informed_62_fall_2010

informedFa c u lt y o F I n F o r m at I o n a l u m n I m a g a z I n e | a u t u m n 2 0 1 0
Prof. Lynne Teather
a leader in
museum Studies
I n t h I S I S S u e :

2 informed | autumn 2010
informed
Informed magazine
no. 62, autumn 2010
Publications Mail
Registration No. 1780182
ISSN 1913-696X Informed (Print)
ISSN 1913-6978 Informed (Online)
Departments
03 Letters
04 Letter from FIAA President
28 Class Notes
31 Donor Appreciation
32 In Memoriam
alumni news
05 Alumni Profile
06 Alumni Activities
34 Spring Reunion
Faculty news
08 Events
10 Grants & Awards
12 Staffing
14 Faculty Profile
16 Faculty Research Roundup
Student news
20 Events
22 Awards & Internships
25 Student Profile
Feature
26 Spotlight on Institutes
26
editorial Board: Judy Dunn
Kathleen O’Brien
Judy Donnelly ’87
editor: Kathleen O’Brien
associate editor: Judy Donnelly ’87
Designer: Michael Fedecky Design
cover Photo: Adeela Ahmad
A special thank you to the
following contributors:
Adeela Ahmad
Jeannie An ’99
Professor Emerita
Margaret Cockshutt ’49, ’64
Bisa Lovric
Dean Seamus Ross
Kim Silk ’98
Lina Wang
Professor Emerita
Nancy Williamson ’50, ’64
14
10
20

informed | autumn 2010 3
Your Letters
EdiTor’s NoTE
Nearly a dozen of you wrote
in to express support of our
moving the alumni publica-
tion online. Thank you for
agreeing with our efforts to be
environmentally friendly and
save printing and mailing costs.
If you prefer to receive the
magazine in the mail, please let
me know and we’ll be happy to
send a colour photocopy.
To the right is a lovely
letter from an alumna with
fascinating recollections of
life at the library school in the
1940s. We love hearing about
your experiences, so please
write in with your stories.
Kathleen o’Brien
Editor
Dear Editor:
Thank you so much for the print copy of Informed, which arrived a short
time ago.
While I am fascinated by the contemporary thrust reflected in the
publication, I must admit to not understanding most of it: 2009 is a very
different world from that of 1943.
I was sixteen when I completed Grade 13. Disturbingly, I discovered that
higher education was not available before the age of eighteen. Therefore I
took a one-year business course which I disliked intensely so decided to look
for another way of filling in the time remaining before reaching the elusive
eighteenth birthday. There was a job available in the local public library
which I was fortunate to get, and in no time I was “hooked.”
A year later I discovered the existence of the Library School at the
University of Toronto. Two courses were offered: after obtaining a bachelor
degree, a post graduate course which led to a degree was given; and a
diploma course, for suitable high school graduates who had some library
experience and a recommendation from a qualified librarian.
I was accepted and left my northern mining town of Timmins and
headed for the BIG CITY. It was September 1942, there were nineteen of
us in the class: seventeen studying for the degree, two for the diploma! We
all took the same classes led by excellent profs: Winifred Barnstead was
principal, Bertha Bassam taught cataloguing, Lillian Smith taught children’s
literature and book collections.
There were others, equally proficient, who were involved. One
interesting class taught us how to write “library hand” so that the catalogue
cards could be read – computers were unheard of and typewriters were at
a premium. Degreed persons graduated, those who received diplomas went
back to where they came from.
I returned to Timmins for one year, then accepted work in Toronto.
Marriage and motherhood came later but I was involved in short term
projects along the way as well as being registered in U of T Extension.
Ultimately, I achieved a BA and a BLSc, which led me into more interesting
situations. Finally, I retired in 1987.
If you have managed to get through this [letter], it will give you some
idea of the strides which the profession had made over one lifetime.
Although I am not currently involved in areas now beyond me, I am proud
to have been part of the continuum which has brought it to the present day.
Gwenville Foster
Renfrew, Ontario
Letters, comments, & address updates can be sent to:
Kathleen O’Brien, Editor, Informed Magazine
Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
140 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6
TEL: 416.978.7184 EMAIL: kathleen.obrien@utoronto.ca
www.ischool.utoronto.ca

H
aving completed my first full
year as President of the Fac-
ulty of Information Alumni
Association, I’m struck most by the
enthusiasm and generosity inherent
in our chosen profession. I’ve had the
opportunity to meet many information professionals over
the past year, and in every case I see smiling faces, dedica-
tion to and pride in one’s work, and a great sense of fun. I
certainly feel lucky to be part of such an exciting profes-
sion, and I’m thrilled to meet so many others who love
what they do.
I’ve also had the pleasure of getting to know the cur-
rent iSchool students, and I am proud to say that both the
2010 graduating class and those entering their second year
of study are a very promising group. It was an honour to
attend the iSchool Convocation and Reception this past
June and it was a great feeling to congratulate everyone
on their accomplishments.
Speaking of accomplishments, the Alumni Association
had a very successful 2009-2010 year. Our initiatives using
social media to reach out to our classmates continues to
grow in popularity: our Facebook group, begun in 2008, is
up to 326 members, our LinkedIn group has 158 members,
and we have 67 followers on Twitter. We will continue to
use social media networks to promote our programs and
events, so please join one or all of them to keep up to date.
The Alumni Association supports current iSchool
students through our Awards and Grants programs. My
heartfelt congratulations go to 2010 Outstanding Alumni
Award recipient, Anne Bailey (’75), and to 2010 Outstand-
ing Student Contribution Award recipient, Kim Stymest
(’10). In addition, we awarded ten grants of $500 each to
support current students giving papers or poster sessions
at a variety of professional events around the globe.
Networking is an important skill we all need to hone
on a regular basis, and to that end your Alumni Association
was a proud supporter of the iConnect@iSchool event, the
annual showcase of work presented by Vicki Whitmell’s
“Management of Corporate and Other Special Information
Centres” course. We sponsored several other events this
past year, including an End of Term iTea in December, the
don’t-you-dare-miss-it CASLIS-SLA Toronto-FIAA Annual
Holiday Social, our OLA SuperConference Alumni
Reception, the iSchool Job & Networking Fair, and of
course the Spring Reunion and Convocation Reception.
I can assure you that a good time was had by all!
Looking forward to the 2010-2011 year, the Alumni
Association will continue all our programs, with several
additions, refinements, and improvements. It is a bit early
to divulge our plans, but I can say that a new Alumni
Association website is in the works, plus many other
wonderful things. Stay tuned!
At this time I’d like to thank my executive team for
their unfailing support, hard work, and sense of humour.
I am very lucky to have such a great group of people to
work with, and I hope they know how much I value their
time and dedication. Together, we’re doing our part to
make a great association even better.
The following are the alumni who will kindly vol-
unteer their time to serve on the Faculty of Information
Alumni Executive for 2010-2011, representing your in-
terests, staging events, facilitating conference grants, and
organizing helpful programs for students such as Ask an
Alum and Job Shadowing. Join me in thanking them for
their time and commitment to the Information community.
Have you got ideas and energy to to contribute to our
association? Don’t be a wallflower – get involved! It’s easy,
and we’re pleased to accept any amount of time you can
give. Send an email to alumni@ischool.utoronto.ca. We
look forward to seeing you at our next alumni event.
Kim silk (’98)
FIAA President
FIAA President’s Letter
PRESIDENT-ELECT
alison Stirling
MISt ’06
PAST PRESIDENT
claire lysnes
MISt ’04
PAST PRESIDENT
Karen Wierucki
MLS ’80
DIRECTORS
Jeannie an
MISt ’99
gillian clinton
MISt ’00
mark eaton
MISt ’06
meg ecclestone
MISt ’09
carolanne
graham
MISt ’08
Bruce harpham
MISt ’09
Bob henderson
MLS ’75
helen Katz
MLS ’75
ricardo laskaris
MISt ’04
amanda leclerq
MISt ’10
Kate macDonald
MISt ’09
mike meth
MISt ’06
cynthea Penman
MLS ’79
Wiebke Smythe
MLS ’97
Kim Stymest
MISt ’10
Jacqueline
White appleby
MISt ’10
INFORMATION
STUDENT
REPRESENTATIvE
Valerie Stevens
MUSEUM STUDIES
REPRESENTATIvE
Valentine moreno
MMSt ’10
Alumni Executive for 2010-2011

alumniProfile
I
t was acute curiosity that led 2007 alumna, Autumn Haag,
to a profession in archives. Interest and quizzical looks greet
her when people hear she obtained her Master of Informa-
tion Studies degree from the Faculty of Information in Canada,
instead of from the library school in Boston, where she lives
and currently works. “You stand out as a graduate of the Faculty
because of the excellent reputation of programs offered at the
University of Toronto,” says Ms. Haag.
Although she started in Archives and switched to the Library
stream, Ms. Haag still took all the Archival courses that were of-
fered and found that what she learned was very useful, especially
when dealing with a patron who doesn’t have an archival back-
ground, yet needs to navigate through mountains of material.
After getting relevant archives experience from her
internship at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston,
Ms. Haag was offered a permanent position at the Massa-
chusetts Archives, which holds official records created by the
Massachusetts state government. A big institution, holdings are
organized by agency, and date from 1629 to the present.
Helping people with research inquiries and talking about
collections are a part of Ms. Haag’s job, but being surrounded
by historical documents such as legislation dating back to the
1600s, as well as architectural plans for buildings all across the
state, are a dream come true for her. She also participates in
outreach programs and workshops that educate researchers and
the general public about records and archives.
One highlight of Ms. Haag’s career occurred when the
Boston Globe featured her and a colleague preparing an
exhibition to allow visitors to see original copies of the U.S.
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, worth an
estimated $100 million.
Another, more personal highlight, was being accepted as
a contestant on the famed American TV show, Jeopardy! “I was
surprised to be selected for an in-person interview in Bos-
ton, and even more surprised to be invited to tape a show in
California,” she says. The show aired in June of this year. “It was
a lot of fun, and very surreal to be on the Jeopardy! set.”
Curiosity and excellent archival training have clearly led
Autumn Haag to a rewarding career at an esteemed institution.
By Lina Wang
Autumn Haag
reference archivist (massachusetts archives)

