News 2006

October

Colloquium - Municipal Libraries on the Island of Montreal: Assessment and Consolidation

Ms. Guillemette-Labory will present the results of a study conducted by the Service du développement culturel, de la qualité du milieu de vie et de la diversité ethnoculturelle, with the contribution of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, in 2005 entitled: Assessment of the Municipal Libraries on the Island of Montreal.

She will also discuss some consolidation actions set in place since this report.

Everyone is invited to come and hear one of the most dynamic library leaders on the Island of Montreal. Ms. Guillemette-Labory has defended the public library cause on all platforms: municipal, provincial, as well as international.

Colloquium - Getting and Keeping the Library on the Political Agenda

Ms Helen Fotopulos will address the topic of libraries and the political process from her unique viewpoint as a Montreal borough mayor.

Mayor Fotopulos has demonstrated her library support on numerous occasions. Come and hear her views on this politically ‘atypical’ topic.

September

Colloquium - Information as Process and the Architecture of Information Studies

Dr. Dillon, author of “Designing Usable Electronic Text” and “Hypertext and Cognition”, and an expert on information architecture and humancomputer interaction, will share his ideas on information and the place of information studies in academia.

Eric Bungay leaves SIS

We are sorry to announce the departure from McGill University of Eric Bungay, MLIS’99, Professional Associate. Since 1999, Eric has been in charge of the School’s Instructional Technology Laboratory, and taught Web System Design and Management. Over the past seven years, students, staff and faculty have come to appreciate Eric’s skillful and effective running of the lab. His excellent teaching skills have also been widely acknowledged. A graduate of McGill’s MLIS program, Eric also has three degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland. As of September 2006, Eric will be Web Development Librarian, at the University of Guelph, where he will be part of its Library’s Information Technology Services.

Fiona Tam - New Professional Associate

Ms. Fiona Tam, MLIS’04, is the School’s new Professional Associate.
Ms. Tam received her BBA in Information and Systems Management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and her MLIS at McGill. She comes to us from her recent position as Web Services Librarian at the Concordia University Libraries.

June

Indonesian Scholars Complete Spring Program

Indonesian scholars with Leanne Bowler, who co-ordinated the Spring 2006 program, and Susann Allnutt, GSLIS Administrative Assistant.

As part of the McGill - Islamic Higher Education Project, six Indonesian scholars spent eight weeks at GSLIS during the Spring 2006 semester learning about various topics in librarianship.

A reception was held in the student lounge where the scholars were presented with diplomas and parting gifts.

Amrullah Hasbana, Agus Umar, Pungki Purnomo, Anis Masruri, Sri Rohyanti Zulaikha, and Faisal Syarifudin will return to Indonesia where they will integrate their new knowledge into their jobs and also pass it on to colleagues.

GSLIS Students Convocate

GSLIS recently celebrated the convocation of its 2006 graduating class with a get together at the School following convocation ceremonies on the lower campus. Congratulations to all.

At the top of the class was Brenda Taylor who won the Prize for Highest Standing throughout the MLIS Program.

May

Information Literacy Seminar

Sylvie Chevillotte, Conservateur de bibliothèques École nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques, France, Responsable for FORMIST (Formation à l'information scientifique et technique) will present the following seminar:

April

Spring 2006 Courses

Three accelerated courses will be taught during the Spring 2006 semester, the most in years. The courses begin the week of May 1st and finish the week of June 12th.

Professor Guastavino will teach GLIS 692 course description not available
PhD. student Leanne Bowler will teach GLIS 691 course description not available
PhD. student Audrey Laplante will teach GLIS 632 course description not available.

March

Dr. Guastavino Receives Major CFI Grant

Professor Catherine Guastavino has been awarded a CFI (Canadian Foundation for Innovation) LOF (Leaders Opportunity Funds) grant of $607,189 for equipment and infrastructure operating funds for her proposal "Perceptual Evaluation of Human Computer Interaction: Applications to the Design of Adaptive Multimodal Systems."

