Speaker Profiles

Click on the individual's name to view an abstract of their presentation.

Erin Alcock has been a Science Research Liaison Librarian at Memorial University of Newfoundland since 2007, liaising with the departments of Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry and the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation. She is very interested in information literacy, particularly for students in the sciences, as well as, open publishing models. Erin is the Chair of this year's APLA Conference Planning committee and hopes everyone has a fun and informative time in St. John's.

Jason Alcorn has been a Trustee with the Saint John Free Public Library since 2007. Jason was appointed Vice-Chair of the board in 2010. Since his call to the New Brunswick Bar in 2006, he has worked exclusively for the New Brunswick Securities Commission. Jason is an alumnus of both the University of New Brunswick (Saint John) (B.A., 1998) and the Faculty of Law at the Université de Moncton (2005, LL.B.). Jason also studied abroad at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, earning a Master's Degree in International Affairs in 2001.

Linda Bedwell is a Reference and Instruction Librarian at Dalhousie University?s Killam Library. She is a past co-chair of the Novanet Emerging Services and Live Help committees. Her current interests are in library assessment and user experience. She has presented on user-experience, online reference and other emerging services in various venues including the 2008 APLA Conference in Charlottetown, PEI.

Melissa Belvadi has been a librarian at UPEI for almost 3 years. Before that, she was a librarian at first a large public, then a small private university in St. Louis Missouri in the US. She got her MLS from UCLA in 1993. Prior to that she taught AP computer science and worked in various jobs in IT in California. She is an American, originally from the New England region.

Heather Berringer has been working in Sales at YBP Library Services for the past three years, starting out as Collection Development Librarian for Eastern Canada and then becoming Canadian Sales Director in late 2010. A graduate of Dalhousie University's School of Library and Information Studies, she began her career in academic libraries - primarily in reference and instruction - and worked at Acadia University, York University, Dalhousie University and Carleton University before she decided to jump ship and explore the corporate universe. Heather is based in New Hampshire, remains an avid conference junkie, and maintains that she continues to answer reference questions for a living, but now does it in her pyjamas. She has more Aeroplan points and hotel status than any of her friends.

Daniel Boivin is Executive Director of OCLC Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. In his present role, he oversees the management of these two OCLC divisions. Before joining OCLC in 1997, he was, through his company, Textel db, the official distributor for Chadwyck-Healey products in Canada. He started his company after being an Account Manager for DRA/MultiLIS. Before joining DRA/MultiLIS, he spent three years as a librarian with the Canadian Institute of Scientific and Technological Information (CISTI), first as Cataloguer and then as part of the Customer Service division, and Laurentian University in Sudbury. He has delivered many presentations at CLA, provincial library associations and library events in Latin America and the Caribbean always related to technology and/or library trends. In fact, Daniel has now over 20 years of experience with automation and electronic content management since he got his M.L.I.S. degree from the University of Montreal in 1987. He also holds an MBA from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University that he completed in 2003.

Lise Brin came to librarianship after completing a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Film & Video Production from York University. She spent a few years working in film and video production, and several more as an arts administrator in Toronto's film festival circuit. Lise completed her MLIS at the Dalhousie School of Information Management in 2008, after which she took on the intriguing and exciting newly created title of Emerging Services Librarian at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS. She has recently embarked on two new exciting projects: participation in Knowledge for All as a board member, and parenthood.

Nicole Dixon is an award-winning short story writer who holds a BA and MA in creative writing and English, a BEd, and is currently completing a Master of Library and Information Studies at Dalhousie University.

Dan Duda is the Map Librarian in the QE II Library. He attained his Masters in Library and Information Studies from the University of Alberta in 1999 and has been working at Memorial since 2001, and became the Map Librarian in April 2005. Dan's first degree, an Honours in History from the University of Alberta (1987), became the basis for his work in the William C. Wonders Map Collection at the University of Alberta, where he decided to pursue his career in librarianship.

Sue Fahey is a Public Services Librarian at the Health Sciences Library, Memorial University Libraries. She is currently the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Knowledge Information Network Co-coordinator, CANMEDLIB List Moderator and Evidence Based Librarianship Interest Group Co-convenor. Current professional interests include usability, evidence based practice, and designing an effective web presence.

Alison Farrell is a Public Services Librarian and Instruction Coordinator at Memorial University's Health Sciences Library. Alison graduated from Acadia University in 2000, Dalhousie University in 2003 and has been working at Memorial since 2004. She acts as library liaison to the Departments of Pediatrics, Clinical Medicine and Family Medicine. Her research interests lie in the areas of information literacy assessment and evidence based practice.

Ian Gibson has been Science Liaison Librarian at Memorial University Libraries since 2007 with responsibility for Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics and Physics and PhysicalOceanography. Since 2009, he has also served as Music Librarian. Ian's interests include Open Access publishing, alternative forms of peer-review, and finding new ways to get his science and engineering patrons to use the expensive toys he buys them more frequently.