PuBLisHiNG HisTory
WEBsiTE LAuNcHEd
C
arl spadoni (‘80), Judy donnelly
(’87), Anne dondertman (’87), and
Linda Quirk (’05) were main
players in the development team for the
research website Historical Perspectives
on Canadian Publishing (hpcanpub.
mcmaster.ca) launched last October and
funded by the Canadian Culture Online
Program of the Department of Canadian
Heritage. The site features ninety essays
written by established and emerging
scholars on various aspects of Canadian
publishing, based on archival collections
at McMaster University, Queen’s Univer-
sity Archives, and the Thomas Fisher Rare
Book Library at U of T. Letters, diaries,
marketing materials, book jackets,
and manuscripts – several thousand
documents in all – were digitized for the
site. Topics include a description of the
18th-century paybook kept by Quebec
printer John Neilson (essay by iSchool
Professor Emerita Patricia Fleming), an
examination of Nellie McClung’s literary
legacy (by Linda Quirk), an overview of
Grey Owl and his publishers, the impact
of CBC’s Canada Reads competition, and
the history of hockey books in Canada (by
Carl Spadoni). Other iSchool authors on
the site are: Prof. sandra Alston ‘73, P.J.
carefoote ‘02, Leanne Hindmarch ‘05,
Prof. richard Landon, dr. Leslie McGrath
’05, John shoesmith ‘05, donna Thomson
‘81, and doctoral candidate Von Totanes.
iscHooL ALuMNus
rEcEiVEs PrEsTiGious LAW
LiBrAriANsHiP AWArd
Ted Tjaden (MISt ’97) has been awarded
The Denis Marshall Memorial Award for
Excellence in Law Librarianship 2010
from the Canadian Association of Law
Libraries (CALL). He received $3,000
plus expenses to present papers on the
topic of legal research and knowledge
management at the Canadian Association
of Law Libraries annual spring conference.
A practicing lawyer and law librarian, Mr.
Tjaden is the National Director of Knowl-
edge Management at McMillan law firm,
where he provides invaluable research
and information services to lawyers and
clients, and manages the firm’s knowl-
edge management initiatives as well as
its print and online library. Mr. Tjaden was
previously an Adjunct Professor at the
Faculty of Information (1998-2004), where
he taught Legal Literature and Librarian-
ship. Established by LexisNexis Quicklaw,
the award recognizes a current CALL
member for continued excellence in law
librarianship, and for an innovative spirit.
GrAduATE PuBLisHEs
sEcoNd BooK: Ile d’Or
Mary Lou dickinson (BLS ’65, MLS ’76),
author of the short-story collection One
Day It Happens (2007), published her
second book, Ile d’Or (ISBN: 1-926708-13-
X / 9781926708133, approx. $22.95), this
past spring. Ile d’Or is a novel about gold,
greed, renewal, and hope. Set shortly
after Quebec’s first referendum, the story
unfolds as four characters revisit Ile d’Or,
the northern Quebec mining town where
they grew up. Each must reconcile with
their pasts of alcoholism, scandal, suicide,
ethnic and linguistic tensions, as well
as violence and divorce, to move on with
their stalled lives. The novel also explores
how language relates to power and class.
Ms. Dickinson’s first
book was reviewed
in the Globe and Mail
and was nominated
for a ReLit Award.
Her fiction has been
published in numer-
ous Canadian literary
journals and broad-
cast on CBC Radio.
cLAirE LysNEs ’04
HoNourEd By uNiVErsiTy
For dEdicATioN
Last fall, University of Toronto President
dr. david Naylor and chancellor david
Peterson, awarded claire Lysnes (MISt
’06) the prestigious Arbor Award, recog-
nizing her committed volunteerism to the
alumniNews

Faculty of Information over the past five
years. In 2005, Claire joined the Faculty
of Information Studies Alumni Associa-
tion as a Director, and became a member
of the Faculty Council a year later, as a
representative of Information profession-
als. In 2006, she became President of the
Alumni Association board, the first person
to hold this position for a two-year term.
Throughout 2009, she pioneered many
transformations and initiatives including
a “road show” to meet with alumni in sev-
eral cities across Ontario, changing the
Association name to reflect the new name
of the Faculty, helping to start a program
offering conference grants to students,
and increasing the number of Directors of
the Association. Under Claire’s direction,
the Association further attracted alumni
to its Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and
established a Twitter account that has
helped foster a tight social community of
alumni who continue to feel connected to
the Faculty. Claire accomplished all of this
while serving as President-elect of the
Toronto chapter of the Special Libraries
Association, donating her personal time in
order to enrich the alumni experience.
ALuMNus JoHN PAPAdoPouLos
(MisT ’97) LANds ToP LAW
LiBrAry JoB
A 1997 graduate and former adjunct
instructor, John Papadopoulos, became
Chief Librarian at U of T’s Bora Laskin
Law Library in November 2009. After
graduating from U of T law school, Mr.
Papadopoulos realized he loved research
and the process of law more than its
practice, and worked in libraries and
knowledge management at several
Toronto law firms, obtaining his Master of
Information Studies degree. By 2003, he
was back at U of T – but on the other side
of the library counter.
FiAA ouTsTANdiNG ALuMNi
AWArd 2010 WiNNEr
T
oronto Public Library’s Anne Bailey (MLS ’75),
Director of Branch Libraries, has been awarded
the Faculty of Information Alumni Association’s
(FIAA) 2010 Outstanding Alumni of the year. Each year,
the Faculty of Information chooses a distinguished
graduate for the Outstanding Alumni Award (formerly
Jubilee Award), which recognizes an individual’s con-
tributions to innovation or leadership in libraries, information management,
professional organizations, publications/research, or the community at large.
Ms. Bailey is known not only for her dedication to and passion for public
library services, but also for hard work and innovative contributions through-
out her career. Her nominators all noted her inspirational leadership, team-
building efforts and strategic thinking rendering the best possible results. “It is
very humbling to receive this award, and I am very appreciative of this recogni-
tion. I have always found that we have such excellent colleagues with many fine
achievements in FIAA,” Ms. Bailey says.
She strongly believes that libraries must consult with their patrons
concerning services, with a focus on the branch experience. As a result, the
libraries that have been built and renovated under Ms. Bailey’s guidance
welcome and accommodate people of all ages, and have become well-used,
well-loved focal points of their communities. Moreover, Ms. Bailey has served
as a mentor to many within and outside her workplace. Her early achievements
include leading the successful implementation of the first integrated library
information system at the Etobicoke Public Library. She currently oversees
ninety-six locations and the planning of two new branches in Toronto.
JourNAL HoNours
ProF. NANcy WiLLiAMsoN
Faculty of Information Professor Emerita,
Nancy Williamson, was honoured with a
Festschrift in Cataloguing & Classification
Quarterly: Vol. 48, Issue 1. This edition is
titled, “Special Issue: Is There a Catalog
in Your Future? Celebrating Nancy J.
Williamson: Scholar, Educator, Colleague,
Mentor.” The introduction is written by
the Faculty’s dr. Lynne Howarth, and
the book includes articles by several
professors, including the iSchool’s
clare Beghtol. Former student, William
denton, writes in a blog: “When I arrived
at library school
in 2001, Nancy
Williamson had
mostly retired…
I learned a lot,
and I knew I was
getting one of the
last chances to
learn from one of
the greats.”
2007 GrAduATE WiNs sPoT
oN JeOpardy! GAME sHoW
Graduate Autumn Haag was chosen to
compete in the popular American
television show, Jeopardy! Hosted by
Canadian Alex Trebek, the June 22
episode of the show featured Ms. Haag,
who works at the Massachusetts Archives
as a Reference Archivist. Originally from
the U.S., she received her undergraduate
and graduate degrees in Canada,
completing a Master of Information
degree in 2007.
anne Bailey
alex trebek, autumn haag
John Papadopoulosclaire lysnes nancy Williamson

FacultyNews
eVentS
CONTaCT PHoToGrAPHy
FEsTiVAL A succEss
T
he University of Toronto featured
prominently in this year’s McLuhan-
themed Scotiabank CONTACT
Photography Festival. The University of
Toronto Art Centre’s Curator and Museum
Studies instructor, dr. Matthew Brower,
was a key organizer for several exhibi-
tions presented in partnership with the
iSchool’s McLuhan Program in Culture
and Technology of the Coach House In-
stitute, under the direction of dominique
scheffel-dunand. Along with Festival Art
Director, Bonnie rubenstein, Dr. Brower
co-curated two of the festival’s primary
exhibitions, The Brothel Without Walls,
and Through the vanishing Point, both
part of the May 1st
opening reception.
Without Walls brought together nine
Canadian and international photographers
whose works reflect on photography’s
cultural role in relation to the broader
media environment, specifically to
television and the Internet. Through the
vanishing Point constituted two separate
but complementary site-specific works,
for which commissioned Canadian artists
Lewis Kaye and david rokeby visu-
ally and aurally constructed McLuhan’s
presence in his former seminar room
in The Coach House building. For the
installation’s framework, they drew from
McLuhan’s 1968 book, Through the Vanish-
ing Point: Space in Poetry and Painting
(coauthored by Harley Parker), which ex-
plores the way in which electronic media
fragments the homogenous experience of
space. The joint opening reception began
with the panel discussion “Nobody Can
Commit Photography Alone,” a free-
wheeling conversation about photograph-
ic and artistic practices and McLuhan’s
media theory. The festival also featured
the student-curated exhibition, Prob-
ing McLuhan (May 1-31), conceived by
rebecca Lemire and seanna McEachern,
for their Exhibition Project Class. Probing
McLuhan looked at the influential life of
the theorist through an examination of his
reflections on the photographic medium.
The iSchool also sponsored an exhibition,
Freeze Frame on Marshall McLuhan (May
15), a lively panel discussion with pho-
tographers, artists, curators, theorists,
educators, and students, that explored
the effects of media and technologies on
creativity and knowledge.
JuNior ProFEssors
rEsEArcH dAy A succEss
The iSchool held its first Junior
Professors Research Day on April 20,
2010. Professors provided a general
introduction and a more detailed
presentation of a research paper in
progress or recently completed, followed
by discussion. Prof. Jennifer carter
Dr. matthew Brower

