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Focus

T H I S I S S U E

2 Message from the Director

3 Faculty News

6 Student News

8 Convocation Celebration

12 Alumni News

Canada Post Corporation Publications Mail Agreement 40613662

ConvocationCelebration 2008

edition

SCHOOL ofINFORMATION STUDIES

M c G I L L U N I V E R S I T Y

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIESNEWSLETTER

Fall 2008

EditorSusann Allnutt

Editorial AdvisorMark Ordonselli

WritersSusann AllnuttFrance BouthillierPeter McNally

PhotographersSusann AllnuttEdward BilodeauFiona Tam

DesignContent and CollaborationSolutions

Your comments andinquiries are welcome.Please direct them to:[email protected]

Cover:David Fontaine, MLIS’08,his five-year-old son Tomasand his wife Mylène Fortinattend Convocation in May 2008. David Fontaineis the Division Head ofOutreach and Communicationat the municipal library inBrossard, Quebec.

Photo by Susann Allnutt

School of Information StudiesMcGill University3459 McTavish StreetMontreal, Quebec H3A 1Y1

Dear Alumni and Friends,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. Once again,we bring you good news from the School of

Information Studies (SIS). Our professors havewon new research grants; as of Fall 2008, sevenprofessors were involved in 19 different fundedresearch projects. Our students have earned severalnew fellowships; four doctoral students beat outstiff competition for scarce research funding. Our graduates continue to fill exciting posi-tions both in libraries and at many other institutions, corporations and agencies, as youwill see in the Alumni News section of this newsletter. We are also very pleased to welcomea new assistant professor, Elaine Ménard, and a new professional associate, Edward Bilodeau.

Last March, we hosted Candy Schwartz, BA’69, MLS’74, a professor at Simmons Collegein Boston, who gave a lively and well-attended talk on activities and tools related to Library2.0. Summer 2008 was a very busy period for the international library community, both inMontreal and Quebec City, with the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA)Annual Conference. SIS sponsored an important IFLA satellite conference on youth services,which attracted more than 200 people. As well, we were delighted to learn that our proposalfor a formal PhD program was approved by the Quebec government in August 2008. Afterseveral years of hard work, this outcome was indeed very welcome.

The upcoming year will also bring important changes and endeavours. The School isplanning to move into a newly renovated building that will provide more space for staff andstudents. This year will also be devoted to preparation for the re-accreditation of our MLISprogram by the American Library Association. This process takes place every seven yearsand we look forward to meeting the External Review Panel in September 2009. Anotherimportant change at the School will be the departure of Professor John Leide, who willretire in January 2009 after nearly 30 years of teaching and research at the SIS. We will allmiss him and wish him the best in his retirement projects.

My appointment as director has been renewed for another three years, and I look forward to receiving yet more news from you, because it gives true meaning to everythingthat we do!

I wish you a very rewarding year.

France Bouthillier, PhDDirector

S C H O O L o f I N F O R M A T I O N S T U D I E S 3M c G I L L U N I V E R S I T Y

FACULTY NEWS

P rofessors Kimiz Dalkir, BSc’83,MBA’85, and Jamshid Beheshti

received a $36,000 grant from the SocialSciences and Humanities Research Councilof Canada (SSHRC) to develop a theoreti-cal model for knowledge management inhigher education, particularly in relation tothe sharing and preservation of criticalknow-how.

P rofessor Catherine Guastavino, BSc’97,is a co-investigator on a collaborative

research project headed by Professor IchiroFujinaga, MA’89, PhD’97, of McGill’sSchulich School of Music. The projectreceived a $59,454 grant from the Fonds derecherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC)and will study ways to preserve and archivemusical recordings that are important toQuebec’s heritage. The interdisciplinaryproject will investigate audio quality froma technical and perceptual point of view, inthe context of digitization.

Professor Guastavino is also working withcolleagues at the Université de Sherbrooketo build an acoustic simulator that willreplicate sound conditions in aircraft cabinsand cockpits. A total of $891,000 in fund-ing has been obtained from the NationalSciences and Engineering ResearchCouncil of Canada, the Consortium forResearch and Innovation in Aerospace inQuebec, and the CAE and Bombardiercorporations. Sound reproduction is anessential component in pilot training andadds ambience, emotion, and greater realismfor trainees. The research will provide aprogram of systematic evaluation of humanresponses within a virtual environment.

In addition, Professor Guastavino is work-ing with 22 researchers at McGill’s Centrefor Interdisciplinary Research in MusicMedia and Technology (CIRMMT),which has obtained a six-year $1.8-milliongrant from the FQRSC and the Fondsquébécois de recherche sur la nature et lestechnologies (FQRNT).

W orking with Principal InvestigatorProfessor Martin Dawes (Family

Medicine, McGill University), ProfessorJoan Bartlett is studying ways of refiningaccess to health information using a novelindexing approach. The research hasobtained a $101,654 collaborative researchgrant from SSHRC, and is being under-taken in collaboration with other co-inves-tigators from McGill, McMaster and theUniversité de Montréal.

P rofessor Eun Park is working withProfessor Claudia Mitchell, of McGill’s

Faculty of Education, and ProfessorNaydene De Lange, of the University ofKwaZulu Natal in South Africa, to studythe digitization and management of visualdata. They have received a $41,782 grantfrom the National Research Foundation inSouth Africa.

NEW RESEARCH GRANTS

ON THE MOVEAs you may be aware, the School will be moving to

3661 Peel Street, beside the Faculty of Education, in

the summer of 2009. This historic building currently

houses units in the Faculty of Law, and was once the

library for Marianopolis College.

