Speakers will be updated regularly as we get confirmation of their sessions (more coming!).
Keynote Speakers
Roy Tennant
What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Roy Tennant is a Senior Program Officer at OCLC Research. This sounds more impressive than it is, but he will not admit that until the fourth beer. He has somehow escaped unconvicted after working previously at the California Digital Library and the University of California, Berkeley, although he is strangely silent on the question about whether they are still looking for him. Other crimes that can be laid at his door include starting the Web4Lib electronic discussion — the bane of the lives of so many innocent web managers. Current Cites, that monthly rag that purports to be a current awareness newsletter is also his doing. But his crime spree hardly ends there. He has foisted five of the most inexcusable and excruciating manuscripts on an unsuspecting readership that some publisher has seen fit to be bribed to publish. We shall not raise them to the level of real “books” by naming them. Other dastardly deeds include building treehouses, rafting rivers, and — lord save us all! — fathering two children.
Jon Voss
Can One Story Can Change the World?
David Binkley Memorial Lecture
Jon Voss has innovated solutions and community engagement on “big picture” problems for fifteen years. In the mid-nineties, his early work on social responsibility led him to develop new business practices for music festivals and rock stars through his work with the Tibetan Freedom Concerts and artists like the Beastie Boys, David Crosby and Wyclef Jean. A decade later, he helped religious communities and other institutions develop and implement technology infrastructure and strategies that fit with their beliefs, cultures and daily practice. He served as the IT Director for the San Francisco Zen Center before running his own IT consulting firm for 7 years.
Today, Jon is the Historypin Strategic Partnerships Director at We Are What We Do, a global not-for-profit behavior change agency. Jon is helping to build an open ecosystem of historical data across libraries, archives, and museums worldwide through his work with Historypin and as one of the organizers of the International Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives & Museum Summit.
Rachel Frick
Community, understanding, courage and honesty
Rachel L. Frick is the Director of the Digital Library Federation Program at the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR/DLF ). She was part of the Digital Public Library of American start-up effort, as co-chair of the Content and Scope Workstream, and continues to contribute as co-chair of the Content Strategy Committee. Previous to her work at CLIR, Rachel served as the National Leadership Grants Program for Libraries senior program officer at the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Ms. Frick’s library experiences range from being the head of bibliographic access and digital services at the University of Richmond to a regional sales manager for the Faxon Company, with a variety of library positions in between. She holds an MSLS degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in English literature from Guilford College.
Speakers
Dale Askey
Culture Clash: IT Experimentation, Innovation, and Failure in Libraries
Dale Askey currently serves as the Associate University Librarian at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, where he also occupies the role of Administrative Director of the Lewis & Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship. He has filled a wide range of roles in libraries, primarily in collection development, public services, Web services, and information technology management. After starting out in libraries and IT at Washington University in St. Louis, he embarked on his professional library career at the University of Utah, with subsequent stays at Yale University and Kansas State University before joining McMaster in 2011. In 2009-2010, he was a visiting professor in electronic publishing and multimedia at the University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, teaching in their library science, publishing, and museum studies programs. His ongoing research project is to document the cultural manifestations of the German-speaking minority that remained in the Czech and Slovak Republics after the 1946 expulsion decrees. He publishes and speaks frequently in Germany on various topics from the North American library world, and is currently translating the standard work on German libraries into English for publication in 2014.
Peter Binkley
First Decade Done and Dusted
Native of Durham, NC, but since 1966 a resident of Canada. I have a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto. My research included an interest in medieval information systems, such as the development of alphabetical reference tools in the 13th century. I spent four years as a post-doc at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, working on medieval encyclopaedias. After that, the academic job market of the mid-90s being what it was, I went to library school. Since 2001 I’ve been the Digital Initiatives Technology Librarian at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My first job was to implement our first link resolver (SFX), and I’ve made contributions to the technology. My main work now is in digitization and digital preservation.
Jason Casden
Building crowdsourced photographic collections with lentil and Instagram
Jason Casden is the Lead Librarian for the Digital Services Development group at the North Carolina State University Libraries, where he helps to develop and implement scalable digital library applications. He is the project manager as well as a software developer for the “My #HuntLibrary” and open-source “lentil” community-driven photographic student documentation projects. Jason has served as a project or technical lead for several projects designed to help the NCSU and wider library community interact with library resources, services, and spaces in new ways. These include the open-source “Suma” project, a tablet-based physical space and service analytics toolkit; the “WolfWalk” geo-enhanced mobile guide to the history of NCSU; and the “Library Course Tools” system for integrating dynamically-generated course-centric library content in various contexts. Jason strives to contribute actively to conversations about the intersection of technology and services in libraries.