provided provocative
and useful insights
into how key intellectu-
al and civic resources
of our contemporary
cultural landscape can
be socially relevant
institutions in this era
of profound social
and environmental
change. Conference
delegates and diverse
communities of
practice, ranging from
museum research-
ers and academ-
ics to professionals
and policy makers,
addressed themes related to civil society,
sustainability, exhibition pedagogy,
management, and curatorship. Prof.
Lynne Teather says that despite what
some people might think about the digital
world abandoning the traditional world
of libraries and museums, “the oppo-
site is happening; there are just more
museums growing and growing. They will
continue to be a grassroots phenomenon
in Canada, but they are becoming more
and more a serious economic tool,
significant as corporate places. That is a
little scary for me because I would like to
see them remain publicly driven spaces
that continually engage the sociopolitical
context. We need to understand that it
isn’t just about ‘traditional’ in big mu-
seums — it’s about a shared museum.
That’s the Canadian way.”
introduced her project, “Representation
by Design: Architectures of Display in
Museum and Exhibition Practices,” which
focuses on theoretical and historical
aspects of exhibition practice in museums
and international exhibitions, specifically
in Europe and North America throughout
the 20th
and early 21st
centuries. Prof.
Alan Galey gave insight into his analysis
relating textual studies and the design of
digital interface tools in the humanities,
in “Archive and Interface in Digital Textual
Studies: From Cultural History to Critical
Design,” that will specifically investigate
the cultural history of the humanities
archive concentrating on Shakespeare. “If
I were to say merely that their scholarship
is intellectually engaging and the passion
in their voices when they talk about it
riveting, I would be understating the truth
significantly,” said dean seamus ross.
Other participating professors included
Matt ratto, yuri Takhteyev, Jenna
Hartel, Kelly Lyons, steve Hockema,
Aviv shachak, and Matthew Brower.
coNFErENcE MArKs 40TH
ANNiVErsAry oF MusEuM
sTudiEs ProGrAM
U of T’s Master of Museum Studies pro-
gram celebrated its 40th anniversary with
a national three-day conference, Taking
Stock: Museum Studies and Museum
Practices in Canada, held April 22-24,
2010, at Hart House. Prof. Jennifer carter
says creating a forum for a nation-wide
debate and critical examination of the
academic discipline of museum studies
in Canada in historical and contemporary
contexts was important. Taking Stock
addressed how the field registers within
broader global traditions, pedagogies,
and practices. The conference’s keynote
address, given by museum consultant,
theorist, and writer, dr. robert r. Janes,
W. h. Bayley, chairman of the museology
Department and assistant to the Director
(seated), and Jo cruise, Secretary. taken
in mr. Bayley’s office at the royal ontario
museum, 1973, home of the museum
Studies program in its early years.
21sT AcM coNFErENcE oN HyPErTExT ANd HyPErMEdiA
T
he iSchool hosted the opening reception for the 21st
ACM (Association for
Computing Machinery) Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, held
at victoria College from June 13 to 16. The next day, keynote speaker,
Prof. Andrew dillon, University of Texas School of Information, stated: “People
need to think more about the method of communicating, sharing, and writing
when using technology.” A leading researcher on electronic text, Prof. Dillon
discussed how perceptual and cognitive factors influence readability and
scanability of online information.
While he says much remains to be determined on improving designs of
hypertext structures for human use, a major gap remains in our understanding
of learning, comprehension, and the impact of textual representation, form,
organization and construction on human response. Technologi-
cal advances have led to the largest changes in the way we
communicate, Prof. Dillon contends. But the problem lies in
losing sight of what we’re trying to accomplish: while hyper-
text gives people the ability to see what others are sharing,
we cannot assume we are learning better just because we are
using the latest technology, he said. He added that we have
become a nation of “search and retrieval,” in
our goal of finding information. As a result,
people simply scan a site and don’t read it in
its entirety, not allowing themselves to “find the
true meaning of the document.”
organization and construction on human response. Technologi-
cal advances have led to the largest changes in the way we
communicate, Prof. Dillon contends. But the problem lies in
losing sight of what we’re trying to accomplish: while hyper-
text gives people the ability to see what others are sharing,
we cannot assume we are learning better just because we are
technology, he said. He added that we have
its entirety, not allowing themselves to “find the
Prof. Jennifer carter

1 0 informed | autumn 2010
FacultyNews
grantS & aWarDS
THrEE iscHooL
ProFEssors AWArdEd
ssHrc GrANTs
P
rofessors Barbara craig and
Twyla Gibson have been awarded
prestigious SSHRC grants. Prof.
Craig’s grant of nearly $64,000 over four
years will be used to build upon her 2005
national survey of practicing archivists
in Canada. The funding will support her
research into the practice of archival ap-
praisal in Canadian archives. Appraisal is
the term used to describe the processes
and rationales for making choices of
resources to save for ongoing research
into the richness of Canada’s many pasts.
The study will feature interviews with
cross-disciplinary users of archives (the
public, historical geographers, historians,
etc.) with the aim of reaching a more
comprehensive understanding of ap-
praisal practice, and also of the concep-
tions users have about that practice. Prof.
Gibson’s SSHRC grant of $89,000 over two
years will foster research on digital text
analysis tools to further her comparative
studies of ancient literature and media.
Her research focuses on a case study of
the Hippocratic Oath and code of ethics as
the philosophical foundation for profes-
sional ethics in information (as well as
in medicine, science, engineering, and
business). The objective is to prototype
techniques for large-scale comparative
analyses of repeating patterns of clas-
sification in ancient writings and visual
media across many different cultures and
time periods. Both Prof. Craig’s and Prof.
Gibson’s SSHRC projects will support
iSchool graduate student researchers at
the doctoral and master’s levels. Profes-
sor Matt ratto has been awarded more
than $23,000 to investigate the potential
of digital desktop fabrication. He and Pro-
fessor david Wolfe (U of T Mississauga
Political Science, Centre for International
Studies), were each awarded Knowledge
Synthesis Grants on the Digital Economy,
a one-time initiative of the Social Sci-
ences and Humanities Research Council
(SSHRC), which aims to address critical
knowledge gaps. Despite the potentially
far-reaching effects that new develop-
ments may bring to the private, public
and not-for-profit sectors both within
Canada and internationally, there is little
social science and humanities research
currently underway in this area. Through
his Critical Making Laboratory, Prof. Ratto
plans to inform future best practices in
this rapidly evolving field while training
new highly qualified personnel.
ProF. ANdrEW cLEMENT
rEcEiVEs PriVAcy FuNdiNG
For rEsEArcH
Professor Andrew clement is one of
thirteen recipients to receive funding from
the 2010-2011 Contributions Program
from the Office of the Privacy Commis-
sioner. The awards, totaling $98,000, will
fund privacy research and public education
initiatives, and are affiliated with Prof.
Clement’s involvement in The New Trans-
parency: Surveillance and Social Sorting
research project. The first project, A Pri-
vacy Protective “Proportionate ID Digital
Wallet” for Canadians: Open Prototyping
and Public Policy Alternatives, proposes
to demonstrate the value of a digital device
(“mobile wallet”) as a privacy-protective
alternative to current identification. The
second project, “Smart” Private Eyes in
Public Places? video Surveillance Analyt-
ics, New Privacy Threats and Protective
Alternatives, proposes to examine the use
of video analytics (“smart” processing) in
the area of video surveillance.
ProF. Eric yu rEcEiVEs
NsErc discoVEry GrANT
Congratulations to Professor Eric yu who
was awarded a NSERC Discovery Grant
of $200,000 over five years, to further his
research on agent-oriented modeling.
His work on intentional strategic actor
relationships (i*) modeling was a basis for
the International Standard Z.151 adopted
at the ITU-T in November last year.
ProF. MATT rATTo AWArdEd
LEAdEr’s oPPorTuNiTy
FuNd GrANT
Professor Matt ratto was awarded a
Leader’s Opportunity Fund grant by the
Canadian Foundation for Innovation
(CFI) and the Ontario Research Fund.
The $85,000 grant will support Prof.
Ratto’s work on the “materialization of
information” and was used to purchase
rapid prototyping equipment including a
3D printer, laser cutter, and computer-
controlled mill for research use in his
Critical Making Laboratory. cLicK To rEAd
oN-LiNE >

iscHooL ProFEssor
BriNGs rEAdiNG
To FirsT NATioN
coMMuNiTiEs
P
rofessor Nadia caidi received
$80,000 from the Ministry of Train-
ing, Colleges and Universities to
finance the On-Demand Book Service
(ODBS), to provide several First Nation
communities with better access to books
and digital materials. The project is a
collaboration between Keewaytinook
Okimakanak (KO), a non-political Chiefs’
Council serving communities in northern
Ontario, and the iSchool. As a result, KO
First Nation community, Keewaywin, and
two others, will be given a set of ODBS
equipment and content (a list of titles
purchased in consultation with members
of the community), as part of a pilot initia-
tive. “The aim is to explore the realities,
barriers, and challenges to reading in
First Nation communities, particularly
in remote and isolated areas of North-
ern Ontario,” said Prof. Caidi. “The key
element is the importance of reading in
one’s life and how we can support it.” The
project provided students from both the
Information and Culture in a Global Con-
text course and Information Workshops
an opportunity to engage in meaning-
ful and respectful community-based
research. The ODBS responds to the
community’s collective desire for libraries
to offer balanced access to both physi-
cal books and information technology, as
identified and recommended in reports
by Ontario Library Services North, among
others. The ODBS equipment, as well as
the ODBS portal (http://odbs.knet.ca),
will enable teachers and students at the
Keewaywin Public School to print and
bind digital content, create and publish
their own content, and create digital
archives. The project also examines the
communities’ reading needs and prefer-
ences, in order to “identify content that
would appeal to them, based on various
target populations,” Prof. Caidi added. At
the conference, “Reading in First Nations:
Infrastructure, Access & Imagination,”
held in late March, the ODBS equip-
ment was showcased in Keewaywin via
video conferencing, and included a do-it-
yourself book scanner (which can scan a
400-page book in less than half an hour),
developed by PhD student daniel reetz.
The day began with a keynote address
by acclaimed aboriginal author drew
Hayden Taylor, who discussed his reading
experiences growing up in Curve Lake
First Nation, and reflected on the lack of
Aboriginal writers to serve as role mod-
els. Prof. Caidi said future plans include
the development of the ODBS portal into a
virtual space where community members
can access and meet people such as Mr.
Taylor, in order to ask questions and be
inspired. The ODBS is made possible
in collaboration with K-NET Services in
Sioux Lookout and KO Research Institute
(KORI) in Thunder Bay.
ProF. HEATHEr MAcNEiL
WiNs HuGH A. TAyLor PrizE
Professor Heather MacNeil was awarded
the Hugh A Taylor Prize for her article,
“Archivalterity: Rethinking Original
Order,” which appeared in Archivaria 66
(Fall 2008). The prize is awarded annu-
ally for the Archivaria article that presents
new or refreshed ideas in imaginative
ways by “extending the boundaries of
archival theory in new directions.” Prof.
MacNeil was awarded a cash prize and
certificate, which commends her usage
of cross-disciplinary insight “to explore
the relationship between original order,
archival arrangement, and notions of
authenticity and representation,” and
notes that it “offers many possibilities for
enhanced archival practice.”
FAcuLTy oF
iNForMATioN
rEAccrEdiTEd
By ALA
M
aster of Informa-
tion (MI) students
depend on having
an accredited degree in order
to have credibility and the
externally-validated academic
qualifications required in the
information workplace. U of T’s
Faculty of Information has been
accredited by the American
Library Association (ALA) since
1937, when the iSchool’s BLS
program first received ALA ap-
proval. This year, the External
Review Panel of the ALA found
the MI program met the ALA
Committee on Accreditation’s
“Standards for Accreditation of
Master’s Programs in Library
and Information Studies,”
and was approved June 2010.
“This status validates the
hard work of our faculty, staff,
alumni, and students in the
iSchool,” said dean seamus
ross. Accredited programs are
monitored regularly through
annual reporting processes and
periodic intensive reviews. They
must meet or exceed standards
regarding mission, goals and
objectives; curriculum; faculty;
students; administration and
financial support; and physical
resources and facilities.
NOTEWORTHY