Professor Guastavino, who began her career at GSLIS in July 2005, wil head the Multimodal Interaction Laboratory.

The CFI award will be used to create a full-fledged laboratory with state of the art equipment to investigate human-computer interactions and human information processing in virtual multimodal environments.

Professor Guastavino, second row and second from left, with other CFI recipients.

Prof. Guastavino's research focuses on users' experience, specifically cognitive strategies and affective responses to interface design, as well as the integration of visual, auditory and haptic information and learning effects.

The results will be modeled to design more flexible information systems that respond dynamically as information needs evolve over time and as a function of individual differences.

Although recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in Human Computer Interaction, most systems are designed with scant attention paid to the fundamental question of what factors affect users' experience. The findings will provide guidelines for the design of general computer-based multimedia systems.

A wide range of applications will benefit from this line of research, including information visualization, distance education, digital libraries, musical interfaces, media arts, educational programs, videoconferencing systems, computer gaming and home theaters.

The infrastructure will consist of two contiguous rooms: an HCI usability laboratory and a control/analysis laboratory. The usability laboratory will host a virtual reality system with a multichannel audio system and a haptic interface with force feedback to recreate the sense of touch, and test computers.

The usability laboratory will also be equipped with video cameras and an eye-tracker to monitor users' behavior. The control/analysis laboratory will host the control computer, the server, audio and video workstations with smaller sound systems and computers equipped with data analysis software.

Professor Eun Park receives FQRSC grant

Professor Eun Park was awarded a grant from the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC – Nouveaux Professeurs-Chercheurs) of $26,400, for her project The Social Uses of Photography on AIDS and HIV: Methods for Digitization and Datamining. An increasing number of social scientists are now working in the area of visual methodologies that give participants themselves the possibility of engaging in self-representation. Tools such as photography have proven to be very effective with groups – in particular, in addressing social issues of silence and denial in relation to sexuality and HIV/AIDS, where the “face of AIDS” has heretofore been absent. These visual methods present researchers with the challenge of fully mining the resulting sets of photographs as visual data. The specific objectives of this study are thus to develop, test out and implement protocols for digitization of photos in a specific content-based context that will enable the most effective data mining, and to advance the study of the development of digital archives for health/education research working with visual resources, particularly in the area of HIV and AIDS. The first year of the study will be devoted to developing the protocol of a metadata schema that will provide a basis for describing images on HIV/AIDS and documenting metadata description processes. The second year of the study will implement the metadata schema by scanning and converting into digital images and building digital archives.

Professor Joan Bartlett receives SSHRC grant

Professor Joan Bartlett received a New Researchers grant of $101,698 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), to conduct a study titled Understanding the selection of and preferences for bioinformatics resources: A study of expert and non-expert scientists. In an information environment with over 800 different bioinformatics resources, many of which have similar functions, this research aims to discover and understand what factors differentiate the resources, and how and why scientists choose among them. Understanding the characteristics preferred by scientists will inform the design and development of user-oriented resources, and will also have implications for training and education of both scientists and information professionals. This will ultimately enhance the accessibility and usability of bioinformatics resources, and help to simplify an extremely complex information environment.

Colloquium a Success

Approximately forty people attended the joint McGill Libraries - GSLIS colloquium "From Idea to Reader: Publishing in Montreal, World Book Capital."

Following in the footsteps of cities such as Madrid (2000), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), and Antwerp (2004), Montreal was designated by UNESCO as World Book Capital for 2005. World Book Capital cities serve as forums for the promotion of books and reading.Turin and Rome share the designation in 2006.

Roy MacSkimming, author of The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada's Writers, delivered a keynote address on post World War II publishing in English-speaking Canada which has seen substantial recent international growth.

Two panel discussions were also held which discussed publishing in Montreal from both an Anglophone and Francophone perspective.

