrieval, and machine learning. He has published widely, including several books, including Data Mining (2011), How to Build a Digital Library (2009), Web Dragons (2007), and Managing Gigabytes (1999). His talk will focus on the process of "wikification"; that is, automatically and judiciously augmenting a plain-text document with pertinent hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles-as though the document were itself a Wikipedia article. In addition to discuss how to wikify documents, Dr Hamilton will discuss applications to knowledge-based information retrieval, topic indexing, document tagging, and document clustering.
Three SLAIS Students Win Spectrum Awards
Three SLAIS students have been named as 2011 ALA Spectrum Scholars – two beginning their MLIS studies in September, and one who started her MLIS program in January. Current student Mayu Ishida, and new students Judith Guzman-Montes and Ebony Magnus are among the 55 scholarship winners chosen for 2011. The Spectrum Scholarship program is a project of the American Library Association. It provides scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students pursuing graduate degrees in library and information studies. Its mission is to improve service at the local level through the development of a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by all libraries. Congratulations to all three winners SLAIS as well as their fellow scholars. The full announcement is available at http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/2011-spectrum-scholarship-winners-announced.
SLAIS Alumna Named ARCL Visiting Program Officer
SLAIS MLIS Alumna Joy Kirchner, who is currently the UBC Library’s Scholarly Communications Coordinator, has been appointed as a Visiting Program Officer to the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). The 12-month appointment was made to support the development of ACRL’s scholarly communications initiatives.
Joy will remain in her role at UBC Library, but has been granted release time to assist the ACRL. She will work with members and staff to develop a sustainable model for the Scholarly Communications 101 workshop, support the work of the Scholarly Communications Committee and develop other initiatives to advance ACRL’s work in this area.
“We are very pleased that Joy has been asked to work closely with ACRL to support evolving approaches to scholarly communication,” said Allan Bell, Director of Library Digital Initiatives at UBC. “Joy’s work with ACRL will have a direct connection to our institutional and Library strategic plans. Her work with ACRL will dovetail with UBC’s goals to increase the impact of UBC research by making it widely available in open access digital repositories and promote open access and open source methods and tools.”
The complete announcement is available at http://ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pr.cfm?id=7398.
Congratulations to SLAIS Graduates and Award Winners
Congratulations to the 67 SLAIS students who were awarded their degrees at the May 26 UBC Congregation ceremony.
At the SLAIS luncheon for graduates, family and friends, which followed the ceremony, awards for graduating students were presented. (Note that students who graduate in November 2010 are also eligible for these awards).
Roy Stokes Medal in Archival Studies: Cindy McLellan
Ruth Cameron Medal for Librarianship: Cindy McLellan
Willard Ireland Prize: Shalene Williams
C.K. Morison Memorial Prize: Emma Wendel
Archives Association of British Columbia Mary Ann Pylypchuk Memorial: Jennifer Zerkee
Harold Naugler Memorial Prize: Sergey Kovynev
Enid Dearing/Alan Woodland Book Prize: Francesca de Freitas
Richard Hopkins Award: Amy Ashmore
SLAIS Alumni Graduate Awards
MAS/DUAL: Sarah Rathjen and Peter Houston
MLIS/DUAL: Jonathan Strang and Sara Hathaway
MACL: Bryannie Kirk and Vasiliki Tasssiopoulos
(Details on these awards are available on the SLAIS website).
Congratulations to the award winners and all 67 graduates
Giovanni Michetti Joins SLAIS Faculty
SLAIS is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Giovanni Michetti as an Assistant Professor, effective January 1, 2012. Dr. Michetti joins the SLAIS faculty from the University of Rome, where he is Assistant Professor of Archival Science at the Special School for Archivists and Librarians, now part of the Department of Documentation Science, Linguistics, Philology and Geography. He holds a Ph.D. in archival science from the University of Rome, where he has been a faculty member since 2004. As an archivist he developed the Italian version of the standard Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard, worked with public institutions to address issues raised by changing documentary objects and process, and has conducted research on archival legislation. His research interests focus on digital preservation and records management, and his teaching areas range from markup languages in archival functions to cryptography and informatics. He will be at SLAIS this summer, teaching Advanced Arrangement & Description in July and August, before returning to Rome for the fall, formally joining join the faculty in January.
SLAIS Students Win Conference Awards
Two SLAIS students have won important conference awards while a third has won a highly competitive travel award. MLIS student Erin Watkins' work for the UBC Library's Development Office won an ALA Best of Show award in the category of Fundraising-Print. This is a significant achievement. The competition is organized annually by the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) of the American Library Association and recognizes the very best public relations materials produced by libraries in the US and Canada in a given calendar year. Erin was working for the Development Office as a co-op student when she originated and designed the button campaign, using images from UBC Library's Special Collections. Rob Bittner (MACL) was named co-winner in the student poster competition at the Children's Literature Association Conference for his poster, Sex and Sexuality Education in Queer YA Novels. Alex Garnett, newly conferred MLIS and returning to SLAIS in the Ph.D. program in September, won one of only 10 Society for Scholarly Publishing Travel Grants, for attendance at the June 1-3 SSP Conference in Boston. Congratulations to all on these impressive achievements.