FacultyNews
StaFFIng
FAcuLTy oF
iNForMATioN
WELcoMEs Four
NEW ProFEssors
T
he iSchool welcomed four new
Assistant Professors this year,
dr. Fiorella Foscarini, dr. rhonda
McEwen, dr. sara Grimes, and dr. cara
Krmpotich. Dr. Foscarini is teaching
Managing Organizational Records; Dr.
McEwen is teaching a workshop on
Information Practice in virtual Worlds:
Exploring Mediation in the Information
Environment; Dr. Grimes will teach in
the areas of in children’s new media
and literature; and Dr. Krmpotich will be
teaching Collections Management and
Museums and Indigenous Communities.
Professor
Sara Grimes
Dr. Grimes has
degrees in Com-
munication from
Simon Fraser
University(PhD, MA)
and the Univer-
sity of Ottawa (BA
Hons). Her research
interests are in
children’s media culture, play studies, and
critical theories of technology, with a spe-
cial focus on digital games. Her published
work includes a co-authored analysis
(with Neil Narine) of discursive represen-
tations of the child gamer within popular
film and advertising, and she has collabo-
rated with Andrew Feenberg, adapting his
theory of instrumentalization to construct
a framework for the discussion of games
as systems of social rationalization, which
appeared in New Media & Society, The
Information Society, and Communication,
Culture and Critique.
Professor
Fiorella
Foscarini
Dr. Foscarini holds
a degree in Arts and
Philosophy from
the University of
Bologna, a post-
graduate degree in
Archival Science,
Palaeography and
Diplomatics from the State Archives
School in Bologna, a Master’s degree in
Design and Management of Advanced
Records Systems from the University of
Urbino, and a PhD in Library, Archival and
Information Studies from the University of
British Columbia. Her doctoral disserta-
tion was titled “Function-Based Records
Classification Systems: An Exploratory
Study of Records Management Practices
in Central Banks.” Dr. Foscarini was a
Senior Archivist for the European Central
Bank in Frankfurt am Main, where she
was primarily responsible for the develop-
ment of records management and archi-
val policies and procedures. Prior to that,
she was the Head of the Records Manage-
ment Office and Intermediate Archives at
the Province of Bologna (Italy).
Professor
Rhonda
McEwen
Dr. McEwen holds
an MBA in IT from
City University in
London, England,
an MSc in Telecom-
munications from
the University of
Colorado, and a
PhD in Information from University of
Toronto. Dr. McEwen focussed her PhD
dissertation research on youth mobile
phone communication and social net-
works. Her research and teaching focus
on information practices involving new
media infrastructures, with an emphasis
on youth media literacy, mobile communi-
cation, and social media design. She has
worked and researched digital commu-
nications media for fifteen years, both
in companies providing services and in
management consulting to those compa-
nies. Dr. McEwen was recently awarded
a MITACS post-doctoral research grant
(2010-11) to investigate the mobile phone
information seeking practices of newcom-
ers to Toronto, and is collaborating with
dr. Nadia caidi.
Professor
Cara
Krmpotich
Dr. Krmpotich has
as BA (Trent) in
Anthropology, spe-
cializing in Museum
Studies, a cer-
tificate in Museum
Management and
Curatorship (Sir
Sandford Fleming College), and an MA
(UBC) in Anthropology, with an emphasis
in Museum Studies. She obtained her
PhD at the University of Oxford, and
recently facilitated the visit of twenty-one
members of the Haida Nation from Haida
Gwaii, B.C., to the Pitt Rivers Museum
and British Museum. Dr. Krmpotich is
producing a film and writing book on the
Haida, with Laura Peers, Curator for the
Americas, at the Pitt Rivers. Her research
interests lie in the many relationships
between museums and source communi-
ties, the interconnections between memo-
ry and material culture, and theoretical
approaches to repatriation.

NEW dirEcTor, ExEcuTiVE
dirEcTor, cHiEF sciENTisT,
ANd ProFEssor JoiN KMdi
Professor Konstantinos (Kostas)
Plataniotis is the new Director of the
Knowledge Media Design Institute.
“Kostas has the proven track record
to nurture KMDI and to foster the
collaborative initiatives that will ensure
the Institute’s internationally recognized
leadership in research and teaching
prospers,” said dean seamus ross.
KMDI Deputy Director since July 2009,
Prof. Kostas is a Professor with the with
Electrical and Computer Engineering
(ECE) department at the University of
Toronto. His research interests include
digital media, multimedia systems,
biometrics, image and signal processing,
and pattern recognition. He chairs the
Communications Group at ECE and is the
Director of Research at U of T’s Identity,
Privacy and Security Institute (IPSI).
Prof. Kostas thanked both Dean Seamus
Ross and his predecessor, Professor
ron Baecker, for their “strong academic
leadership and the exemplary manner in
which they executed KMDI’s integration
with the iSchool family.” He added that
the KDMI “is perfectly situated to act
as research catalyst and be the focal
point of U of T’s digital media agenda.”
Rounding out the new hires are Executive
Director Adriana ieraci, who also runs
her own consulting practice (devising
products and strategies for a digital
future); Chief Scientist, dr. Gerald Penn,
whose research primarily focuses on
spoken language processing and discrete
algorithms to support natural language
technology; and Professor Peter
Pennefather, in charge of learning events
such as lectures and colloquia, and of
planning a series on sense-making. The
KMDI is dedicated to the creative design
of the knowledge media that will shape
tomorrow and the insightful analysis of
the digital media of today.
ProF. cosTis dALLAs NAMEd
iNTEriM dirEcTor, MusEuM
sTudiEs ProGrAM
Special thanks to Museum Studies
Professor, costis dallas, who served as
Interim Director of the program from
January to July 2010, taking a sabbati-
cal from Panteion University in Athens,
Greece, where he is an Assistant Profes-
sor of Cultural Heritage Management
and Advanced
Technologies in
the Department
of Communi-
cation, Media
and Culture.
“Prof. Dallas’s
knowledge of
cultural heri-
tage and digital
collections is
internationally
recognized, and
we were lucky to have him here,” said
dean seamus ross. “His on–the-ground
museums experience and wide range of
publications have made significant theo-
retical and methodological contributions
in museums, archaeology, and informa-
tion.” Dr. Dallas joined the iSchool as a
part-time Associate Professor in 2008. He
holds Master of Philosophy and Doctor of
Philosophy degrees in Classical Archeol-
ogy from the University of Oxford, and
has more than twenty years of research
and professional experience in the field
of cultural management and cultural
heritage informatics. He has been a Re-
search Fellow of the Digital Curation Unit,
“Athena” Research Centre, since 2007.
Previously, Prof. Dallas served as General
Director of the Foundations of the Hellenic
World, as Undersecretary for Libraries
and Historical Archives of Greece, and
as Special Advisor of the Greek Foreign
Minister on cultural diplomacy and infor-
mation issues. Prof. Dallas, who took over
the role from Professor Lynne Howarth,
worked on initiatives to forge stronger
academic links between Museum Studies
and the Master of Information program, in
light of the transformations effected by in-
formation technology in museums around
the world. He also facilitated the intro-
duction of a thesis option for Museum
Studies students for the next academic
year, and put plans in place to renovate
the fifth floor Inforum to incorporate a
fully-equipped Museum Studies studio,
carrying out the vision of the late dr.
cheryl Meszaros. The studio will provide
a space for students to collaboratively
design exhibitions, educational activities,
and digital exhibits, as well as deal with
object handling and essential collections
management, as they would in a museum
environment. This fall, the Faculty has be-
gun searching for a new full-time tenure
track professor who will also serve as the
new director of the program.
ProFEssor sTEPHEN HocKEMA
PursuEs NEW cArEEr
The Faculty of Information bade farewell
to Professor stephen Hockema on June
30 as he embarked on a new career.
Instead of teaching and researching, Dr.
Hockema will develop software, working
with a partner and long-time friend on
mobile applications (such as iAnnotate)
and will continue to be based in Toronto.
The applications will specifically target
the iPhone and iPad. He hopes to collabo-
rate and partner with the iSchool and uti-
lize research from Faculty members in his
new endeavours. “Thank you to everyone
for the myriad ways you made my time
here interesting, fun and rewarding over
the past few years,” he said. “Your col-
legiality and friendship have meant a lot
to me.” “We have greatly appreciated his
contributions, and we wish him the best
as he pursues this exciting new direction
in his career. I have no doubt he will mark
many milestones in his new career,” says
dean seamus ross. Dr. Hockema joined
the iSchool in July 2006. With a joint PhD
in Computer and Cognitive Science from
Indiana University, Dr. Hockema has
specialized in perceptual and linguistic
development and learning.Prof. Stephen hockemaProf. costis Dallas
l-r: Prof. Konstantinos Plataniotis,
Prof. Peter Pennefather,
Dr. gerald Penn, and adriana Ieraci

