November
GSLIS International Initiatives Continue
GSLIS' longtime committment to international cooperation is continuing in the Indonesian Social Equity Project.
This past spring, Professor Jamshid Beheshti consulted with stakeholders in Indonesia and developed a plan to introduce a teacher-librarian undergraduate program in the Islamic Institutes in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Two Indonesian students who graduated from GSLIS in 2004 and two who will graduate in 2005 will oversee the implementation of the program.
GSLIS Doctoral Students to Host Connections 2005 Conference
Doctoral students of the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies will organize and host Connections 2005: The 10th Great Lakes Information Science Conference. It will be held May 14th and 15th, 2005 at the GSLIS facilities. The aim of the conference is to provide doctoral students in LIS a forum to present their research, to exchange views, and to network with their peers. Much more information may be found at the Connections 2005 Web site.
Jannah McCarville Wins CLA Essay Contest
Ms. Jannah McCarville (MLIS 2005) has won the Canadian Library Association 20th Student Article Contest for her essay "Balancing Access and Privacy in Archives." Ms. McCarville's article may be viewed in the Volume 50, Number 4 edition of CLA's Feliciter. She also received a cash award and free transportation, accomodation, and registration to the 2004 CLA conference in Victoria.
Alumna Daniela Serban Wins Québec Award
Daniela Serban (MLIS 2003) has won the $5,000 2003 Grande Bibliothèque du Québec Award for her essay "The Development of a Quebec-Wide Virtual Reference Service". The award was created for MLIS students at McGill and has been awarded annually since 2001.
October
Professor Bouthillier wins International Award
Professor France Bouthillier and writing partner Kathleen Shearer have been awarded Competia.com's Most Insightful Book Award for the publication Assessing Competitive Intelligence Software (Information Today, 2003).
The Competia award was announced at the Competia International Symposium held in Toronto in late September.
In making this award, Competia recognizes the importance of this book which "takes a deep look at the current applications that are available for competitive intelligence professionals to use on a daily basis. The authors provide an informative guide to examine software based on how it will support and contribute to the CI processes; the book presents frameworks and 32 evaluation criteria to utilize when shopping for software."
Yi Successfully Defends
The Graduate School of Library and Information Studies is pleased to announce that Mr. Kwan Yi has successfully defended his doctoral dissertation "Text Classification Using a Hidden Markov Model", a model used for automatically categorizing textual digital documents.
Mr. Yi defended on October 1, 2004 to an appreciative audience of colleagues, former students and instructors, and, of course, his defense committee.
Kwan Yi's general research lies in designing and developing the models, algorithms, and methods related to digital information management for the purpose of resolving retrieval problems.
In August 2004, Mr, Yi took up an assistant professorship in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky where he is presently teaching "Information Storage and Retrieval".
June
Centenary Celebrations
On May 15 2004, the Graduate School of Library & Information Studies (GSLIS) celebrated one hundred years of library education at McGill University.
The first formal library education program in Canada began in the summer of 1904 with the launching of a summer course by McGill. The program has been continuously accredited by the American Library Association since 1927.
The Centenary Celebrations began with a keynote speech by Dr. Joanne Gard Marshall (MLS '68), followed by a forum with Professor Peter McNally, Director, History of McGill Project, Madame Lise Bissonnette, Chief Executive Officer, Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, and Dr. Anthony Masi, Deputy Provost & CIO, McGill University.
More than one hundred alumni and former faculty members attended the celebrations.
New Faculty Member
GSLIS is very pleased to announce the appointment of a new faculty member as of July 1, 2004.
Dr. Joan Bartlett has recently completed her doctoral degree in the Faculty of Information Studies at University of Toronto. Her thesis was on "Capturing, modelling and utilizing the research processes of bioinformatics experts."
She holds a Master of Library Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Genetics and Molecular Biology, with a Minor in French Studies.
She has won several awards including the Social Science and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship, the American Society for Information Science and Technology Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award, and the Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana Decker Research Paper Prize.
Dr. Bartlett will be teaching in the areas of biomedical and scientific information.
New Acting Director
Dr. France Bouthillier is nominated as the Acting Director of GSLIS. She replaces Dr. Jamshid Beheshti, the Director of GSLIS since 1998, who has been appointed to the position of Associate Dean (Administration) in the Faculty of Education at McGill University as of June 1.
The staff and faculty of GSLIS extend best wishes to both in their new positions.
March
GSLIS Celebrates 100th
May 15 Centenary Celebrations to be held at Faculty Club
This Spring GSLIS embarks on a year-long celebration of its first 100 years.
To kick off the festivities, the McGill Faculty Club will play host to a number of talks and a panel discussion on "The Past, Present, and Future of Library and Information Studies."
Invited speakers include Dr. Anthony Masi, Deputy provost & CIO of McGill University, Dr. Joanne Gard Marshall, Dean of the University of North Carolina School of Information & Library Science, and Madam Lise Bissonnette, CEO of the Bibliothàque nationale du Québec.
Cocktails and a dinner will follow.
January
Busy Winter Semester 2004 Ahead
Large Selection of Courses
GSLIS is embarking on one of its busiest semesters ever.
This winter seventeen course will be taught including new courses taught by Professor Eun Park on "Metadata and Access" and "Digital Preservation."
All students are looking forward to the winter semester, especially those MLIS 2 students who will complete their course of study in a little more than three months.
The faculty and staff of GSLIS wish students all the best in the coming weeks.