Lisa Snider Wins ACA Travel Award
SLAIS is pleased to announce that Dual MAS/MLIS student Lisa Snider has been named as the recipient of the SLAIS ACA Travel Award of $500. The award is presented annually to a student to support attendance at the Association of Canadian Archivists annual conference. This year’s conference will be held June 2-4 in Toronto. Congratulations to Lisa.
Dual Student Wins SAA Pinkett Award
Dual MAS/MLIS student Kelly Lau has won the Society of American Archivists’ Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award for 2011. This award recognizes and acknowledges a minority archival student (e.g. a student of African, Asian, Latino or Native American descent) for his/her scholastic and personal achievements, and provides for attendance at the SAA’s Annual Meeting. This is the first year a SLAIS student has won the award (for more information, visit http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-pinkett). Kelly will join SAA Oliver Wendell Holmes Award winners from SLAIS, Patrick Ansah and Umi Mokhtar, at the Award Ceremony in Chicago at the end of August. Congratulations to Kelly on winning this award.
SLAIS Faculty at CHI 2011 in Vancouver
Vancouver is hosting the 2011 CHI Conference May 7-12, and several SLAIS faculty and students will be attending and involved. CHI (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) is the premier international conference for the field of human-computer interaction. Dr. Lisa Nathan is presenting two workshops: Preserving Ephemera: Reclaiming Critiques of the 2010 Olympics with current MLIS student Danielle LaFrance, and Privacy Research & “Real World” Design: Is There an Elephant in the Room? with MLIS graduate and new Ph.D. student Alex Garnett. Also attending from the faculty is Aaron Loehrlein, and both Lisa and Aaron welcome contacts from prospective master’s and doctoral students, as well as from other researchers. For more information on CHI, visit http://chi2011.org/index.html.
Vicki Lemieux Wins Outstanding Paper Award
SLAIS faculty member Dr. Victoria Lemieux’ paper, “The Records-risk Nexus: Exploring the Relationship Between Records and Risk” has been chosen for an Outstanding Paper Award at the 2011 Literati Network Awards for Excellence, presented by Emerald. The paper was published in Records Management Journal, Vol. 20, no. 2. A free download will be available for six weeks at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn= 09565698&volume=20&issue=2&articleid=1875528. Every year Emerald invites each journal’s Editorial Team to nominate what they believe has been that title’s Outstanding Paper and up to three Highly Commended Papers from the previous 12 months. From the list of nominees, the award winning papers are chosen following consultation by the Editorial Team, many of whom are eminent academics or managers. In being named Outstanding Paper, Dr. Lemieux’ article is considered the most impressive piece of work the team has seen throughout 2010. The paper will be available for free download for six weeks. Further information regarding the Awards for Excellence visit www.emeraldinsight.com/literati.
Two SLAIS Students Win SAA’s Holmes Awards
Graduating MAS student Patrick Ansah and visiting Ph.D. student Umi Asma Mohktar, from University of Malaysia, have been chosen as the 2011 recipients of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Award from the Society of American Archivists. Established in 1979, the award is presented to an archivist from outside of the United States and who is already in North America, to support attendance at the SAA Annual Meeting. Patrick came to SLAIS from Ghana to pursue the Master of Archival Studies. He has recently completed his MAS program, and will be conferred the degree at the convocation ceremonies in May. Umi is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Malaysia, and is a visiting student in the doctoral program at SLAIS. Both winners will be presented with the Holmes award August 26 at the SAA Annual Meeting in Chicago. The award is in honor of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who joined the National Archives staff in 1935 and served in many capacities, including that of executive director of the National Historical Publications Commission. He was President and a Fellow of SAA. The last SLAIS student to receive the award was Elaine Goh (MAS graduate and currently a Ph.D. student) in 2010, and prior to that, Bart Ballaux (MAS) in 2004. SLAIS faculty member Prof. Luciana Duranti, in fact, won the award in 1985. Congratulations to Patrick and Umi on winning this award.
Adjunct Faculty Member Wins Egoff Award
SLAIS adjunct faculty member Maggie deVries has won the 2011 Sheila Egoff Award for Children’s Literature for her recent novel, Hunger Journeys, published by HarperCollins Canada. Hunger Journeys was one of five titles shortlisted for the award, supported by the BC Library Association and presented as part of the 2011 BC Book Prizes. For more information, visit http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2011#childrens. The award-winning author will be back at SLAIS this summer, teaching LIBR 524 Writing, Publishing and the Book Trade for Children. Congratulations to Maggie on her achievement.