4 S C H O O L o f I N F O R M A T I O N S T U D I E S M c G I L L U N I V E R S I T Y

Professors Kimiz Dalkir and Eun Park have been both promoted tothe rank of Associate Professor. Professor Dalkir teaches and con-ducts research in the areas of knowledge management, communitiesof practice and intellectual capital, while Professor Park is active inarchival studies, metadata, and the management of electronic records.

Professor Catherine Guastavino was appointed Associate Director,Science and Technology Research, at CIRMMT. Professor FranceBouthillier has been appointed to a second three-year term asSchool Director.

Several sessional lecturers and researchers have also been appointedto the School:

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR:Joy Bennett, MLS’76, a consultant, is an expert on labour relationsin libraries and will teach three courses at the School in 2008-09.

AFFILIATE MEMBER:Frances Groen, Trenholme Director of Libraries Emerita.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS:Gordon Burr, BA’75, MLIS’98, Senior Archivist, CollectionManagement/Digital Services, McGill University Archives.Pierre Pluye, Associate Professor, Family Medicine, McGill University.Richard Virr, PhD’80, Curator of Manuscripts and Acting Head,Rare Books and Special Collections Division, McGill UniversityLibrary.

ASSISTANT PROFESSORElaine Ménard, aPhD candidate at theUniversité deMontréal’s École debibliothéconomie et dessciences de l’informa-tion, has beenappointed AssistantProfessor at theSchool. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’sdegrees in translation as well as a Maîtriseen sciences de l'information degree, all fromthe Université de Montréal. A very activeresearcher and teacher, she brings expertisein knowledge organization, specifically inthe areas of image indexing, controlledvocabularies, information retrieval and mul-tilingual retrieval. Her doctoral dissertationis “a study on the influence of vocabularyused to index images in a multilingualretrieval context.”

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATEEdward Bilodeau, BSc’92, MLIS’06, hasjoined the School as our Professional

Associate, managingthe IT lab and teach-ing courses in Webdesign and knowledgemanagement. Edwardcomes to the Schoolfrom the CommunityFoundations ofCanada, where he

worked as Director of KnowledgeManagement. He has also been a FacultyLecturer in Career and Management Studiesand a User Interface/CSS Analyst at McGill.

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSThis year, for the first time, the School haswelcomed our first post-doctoral researchfellows, Emma Murphy and Ilja Frissen,both of whom are under the supervision ofProfessor Catherine Guastavino. EmmaMurphy joined the School in December2007, and works on perception-action cou-pling in hearing and haptics in theMultimodal Interaction Lab. Her project,“Haptics, Sound and Interaction in theDesign of Enactive Interfaces,” is funded bythe Natural Sciences and EngineeringResearch Council of Canada, and involvescollaboration with McGill’s Centre forInterdisciplinary Research on Music, Mediaand Technology, the Centre for IntelligentMachines, and researchers from theEuropean 6th Framework Network ofExcellence ENACTIVE Interfaces. Emma recently completed her PhD inHuman-Computer Interaction at the SonicArts Research Centre at Queen’s University,Belfast. Her research focused on using non-speech sounds in Web interfaces to conveynavigation and spatial information. Thisproject was part of a larger MultimodalInternet Access Project, which aims to makethe Internet more accessible to visuallyimpaired users through audio and haptic

feedback. Emma also earned an MSc inMusic Technology from the University ofLimerick and a BA in Music andPhilosophy from Trinity College, Dublin.

Ilja Frissen joined SIS in June 2008. Heis working on three projects: ENACTIVEInterfaces, the auditory perception of spaceproject, and a new project on Soundfieldrendering in aircraft cabins/cockpits. Iljastudied Cognitive Psychology (CognitiveErgonomics) in his hometown at MaastrichtUniversity in the Netherlands. His Master’sresearch at the TNO Human FactorsInstitute explored sound localization, andhe earned a PhD at Tilburg University inExperimental Psychology. His research wasconcerned with the interactions betweenauditory and visual spatial perception – theso-called “ventriloquism effect.” After fin-ishing his PhD in 2005, Ilja went to theMax Planck Institute for BiologicalCybernetics in Tübingen, Germany for hisfirst post-doctoral position, where heworked to develop an omnidirectionaltreadmill that enables natural walkingthrough large virtual environments. AtMcGill, he examines perception-action cou-pling in hearing and haptics and the audito-ry perception of space.

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS

NEW APPOINTMENTS


For more than a quarter century, John hasfurthered the School’s strong tradition ofimbuing students with the importance ofcataloguing and classification, and hiscourses enhanced McGill’s reputation forproducing excellent cataloguers. His manyresearch grants and publications in relatedtopics, such as thesaurus construction, arefurther manifestations of his commitmentto the area.

A native of Wisconsin, John’s route toMcGill was circuitous. After studyingmathematics at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, he received aMaster’s in Library Science fromWisconsin-Madison and a PhD fromRutgers. His teaching career took him toNew York and Hawaii before his arrivalhere. After the School’s conditionalaccreditation in 1980, John’s strong back-ground in library education provedinvaluable and he played an importantrole in the return to full accreditation in1981. His dedication to the highest stan-

dards of library education was widelyappreciated, as seen in the number of site-visit teams on which he served for theAmerican Library Association’sCommittee on Accreditation.

Multiculturalism and internationalismare central themes in John’s life, and sincejoining McGill he has regularly attendedthe annual meetings of the InternationalFederation of Library Associations (IFLA).Chinese and Islamic cultures fascinate himand inspired many of his publications, andhis work on Chinese language and classifi-cation is notable. In Montreal, he forgedstrong links with French-speaking librari-ans and developed important jointresearch projects.