Jason Clark
Building a Better Book (in the browser): Using HTML5 to Transform and Unlock Book Content
As head of Digital Access and Web Services, Jason A. Clark builds library web applications and sets digital content strategies for Montana State University Library. He writes and presents on a broad range of topics including mobile design & development, web services & mashups, metadata & digitization, Javascript, interface design, and application development. When he doesn’t have metadata and APIs on the brain, He likes to hike the mountains of Montana with his wife, Jennifer, their daughter, Piper, and their dog, Oakley. You can find him online at http://jasonclark.info/ or on the twitters at @jaclark. You can reach him by email at jaclark@montana.edu.
Corey Davis
Can they scale? Library discovery tools and new forms of scholarly communication
Corey Davis grew up in small-town Alberta but eventually made his way to the West Coast. After heading up the Technical Services department at Royal Roads University, he is now a Systems Librarian at the University of Victoria Libraries.
John Fink
Linux Containers and Docker: A New Sort-Of Virtualization Framework That Will Leave You Confused, Yet Excited For The Future Of Virtualization Technologies, If That’s The Sort Of Thing You Usually Get Confused and/or Excited By (Lightning talk)
John Fink is the Digital Scholarship Librarian in the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship at McMaster University. While the brunt of his work deals with Linux software and project management, he is interested in copyright, extremely slow food, bicycling, and longboards.
Alex Garnett
Building a Local Dropbox Alternative to Facilitate Data Deposit
Alex Garnett is data curation and digital preservation specialist at SFU library. He likes well-maintained database tables, cold pizza, and Teddy Roosevelt.
Todd Holbrook
The SFU Library Open Data API
Todd Holbrook has been a software developer at Simon Fraser University for over ten years. His primary focus has been the development of the open source CUFTS OpenURL resolver, electronic journal knowledgebase and ERM system. He is also responsible for working with a number of open source packages such as Drupal to handle other needs in the library. When he’s not in front of the computer, he can be found wandering the hiking trails of BC or traveling abroad, camera in hand.
Mark Jordan
Culture Clash: IT Experimentation, Innovation, and Failure in Libraries
“Why is this link dead? Aren’t government publications all online?” Preserving digital federal content with the Canadian Government Information Private LOCKSS Network
Mark spends a lot of time making various repository platforms talk to one another. He is Head of Library Systems at Simon Fraser University.
Paul Joseph
Integrating Course Reserves as a Service in the LMS at UBC
Paul Joseph is a Systems Librarian and Manager for Programming and Web Services at UBC Library. He manages a variety of software and web development projects, including the EZproxy Wondertool (http://code.google.com/p/wondertool) and the Mondo Grinder License Database (http://code.google.com/p/mondo-license-grinder), and oversees the maintenance of several library systems with a small team of hard working programmers. Paul has also been the Systems and Technical Services Librarian at the Emily Carr University Library, an Information Architect at the BBC, and has had other librarian positions at the CBC, Natural Resources Canada and the Vancouver Public Library. Prior to his professional career as a librarian, he was a forest engineer designing logging roads in valleys along the rugged coast of British Columbia.
Calvin Mah
The SFU Library Open Data API
Steve Marks
It’s dangerous to go alone! How about *we* do this?
Steve Marks is the Digital Preservation Librarian at Scholars Portal. His recent projects have included the certification of Scholars Portal as a Trustworthy Digital Repository, and helping in the establishment of the Canadian Polar Data Network: an inter-sectoral partnership to preserve data generated by Canadian research in the arctic. His other research interests include modeling of information systems and the preservation of new media, including video games.
Kim Martin
On the Road: Adventures in Mobile Hackery (Lightning talk)
Kim Martin is an LIS PhD candidate at Western University. Her research includes conducting mini ethnographies with folks who work at the intersection of digital tools and humanist research. She lives in London, ON, where she is busies herself with a passion for community involvement and a strange desire to create a maker space out of an old bus.
Steven Marsden
Bookfinder: Find your books fast! (Lightning talk)
I am the Library Systems Analyst at Ryerson University & Archives, and have a background in Computer Science . I have been working at Ryerson since 2010, and I am part of a small team of developers whose main responsibilities focus on developing and maintaining many innovative web projects (including our ‘BookFinder’) to help support the needs of our students and staff.