SLAIS Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary
This weekend marks the official celebration for 50 years of SLAIS at UBC. Alumni, employers, students and prospective students (as well as friends and family) are welcome at the Open House on Saturday April 30, 12-2. There is also a gala evening celebrating our 50 years, and honouring the 10 Alumni Service & Leadership Award winners. Click for details and photos.
SLAIS Hosts Fulbright Scholar
The University of British Columbia’s School of Library, Archival & Information Studies and the University of Washington Information School are pleased to jointly announce Jill Palzkill Woelfer has been selected for a Fulbright Award to Canada, which she will use to fund an eight-month stay at SLAIS. The award is in support of Jill's research into the ways that homeless young people use information systems, such as Facebook, and personal digital technologies, such as mobile phones. While at SLAIS, she will conduct and complete a portion of her dissertation research, a comparative study between homeless young people and service providers in Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle, Wash. A Ph.D. student in the University of Washington Information School, Jill will particpate in a number of activities while at SLAIS, including workshops and other discussions with SLAIS Ph.D. students, and will present a summary of her research in a public presentation. Jill expects to complete and defend her dissertation in 2013, supervised by Dr. David G. Hendry of the University of Washington.
The Fulbright program is the largest U.S. international exchange program, offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide. The program was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to "enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."
In 2011, the Fulbright program will award approximately 8000 grants to support research and education opportunities in 155 countries, including 20 full grants for Canada. For more information about the Fulbright program, visit http://www.fulbrightcanada.com/ or http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright/.
SLAIS Joins the iSchools
SLAIS is now a member of the iSchools, an international consortium of institutions with a common interest in the relationship between information, people and technology. Membership is by application, and this acceptance recognizes SLAIS's contribution to research and teaching, including substantial sponsored research, engagement with preparing future researchers, and commitment to the interests and progress of the information field. For more information, see http://www.ischools.org/site/.
Dual Student Wins Aboriginal Fellowship
MAS/MLIS student Laura Hebert was successful in the competition for the 2011/12 UBC Aboriginal Graduate Fellowships. These competitive fellowships include an award and tuition for one academic year, and will be used to support Laura’s studies in the Dual program. The competition is open to Aboriginal graduate students whose traditional territory falls, at least in part, within Canada. This includes Canadian First Nations, Métis or Inuit students and may include Aboriginal students from Alaska and the northern states of the USA. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition. The Faculty of Graduate Studies administers the competition in consultation with the First Nations House of Learning. Congratulations to Laura on her achievement.
Student Presents at UBC Public Forum
SLAIS MLIS student Joanne Forbes is speaking at the April 1 Public Forum at
the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies: Creating New Landscapes in
Notions of Fairness. This half-day (8:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.) interdisciplinary
discussion forum will include panel discussions on the concept of fairness
in history and today, notions of fairness in economic relations, measuring
fairness, and how fairness is presented through visual and performing art.
Joanne will present "Fairness, Evolution and Information Technology as part
of the Measuring Fairness panel. Registration is not required; guests are
welcome but asked to enter and leave quietly. For more information, visit http://www.fairness.pwias.ubc.ca/
SLAIS Student Wins Saskatchewan Bursary
Zhizhong Chang is the successful recipient of the 2010 Library Education Bursary offered by the Saskatchewan Library Association. The annual bursary offers funding to a student enrolled or accepted in a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program, or equivalent, who will live and work in Saskatchewan for one year after graduating. In accepting the award, Zhizhong stated, "This bursary makes me feel more confident in building my professional career path and family life in Saskatchewan and I firmly believe that Saskatchewan is the increasingly attractive place to be." He will complete his MLIS degree this year.
The Saskatchewan Libraries Education Bursary is intended to promote the
continued growth of professional librarianship in the province. Information
and applications for the 2011 bursary are available on the Saskatchewan
Library Association web site at http://www.saskla.ca> www.saskla.ca.
Students Raise $660 for Nicaragua's TASK
The UBC student chapter of Librarians Without is donating $660.48 to Take A Stand for Kids (TASK), which will go to fund literacy and education related projects in Nicaragua. The money was raised at SLAIS in 2010/11 through coffee sales, Bring Your Own Mug events, and a Trivia Night competition.