John’s great concern for students mani-fests itself well beyond the classroom. Formany years, he has served as a facultyadvisor to the McGill Student Group ofthe Special Libraries Association, and he isalways happy to lend special assistance or aword of advice to students. As a Master’s

program advisor, he is invariably attentiveand perceptive, and his knowledge ofresearch methodology is balanced by ahumanistic concern for the content of aproject.

Perhaps John’s greatest gift to theSchool has been his sunny disposition andgood humour, even under trying circum-stances. On the door of his office there aretwo small posters. The first reads: “Thereare 10 kinds of people in the world: thosewho understand binary and those whodon’t.” The second reads: “Non-SequiturSociety: We don’t make sense, but we lovepizza.” And of course, who will ever forgetthe ring with the glass eye!

We wish John much happiness andfulfillment in retirement. Two of hisgreat interests are bound to blossom:cooking and the Masonic Lodge!

Professor Peter F. McNallyBLS’65, MLS’66, MA’77

John Leide

O n December 31, 2008, a significant chapter in the life of theSchool of Information Studies will close with the retirementof Professor John Leide. For 27 years – from his arrival in1980 until his Study Leave this year – McGill and the Schoolhave been the happy beneficiaries of his excellent teaching,research, and other important contributions.

We’d like to congratulate Professor Andy Large

and his wife Val on the graduation of their

daughter Kirsty, who earned a degree from McGill’s

Faculty of Dentistry in May 2008. For the occasion,

Professor Large donned his only suit!

MLIS PRACTICUM WEB 2.YOUWORKSHOPStudent members of the Special Libraries Association’s McGill chapter,along with librarians from the Howard Ross Library of Management,hosted a day-long workshop entitled “Web 2.you: A Workshop for Information Professionals,” in February. Jessamyn West ofwww.librarian.net spoke about “Web2.0, Library 2.0, andLibrarian 2.0,” and John Dupuis, MLIS’00, of York University high-lighted the possibilities of “Blogging for Professional Development.”Rajiv Johal, BCom’99, MLIS’03, and Beth Dunning, MLIS’06, of theHoward Ross Library explored searching and the Internet, and AmyBuckland, MLIS’08, and Janis Dawson, MLIS’08, presented onlibraries in virtual worlds. The workshop was attended by more than50 academic, public and government librarians.

The MLIS practicum went through a major revision thisyear, expanding to include practicum placements in all threestreams and project-based work. A visual presentation isnow required at the end of the practicum, with practicumsupervisors and students invited to a lively, informative“show and tell” poster session.


Maya Kucij, MLIS’08

MLIS Student News and Activities

Elizabeth G. Hall ScholarshipKirsten HuhnEric JolyMaya Kucij

H.W. Wilson FoundationScholarshipBenyamin ParisSahar RaiMarie-Line Champoux-Lemay

Janet Agnew Scholarship Krista Bialo

Jean Brown ScholarshipAndrea PuhlJessica Lange

Margery Trenholme Fellowship Jillian Tomm

Azelie de Lendrecie Clark AwardEric Erickson

Barbara Graw Smythe Award inLibrary & Information StudiesRosanne Lester

Bernard Anderson Ower AwardJan Sandink

Centenary PrizeCasey Wight

Dr. G.R. Lomer ScholarshipsSara AndersonJennie FerrisJennifer RicardKatherine Hanz

Margery Trenholme MemorialAward in Library StudiesRachel Daly

Miriam H. Tees ScholarshipSarah AndersonKatie Hollohan

Patricia Keir Award Vanessa Sparks

Vivi Martin FellowshipRita Benitez

McGill Recruitment ExcellenceFellowshipJennifer HoyerSean Benjamin

2007-2008 PRIZES

Teresa Troide Prize for Excellencein Information StudiesShazia Ahmad

Margaret Downey PrizeUte Wilkinson

Dr. Herbert Stanley BirkettAwardDavid D’Angelo

Virginia Murray Prize forCataloguingSean Benjamin

Anne Galler Award (formerlyEastern Canada Chapter SLA Prize)Catherine Martin

Please join us in congratulating our recent scholarship and prize recipients. These awards are made possible through the generosityof our alumni and friends of the School. The total amount awarded in the 2007-08 academic year was $53,450.

2007-2008 SCHOLARSHIPS

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIESSCHOLARSHIPS AND PRIZES

E ach year the McGill Library andInformation Studies Student

Association organizes a Career Fairand welcomes participants fromlibraries and other organizations toMcGill to meet our graduating stu-dents. This year, the Career Fair tookplace on March 6, 2008.

Shazia Ahmad, BA’04, MLIS’08, wasawarded the newly established Teresa TroidePrize for Excellence in Information Studies,for achieving the highest academic standingamong MLIS students over two years. Theaward was created last year in memory ofTeresa Troide, MLIS’90, with the generosityof her husband Lars Troide, a formerEnglish professor at McGill. Ms. Troidewas an alumna of the School who workedas an information specialist at CanadianPacific and Canadian National Railways.

Amy Buckland, MLIS’08, was nominatedby the Library Journal as one of the Moversand Shakers in the library and informationstudies community for her involvement inSecond Life, an online virtual space wherelibraries can offer services. Amy was also theco-editor of the Library Student Journal in2007-2008.

Jennie Ferris, MLIS I, was one of the win-ners of McGill's “Cut the Red Tape” con-test. She brought attention to inefficienciesin the student loan process at McGill.

Janelle Ramsay, MLIS I, was selected as the2008 SIS student representative to theCanadian Library Association Conferencein Vancouver. Janelle was also selected foran internship at the United Nations head-quarters in New York.