In May 2013, my team and I won the 2013 CLA/OCLC Award for Innovative Technology for our BookFinder web application, and in 2011 I was the recipient of the OLITA Award for Technological Innovation for my involvement in Ryerson Mobile (our campus mobile application).
Andrew Nagy
Reinventing Discovery: An analysis of Big Data
Andrew Nagy is a Senior Product Manager at Serials Solutions. Since joining the company in 2008, he has played a key role with the development team that built and launched the Summon service. In his current role, he is responsible for the User Experience and Search components for Summon as well as it’s API. Prior to joining Serials Solutions, Andrew was a Technology Development Specialist at Villanova University, where he developed VuFind, an open source search engine for the library, amongst many other home-grown library management services. Andrew’s education includes a B.S., Information Management and Technology from Syracuse University, M.S., Computer Science from Villanova University and Master of Technology Management from Villanova University School of Business.
Sam Popowich
Interoperability with Blacklight, EDS, and Fedora (Lightning talk)
Sam Popowich graduated from Dalhousie’s School of Information Management in 2007. From 2008 to 2011 he was the Emerging Technologies Librarian at the University of Ottawa. He has been with the University of Alberta since September 2011. Sam also holds a Master’s degree in Music and Culture from Carleton University. He codes primarily in Ruby, and plays the mandolin.
Heather Pretty
From the Cloud to the Ground: Cataloguing, Linked Data and RDA Search Strategies
Heather Pretty has been a Cataloguing Librarian at Memorial University of Newfoundland since 2009. Her primary cataloguing responsibilities are for music, Centre for Newfoundland Studies, and audiovisual materials. She is the lead for authority maintenance for Memorial University of Newfoundland Libraries, and the sole NACO Liaison in Newfoundland and Labrador. She completed the Program for Cooperative Cataloging RDA Authority training in October 2012.
Nick Ruest
Getting sh*t done in the digital archives
It’s dangerous to go alone! How about *we* do this?
Nick Ruest is the Digital Assets Librarian at York University. He oversees the development of data curation, asset management and preservation initiatives, along with creating and implementing systems that support the capture, description, delivery, and preservation of digital objects having significant content of enduring values. He is also active in the Islandora community, and contributes code to the project. In the past he has served as the President of the Ontario Library and Technology Association, and McMaster University Academic Librarians’ Association. Nick is also rumoured to be Surnom de Gorille. The bass player of a horrible Toronto based garage band.
Anna St. Onge
Getting sh*t done in the digital archives
Anna St.Onge is archivist in charge of Digital Projects and Outreach at the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections at York University in Toronto. She holds a B.A. in History and Celtic Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Information Studies degree from the University of Toronto with a specialization in Archival Studies and Book History & Print Culture. Currently chair Archeion (a web-based repository of the province of Ontario’s archival descriptions and virtual exhibits) she has published on the archival legacy of Dutch spiritual writer Henri Nouwen and Canadian writer Sheila Watson.
Catelynne Sahadath
From the Cloud to the Ground: Cataloguing, Linked Data and RDA Search Strategies
Catelynne Sahadath began her role as Metadata Librarian at the University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources in May 2013, and is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of British Columbia. She has completed RDA coursework from the University of North Texas. Her current responsibilities include metadata project work, as well as leading the implementation of RDA at the University of Calgary.
Catherine Steeves
Culture Clash: IT Experimentation, Innovation, and Failure in Libraries
Catherine Steeves has been Deputy Chief Information Officer for the University of Guelph since the Fall of 2010 and the Associate Chief Librarian since 2004. Previously, she worked as the ITS Operations Manager for the University of Alberta Libraries.
She is a past-president of the Ontario Library Information Technology Association and board member of the Ontario Library Association. She has also served on the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries Executive Council and on the board of directors for the Canadian Library Association.
Catherine holds an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario and a BA from McGill University. She was a 2009/2010 ARL Research Library Leadership Fellow, has been a mentor and facilitator for the Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute.
Sarah Simpkin
On the Road: Adventures in Mobile Hackery (Lightning talk)
Originally from St. John’s (true story!), Sarah Simpkin is a librarian and open-source hardware enthusiast living in Barrie, Ontario. She is a founding member of SimCoLab, Simcoe County’s first hackerspace, and has had the good fortune to spend the last couple of years hacking
away within some very innovative public library systems, including Innisfil and Markham. She is a recent-ish graduate of Western’s MLIS program.