On the "History and Context" panel:

• Brian Trehearne, Department of English, McGill University discussed the English Montreal Modernist Movement of the interwar and postwar eras - and the little magazines and publishers of the time. Typewriters and cheap mechanical duplicating played central roles, due to the general lack of financial resources.
• Dr. Dorothy Williams, Private Researcher, spoke about her recently completed PhD dissertation, for the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, which uncovered over two hundred Black serials published in Montreal since the 1930s.
• Michel Pierssens, Département d'études françaises, Université de Montréal, discussed the important impact of periodicals from France upon Francophone Quebec's post-war intellectual development.

On the "Reviewers and Readers" panel:

• Pat Donnelly, Montreal Gazette, and Ian McGillis, Co-editor Montreal Review of Books, spoke on the problems faced in trying to review the immense volume of publication that is constantly appearing.
• Marc Angenot, Department of French Language and Literature, McGill University, revealed the issues faced by Quebec's Francophone scholars in getting their works published. Self-publishing has become his solution.

The event wrapped up with a showing of the 1957 NFB film The First Novel starring Mordecai Richler and William Weintraub and which Mr. Weintraub personally introduced.

From Idea to Reader: Publishing in Montreal, World Book Capital

In recognition of Montreal being proclaimed World Book Capital for 2005-2006 by UNESCO, McGill is presenting a Colloquium: "From Idea to Reader: Publishing in Montreal, World Book Capital."

The keynote speaker will be Roy MacSkimming - author of The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada's Writers - who will set the stage for two panel discussions on "History and Context" and "Reviewers and Readers." The Colloquium will also include the film première of "The First Novel" in which Mordecai Richler and William Weintraub parody the intricacies of being published.

UNESCO, a United Nations agency dedicated to culture and education, has proclaimed Montréal World Book Capital for 2005. From April 23, 2005 to April 22, 2006, the city is a forum for the promotion of books and reading.

The Colloquium is being jointly sponsored by McGill University's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, and the McGill University Libraries.

The Colloquium will be held:

1:00 - 6:00 pm
Friday March 31, 2006
McLennan Library Building
McGill University
3459 McTavish St.
Room MS. 42
Street Level

Due to limited space, please confirm your attendance:

RSVP:

Tel: (514) 398-4204
Fax: (514) 398-7193
E-mail: gslis [at] mcgill.ca

Colloquium: From Idea to Reader - Publishing in Montreal, World Book Capital [.pdf]

February

Pfizer Canada Award of Excellence

Pfizer Canada is offering an eight-month paid residency position in its corporate library to a graduating student of the GSLIS MLIS program.

The objectives of the residency is to:

• Acquire comprehensive professional work experience in the pharmaceutical field.
• Contribute to improving the professional skills of new graduates.
• Benefit from the expertise and knowledge acquired by graduates of the information studies master's programme (any option).

This is an excellent opportunity for aspiring informational professionals to gain experience in the private sector. More details are available in the official announcement of the Pfizer Canada Award of Excellence.

Pfizer Canada Award [.pdf]

A Children’s Web Portal for Canadian History: From Research Prototype to Classroom Resource.

Professors Andrew Large and Jamshid Beheshti have been awarded $48,250 through an Initiative on the New Economy Public Outreach Grant from SSHRC, for their project A Children’s Web Portal for Canadian History: From Research Prototype to Classroom Resource. The grant will be used to make more widely available a web-based portal that was designed and developed between 2002 and 2006, with funding from SSHRC’s INE competition. The original web portal prototype, which is designed to find information on Canadian history, is bilingual (English and French) and was created by an intergenerational team comprising three researchers and eight elementary school students from grade six. The prototype was converted into a working portal and evaluated by students in a number of elementary schools. Under this new grant, the portal will be enhanced to convert it into an operational classroom resource. Students will be then able to search for web-based information on Canadian history. Ministries of Education and other appropriate educational organizations will be visited in all ten Canadian provinces and three territories to demonstrate the portal’s educational potential. A pamphlet and poster explaining the portal’s purpose also will be designed for teachers, and an online help desk will be established to respond to their questions and suggestions. The goal is to ensure that the portal can move beyond the research domain of the initial INE grant into the Canadian educational domain where it belongs