Marie-Lou Riberdy, MLIS I, received theProfessional Leadership Award from theMcGill Education Graduate Students’Society for her contribution to the Schoolas the president of BASIS (BilingualAspirations of the School of InformationStudies). The award “recognizes a studentwho has applied his/her academic learningand made a distinctive contribution to theprofession or wider community.”

Trudi Wright, MLIS’08, was selected bySIS and supported by Library and ArchivesCanada to attend the 40th InternationalConference of the Round Table on Archives(CITRA) in Quebec City. CITRA was co-hosted in November 2007 by Library andArchives Canada and the Bibliothèque etArchives nationales du Québec in QuebecCity. Trudi learned about the challenges

facing archivists in Samoa and Malaysia,among others, and how they have managedtheir organizations. For Trudi, the conferencehighlighted the different ways that nationalarchivists in developed and developing countriesmeet challenges and generate solutions.


ANNUAL CAREER FAIR

Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive, National Archives UK,

Trudi Wright, MLIS’08, and Ian Wilson, Librarian and

Archivist of Canada, at the CITRA conference

MLIS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

M cGill’s student chapter of the Association of CanadianArchivists held an all-day colloquium in April on the theme

of “Tradition to Innovation.” Archival Studies students who pre-sented papers were Mary Flynn, “Archival practices in Africa,”Vanessa Franco, “Blogs, wikis and records management,” JenniferMurray, “Moving images in an archive,” Elaine Radman, “Records

management in the Canadian government,” and Bruce Smith,“Organic archives.” The highlight of the event was a plenary deliveredby Professor Terry Cook of the Archival Studies program at theUniversity of Manitoba, who discussed the changing role ofarchivists in the 21st century.

McGILL ACA COLLOQUIUM


Graduate Catherine Martin with Prof. Jamshid Beheshti

Graduate Deborah Ray and Family

Prof. Eun Park with graduates Shazia Ahmad and Mary Flynn

Graduates Julie Jones and Nicole Tummon Graduates Angela Schade and Jessica RoyGraduate Kirsten Huhn with Prof. Andrew Large

Applause for graduates at convocation celebration

Graduates Barbara Whiston and Vera Granikov Graduates Janis Dawson and Amy Buckland

Graduate Jean Marc Tremblay and friend

CONVOCATION CELEBRATION


8.

DOCTORAL STUDENT NEWS

In August 2008, Quebec’s Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport approved thecreation of an official PhD program at theSchool, an acknowledgement of the accom-plishments of the past 17 years. The programwill start in September 2009.See www.mcgill.ca/sis/programs/phd

Valerie Nesset,MLIS’02, a doctoralcandidate, wasawarded the thirdprize in the doctoralstudent poster com-petition at the 2008ALISE (Association

for Library and Information ScienceEducation) conference in Philadelphia.More than 60 doctoral students competed.

Valerie has joined the faculty at theUniversity of Buffalo’s Department ofLibrary and Information Studies, andher research focuses on information

behaviour, particularly with children inan educational context. Her dissertationwork, “The Information Behaviour ofGrade-Three Students in the Context ofa Class Project,” studied children over athree-month period. In addition to herPhD studies, Valerie has been a sessionallecturer at SIS for the past five years,teaching the first-year course on"Information and Society." In 2005 shereceived the J.W. McConnell McGillMajor Fellowship, and in 2006 was therecipient of a Fonds Québécois de larecherche sur la société et la culture(FQRSC) fellowship. She has extensive

research experience as a research assis-tant, under the direction of ProfessorAndrew Large, in the areas of children'sWeb portal design, virtual environmentsand visualization, and has authored orco-authored more than 25 publications.She has presented several papers to theCanadian Association of InformationScience, as well as posters at ALISE. Sheis the current chair of the ALISE nomi-nating committee and has been a memberof several boards both at SIS and in theFaculty of Education, as a student representative.

For 2008-09, four doctoral students received external fellowships and awards. Charles-Antoine Julien,a doctoral candidate working with Professor John Leide on the visualization of information, and

Jillian Tomm, BMus’97, MLIS’02, a doctoral student working with Professor Peter McNally on the workof Raymond Klibansky, received FQRSC doctoral fellowships. Rafa Absar, MSc’06, a doctoral studentsupervised by Professor Catherine Guastavino, was awarded a similar fellowship from the Fonds québé-cois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies, to study the use of non-speech sounds in multi-modal interfaces. These fellowships, from the Quebec government, provide $20,000 per year and arevery competitive. Another doctoral student supervised by Professor Joan Bartlett, Lorie Kloda, BA’98,MLIS’01, received the Canadian Library Association’s World Book Graduate Scholarship in Library andInformation Science. Lorie, who is studying the information practices of rehabilitation therapists and whoworked as a medical librarian before her doctoral studies, was also awarded the 2008 ThomsonScientific/Medical Library Association Doctoral Fellowship.

Yusuke Ishimura, who entered the doctoral program in the fall of 2007, received a Max SternRecruitment Fellowship.

The first doctoral candidate was accepted to the School in 1991, under the ad hoc provisions of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. Since then,15 doctoral degrees have been conferred.

THE DOCTORAL PROGRAM AT THESCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES

LEANNE BOWLERBA’80, MLS’82, MEd’00,PhD’07

After earning two Master’s degrees andworking as a children’s librarian for severalyears, Leanne decided to continue herstudies at the doctoral level, focusing onthe information-seeking behaviour ofyoung people.