S
he traces her ancestry back to the famous Celtic
warrior Queen Boudicca. She grew up next to the
former British outpost at DeCew Falls, Ontario, that
made Laura Secord a legend. She is a sought-after museum
consultant, and holds one of the world’s first Doctorates
in Museum Studies. Early in her life, Professor Lynne
Teather’s career path was influenced by the professions
of her parents: her mother was an an-
tique dealer and her father an accoun-
tant. “We had the makings of a modern
museum person. At least that’s the way
I like to tell the story,” she smiles.
Now, after thirty years as an educa-
tor and retirement just two years away,
Prof. Teather is kind of a legend herself
in the museologist field.
Little wonder she chose to study
history, first at Brock University, then
attheUniversityofToronto,movingon
to the University of Leicester to earn its
first Doctorate in Museum Studies. At
the time, museology was in its infancy.
“It was brand new and a little untried
as well, but if you’re Canadian,” she
narrows her eyes and smiles, “of course
you’re a pioneer.”
In 1979, Prof. Teather joined the University of
Toronto’s Museum Studies program as full-time faculty
member. Since its inception forty years ago, the pro-
gram was housed in the School of Graduate Studies, but
in 2006, it integrated with the iSchool, benefitting from
a permanent home, increased resources, and access to an
expanded community of curators.
Professor Teather has helped build a distinguished
centre of scholarship over the last thirty years, and is proud
to have played an important role in the Museum Studies
program, which was the first of its kind in Canada. After
twenty years of supervising major research papers and
managing the summer internship program, her additional
focus has been “developing Museum Studies as a field,” says
Prof. Teather, whose earliest paper on curriculum design
was published in 1978. She notes that
enrolment has increased fifty per cent
in the last few years, to forty students.
Besides being a teacher and
museologist, Prof. Teather is also a
cultural heritage consultant, who
routinely questions the political
and economic set-up of cultural
institutions. “There are lots of issues
with regard to other people’s cultures
and who can or should speak on
their behalf.”
The trouble, Prof. Teather has
learned, is acknowledging that we
possess “a set of culturally conditioned
eyes.” This realization was sparked
by a controversial African exhibition
she was involved with in 1990 at the
Royal Ontario Museum, one that
incited a violent public reaction. Somewhat rattled, Prof.
Teather decided to incorporate intercultural work into
her teaching. The experience was repeated in 2005 when
the governor of a northern Nigerian town invited her to
advise on converting a cultural area into a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. A doctor showed her hundreds of women
spending post-operative recovery time making traditional
crafts at a nearby school, in order to stimulate a local-based
Faculty Profile
A Leader in
MuseuM
studies
By Adeela Ahmad
The Curator of the Kanoe and Nok Museums
shows Professor Teather the Nok Caves, Nok,
on her research trip to Nigeria in 2005.
PhotobyAdeelaAhmad

craft industry for tourism. “I was just going to advise on
forming a better museum, and instead learned that culture
and heritage is linked to people’s lives. That has forever
changed how I view my vocation.” Prof. Teather says both
incidents transformed her thinking. “In Nigeria, poverty
and access to education affect everything I recommend.”
These experiences led her to bring a more international
sensibility to her teaching.
In 1995, the Ontario Museum Association honoured
Prof. Teather’s career with an Award of Merit, a recognition
which made her “think of the people who have gone before,
and the many students and colleagues who have supported
our Master’s program and the progress of our field.”
Progress, indeed. The image of museums as “dusty
places in four-walled buildings with artifacts, is morphing.”
Today, Prof. Teather says, a museum is anywhere people
are coming together to address cultural heritage. “At
one end there’s the Louvre, but at the other end may be
a neighborhood arts project started by youth-at-risk.” As
for the future of museums, Prof. Teather would like to
see them remain “publicly driven spaces that continually
engage the sociopolitical context.”
Currently, Prof. Teather is working on a two-volume
history of Canadian museums from 1700-1972, and is
considering writing a book about museum thinking and
practice for the 21st
century, “with an eye to diversity and
inclusion,” says the soon-to-be President of the Interna-
tional Committee for the Training of Personnel (a subcom-
mittee of the International Council of Museums).
When asked what gives her the most sense of pride,
Prof. Teather quickly responds, “the students,” and lists
a lengthy “Who’s Who” of past and current pupils who
fill noteworthy permanent and internship roles, both in
Canada and abroad. “I will miss them but at the same time,
I’m not going away! This is still my community.”
“A museum is anywhere
people are coming together
to address cultural heritage.”
Professor Teather inside the AGO’s new Frank Gehry-designed sculpture gallery, the Galleria Italia.
PhotobyAdeelaAhmad

Faculty Research Roundup
Matthew Brower
Dr. Brower was involved in the
production of seven shows
at the University of Toronto
Arts Centre (UTAC), including
Brothel Without Walls at the
Scotiabank CONTACT Pho-
tography festival in memory
of Marshall McLuhan, and
Gord Peteran: Recent Works.
In addition, he co-organized
“Feeling Photography”, a ma-
jor international conference
which addressed the theme
of photography and affect,
and attracted 130 participants
from around the world. His
publications explore topics
ranging from “photographic
emergence” (the ability of
the camera to make manifest
things the eye cannot see), to
the importance of sardonic
portraiture in Janus Dukszta’s
collection.
Nadia Caidi
Although Professor Caidi will
be on sabbatical leave in fall
2010, her book, A Right to
Know? Access to Information
in a Post 9/11 World, will be
published for the 10th
anni-
versary of the September 11,
2001 events. She will continue
to pursue her research on the
information practices of vul-
nerable communities, includ-
ing newcomers, immigrant
groups, and Aboriginal com-
munities. Prof. Caidi helped
with the integration of the On
Demand Book Service (ODBS),
permitting easy access to
reading materials as well
as providing ODBS-related
equipment for peoples of First
Nation communities. Her work
has earned her numerous
invitations to speak at various
settlement sector-related
meetings, and consultant con-
tracts with Human Resources
and Social Development
Canada, and Citizenship and
Immigration Canada.
Jennifer Carter
Professor Carter was the
Chair of the Steering Com-
mittee of the “Taking Stock
Conference” held at Hart
House and UTAC from
April 22-24, 2010, which
brought together a network
of scholar-parishioners,
academic researchers, and
graduate students studying
museological issues. Her
research on the history and
theory of exhibition practice
led to a public lecture invita-
tion at the Design Exchange in
Toronto, where she presented,
“Architecture by Design: Dis-
play, Narrative and Perfor-
mance in Exhibition Practice.”
She has also been engaged in
the European Marie Curie-
funded series of workshop
conferences entitled “NaMu,
Making National Museums,”
which studies the emergence
and evolution of national mu-
seums in historic and global
contexts. Currently, Prof.
Carter is involved in a collab-
orative research project, From
Coexistence to Convergences:
Studying Partnerships and
Collaborating Among Librar-
ies, Archives and Museums.
Joan Cherry
Besides fulfilling her respon-
sibilities as Associate Dean,
Professor Cherry conducted a
web-based survey of students
in Master’s degree programs
in six information schools
across Canada including
Dalhousie University and the
University of Western Ontario,
investigating satisfaction rates
for students in their respec-
tive programs. Initial findings
are that student satisfaction
is higher at UofT than the
average rating across the six
schools. She is also involved
in a project to study part-
nerships and collaboration
among libraries, archives, and
museums.
Chun Wei Choo
Professor Choo completed
two collaborative research
projects, one with sylvio cyr,
a Master’s student at the
Faculty, which was published
in the Journal of Documenta-
tion. The paper, “The Indi-
vidual and Social Dynamics
of Knowledge Sharing – An
Exploratory Study,” concluded
that knowledge sharing be-
haviour is influenced by three
sets of dynamics: a rational
calculus that weighs the
costs and benefits of sharing;
a dispositional preference
that favours certain patterns
of sharing outcomes; and
a relational effect based on
working relationships. Profes-
sor Choo also worked with
Dr. Riva Alvarenga-Neto on a
paper titled “Beyond the ‘Ba’:
Managing Enabling Contexts
in Knowledge Organizations”,
which reviews and extends
the work of Professor Ikujiro
Nonaka on ‘ba’, a social space
for creating and sharing
knowledge, and suggests
that managing knowledge is
fundamentally about creating
an environment that is con-
ducive to knowledge interac-
tion. The paper was published
in the Journal of Knowledge
Management.
Juris Dilevko
In addition to teaching six
courses in the field of librari-
anship, Professor Dilevko will
be involved in the following
long-term research projects:
Canadian literary culture in
the late 1940s and 1950s; the
serpentine history of school
libraries in the United States
in the late 1960s and early
1970s; and a critical analysis
of the book reviews of a well-
known United States literacy
critic.
Wendy Duff
Professor Duff is the Director
of the Digital Curation Insti-
tute, and founding members
of AX-NET, an international
Throughout the year, professors at the Faculty of
Information conduct rigorous, interdisciplinary, and
groundbreaking research that contributes to society
and helps shape the field of information. Learn more
about their recent research activities and scholarly
efforts over 2009-2010.
matthew Brower nadia caidi Jennifer carter Joan cherry chun Wei choo

team of researchers inter-
ested in facilitating access to
primary materials. Her current
research focuses on four
areas: archival users, access
to archival material, digital
curation, and, most recently,
the convergence of libraries,
archives, and museums. She
is the principal investigator on
a collaborative project explor-
ing said convergence. Another
of her collaborative projects
investigated the impact of
technology on museums
for the Canadian Heritage
Information Network, which
resulted in three unpublished
reports and a refereed confer-
ence paper presented at Cul-
tural Heritage Online called
“Empowering Users: An Active
Role for User Communities.”
Fiorella Foscarini
Professor Foscarini joined the
Faculty in January 2010. She is
developing a new course that
builds on record management
and archival principles and
methods, and explores issues
of diplomatics, genre theory,
and structuration. Prof. Fos-
carini presented a paper on
new approaches to electronic
records management at the 8th
European Conference on Digi-
tal Archiving held in Geneva
in April.
Alan Galey
This year, Professor Galey’s
research has focused on the
history and future of the book,
bridging the fields of book
history, digital humanities, and
critical information studies.
This also marked the first
year of his seven-year project,
Implementing New Knowledge
Environments (INKE). He was
the co-leader of the Textual
Studies team, contributing a
book chapter, “Beyond Reme-
diation: The Role of Textual
Studies in Implementing New
Knowledge Environments.” He
is continuing with the project,
Archive and Interface in Digital
Textual Studies: from Cultural
History to Critical Design, with
emphasis on Shakespeare,
investigating the cultural his-
tory of the archive in scholarly
editing and building an online
library of interface compo-
nents. In addition, Prof. Galey
presented a paper that fo-
cused on the Architectures of
the Book project, at the Mate-
rial Cultures conference in Ed-
inburgh, and will present “The
Ekindling Reciter: Performing
Reading and Concealing Texts
in the E-Book Demo” at the
Modern Language Association
conference in Los Angeles.
Jenna Hartel
Professor Hartel has created
a foundation for future studies
of serious leisure with her
work on the ethnographic
study of information in the
hobby of gourmet cooking. Her
paper, “Managing Documents
at Home for Serious Leisure:
A Case Study of the Hobby of
Gourmet Cooking,” provides
the first detailed account of
hobby-related information
collecting. Professor Hartel’s
publications appeared in the
Journal of Documentation and
will appear in Information in
Everyday American Life. In ad-
dition, she presented her work
on this topic at the Seventh
International Conference on
Conceptions of Library and
Information Science (CoLIS)
in London, England. At the
2009 Annual Meeting of the
American Society for Informa-
tion Science and Technology
(ASIST), she hosted the panel
“Toward a Positive Information
Science?” and also designed
and delivered “Metatheoretical
Snowmen,” which drew one of
the largest crowds at ASIST.
The latter panel was repeated
at CoLIS in London and will be
presented again in Toronto in
October 2010.
Stephen Hockema
Over the past year, Professor
Hockema refined and focused
his ongoing research with
students into a coherent topic
revolving around parallels
between formality in software
design/development and form/
content/presentation distinc-
tions in information. On June
30, he left the iSchool to em-
bark on a new career develop-
ing software. He will work with
a partner on mobile applica-
tions, such as iAnnotate. The
applications will target spe-
cifically the iPhone and iPad
devices, as well as contracts
associated with them.
Andrew Clement
P
rofessor Clement continues to explore the
social and public policy implications of the
emerging information/communication infra-
structure, with the aim of contributing to its socially
progressive development. His classes, research,
workshops, and lecture series bring attention to the
threats to privacy, identity integrity, and other civil lib-
erties posed by the increasingly pervasive insinuation
of surveillance technologies and practices. He is also
working on identity, privacy and surveillance research
as well as related public education initiatives, affili-
ated with his involvement in The New Transparency:
Surveillance and Social Sorting research project.
Wendy Duff Fiorelle Foscarini alan galey Jenna hartel Stephen hockema