SLAIS at 2011 BC Library Conference
The BC Library Association is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and SLAIS is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the conference. Be sure to stop by Table 10 just outside the Exhibits Hall on Friday, April 8th and Saturday, April 9th to get your SLAIS Alumni or SLAIS Adjunct Faculty conference ribbon, as well as get details on the SLAIS 50th Anniversary celebrations, how to hire SLAIS Co-op student and more. We've chosen not to host an alumni reception this year, and encourage our alumni to join in celebrating the BCLA Anniversary in Victoria. We also encourages you to connect with friends and classmates and join us at our own 50th Anniversary celebrations later in April. See you in Victoria!
Congratulations To SLAIS Adjunct Faculty Maggie De Vries
SLAIS adjunct faculty member Maggie de Vries has been shortlisted in two award categories in the BC Book Awards. Maggie de Vries and Renné Benoit, Fraser Bear: A Cub’s Life (Greystone Books) is shortlisted for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize presented to the best illustrated book written for children. Maggie de Vries, Hunger Journeys (HarperCollins Canada) is shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize awarded to the best non-illustrated book written for children.
Join Our Virtual Open House
SLAIS will be hosting a Virtual Open House session for applicants and those interested in apply to all SLAIS programs for on Thursday, March 31 from 2:30-4 p.m. PT. The chat uses a secure UBC-based live online classroom interface. No special software is needed, and you do not need a password to enter. Those unable to join live may view the session afterward via the archive. For details, see www.slais.ubc.ca/admissions/admissions-welcome.htm#OpenHouse.
Students Learn Challenges First-Hand
SLAIS students are making an impression with UBC Library staff as they begin
to apply the theory they are learning about the challenges of managing
non-textual archival records. UBC Rare Books & Special Collections Archivist
Sarah Romkey (herself a SLAIS alumna) describes the experiences students
enrolled in ARST 550: Management of Audio-Visual and Non-Textual Archives
had during two visits to Special Collections. The students were exposed to
appraisal and accession procedures for photographic materials held at UBC
Rare Books and Special Collections. Read Sarah Romkey's blog
<https://blogs.ubc.ca/rbscnew/2011/02/16/photographic-archives-training-at-r
are-books-and-special-collections/> entry and find out about their exciting
discoveries.
MLIS Student Wins Rittenhouse Award
SLAIS MLIS student Mahria Lebow has been named the 2011 Rittenhouse Award
winner. This annual award presented by the Medical Library Association to
the best student paper or project submitted from all ALA-accredited programs
in North America, on a topic related to health sciences librarianships or
medical informatics. Mahria won for the work she did on a research project
for LIBR 553 Understanding Information Users in Diverse Environments. Under
the direction of SLAIS faculty member Dr Heather O'Brien, Mahria examined
the print and online reading of medical information in a small sample of
senior citizens. She won the People's Choice award for her poster on the
same topic at the 2010 Research Day as well. The Rittenhouse Award includes
a cash prize and a 201 MLA Conference registration package. Congratulations
to Mahria on this impressive achievement.
SLAIS Faculty Named Book Prize Finalists
SLAIS Associate Professor Judith Saltman and adjunct faculty member Gail
Edwards, who is also an MLS alumna of SLAIS, have been named finalists by
the 2011 Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS)
Scholarly Book Prizes selection committee for their book, Picturing Canada:
A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing. The book,
published in 2010 by the University of Toronto Press, is one of only five
selected for the shortlist for the Canada Prize for best English-language
book in the humanities. Final competition is currently underway and an
announcement of the final decision by the jury is expected in a few weeks.
The full
announcement is at <http://www.fedcan.ca/content/en/651/2011-canada-prize-short-lists.html> http://www.fedcan.ca/content/en/651/2011-canada-prize-short-lists.html.Congratulations to both Judi and Gail on being nominated for this
prestigious scholarly publishing award.
SLAIS alumna Katie O'Leary published in Journal of Research on Libraries & Young Adults
SLAIS alumna Katie O'Leary (granted her MLIS in November 2010) has been published in the peer-reviewed, online Journal of Research on Libraries & Young Adults. Her article, “Information Seeking in the Context of a Hobby: A Case Study of a Young Adults with Asperger’s Syndrome,” was developed in her work in Heather O’Brien’s LIBR 559A Understanding Information Users in Diverse Environments.
Kate also was awarded the Pratt Severn Best Student Paper Award of the American Society for Information Science and Technology for this paper.
The Winter 2011 issue of YALSA's Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults is now available at http://yalsa.ala.org/jrlya. Articles in this issue include:
Distinguished Alumni Named for SLAIS 50th Anniversary
UBC's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies and the SLAIS Alumni Association are very pleased to jointly announce the recipients of the SLAIS 50th Anniversary Alumni Service and Leadership Awards to be presented at the SLAIS 50th Anniversary celebration on April 30th, 2011.