As a doctoral student, Leanne partici-pated in a number of intriguing researchprojects, including one led by AndrewLarge which developed educational Webportals for children using “bonded design,”a collaborative design methodology. Shealso worked closely with McGill’sIndonesian Social Equity Project, coordi-nating the Summer Institute in SchoolLibrarianship – a program designed for vis-iting Indonesian librarians and instructors– and running two workshops on schoollibrarianship in Indonesia last summer.

Over the past three years, Leanne hastaught several courses as an AssistantProfessor at the School. She is currently anAssistant Professor at the School ofInformation Sciences, University ofPittsburgh, where she is responsible for theChildren’s/Young Adult Specialization. As


well, she is developing a new library servic-es course focusing on developmental theo-ry and library principles and practice inearly childhood. She recently presented apaper at the Congress of Social Sciencesand Humanities in Vancouver, and will begiving a presentation at the Medicine 2.0conference in Toronto this fall on healthwebsites for teens.

TAO JIN MLIS’02, PhD’08

Tao Jin has worked as an internationalnews translator and editor at ChinaCentral Television, and as an associate edi-tor at Dow Jones & Company’s BeijingOffice, before moving to Canada to pursuegraduate studies. His research interestscentre on competitive intelligence, humaninformation behaviour, webometrics, andbusiness information management. Since2003, he has published several articles inthe Journal of Competitive Intelligence andManagement and the Online InformationReview. He has delivered presentations atvarious conferences, and in 2005 wasawarded a doctoral fellowship from theFonds québécois de la recherche sur la société

et la culture. He later obtained a researchgrant from the Social Sciences andHumanities Research GrantsSubcommittee at McGill to study theinformation behaviour of competitiveintelligence professionals.

Following the completion of his PhD,Tao began work as an Assistant Professorin the School of Library and InformationScience at Louisiana State University.

AUDREY LAPLANTEPhD’08

Audrey received her Bachelor’s degree inMusic Performance in 1999 and a Master’sdegree in Information Science in 2001,both from the Université de Montréal. Shebegan her doctoral studies at the School in2002, and one year later was awarded adoctoral research scholarship from theSocial Sciences and Humanities ResearchCouncil of Canada.

During her doctoral studies, Audreyworked as a music librarian at bothConcordia University and the Universitéde Montréal. At McGill, she participatedin various research projects, including one

Spotlight on 2007-08 PhD graduates

Tao Jin with supervisor France Bouthillier

Audrey Laplante with supervisor John Leide

Leanne Bowler and supervisor Andrew Large


under the supervision of Professor FranceBouthillier focusing on the development ofan information service model for smallbusinesses in public libraries. As a sessionallecturer, she taught several courses relatedto library systems and information retrievalat McGill and the Université de Montréal.

Audrey’s research interests includeinformation behaviour and music informa-tion retrieval. She has made presentationsat a number of conferences and has pub-lished several articles in the journal Argus.

In June 2008, Audrey joined the Écolede bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’infor-mation at the Université de Montréal as anAssistant Professor.

CHUKWUEMEKA (EMEKA)DEAN NWAKANMA PhD’08

Emeka completed his BSc in Education atAbia State University in 1993 and hisMLIS at the University of Ibadan in 1998,both in Nigeria. He was a CommonwealthScholar during his PhD studies from 2001to 2005.

Emeka acquired work experience inlibraries at the Saints Peter and Paul MajorSeminary library from 1995 to 2001, andestablished a library management consul-tancy firm in Nigeria – Data-DeanInformatics Ltd. – where he served asConsultant Librarian and CEO until hecame to Canada to pursue his doctoralstudies. As a consultant librarian, hehelped establish automated library systemsat a number of government, academic,research and other not-for-profit libraries.At McGill, he taught information systemdesign as a sessional lecturer in the fall of2003 and has served as a teaching assistantat the School and a research assistant onthe INIIReye System and ENVI Projects.

Emeka has made presentations at vari-ous conferences, and his research interestsinclude information technology, databasemanagement, LIS education, library sys-tems analysis/management and compe-tence taxonomies. He has published in theAfrican Journal of Library, Archives andInformation Science and in the CanadianJournal of Information and Library Science.

ERICA WISEMAN BA’99, MLIS’03, PhD’08

Erica conducted her PhD in knowledgemanagement (KM) under the supervisionof Professor Kimiz Dalkir, and was awardeddoctoral fellowships from both the SocialSciences and Humanities Research Councilof Canada and the Fonds Québécois de larecherche sur la société et la culture.

Erica has contributed to more than 15journals and conferences, and in 2007 wasawarded the McMaster World CongressBest Paper Award for her paper on KMmeasurement models and methods at theDepartment of National Defense. Herresearch on sustainable development hasbeen presented at the Academy of

Management and the AdministrativeSciences Association of Canada conferences.

In 2006, Erica was a young scholar on aSSHRC Strategic Knowledge Clustergrant, which resulted in the establishmentof the Canadian Business Ethics ResearchNetwork, bridging research and practice inbusiness ethics, corporate social responsi-bility and sustainable development. Erica isalso a member of the Research Networkfor Business Sustainability.

She has consulted in the areas of organi-zational learning, KM strategy development,metrics, and corporate social responsibilitywith organizations such as Hydro-Québec,Canada’s Department of National Defense,Oxfam Québec and the United NationsConvention for Biological Diversity.Erica is in the process of designing aninformation management strategy for asustainability research company as well as aframework for sustainability reporting inCanadian universities.

Chukwuemeka Nwakanma with supervisor

Jamshid Beheshti

Supervisor Kimiz Dalkir with Erica Wiseman

1950s

Marion Jarman, BLS’50, of Calgary, visit-ed the School with her daughter Nancy inAugust 2008. As Marion observed, therewere no computers when she was here.