Lisa Goddard is the Emerging Services Librarian at Memorial University Libraries. She currently manages a number of the library's new scholarly communications initiatives, including the digital archive, research repository, ejournal hosting platform, and electronic thesis dissemination system. Lisa was previously the Head of Systems for Memorial Libraries. She holds degrees from Queen's, McGill, and Memorial. Current professional interests include Open Access evangelism, semantic web technologies, digital publishing & preservation, & humanities computing.

Shannon Gordon is a Public Services Librarian at Memorial University's Health Sciences Library. She currently liaises with the disciplines of Oncology, Anesthesia, Surgery, Orthopaedics as well as the Newfoundland & Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research. Her work involves providing research support to students, faculty, residents, physicians and other health professionals. She holds degrees from the University of Western Ontario and Memorial University. Her current professional interests include open access, information seeking behaviour and evidence-based practice.

Trina Grover is a cataloguer at Ryerson University library and teaches a course on metadata for visual collections in the graduate program in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management at Ryerson. She is a member of the Canadian Committee on MARC. She is working with cataloguers across the country and with staff at the Library and Archives Canada to prepare for the implementation of RDA in Canada.

Amanda Horsman is the medical librarian at Universite de Moncton and the Convenor for APLA's Information Literacy Interest Group. She has library experience in government, public, and academic environments in addition to years of customer service experience. Before completing her MLIS degree in 2008 from Dalhousie University, Amanda achieved Dean's List and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Sociology in 2006 from Saint Mary's University. Her undergraduate thesis was on the social language Chiac which is spoken by Acadian youth in Greater Moncton. More recently, Amanda authored an article in the APLA bulletin on her experiences of presenting Anglophone resources in a Francophone environment.

Vivian Howard is an assistant professor in the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University where she teaches classes in Reading Practices, Management, and Services and Resources for Children and Young Adults. She is also academic Director of the Bachelor of Management Program and editor of the YA Hotline Newsletter.

Karen Keiller, MLIS, Director of Information Services and Systems, University of New Brunswick Saint John

Keith Lawson teaches electronic text design, communications, and courses on technology and the social impact of technology in the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University. He has worked on a number of Digital Humanities projects.

Courtney Lundrigan is originally from Newfoundland, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Master of Arts (Canadian History) from Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. She started the Master of Library and Information Science degree at the University of Western Ontario in September 2009 and is currently in her last semester of study. She has acted as Vice-Chair for the UWO chapters of Librarians Without Borders and the Canadian Library Association. She remains active in the UWO Student Chapter of the CLA. Courtney has completed co-op placements at both the Health Sciences Library at Memorial in St. John's and Ryerson University in Toronto, where she is currently on an extended co-op placement. Upon graduation, she hopes to work as a Reference/Instruction Librarian in an academic library. Her research interests include information literacy, GIS in academic reference services, Historical GIS, conservation and preservation of cartographic materials, and collective bargaining history in academic libraries

Beth Maddigan is the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries' Children's Librarian and a Children's Literature instructor for the Faculty of Education at Memorial University. During her 12 years as the Co-ordinator of Children's Services at the Cambridge Libraries & Galleries in Ontario, Beth co-authored two resource books for staff working with children and presented dozens of workshops and staff seminars.

Joyline Makani has worked as the management and economics librarian at Dalhousie University for over ten years. As a subject specialist her primary areas of responsibility with regards to collection management and development include business, commerce, economics, information management, and public administration. She also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie. She holds MLIS and MBA degrees from Dalhousie University and is currently working on her PhD in knowledge management.

Slavko Manojlovich is the Associate University Librarian (IT) at Memorial University of Newfoundland where, for the past six years, he has been responsible for developing and managing the Digital Archives Initiative (DAI). The DAI includes more than a million digital objects in a variety of formats occupying more than 4 terabytes of disk storage. Slavko spent 2010 on sabbatical leave in the UK doing research on digital preservation best practices which will insure the long-term access to and usability of the DAI's rich historical, cultural and scholarly resources.

Julia Mayo has worked in the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries for a little over 4 years and considers herself a highly motivated program enthusiast. She delivers both adult and children's programs at a small but powerful branch library.

David Mercer holds as Master of Science in Geography from Memorial (1996) and has worked in the in the Cartographic Labs at Memorial's Department of Geography and the University of Western Ontario. After a brief period working as a graphic designer with the division of Marketing and Communications at Memorial, he returned to his love of cartography joining the Map Room at the Queen Elizabeth II Library in November 2007.

Pamela Morgan is the Information Resources Librarian at the Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Previous to this position, she was Assistant Head of Technical Services and then Systems Librarian also at the Health Sciences Library, and worked as a solo librarian at the Topsail Road Campus of the Cabot Institute of Applied Arts and Technology. She holds a M.L.I.S. from McGill, and a B.A and M.B.A. from Memorial. Her research interests include all aspects of technical services, particularly collections evaluation.