Congratulations to:
Ann Curry: Master of Library Science, 1980
Elizabeth Denham: Master of Archival Studies, 1984
Sarah Ellis: Master of Library Science, 1975
Dean Giustini: Master of Library Science, 1989
Cate McNeely: Master of Library Science, 1986
Laura Millar: Master of Archival Studies, 1984
Ingrid Parent: Bachelor of Library Science, 1971
Judith Saltman: Bachelor of Library Science, 1970
Shelley Sweeney: Master of Archival Studies, 1985
Peter Van Garderen: Master of Archival Studies, 1998
Both SLAIS and the SLAIS Alumni Association look forward to honouring these distinguished alumni as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations on April 30, 2011. Tickets for this event are now available for purchase online. For details on the anniversary activities and events, including a link to the registration tool for the dinner and dance, visit http://www.slais.ubc.ca/about/SLAIS-50.htm. Please share this announcement with colleagues and classmates. We look forward to celebrating our collective achievements with alumni, faculty and friends.
Winter 2011 Edition of SLAISmatters Available
The Winter 2011 edition of the SLAISmatters newsletter is now available as a downloadable PDF. Inside you will find a discussion by our new Director
Caroline Haythornthwaite on directions for SLAIS, a two-page feature
celebrating the School's 50th Anniversary, including plans for the April
celebrations, a summary of faculty research areas, news on the SLAIS Co-op
program and more. As is our tradition for the winter edition, this issue is
available as a PDF only. You will also find a persistent link at
www.slais.ubc.ca/news/slais-matters.htm. Please feel free to forward this
widely.
MACL Alumna Follows Novel with Monograph on Children's Literature
Congratulations to MACL alumna Michelle Superle, who has published her second book in just a few months. Contemporary, English-language Indian Children's Literature (Routledge, April 2011) examines the ways Indian children's writers have represented childhood in relation to nation, cultural identity, and girlhood. From a framework of postcolonial and feminist theories, children's novels published in India are compared with those from the United Kingdom and North America, considering the differing ideologies and the current textual constructions of childhood at play in each.
Just last fall, Michelle published
Black Dog, Dream Dog (Tradewind), a children's novel for readers age 8-12. The interconnected storyline follows eleven-year-old Sam as she tries to find a home for the lost dog that mysteriously appears in her yard one day and the elderly Stella Sylvan as she recovers from a stroke.
More information on both titles is found at her website, www.michellesuperle.com
SLAIS Co-op Students of the Year Awarded
Congratulations to the winners of the 2010 SLAIS Co-op Student of the Year Awards. The two recipients are Meghan Radomske (MLIS) for her work term with Vancouver Public Library, and Sarah Rathjen (MAS) for her work termwith the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria. Each award includes a cash prize, courtesy of the University of Victoria Library and a past gift from SLAIS, and a notation on the student's transcript. Two honourable mentions were also named: Jocelyn Hallman for her work term with Environment Canada Library in Vancouver, and Qinqin Zhang for her work term at the UBC Infant Studies Centre.
The awards are adjudicated by a subcommittee of the Arts Co-op Advisory Committee, with one award presented to annually to an MLIS or Dual student on a library-related work term and one award annually to an MAS or Dual student on an archives-related work term. Eleven students submitted nomination packages for the 2010 awards. Congratulations to Meghan, Sarah, Jocelyn and Qinqin.
Student Wins ARLIS Internship Award
MLIS student Bailey Diers was selected from more than 50 applicants for the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) 2010-11 Internship Award. This
prestigious award grants $2,500 to support a period of internship for
a student preparing for a career in art librarianship or visual
resources curatorship. In addition to the $2,500 stipend, Bailey receives a one-year complimentary membership in ARLIS/NA.
In announcing the award, the ARLIS/NA Internship Award Subcommittee noted Bailey has experience working in a variety of library settings, including public libraries, academic art libraries, archives, and special collections. She has contributed to projects in the areas of assessment, user education, and collection development. Her career
plans are to continue her investigations into digital libraries,
combining this interest with her skills and knowledge of assessment of
library users and library instruction.
Bailey is currently working as a GAA with the UBC Library - her colleagues there also offer their congratulations to Bailey on winning this prestigious award.
Two Students Selected for ARL Fellowships
Two SLAIS students have been selected as 2011 ARL Career Enhancement Program Fellows. Jennifer Garrett (MLIS) and Kelly Lau (Dual MAS/MLIS) are among only 19 MLIS students from across North America to be selected by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Career Enhancement Program Coordinating Committee for the third and final year of this competitive fellowship program.
Funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and ARL member libraries, the ARL Career Enhancement Program gives MLIS students from underrepresented groups an opportunity to jump-start their careers in research libraries by providing a robust fellowship experience that includes an internship in an ARL member library. This program reflects the commitment of ARL members to create a diverse research library community that will better meet the challenges of changing demographics in higher education and the emphasis on global perspectives in the academy. The Career Enhancement Program has four main components: a 6- to 12-week internship experience in an ARL library, mentoring by a professional librarian at the host institution, participation in the ARL Leadership Symposium, and career placement assistance. For more information about the ARL Career Enhancement Program, see www.arl.org/diversity/cep/.