Kelly Lyons
Professor Lyons’ paper “New
Directions for Social Comput-
ing in virtual Worlds: Applica-
tions for Business and Social
Sciences” was listed as #17
in the “Top 25 Hottest Articles
from Science Direct.” She
presented two papers, one at
iConference 2010 and another
at the 15th
Americas Confer-
ence on Information Systems,
and was also invited by CALIS
and SLA to give a special
presentation on project man-
agement. In addition, she con-
tributed a book chapter titled
“A Framework that Situates
Technology Research within
the Field of Service Science,”
which will appear in Service
Systems Implementation, as
a volume in Service Science:
Research and Innovations in the
Service Economy.
Heather MacNeil
Professor MacNeil published
two articles this year: “Trust-
ing Description: Authenticity,
Accountability and the General
International Standard for
Archival Description” and
“Arranging the Self: Literary
and Archival Perspectives on
Writers’ Archives,” and co-
edited a book entitled Currents
of Archival Thinking. She also
began work on a SSHRC-fund-
ed research project examining
archival description as rhe-
torical genre in traditional and
web-based environments. She
completed the data collection
and most of the data analysis
for a small exploratory study
of the evolution of an archival
description over a period of
eight decades.
Jens-Erik Mai
Since the end of his term
as the vice-Dean in 2009,
Professor Mai has been busy
preparing papers for publica-
tion in Journal of Documenta-
tion, Knowledge Organization,
and for presentation at the
International Conference on
Conceptions of Library and
Information Science, that all
explore authority and trust
in knowledge organization
systems. He hopes to attract
attention to the challenges
faced by library and informa-
tion science professionals to
design and maintain systems
that are transparent and
trustworthy. He has also been
giving presentations and will
give an invited talk at the
National Taiwan University’s
International Symposium on
the Future of Information Or-
ganization Research, in Taipei.
He will co-chair the Program
Committee for the iConference
in 2011 to be held in Seattle,
Washington.
Rhonda McEwen
It was a year of innovation for
Assistant Professor McEwen,
the first faculty member to
offer a class on virtual worlds,
addressing issues such as
avatar identity and com-
munity. She was featured in
the national press on several
occasions for her cutting-
edge research on handheld
research on handheld tech-
nologies, such as the mobile
phone and iPod Touch devices.
In addition, she was awarded
a MITACS post-doctoral
research grant to investigate
the mobile phone information
seeking practices of young
newcomers to Toronto.
David Phillips
Professor Phillips is currently
working on two SSHRC-fund-
ed research projects. The first,
Spatiality, Identity, and the
Infrastructure of Ubiquitous
Computing: Directions for
Critical Intervention, investi-
gates the political, economic,
and technical configuration of
“cloud” computing, or ubiqui-
tous computing, and how the
infrastructure configures the
possibilities for interactions in
public space. The second proj-
ect, Carrier Hotels: Mapping
Internet Interconnections, at-
tempts to “ground” the cloud,
by revealing exactly where In-
ternet traffic travels on its way
from source to destination.
Kelly lyons heather macneil Jens-erik mai rhonda mcewen David Phillips
Lynne Howarth
P
rofessor Howarth is continuing with her project,
“Enhancing Pathways to Memory,” and working
with the Alzheimer Society of Toronto to study
how individuals with mild cognitive impairment associ-
ated with early-stage Alzheimer/Dementia may utilize
multi-modal expressions of information such as music,
photographs, physical objects, movement, audio record-
ings, etc., as memory cues for finding, organizing, and
using information important to daily living.
She also collaborated on Museum Knowledge
Worker of the 21st
Century, a project for the Canadian
Heritage Information Network, and presented a paper
in Rome, Italy at the International Society for Knowledge
Organization, exploring cartograms for mapping the
diffusion of knowledge globally. In addition, she refereed
at the poster session of the OLA Superconference, and
served as a guest editor of a special issue of Knowledge
Organization and Cataloguing & Classification Quarterly.

Matt Ratto
Professor Ratto received two
grants to continue to develop
“critical making”—a mode
of research practice that
uses material prototyping
with physical computing to
supplement and extend criti-
cal thinking on the relations
between society, informa-
tion, and technology. The first
project, Critical Making: the
Materialization of the Digi-
tal, is funded by the Canada
Foundation for Innovation and
the Ontario Research Fund.
The project explores how 3D
printers and open source
hardware changes the nature
of expertise and will influence
the creative environment. The
second project, funded by
the Ontario Media Develop-
ment Corporation, is called
Designing Digital Media for
the Internet of Things, and will
use workshops to create novel
possibilities for shared work
on the Internet of things (the
interconnection of everyday
objects through digital
technologies).
Aviv Shachak
Professor Shachak is con-
tinuing with his case study
research on end-user support
for primary care electronic
health record implementa-
tion, where the first phase of
data collection and prelimi-
nary analysis of the data has
been completed. He has also
published two opinion papers,
one in JAMA on the potential
of incorporating multimedia
into electronic health records
to improve care, another in
Informatics in Primary Care on
usability as a critical aspect of
assessing the quality of clini-
cal information systems.
Brian Cantwell Smith
This year marks a milestone
for Professor Cantwell Smith
as he initiates a seven-volume
series publication of his
major life work entitled Age
of Significance, which pro-
vides a sustained, systematic
philosophical analysis of the
foundation of computation and
intentionality. The book will be
presented in both English and
Chinese in traditional book
format, as well as online. In
addition, he has completed
two volumes of papers on
conceptual foundations of
computing, to be published by
Harvard University Press.
Siobhan Stevenson
Professor Stevenson has
concentrated her research
energies on investigating
working conditions within the
information economy, particu-
larly at public libraries. She
has developed a model that
attempts to capture the dia-
lectic between the ascendancy
of library consumer-producer
identity and the diminishment
of the public librarian as a
skilled, waged, and unionized
public service worker, which
provides findings for work-
ing conditions, careers, and
labour processes across the
full range of public service
occupations. Prof. Stevenson
will have the opportunity to
share her work at six differ-
ent conferences, including
the Seventh International
Conference on Conception of
Library and Information Sci-
ence. She also published an
article on one of the SSHRC’s
Network of Centres of Excel-
lence Project: DIGILAB, on
which she was invited to be a
research collaborator.
Yuri Takhteyev
Professor Takhteyev has
completed several papers
and has projects underway
on topics ranging from open
source software development
to the globalization of Wikipe-
dia. His main, current project
is an ethnography of software
development in Brazil, in
which he looks at software
development as a case of a
modern high-tech work and
how globalization is experi-
enced in such a context. He
has completed his dissertation
for this project and is currently
converting it to book form.
Lynne Teather
Professor Teather helped
place forty students in mu-
seum internships around the
world, teaching, gave work-
shops and lectures in various
places, and was a member
of the steering committee for
the Taking Stock Conference.
Other research areas include
the history of Canadian mu-
seums, contemporary issues
in national and international
museum development, and
the training of museum
professionals. She has taught
at several international
museology schools, includ-
ing a stint this year at the
Slovenian Museology School.
Currently, she is working on a
project with Professor Roger
Simon on difficult history and
museums through examining
the exhibition Without Sanctu-
ary: Lynching Photographs in
America.
Eric Yu
Professor Yu’s research focus-
es on the analysis and design
of information systems and
services in social contexts,
and knowledge management.
His projects include designing
for security and privacy, agile
software development, and
business modeling for busi-
ness intelligence. Professor Yu
has had three journal papers
published or accepted, as well
as seven conference papers
and five workshop papers,
and two book chapters, most
in collaboration with the
students he supervised. He
also co-edited a Festschrift
volume, Conceptual Model-
ing: Foundations and Applica-
tions, in honour of his former
PhD supervisor and mentor,
Professor John Myopolous,
and plans to include the book
in a conceptual modeling
course. Professor Yu’s re-
search focuses on information
system analysis and design,
and software engineering, em-
phasized in his current book
project “Social Modeling for
Requirements Engineering.”
aviv Shachakmatt ratto Brian cantwell Smith Siobhan Stevenson yuri takhteyev lynne teather eric yu

StudentNews
eVentS
sTudENTs TAcKLE
sTErEoTyPEd PErcEPTioN
oF LiBrAriANs
B
etween October 17 and 25, 2009, first year iSchool
students participated in a challenge to smash the
stereotypes of meek, mild-mannered librarians by
stepping out on to the streets and inviting the public to test
their skills and engage in a range of enlightening activities.
One of six events, “On the Street Reference” challenged
Torontonians to ask any question on any topic. Toting a
“FREE ANSWERS” sign, students took turns answering
questions, ranging from “Why do musicians tune to A
(440 HZ)” to “Are there any English language theatres
in Shanghai?”
Katya Pereyaslavska, a first-year MISt student and
Hart House Library Curator, said the class arrangement
was a “terrific experience.” More than sixty members of
the public participated on the corner of Bloor Street and
University Avenue, outside the Royal Ontario Museum.
The challenge also promoted the founding principles
of librarianship: civic engagement and the free flow of
information. Students were delighted by the measure of
support received from faculty professors, the local press,
and professional librarians, and discussed turning the
idea into a city-wide event for next year’s Library Month.
The overarching goal of dismantling the image of librar-
ians as “invisible” or “passive” grew out of a class ef-
fort spearheaded by Professors siobhan stevenson and
Nadia caidi, and evolved into a personal quest for public
awareness. “I think it can teach [the public] a lot about our
professions and our engagement with the broader society,”
said Prof. Caidi.
Other student-led challenges included a winter
clothing drive for Romero House refugees, a “Reference
Desk on Wheels” aimed at expanding public understanding
of the role of information workers, and “We Love Librari-
ans,” an event in which students asked the public what they
love about librarians. The challenges piggy-backed on the
Stephen Lewis Foundation’s “A Dare to Remember” (www.
adaretoremember.com/campaign). In addition to answering
questions, students also educated passersby on the HIv/
AIDS pandemic in Africa, and accepted donations to fight
the disease, raising more than $800.
Second-year student,
Sarah Jones
cLicK To rEAd
oN-LiNE >