BLS’57 alumnae visiting for 150thanniversaryIn the fall of 2007, the Faculty ofEducation celebrated its 150th anniversary.Visiting for the Homecoming event weresome alumnae, who took time from theirbusy schedules to drop by the School.

1960s Gerald Glass, BLS’62, sold his Academicand General Book Shop in Montreal in2003 after running and owning it for 40years! He spends his time reading, listeningto music, attending conferences and engag-ing in political activities. He is also work-ing on his fifth book, an autobiographicalnovel. He was very excited to announcethe arrival of his first granddaughter,Sophie Victoria, in February 2007.

Emily Anne Ryan, BLS’64, retired after14 years as a high school librarian. She saysthat working with youngsters was veryrewarding and kept her busy.

1970sJean-Jacques LeBlanc, MLS’79, was rec-ognized as the University of Ottawa’s firstLibrarian Emeritus in November 2007.The event also marked the launch of hisDictionnaire biographique des cardinaux duXIXe siecle, published by Wilson & Lafleur.

1980sRobert J. Craig, MLS’81, reports that heis working in the Learning and AccessServices unit of the Library of Parliament.

Robert O’Neil, MLS’84, accepted anInnovation Achievement Award from theCanadian Association of College and

University Libraries, on behalf of theSaskatchewan Institute of Applied Scienceand Technology Library.

Anne Wade, MLIS’86, a Manager andInformation Specialist at the Centre for theStudy of Learning and Performance(CSLP) at Concordia University, was thewinner of the American PsychologicalAssociation’s 2008 Excellence inLibrarianship Award. The prize was pre-sented at the Education and BehaviorSciences Research Forum at the annualmeeting of the American LibraryAssociation in June. She is also ProjectCoordinator of the Inquiry Strategies forthe Information Society in the Twenty-FirstCentury at the CSLP and a Director of theBoard of the Quebec Library Association.

1990sTerry Ann Smith, BA’88, BEd’90,MLIS’93, returned to full-time work as aKnowledge Management Analyst at HealthCanada, where she identifies and imple-ments knowledge management opportuni-ties. She had taken time off after the birthof her twin girls, and is also the proudmom of two boys.

Marie Missyabit Whattam, MLIS’94, isthe Manager, Aboriginal and CorporateResourcing, at Indian and Northern AffairsCanada. She has worked there sinceAugust 2007.

Patrick Lo, MLIS’94, serves as the MusicCataloguing Librarian at the ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong.

Roman Panchyshyn, BA’86, MLIS’97, isworking as the Catalog Librarian inLibrary & Media Services at Kent StateUniversity in Ohio.

Michel-Adrien Sheppard, BA’85, MLIS’99,has been working as a reference librarian atthe Supreme Court of Canada since

Alumni Appreciation AwardIn what is now an annual tradition, the School pre-sented its Alumni Appreciation Award at Convocation.This year’s winner was Christine Hiller, MLIS’87, aproject manager at the Conférence des recteurs et desprincipaux des universités du Québec, who has beenactive on the School’s Curriculum Committee. She isalso on our Ad Hoc Committee on Re-Accreditation.


Christine Hiller with Prof. France Bouthillier

From left to right: Barbara Luce Mumford, BLS’57,

Ariane Lee McLean, BA’56, BLS’57, Margaret McLetchie

Nichols, BA’56, BLS’57, and Barbara Grossman

McAlpine, BLS’57.

ALUMNI NEWS

Documentary section of the Bibliothèque etArchives nationales du Québec, as well asreference librarian at the St. LeonardPublic Library, part of the Montreal net-work of public libraries.

David D’Angelo, MLIS’08, has beenappointed Knowledge ManagementSpecialist and Canadian Taxonomist atDeloitte & Touche in Toronto.

Ahniwa Ferrari, MLIS’08, is working atthe Washington State Library as an onlineresources consultant. His main responsibil-ity is coordinating the state-wide virtualreference cooperative. He also helps coor-dinate the state’s database catalog andlicensing, and is implementing an audio-book program.

Mary Flynn, MLIS’08, is an archivalintern at the University of Alberta inEdmonton. She works at the Bruce PeelSpecial Collections Library.

David Fontaine, MLIS’08, has beenappointed Division Head for Coordinationand Communications at the BrossardLibrary. He is responsible for all programsand the marketing tools at the Library, andis acting head of reference for 2008, with ateam of ten librarians and four librarytechnicians. Other duties include thedevelopment and implementation of amulticultural services project, Englishacquisitions and an English story hour. Hecan be reached [email protected].

Vanessa (Diane) Franco, MLIS’08, hasbeen appointed the Career ResourceConsultant at McGill’s Career andPlacement Services.

Nicole Gaston, MLIS’08, is on a one-yearvolunteer contract as the InformationLiteracy Project Coordinator at the CentralLibrary of the National University of Laos.

September 2005. He lives in Ottawa withhis wife Viviane Katz, a graphic designer.

2000sSulaiman Al-Reyaee, PhD’07, welcomedMcGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum inRiyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she was dis-cussing possible collaboration with Saudiuniversities. Al-Reyaee is Co-Director ofthe University Quality Enhancement andAssurance Center and Assistant Professorat the School of Information Studies atIMSI University in Riyadh.

Tania Aldred, BA’04, MLIS’07, is workingas an Assistant Documentalist at theMuseum of Civilization in Gatineau,Quebec. An article based on a paper she pre-sented at the Association of CanadianArchivists annual conference in 2007 willappear in volume 66 of the 2008 Archivaria.

Shazia Ahmad, BA’04, MLIS’08, hasworked as a Records Administrator at theOntario English Catholic Teachers’Association since June 2008.