SLAIS Student Papers Published in YAACing Journal
Congratulations to SLAIS students Shamin Malmas (Dual MAS/MLIS) and Sara Hathaway (MLIS), whose papers have been published in the winter 2011 issue of YAACING, the newsletter of the Young Adult and Children’s Interest Group of the British Columbia Library Association. The issue is available at www.bcla.bc.ca/yaacs/YAACING/documents /2011_Winter_YAACING.pdf. Shamin's article is entitled Aboriginal Storytelling in the Digital Age; Sara's article is entitled Be Bold, Be Bold!:
The Influence of Form and Format
on the Negotiation of Danger in
Macdonald’s “Mr. Fox” and Kimmel& Rayyan’s “Count Silvernose”. The two papers were written for the SLAIS course, LIBR 522J Folklore and Storytelling, taught last summer by Ginger Mullen.
Governor-General's Award Winner Honoured
MACL Alumna Wendy Phillips (centre) received the Governor-General's Literary Award for Children's Literature at a gala awards dinner at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. The award was for her young adult novel Fishtailing, published by Coteau Books. Wendy wrote the novel in verse as her creative writing thesis for the Master of Arts in Children's Literature at SLAIS. The award was presented as part of the 2010 Governor-General's Literary Awards ceremony honouring 14 authors and illustrators of Canadian literature for children and adults, in both French and English. Two current SLAIS students, Karen Ehrenholz (MACL, left) and Catelynne Sahadath (MLIS, right), were in attendance at the awards ceremony, courtesy of a special invitation for SLAIS students to the event.
Wendy's book was also featured as the only book for youth in the Vancouver Sun's Top 10 Books of 2010, published December 4. For a link to the full list, see www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Canadian+books+year/3929088/story.html
In addition, Wendy was interviewed on CBC Radio British Columbia's North by Northwest on Sunday, December 5. The audio is available for download as a podcast at www.cbc.ca/bc/features/podcast/index.html#nxnw.
MLIS Student Chosen for ACCOLEDS 2010
SLAIS MLIS student Franklin Sayre has been awarded a student conference package to attend ACCOLEDS 2010, a workshop on data library services. Each year, ACCOLEDS (A COPPUL Consortium of Library Electronic Data Services) holds a workshop on various aspects of data librarianship, organized by the COPPUL Data Services Committee (ACCOLEDS) and Statistics Canada. This year's worskhop is being held at the University of Regina, November 30-December 3. The program coordinators for ACCOLEDS annually sponsor one student from each library school in the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) region to attend the workshop, and Franklin was nominated as this year's candidate for SLAIS. Data librarianship is an exciting and dynamic field, and attending ACCOLEDS 2010 provides an excellent way for interested students to learn about primary Canadian socio-economic data sources and the work of data librarians in post-secondary institutions. For information visit http://datalib.library. ualberta.ca/accoleds/ and www.uregina.ca/library/accoleds/index.shtml.
SLAIS Alumna Wins Governor-General's Award
MACL Alumna Wendy Phillips has won the 2010 Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature - Text for her young adult novel, Fishtailing. The book, a first novel, was originally written by Wendy as her creative writing thesis for the Master of Arts in Children's Literature, and is published by Coteau Books. SLAIS Director Caroline Haythornthwaite congratulated Wendy, calling it "another great success for our Master of Arts in Children's Literature."
The announcement of the Governor-General's Literary Award winners is available at www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2010/default.htm. In speaking with the Vancouver Sun, Wendy expressed her astonishment when she was informed of the award: "I was astounded. It has been just thrilling and unreal. It's what I dreamed of, but not what I expected." The full article is at www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/librarian+untan gles+tight+knot+teen+angst/3840876/story.html. The UBC Faculty of Arts feature on Wendy's initial nomination for the Governor General's Literary Award is at www.arts.ubc.ca/arts-students/single-page-news/article/613/2746.html, and is also featured in UBC This Week at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010/11/18/ubc-this-week- 47/#14009.