Donald Moses, a graduate of the University of Western Ontario's MLIS program is the Collections and eResources Librarian at the Robertson Library, University of Prince Edward Island and manages many of the digitization projects undertaken at UPEI. Prior to that he was the Systems and Web Services Librarian at Holland College. In his spare time he likes to make things.

Pat Parsons is Manager of 33 small- medium public libraries in Central Newfoundland. She got her first public library card at 5 years old when the new library opened in Grand Falls. She has a B.A./B.Ed from MUN and went on to McGill for her MLIS. She graduated from there in May 1979, and started with NLPL in September, 1979, as Regional Librarian. She manages 33 public libraries in Central NL, which present a variety of challenges every day!

Rita Roberts has worked with the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries for more than 30 years. Over the course of her career she has acquired extensive experience in developing and delivering both adult and children's program.

Wendy Robicheau B.A., LT Dip, M.A., is an Archivist at Acadia University. During her career, she has worked with the archives of Saint Mary's University, Cape Breton University (the Beaton Institute), and Acadia University as well as Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management. Robicheau has worked closely with the Council of Nova Scotia Archives, the Iona Heritage Connection, and the Kings-Hants Heritage Connection to further the interest of heritage in Nova Scotia. Her research interests include the development and implementation of information literacy programs for students and the creation of stronger finding aids. In the past, Robicheau has researched and written about archival databases, specifically ArchWay: Nova Scotia's Archival Database.\

Crystal Rose is a Public Services Librarian at the Ferriss Hodgett Library, located on Memorial University's Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, NL. She holds a M.L.I.S. from Dalhousie, and a B.F.A. from Simon Fraser.

Dean Seeman has been a Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Memorial University of Newfoundland since 2008. He catalogues rare book and special collection material and works with digital object description on Memorial's Digital Archive Initiative (DAI). Previously he worked at the University of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, cataloguing a special collection (the John Henry Newman Collection). His research interests include digital library description, metadata tools and workflow, and Linked Data.

Ann Smith is a Science Liaison librarian atAcadia University. She is the liaison librarian for Computer Science, Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Maths & Statistics. Prior to this she was a liaison librarian at both Aston University and the University of Glamorgan, in the United Kingdom. Her research interests include open access publishing, in particular, and scholarly communication, in general. She is the Theory & Research Section Editor for the open access journal Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research. In her spare time she reads stuff and is a purveyor of Northern English slang.

Joanne Smyth is a reference librarian at the Harriet Irving Library, UNB Fredericton campus. She is also liaison librarian for History, Political Science, and Religious Studies for both UNB and STU, and oversees services to distance education students in all studies. She loves the Reference Desk, as both a point of contact with users and a foundation for musings about library service.

Dr. Louise Spiteri is Director, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University. Dr. Spiteri teaches in the areas of the organization of information, cataloguing, metadata, and records management. Dr. Spiteri's research focus over the past few years has been upon using social applications to enhance user interaction with library catalogues and to facilitate user-generated metadata.

Michelle Stuckless is Library Technician III at Gander Public Library, managing this busy library. She began her career with NL Public Libraries in 1987 and worked as Library Technician I at Glenwood Library for 21 years before securing a promotional transfer to Gander in 2008.

Laurel Tarulli is the Collection Access Librarian at Halifax Public Libraries. She is also the author of the blog The Cataloguing Librarian and a consultant for NoveList. Her research and interests focus on collaboration between frontline and backroom staff, next generation catalogues as community spaces and examining the potential of the library catalogue in readers' advisory services.

Suzanne van den Hoogen received her BA from St. Mary's University in 1991. She worked in academic libraries for more than ten years in increasingly responsible positions, culminating in Manager of Access Services at the Angus L. Macdonald Library in 2005. Motivated by her enthusiasm and love for her work, Suzanne made the decision in 2007 to attend graduate school. She received her MLIS from the Dalhousie School of Information Management in 2009. Suzanne is currently employed as an academic librarian with St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS, where she serves as liaison librarian for Anthropology, Canadian Studies, History, Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies. She is the Librarian in Residence at the Gerald Schwartz School of Business, the current Chair of the Novanet Lending Committee, and a founding member of the Nova Scotia Borrow Anywhere Return Anywhere project. Suzanne currently lives in Antigonish, NS.

Danielle Westbrook is a student in the Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of British Columbia (UBC). During the Fall 2010 term, she worked at the Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, for a four-month co-op placement. Currently, she works as a student librarian at UBC's Music Library, providing reference support and managing a collections analysis project. Her current professional interests include: collections management and its implications for technical services; information seeking behaviour; and the information design of electronic documents. She holds two degrees from the University of Toronto.