Ryan Ban, MLIS’08, is working as aRecords & Information Analyst at theRegional Municipality of York inNewmarket, Ontario.

Jacqueline Barlow, MLIS’08, is a SpecialProjects Librarian at the Osler Library ofthe History of Medicine at McGill. She isworking on the Cushing Digitization Project,a McGill pilot project that will digitize oneof the library’s photographic collectionsand make it accessible online. She isresponsible for supervising the digitizationof materials, applying metadata to thesedigital images, and composing Web text.

Karen Biskin, MLIS’08, is working as areference librarian at Concordia University.

Michelle Brown, MLIS’08, is aReference/Outreach Librarian at the

University of Manitoba’s Neil JohnMacLean Health Sciences Library.

Amy Buckland, MLIS’08, is now aLiaison Librarian at McGill’s Howard RossLibrary of Management. She presented apaper at the 2008 International Federationof Library Associations and Institutionsconference in Quebec City, and again inMonterey, California in late October. Sheis also the publisher of the Library StudentJournal and a co-convenor of the CanadianLibrary Association’s EmergingTechnologies Interest Group.

Remi Castonguay, MLIS’00, has beenappointed Public Services Project Librarianat the Sterling Memorial Library andMusic Library at Yale University. He isresponsible for providing digital access toonline and print resources and improvinglibrary content and services online. He alsocreates instructional resources and researchguides in various disciplines and instructsresearchers in the use of new technologies.

Teodora Constantinescu, MLIS’06, isnow the solo librarian at the Dr. HenryKravitz Psychiatry Library, serving theinformation needs of staff and students ofthe Jewish General Hospital’s psychiatrydepartment and its affiliated programs anddepartments.

Janis Dawson, MLIS’08, is employed atthe Marvin Duchow Music Library atMcGill as a casual employee. She plans tomove to Toronto to pursue a career as anacademic librarian, and continues to workon reference services in Second Life, anonline virtual world. Her blog can befound at www.jandawson.wordpress.com.

Brenda Labelle, MLIS’07, following sevenmonths as Head of the DocumentationCentre at Lasalle College in Montreal, hasobtained a position at the Library ofParliament.

Marie-Chantal L'Ecuyer-Coelho,MLIS’08, is a Librarian in the



Matthew Geeza, MLIS’08, is an AssociateLibrarian at the Mercersburg Academy inMercersburg, Pennsylvania.

Kyla Jemison, MLIS’08, is a music librari-an at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta.

Robert Kelly, MLIS’03, is the CollectionsLibrarian at the Redwood Library andAthenæum in Newport, Rhode Island, theoldest continuously open lending library inthe U.S. Prior to this, he was the AssistantDirector and Reference Librarian atCentral Falls Public Library and a DigitalServices Librarian at Providence College.Before moving to the United States inearly 2004, he completed a seven-monthinternship at the Pearson PeacekeepingCentre library, formerly located inCornwallis, Nova Scotia, where he helpeddevelop a digital library initiative and pro-vided reference services. He is also active inthe Rhode Island Library Association asthe Membership Chair and a Member-at-Large, and is the Vice-President/President-Elect of Rhode Island’s chapter of theLOC Center for the Book initiative. Hecan be reached at [email protected].

Hana Kim, MLIS’03, and her husbandPatrick Emmenegger are proud toannounce the birth of their first child. Ari Emmeneger-Kim was born on

December 21, 2006, at St. Michael’sHospital in Toronto. After enjoying a year-long maternity leave, Hana returned towork in January 2008 as the Korea StudiesCollection and Services Librarian in theCheng Yu Tung East Asian Library at theUniversity of Toronto. She was awarded aWNBA Eastman grant in 2007.

Maya Kucij, MLIS’08, is now a LiaisonLibrarian at McGill’s Education Library.

Corina MacDonald, MLIS’08, is aHeritage Information Analyst at theCanadian Heritage Information Networkin Gatineau, Quebec.

Catherine Martin, MLIS’08, has beenappointed the Liaison Librarian at McGill’sMarvin Duchow Music Library.

Cameron McKay, MLIS’08, is on a tem-porary assignment at the NewfoundlandLegislative Library. In September he beganan MA in Political Science at DalhousieUniversity.

Rui Miao, MLIS’07, works as a ProjectAssistant in the British Library. Her workfocuses on LIFE 2, a digital preservationproject.

Melanie Sucha, MLIS’07, is anInformation Management Specialist atMicro Works, an IT firm. Melanie coordi-nates clients’ IM, KM and document man-agement projects. She married Jan-OlafBakker in February 2008.

Fiona Tam, MLIS’04, has taken a positionas Project and Portfolio Manager atContent and Collaboration Solutions(CCS) at McGill. CCS is a new IT initia-tive that addresses a range of Web anddesign-related issues and services andassists the McGill community with Webcontent, collaboration tools and documentmanagement solutions.

Nicole Tummon, MLIS’08, is aCataloguing Librarian at the SupremeCourt of Canada.

Trudi Wright, MLIS’08, gave birth toEvelyn (Evie) Tamar Crump on June 2,2008, in Hamilton, Ontario. Trudi wouldlike to thank peers and professors at SISfor their support over the last year; it hasbeen very much appreciated. In the midstof all this, Trudi has also secured a positionas a Records and InformationManagement Officer for the St.Catharine’s Office of the Ministry ofTransportation of Ontario.