InterPARES 3 Plenary Research Workshop
The Canada TEAM (Theoretical Elaborations into Archival Management) of InterPARES 3 is holding its semiannual research workshops this week at SLAIS. At these workshops, the Canadian researchers of InterPARES 3 review and discuss the findings of the research conducted in the previous six months, and make decisions on solutions to the identified issues, on methodology and on future directions. This year’s worskshop, November 17-19, will examine the following case studies: Vancouver Police Department, Canadian Tourism Commission, British Columbia Institute of Technology, UBC School of Journalism, UBC Belkin Gallery, UBC Alma Mater Society, UBC cIRcle, Vancouver School of Theology, Simon Fraser University, City of Victoria, University of Victoria, City of Vancouver, City of Surrey, and North Vancouver Museum and Archives. The following general studies will be presented and discussed: Community Archives e-Records Assessment, Open Source Records Management Software, Metadata Application Profiles, Organizational Culture, Digital Records Education Modules, Terminology Database, Web 2.0/Social Media Records, Cost-benefits Models, Public Sector Audit Reports, Policy and Procedures Templates, Ethics Models, Most-At-Risk Criteria. SLAIS students working as graduate research assistants present the context, the method, the findings, the problems and possible solutions. The co-investigators supervising them answer the questions as they are raised by the other members of Canada TEAM, and then the discussion starts, moderated by the project director. The result of each discussion is a set of action items for the co-investigators of each project to accomplish before the next semiannual workshop. The workshop co-investigators are both academics and professionals. The latter are either representatives of the various test-beds, members of resource organizations (i.e. bodies with advanced expertise in the matters researched, like Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian Conservation Institute, the City of Toronto, the Association of Canadian Archivists), or experts in specific areas, like copyright or metadata. Proposals for new case studies and general studies will also be considered at this workshop. For more information on INterPARES 3 and TEAM Canada, please visit www.interPARES.org and www.interpares.org/ip3/ip3_index.cfm?team=1.
Four Students Named ARL Diversity Scholars
A record four SLAIS MLIS students have been awarded prestigious scholarships
from the Association of Research Libraries' Initiative to Recruit a Diverse
Workforce.
Mayu Ishida, Soyeong Jeon, Abraham de Jesus, and Qinqin Zhang were among
only 15 students selected from across North America as the 2010-2012 ARL
Diversity Scholars. Soyeong and Qinqin began their MLIS programs in
September 2009; Abraham began the MLIS in September 2010; and Mayu will join
SLAIS as an MLIS student in January 2011.
The award includes funding, a formal mentoring program, leadership
development training (held during ALA Midwinter Meetings), career placement
assistance, and support for skills development.
The full announcement is at http://www.arl.org/news/pr/Diversity-Scholars-28oct10.shtml SLAIS Director Caroline Haythornthwaite congratulated the four scholarship
winners, noting "These awards confirm SLAIS and UBC's continued commitment
to diversity, while also recognizing the outstanding quality of our
students."
Ronald Jobe Scholarship Awarded
The 2010 Ronald Jobe Scholarship in Children's Literature for student achievement in the Master of Arts in Children's Literature Program was presented to Kay Weisman by Professor Emeritus Ronald Jobe at the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable Breakfast on Saturday, October 16, 2010. |
|
SLAIS Alum Min Tong Among 2011 Emerging Leaders
SLAIS MLIS graduate Min Tong, currently a librarian at the University of Central Florida’s South Lake Campus, has been selected to participate in the American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders program. Min was sponsored by the Chinese American Library Association (CALA), which provides financial support for expenses towards attendance at both of the ALA conferences in 2011.
The ALA Emerging Leaders program enables librarians and library staff to participate in project planning workgroups; network with peers; gain an inside look into ALA structure; and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. They receive leadership development workshops, engage in online learning activities, and present a poster session at the 2011 Annual Conference in New Orleans. See the complete list of the 83 Emerging Leaders at www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pr.cfm?id=5495
Min calls herself a "proud SLAISer," adding "I'm forever grateful for the excellent teaching of the faculty and generous assistance of the staff during my SLAIS years."
Now in its fifth year, the 2011 Emerging Leaders program chose eighty-three individuals through a competitive process for 2011.
Alumni Publish Book on Special Libraries
Three SLAIS alumni have published a book on special libraries, Facelifts for
Special Libraries: A Practical Guide to Revitalizing Diverse Physical and
Digital Spaces. Dawn Bassett, Brooke Ballantyne Scott and Jenny Fry are all
MLIS graduates of SLAIS. The book draws on evidence-based practice to guide
solo librarians and special library seeking to revitalize their physical and
digital spaces and ensure their information centres remain relevant to their
organizations. The book is published by Woodhead and
available at www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=2036&ChandosTitle=1
SLAIS Alum Named Finalist for Literary Award
MACL Alumna Wendy Phillips' published thesis, a young adult verse novel written in multiple voices, has been named one of five finalists in the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Awards in the category for Children’s Literature: Text. The novel's title is Fishtailing, and was published by Coteau Books. In making the announcement, the Canada Council describes the novel as: "the story of four teenagers, four lives intertwined in the complex world of relationships and power struggles. In passionate poetic language that both chills and caresses, Wendy Phillips breathes life into these unforgettable characters whose stories offer insight, warning and endless possibilities. This compellingly-crafted poem is impossible to put down."