FourTH ANNuAL JoB ANd
NETWorKiNG FAir A succEss
The iSchool hosted its annual job
and networking fair on January 29,
attracting more than 200 students and
organizations from all information
fields including archives and records
management, information systems and
technologies, library and information
science, and knowledge management.
The fair provided students with many
opportunities to meet and network
with professionals, and to learn more
about the skills and attributes sought
by today’s employers. For organizations,
the event served as a forum in which to
meet the new generation of information
professionals, establish a presence, and
receive resumés from students.
iNForMATioN AccEss:
coMMoNs, coNTroLs,
coNTroVErsy (iA3c)
coNFErENcE
The iSchool held its second annual
student-run conference, “Information
Access: Commons, Controls, Controversy
(IA3C),” from March 19 to 20, 2010. Fea-
turing students from Toronto, Montreal,
and New York, the conference included
a keynote speaker, student presenta-
tions, and a round table discussion. The
keynote was dr. Joseph Janes, Associate
Professor at the University of Washing-
ton’s Information School, and Founding
Director of the Internet Public Library,
who delighted participants with his
insights. Other presentations touched on
universal access and information poverty,
freedom of information and right to pri-
vacy, curation as the facilitation of access,
the Internet as library, and museums as
“access on display.” This annual confer-
ence provides students with an academic
platform in which to present and discuss
their work with peers, scholarly research-
ers, and information professionals and
practitioners.
PHd rEsEArcH dAy 2010
The enthusiastic response to last year’s
PhD Research Day resulted in the
expansion of this year’s event to two
days. On April 12 and 13, twenty students
presented their research to faculty, peers,
and a respondent panel—almost twice
as many participants as last year! The
event was organized by Professor david
Phillips, Associate Professor and Chair
of Doctoral Studies, and Areti Vourinaris,
Assistant to the Dean’s Office. “The format
of PhD Research Days gave students a
chance to clarify and hone their work, and
to present it to colleagues for their advice
and critique,” says Dr. Phillips. Doctoral
students enjoyed the exposure: “I think we
get wrapped up in our own research and
this was a great opportunity to step back
and hear what our peers are doing,” said
Melissa Fritz, who presented an overview
of her research, “Mom, Apple Pie, and
Policy: Examining the Social Construction
of the standard North American Family
in Canadian Child Care Policy Debates
(2004-2009).” The program included topics
ranging from “Online Support Groups
for People Living with Depression,” and
“Challenges with Frameworks for Privacy
Protection: Studying Systemic Failures,”
to “Preliminary Discussion of Research
on LGBT Archives and the Communities
They Serve,” and “Is Hearing Believing?
Perception of Online Information
Credibility by Screen Reader Users who
are Blind.”
l-r: Ia3c co-chairs, Patricia
ayala and laura Shtern
Free Graduate Course
for New Graduates
Those students who convocated
in November 2009, or March/June
2010, qualify for one free course
(maximum value $600) at the School
of Continuing Studies, 18 months
from the date of graduation.
For more information call:
416-978-2400
or drop by at: 158 St. george St.
lysanne lessard
4th annual Job & networking Fair

iscHooL sTudENTs
iNTErN AT THE
uNiTEd NATioNs
W
hat could be more exciting
than interning at the UN for the
summer? Being present for
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to
its headquarters, of course! Out of 6,800
applicants competing for this year’s sum-
mer internship program at the world’s
largest international institution, and out
of the eleven selected Canadians, three
were from the Faculty. First-year stu-
dents Andrea siemen, Janina Mueller
and Aileen cornelio looked on as the
Queen delivered her address to the UN
General Assembly (July 6, 2010). Aileen
worked with the UN Archives within the
Archives & Records Management Section
(UNARMS) of the Department of Man-
agement, implementing preservation
strategies on the archival records of the
Korean Reconstruction Agency series.
Janina’s internship involved cataloguing
the specialized journal collection at the
Library of the Division for Ocean Affairs
and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS), and
editing the 2009 edition of the annual
The Law of the Sea: A Select Bibliography.
Andrea worked as a conference officer
for the Department for General Assembly
and Conference Management, tasked
with creating a compendium that provides
subject access to resolutions pertaining to
conference management beginning with
the 40th session (1985) and continuing to
the present.
StudentNews
aWarDS & InternShIPS
andrea Siemen, Janina mueller and aileen cornelio

FiAA ouTsTANdiNG sTudENT
coNTriBuTioN AWArd
Student Council President (2009-2010),
Kim stymest, is the well-deserved winner
of this year’s FIAA Outstanding Student
Contribution Award (formerly the Jubilee
Award). Kim received a $500 cheque and
plaque in recognition of her influential
contribution to student life, participation
in professional organizations, academic
excellence, and publishing. Before being
elected President, Kim served as Student
Council vice-President, and joined the
editorial team of the Faculty of Information
Quarterly. As President, Kim participated
in Faculty Council and Graduate Student
Union meetings, and contributed to the
recent ALA Accreditation Panel. Under
her leadership, the student lounge on the
7th floor of Bissell (140 St. George) was
transformed into a welcoming space, now
frequented as both a work and a social
hub. Kim has also been active in librari-
anship, with memberships in OLA, SLA,
CLA, and ALA. She convened a session
at the OLA 2010 SuperConference, and
moderated a session at Information Ac-
cess: Commons, Control, Controversy, the
2nd annual University of Toronto iSchool
Student Conference. She was also a
poster presenter at the 2010 CLA National
Conference & Trade Show in Edmon-
ton. Kim’s paper, “The War on Women’s
Bodies: War Rape in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo,” will be published
in the inaugural issue of the Journal of the
Motherhood Institute. She is also a double
award winner this year, having been one
of the recipients of the Gordon Cressy
Awards. Congratulations to an outstand-
ing student!
iscHooL sTudENT cHosEN
For 2010 NELsoN MANdELA
iNTErNsHiP
Second-year MISt student Lindsay
chick spent her summer undertaking
archival and records management work
in South Africa with the Nelson Mandela
Foundation’s Centre of Memory. This
unforgettable internship was supported
by the continued generosity of Manulife
Financial, and provides iSchool students
with the chance to gain invaluable
international work experience. Lindsay
worked under the guidance of Verne
Harris, considered to be one of the
leading postmodern thinkers of archival
theory. As a professional archivist, Mr.
Harris helped transform South Africa’s
apartheid public records system. “I am
both thrilled and humbled to have the
opportunity to intern with the Centre of
Memory in Johannesburg,” Lindsay says.
She was excited about gaining “practical,
hands-on experience with records while
preserving the painful history of apartheid
and the legacy of a truly inspirational
individual.” Motivated by her goal to
promote social justice and education
through historical records, Lindsay
hopes to work as a reference archivist
in a repository of Holocaust collections,
“in order to expand research in the area,
maintain the legacy and memory of
survivors and victims, and to illuminate
issues of prejudice and intolerance.” You
can read about Lindsay’s experiences in
South Africa at http://lindsayinjoburg.
blogspot.com/.
At a special reception held by the Faculty
of Information Alumni Association after
Convocation in June, many of the 160
graduates gathered to celebrate and
honour those who won prizes for high
academic achievement and contributions
to the community. Award winners were:
MMst Awards valentine Moreno,
Maddie Knickerboxer, victoria Kushelnyk
ontario Library Association Anniversary
Prize Mark Bold and Christina Kim
(both with 3.97 grade averages)
Margaret canning Public Librarian Prize
Erin Anderson and Jessica Rovito
Library service centre Award of
Excellence in cataloguing
Erika Dickenson
Kathleen reeves Memorial Award
Kimberly Rawluk
ArMA Toronto chapter Award
Renee Chaput
douglas Armstrong Memorial Award
Jorge Rivera
Gertrude M. Boyle Memorial Award in
cataloguing Sarah vaisler
ontario Library Boards’ Association
Prize in Public Library Management
Li Chen
Jane Prescott Memorial Award
Jana Purmalis
sheridan Park Association Award
Dylanne Dearborn
Toronto Area Archivists’ Group Award
Emily Monks-Leeson
Toronto Health Libraries Associa-
tion Annual Prize in Health sciences
Librarianship
Louise Donnelly
William L. Graff Memorial Prize
James Murchison
rare Books and Manuscripts Award
Bridget Whittle
Beta Phi Mu Nominees Mark Bold,
Li Chen, Monique Flaccavento, Christina
Kim, Klara Maidenberg, Matthew
McPherson, Emily Monks-Leeson, James
Murchison, Stephanie Orfano, Alison
Schroeder, Tetiana Senyshyn, Erica
Sum, Lynette Terrill, Leslie Thomson,
Jacqueline Whyte Appleby
We welcome the graduates of 2010 as our
newest alumni and wish them all the best
as they advance in their careers.
coNGrATuLATioNs,
cLAss oF 2010!
lindsay chick
Kim Stymest