ALUMNI NEWS


Born and raised in Montreal, EffieAstbury, BA’38, BLS’39, came from a

family that took education very seriously.Both her parents were graduates of MountAllison University, where her mother even-tually became head of the HouseholdScience Department, and her father, JohnAstbury, MA’38, later earned an honorarydoctorate. The family settled in Montrealbecause of John’s teaching career, which cul-minated in his becoming Principal of BaronByng High School, immortalized byMordecai Richler as “Fletcher’s Field High.”John is generally regarded as responsible fordeveloping the School’s fine academic reputation.

After graduating in 1934 fromOutremont’s Strathcona Academy, whereamong other things she was awarded fourmedals and edited the school yearbook, Effiecame to McGill and graduated in Classics,magna cum laude, in 1938. On the adviceof her father – who admired greatly thework of the Librarian at Baron Byng – Effieentered McGill’s Library School, earning aBachelor of Library Science in 1939.

Upon graduation, she joined the staff ofthe McGill Medical Library, where from1939 to 1949 she distinguished herself asan outstanding Reference Librarian. Creditfor her stellar performance, she insisted, wasdue entirely to her academic background –studying Latin and Greek provided a basisfor medical terminology, she said, andProfessor Kathleen Terroux’s Zoology coursegave her the rudiments of science. Otherswere impressed, however, by how intelli-gently, competently, and energetically shecarried out her professional duties andresponsibilities. Among her initiatives wasthe creation of files on new medical treat-ments such as penicillin and the handling

of burns during World War II. The file onburns, in particular, received wide distribu-tion due to its comprehensiveness. In 1944she published a major bibliographical com-pilation of the 1,000 cases analyzed inMaude Abbott’s Atlas of CongenitalCardiac Disease.

In 1949 she joined the faculty of theLibrary School lecturing on ReferenceService and Bibliography. At that time, fac-ulty were recruited exclusively from amongSchool graduates who had distinguishedthemselves professionally in the McGilllibraries. In addition, until the late 1960s,the School’s professors were invariablywomen whose dedication and energyensured that the School flourished despitelean financial circumstances. In the over-whelmingly male environment that charac-terized McGill and other universities of theperiod, this small band of women proceed-ed politely, cautiously and determinedly.They were courageous visionaries whotransformed both the School and Canadianlibrary education.

The faculty of this period set two majorgoals, aiming to both raise the School’s aca-demic standards and improve the academicqualifications of its faculty members. Onemajor triumph involved replacing the one-year BLS with a two-year, four-term Masterof Library Science program – the School’sfirst professional degree. Inaugurated in1965, it is a unique Canadian contributionto library education and has been adoptedas the standard by other schools in Canada,the U.S. and elsewhere. Effie played a cen-tral role in this initiative. At the same time,along with the other faculty of this period,she earned an advanced degree – a Masterof Library Science from the University ofToronto – in 1956. She held a seat in

EFFIE CONSTANCE

ASTBURYProfessor Emerita, School of

Information StudiesDecember 9, 1916 – May 22, 2008

Bohdan Kazymyra, BLS’56, passed away in Regina,Saskatchewan, in February 2007. He held the position ofLibrarian and Archivist at the University of Regina prior to hisretirement in 1981, and is survived by his wife Elizabeth,daughters Nadia and Marta, son Dmytro and eight grandchil-dren. Our sympathies go to Elizabeth Kazymyra and her family.

Ivor Newsham, BLS’61, passed away in NorthBattleford, Saskatchewan, in February 2007. Our sympathiesgo to his family and friends.

Helen Rubin (née Lapkoff), BA’66, MLS’68, passedaway on February 1, 2008. Our sympathies go to her family.

IN MEMORIAM

McGill’s Senate from 1971 to 1974 andserved on the Councils of the CanadianAssociation of College and UniversityLibraries, the Canadian Library Association,and the Quebec Library Association. Shealso played a central role in the creation ofthe Corporation of Professional Librariansof Quebec.

In recognition of her great contributionsto the School and the University, Effie waspromoted in 1969 to the rank of full pro-fessor. From 1972 to 1976 she served as theSchool’s Director, and successfully shep-herded the Master’s program through re-accreditation under the American LibraryAssociation’s dramatically revised standards.In 1979, ill health forced her to retire early,but in 1982 she was awarded the rank ofProfessor Emerita. Following her retire-ment, two of Effie’s most important schol-arly contributions were published by theGraduate School of Library Science:-Casey A. Wood (1856-1942):Ophthalmologist, bookman, ornithologist: abio-bibliography, 1981.-Canada and the Second World War: The homefront and war aims: a bibliography, 1991.

For Effie’s many students, her greatestcontributions were as a dedicated and inspi-rational teacher. Her shyness was balancedby a warm smile, infectious enthusiasm,quiet humour and thorough professional-ism. In the end, her very shyness became acentral element in her success as a teacher.Students sensed intuitively that as a teacherand librarian, she was able to do things thatmost people would find impossible. Herhigh standards and superbly organizedcourses made her a role model for genera-tions of librarians. She shared her dedica-tion to the very highest standards of librari-anship and library education with thou-sands of graduates.

Her retirement was spent at the GriffithMcConnell Home in Côte St. Luc, whereshe served as President of the Residents’Association and sat on the Residence’sBoard of Governors. Wide-ranging reading– including magazines, mysteries and IrisMurdoch – continued until her final illness.Her admiration for the Maritime authorErnest Buckler became a close personalfriendship.

Effie Constance Astbury will long beremembered for her many fine qualities andher outstanding contributions to McGillUniversity and the School of InformationStudies. Surmounting difficulties and over-coming adversity became her hallmark. Shepossessed grace, dignity, integrity and moralauthority. She was a good and loyal friend.Our sympathies go to her family andfriends.

Peter F. McNallyProfessorSchool of Information Studies

Composed with the support of the Astbury-Smith Family

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