The full list of the 70 finalists for the various award categories can be found at www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2010/lx129310227358016415.htm.
SLAIS Student Wins ASIS&T New Leader Award
MLIS student Alex Garnett is one of only eight winners of the 2010-2011
ASIS&T New Leaders Award, announced by the American Society for Information
Science and Technology. The award is intended to recruit, engage, and retain
new members and to identify potential for new leadership in ASIS&T. Only
members in their first three years of membership are eligible to apply
(student or regular).
The winners for 2010-11 are: Andrea Baer, University of Tennessee-Knoxville,
Laura Christopherson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Alex
Garnett, University of British Columbia, Margaret Gross, Lake Erie College
of Osteopathic Medicine, Thomas Heverin, Drexel University, Tina Jayroe, Denver Public Library, Sara Mooney, Cirque du Soleil, and Denise Pasquinelli, Pratt
Institute.
Congratulations to Alex on this achievement.
Two SLAIS Students Win ARMA Scholarships
For the first time since the scholarship's inception, ARMA Educational Foundation has awarded AIEF Graduate Scholarships to two SLAIS students in the same year. MAS student Jamie Sanford and Dual MAS/MLIS student Myron Groover have been awarded the 2010 ARMA International Educational Foundation (AIEF) Graduate Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to a full-time student entering the second year of a graduate records and
information management program or equivalent library science or archival studies program which contains a significant number of records management and information courses. The award was established to encourage the development of the international records and information management community, and SLAIS students have consistently been among the annual winners. For more information, visit http://www.armaedfoundation.org/grants_scholarships.html. Congratulations to both Jamie and Myron on this achievement.
Student Paper Published in YALSA Journal
SLAIS MLIS graduate Katie O’Leary has had an article accepted for publication in the February 2011 issue of the American Library Association/Young Adult Library Services Association’s Journal for Research on Libraries and Young Adults. The article, titled “Information Seeking in the Context of a Hobby: A Case Study of a Young Adult with Asperger’s Syndrome,” was originally written for LIBR 553: Understanding Information Users in Diverse Environments, taught by SLAIS faculty member Heather O’Brien. This paper also won the ASIST Student Paper Award for 2009. Congratulations to Katie on this achievement.
SLAIS Welcomes New Director Caroline Haythornthwaite
The School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at The University of British Columbia welcomes Caroline Haythornthwaite as the new Director of SLAIS for a five-year term beginning August 16, 2010.
Dr. Haythornthwaite received a B.Sc. in Psychology at Trent University, followed by a M.A. in Psychology, plus both M.I.S. and Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Toronto. Dr. Haythornthwaite was recruited from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she held an appointment as a Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She was most recently at the University of London as the 2009/2010 Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Culture and Pedagogy, where she was researching, writing, and presenting on Learning Networks which encompasses overlapping themes of social networks, computer networks, and learning.
Meet a SLAIS Representative at a Graduate Schools Fair Near You
Thinking of applying to SLAIS? We will have a School representative on hand to answer your questions about programs, the application process, research areas and more at a number of Graduate School Fairs this fall. Stop by our booth at Simon Fraser University September 22-23, in the Student Union Building at The University of British Columbia September 29-30, at University of the Fraser Valley October 6 in Abbotsford, at University of Victoria October 26, and at the University of Washington's Pacific West Graduate School Fair November 2 in Seattle. Can't attend any of these? Join our Virtual Information Session on Thursday November 4.
MACL Student Paper Published
MACL student Karen Taylor has been published in The Dragon Lode, the journal of the International Reading Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group. The article is titled “The Representation of Nature in Vampire Romance for Young Adult Readers: An Ecocritical Exploration of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series,” and is published in Vol. 28, Issue 1 (Fall 2009), pages 32-41. The article is based on a term paper Karen wrote in the MACL program for LIBR 521 Contemporary Literature and Other Materials for Children, and later presented at the Breaking the Boundaries Research Conference at UBC in 2009.
Join Us In 2011 As SLAIS Celebrates 50 Years
SLAIS marks its 50th anniversary in 2011, and we’re letting you know now so
you can save the date. Mark your calendars for April 29-30, 2011. Among
other activities, there will be a wine and cheese reception at UBC, an open
house for everyone to see our wonderful new facilities and what we have been
doing, and a grand dinner and dance to wind up the two days. Nominations are now being accepted for the Distinguished Alumni Awards that will be part of the weekend - see nomination criteria and nomination form at www.slaisalumni.org . Don't delay - nominations close December 1. We invite you
to join us to renew acquaintances and exchange memories. Keep an eye out for
more details about our plans on this website. We look forward to seeing you
in 2011.