Kendra Ainsworth,
Art Gallery of Ontario
Heather Anderson,
National Gallery of Scotland
Jackie Awad,
Lindsay Bontoft,
University College London,
Petrie Museum
Diane Adele Boyer,
Todmorden Mills (Toronto)
Kathryn Browning,
Art Gallery of Alberta
Laura Bydlowska,
Royal Academy of Arts
Michelle Chan,
Royal BC Museum
Rheanne Chartrand,
National Museum of the
American Indian
Michael Devaney,
Royal Ontario Museum
vanessa Fleet,
Dana Fragomeni,
Todmorden Mills (Toronto)
Meaghan Anne Froh,
Canadian National
Exhibition Archives
Kimberly Ginge,
Guggenheim Museum
Sarah Lynn Heim,
Toronto Photographers
Workshop
Rachel Clare Keeling,
Canada Helps
Kristen Jade Kerr,
Ashmolean Museum
(Oxford)
Mairin Shields Kerr,
Getty Villa (Malibu,
California)
Martha Helena Kroeker,
Grace Lam,
National Museum of
Ireland
Berrit Natalie Larsen,
Heritage Village (Calgary)
Lianne Catherine
Maitland,
Markham Museum
Rebecca Jane McGuire,
Shout Out Media
Erin Beau McIntyre,
Samantha Morel,
Science North (Sudbury)
Diana G. Moser,
City of Hamilton,
Culture Division
Megan Alicia O‘Connor,
American School of
Archaeology (Athens)
Roberta Petracca,
Markham Museum
Cynthia Rebeca
Roberts Perez,
Museum of Architecture,
MIT (Boston)
Elizabeth Rodriguez,
Museum of Performance &
Design (San Francisco)
Patricia Marion Small,
Brant Museum
(Burlington, ON)
Jilana Elizabeth Stewart,
National Museum of Art
and Design (New York)
Kristin Emily Stoesz,
Gardiner Museum
Kelly Torrens,
Lisa Truong,
Museum of Anthropology
(UBC)
Jennifer Mary Winter,
Catherine Grace Woltz,
Holy Trinity Church
(Stratford-upon-Avon)
Yan Zhou,
Cassandra Zita,
Schneider House (Waterloo)
MusEuM sTudiEs
iNTErNsHiPs
This summer, the Masters of
Museum Studies program saw
a twenty five per cent increase
in the number of first-year
student internships. Forty stu-
dents completed twelve-week
internships both in and around
Toronto and in cities as far away
as San Francisco, Edinburgh,
and Athens. In the fall, the
Faculty will host an internship
day during which students will
present posters and talks sum-
marizing their experiences and
celebrating their achievements.
Placements offer students
opportunities to work hands-on
with industry professionals,
gaining valuable experience.
The following is a list of stu-
dents and their placements:
StudentNews
aWarDS & InternShIPS
THrEE iscHooL
sTudENTs HoNourEd
WiTH GordoN crEssy
AWArd
O
n April 15, second-year students
Maddie Knickbocker (MMSt), Kim
stymest (MISt), and Erica sum
(MISt) were recognized with the prestigious
Gordon Cressy Award for outstanding
extra-curricular contributions to their
faculty and to the university as a whole.
Maddie Knickbocker served as Social
Chair and vice-President of the Museum
Studies Graduate Student Association.
With a colleague, she curated a panel of
museum scholars in the “Taking Stock”
conference, April 22-24. Kim Stymest was
President of the Faculty of Information
Student Council. Her accomplishments
include spearheading high-tech renova-
tions to the student lounge, mentoring
and actively recruiting students, and
managing the Student Council’s website.
Erica Sum is known for her inspiring
advocacy for children and youth, including
stimulating library service to Aboriginal
youth. She served on the Student Council
and Faculty Council with distinction, and
was also a student liaison for the Cana-
dian Association of Special Libraries and
Information Services. The awards were
established in 1994 in honour of Gordon
Cressy, former U of T vice-President of
Development and University Relations.
l-r: gordon cressy award winners: Kim Stymest
and erica Sum (absent: maddie Knickbocker)

StudentNotes

M
argaret lam is a very busy person. Besides working as a graphic designer and undertaking
part-time studies at the iSchool, she is the founding member and orchestra librarian of the
Sneak Peek Orchestra, as well as a member of the Toronto Heliconian Club.
Although well-versed in music and graphic design, Margaret came to the Faculty of Information
with little knowledge of Information Science. She was impressed by the range of expertise and the
variety of courses offered at the iSchool, and sensed that it would be a great place to explore topics in
which she was interested. The Faculty’s Knowledge Media Design Institute provided the perfect
program for Margaret.
This year she will complete her thesis option on the effectiveness of acquiring music knowledge
through online resources, such as information and communication technologies (ICT), instead of the
traditional method of being taught in person by a teacher. In April 2010, she had the exciting opportunity
to attend the British Forum for Ethnomusicology - “Music Knowledge” conference in the United
Kingdom where she shared and exchanged ideas about music and gained invaluable insights from
people outside the information technology field. If she hadn’t attended the conference, she would not
have had the pleasure of meeting Kiku Day, a jinashi shakuhachi player who teaches via Skype, the
online voice and video networking software.
Entering the 2010-11 academic year, Margaret found out that she won the Joseph-Armand
Bombardier scholarship worth $17,500 from a SSHRC grant. She will work on her thesis, “Online Music
Knowledge: The Case of the Non-Musician”, where she explores information behaviour in the context
of domain specific knowledge, in this case, music. Once she graduates, she plans to stay in the field of
graphic design and to pursue her own business that involves online music information. By Lina Wang
STUDENT PROFILE
MusEuM sTudiEs sTudENT
ExHiBiTioN ProJEcTs
Second-year Museum Studies students in
the Exhibition Project Class annually curate a
variety of exhibitions at locations ranging from
Robarts Library to Toronto Pearson Interna-
tional Airport, providing emerging museum
practitioners with professional curatorial expe-
rience. Some students collaborate with partner
organizations to produce exhibitions, while oth-
ers create, plan, and design original projects.
This year, twenty-five students produced fifteen
projects and major research papers. Exhibi-
tions of varying lengths took place between
November and May 2010 in Toronto, Homer
(Alaska), and New Orleans (Louisiana) and
covered a broad spectrum of topics, includ-
ing a collection of unusual artifacts belonging
to an affluent “pseudo”-victorian gentleman;
an exploration of the significance of the white
wedding tradition; a multi-media exhibit trac-
ing the 18th
-century expulsion of Acadians from
Nova Scotia and their settlement in Louisiana,
through the evolution and eventual 20th
-century
commercialization of Cajun food and culture;
and an exhibit on the whimsical world of
children’s toys. Research papers were equally
diverse, and included a discussion of historical
shifts in the presentation of culturally sensitive
indigenous materials in Australian digital col-
lections; an examination of the implementation
of current cultural policy at heritage sites in
the city of Athens; and an illustrated catalogue
documenting the work of Canadian artist and
designer Dora de Pédery-Hunt.
FuTurE oF THE ProFEssioN:
sTudENT ProFEssioNAL
dEVELoPMENT surVEy
MISt second-year student, Kate Petch, and
new graduate, Kim stymest, presented find-
ings of their research survey, “The Future of
the Profession: Student Professional Develop-
ment at the iSchool,” at the 2010 CLA National
Conference & Trade Show in Edmonton. The
25-question survey collected both quantitative
and qualitative data from MISt students over
a six-week period in order to ascertain student
perceptions of coursework, professional
development, and the future career goals of
those attending the iSchool. Findings show a
contrast in career goals and choices between
the summers of 2008 and 2009, as well as a
reduction in wages between the years: in 2009,
more students earned hourly rates in the $19-
$20.99 range than in the $21-$24.99 range.
Public librarianship remained a popular career
preference, however, only 12.5 per cent of
students found summer work in public libraries,
a decrease from 2008. Nevertheless, job satis-
faction remained quite high in both years, with a
large majority of students finding well-paid work
in fields of interest. “These promising results
suggest that information organizations are doing
well, matching students with their desired areas
of work. We believe that the increase in career
goal changes, coinciding with the increase in
‘Other’ work opportunities, is reflective of the
growing diversity of job prospects in the infor-
mation professions,” the survey report stated.
They suggest future studies include employer
surveys to supplement student views, and the
collection of data to form a broader picture by
contrasting the positions of new graduates with
those of students in summer positions, and
those in mid-degree studies.
FaCulTy OF INFOrmaTION
QuarTerly ENTErs 3rd yEAr
The Faculty of Information Quarterly has launched
its third year of publication. Over the past year,
graduate students solidified the journal as a
forum for the voices of emerging and estab-
lished scholars and practitioners in diverse
information fields. The latest issue features
a special section with coursework from Prof.
Andrew clement’s and dr. Adam Fiser’s fall
2009 class, INF1001 - Knowledge and Informa-
tion in Society. To contact the editors, please
e-mail fiquarterly@gmail.com.Follow them on
Facebook and on Twitter at @fiquarterly. To
view the latest edition, visit: https://fiq.ischool.
utoronto.ca/index.php/fiq
Master of Museum Studies Program
Faculty of Information
University of Toronto
Instructors: Dr. Matthew Brower and Dr. Jennifer Carter
Project celebration: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Debates Room, Hart House, University of Toronto
7-11pm Speeches at 7:30
Special thanks to the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto; Art Niemi at Atlanta Visual Communications;
and to all our partners and collaborators listed on the reverse who have made the projects possible.
15GRADUATING
EXHIBITION
PROJECTS
AND MAJOR
RESEARCH
PAPERS
09 10
cLicK To rEAd
oN-LiNE >

iscHooL LAuNcHEs diGiTAL
curATioN iNsTiTuTE
P
rofessor cheryl Misak, vice-President and Provost of the
University of Toronto, and dr. daniel J. caron, Librarian
and Archivist of Canada, joined Professor Wendy duff
to launch the iSchool’s newly created Digital Curation Institute
(DCI). The Institute was officially introduced at “Curation Matters:
The First Digital Curation Institute Conference,” on June 16, to
participants’ delight. The DCI was founded by Prof. Duff—an idea
that she says came naturally, given that “the concept of curating
objects is one that the entire Faculty is involved in.” She notes
that the DCI’s significance extends beyond the Faculty’s uses:
“Everybody’s creating data but it’s not being managed very well,
which is important so it can be used over time.”
dean seamus ross remarked that Prof. Duff’s expertise
makes her an ideal individual to champion an institute that must
lead a fundamental redefinition of the field of inquiry if it is to
advance both theory and practice. “Professor Duff’s investiga-
tions in the area of archival users and access to archival materi-
als have led to publications that others acknowledge as having
fundamentally moved the field forward,” says dean ross, adding
that her scholarly publications are required reading for archival
students in many North American institutions.
The DCI offers a rich, interdisciplinary environment for in-
vestigating principles and theory building related to the creation,
management, use, interpretation, and preservation of digital
resources. It will also provide the Faculty with a framework
on which to establish international research collaborations in
a problem domain that is of central social and economic sig-
nificance to contemporary society. The Institute will work with
notable guest speakers who have contributed to shaping the
current research in the field, and members of Faculty of Informa-
tion, to define a research agenda that can form the foundation
for the DCI’s initial focus. In distinguishing it from other digital
curation centres in the world, Prof. Duff notes that this is the only
such centre situated in an iSchool faculty, with the benefit of DCI
research being “flavoured” by multi-disciplinary expertise, “with
insights from critical theory, philosophy, museology, archives,
and information technology.”
iscHooL iNsTiTuTE BuiLds
oN ProFEssioNAL LEArNiNG
cENTrE FouNdATioN
T
he Faculty of Information is proud to have launched the
iSchool Institute, formerly the Professional Learning
Centre (PLC), which will enable us to engage with a wider
community of professionals and the broader public. The Insti-
tute will build on the decade of success that the PLC has seen,
providing continuing education for information professionals. The
Institute will also add more workshops aimed at senior manag-
ers, entrepreneurs, and other leaders in the community who are
l–r: Dean Seamus ross, Dr. Daniel J. caron,
Prof. cheryl misak, Prof. Wendy Duff
marshall mcluhan teaching his
class at the coach house.
Spotlight on
InstitutesBy Adeela Ahmad & Kathleen O’Brien
Photocredit:UniversityofTorontoArchives,RobertLansdaleCollection.

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