Graham Stewart
It’s dangerous to go alone! How about *we* do this?
Graham Stewart has been working in libraries since 1976. He is currently Network and Storage Services Manager for Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries. His interests include: planning large scale, automated computing systems; maximizing reliability and availability for online services; open source operating systems and applications; the creative use of technology in the academic environment; improving users’ experiences of technology.
MJ Suhonos
Where Angel Investors Fear to Tread: Library Technology Innovation in a Time of Austerity
Culture Clash: IT Experimentation, Innovation, and Failure in Libraries
MJ Suhonos (BScE, MIS) is currently the Digital Technologies Development Librarian at Ryerson University. His focus is on developing technologies that improve information discovery and access through the effective use of library and archival metadata standards. In the past he has worked with organizations such as the Public Knowledge Project, Synergies Canada, the Canadian Council on Archives, and Toronto Public Library, and has served on the editorial team of several scholarly journals, including Code4Lib Journal, Open Medicine, and the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Actively involved in the cataloguing and semantic web communities, he has given talks and workshops on structured metadata management, open access publishing, and collaborative open source development practices. He dreams about RDF, bicycle camping, and dub music.
Amaz Taufique
It’s dangerous to go alone! How about *we* do this?
Amaz Taufique is the Systems Manager for Scholarsportal where he started working 10 years ago. He’s been the proverbial “Jack of All IT Trades” and now spends hist days “planning” and “designing” new systems for work and play. He takes long walks on the beach with his 2 golden retrievers and rides into sunsets on his motorcycle. When he’s not working or riding, he keeps injuring himself playing basketball.
Hutch Tibbetts
Giving Them What They Want: Improving Search and Discovery of Digital Content
Hutch has been a reference librarian for Douglas County Libraries for more than 10 years. Before that, he worked at the University of California – Santa Cruz in their science and liberal arts libraries. He’s worked at the University of Albany and the University of Oregon in their government document departments, and started working in libraries at a public library in upstate New York. He keeps himself busy with the library’s mobile app, doing content creation on the library’s Drupal website, and incorporating more and more of the library’s digital content into their VuFind catalog. He lives in Denver where he telemarks in the winter, mountain bikes in the summer, and cycles on the road year-round.
Amanda Wakaruk
“Why is this link dead? Aren’t government publications all online?” Preserving digital federal content with the Canadian Government Information Private LOCKSS Network.
Amanda Wakaruk (MLIS, MES) is the Government Information Librarian at the University of Alberta. Having worked with government information in libraries since 1998, she is well versed in the precarious publishing patterns of our governance agencies. She is a former coordinator of the CLA Government Information Network (formerly AGIIG) and current Coordinator of the ALA Government Documents Roundtable International Documents Taskforce. Amanda is also a member of the Depository Services Program Library Advisory Committee and is the current chair of the CGI-PLN. She is a repeat instructor at the Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians. Her current interests include exploring the evolving role of libraries and librarians as stewards of government information.
Fangmin Wang
Bookfinder: Find your books fast! (Lightning talk)
Fangmin Wang is the Head, Library Information Technology Services at Ryerson University. He started his professional librarian career at the University of Northern British Columbia in 2004 as the Electronic Services Librarian. He then moved to Toronto to work as the Systems Librarian at Ryerson University. In 2010, he was appointed to the newly created position of Head, Library Information Technology Services. He has developed the Library’s first technology strategic plan and helped establish the Library Information Technology Services department. He has led and overseen numerous key library technology projects, such as the discovery layer service “Search Everything”, an E-Reserve system for one-stop course reading service, the Book Finder Application, etc. He holds an MLIS degree from McGill University.
William Wueppelmann
Héritage: A Mega-Microfilm Project
I am the systems manager and lead developer and software architect at Canadiana.org. For the past 12 years I have worked with Canadiana, helping it evolve both its role in preserving and improving access to Canada’s documentary heritage and its transformation from microfilming to digitization and online access. Over this time, I have worked on building and automating digitization workflows; developing metadata standards, tools, APIs, and indexing systems; developing web applications and digital library portals; and designing and implementing digital preservation systems.
Scott Young
Building a Better Book (in the browser): Using HTML5 to Transform and Unlock Book Content
As Digital Initiatives Librarian at Montana State University, Scott works to make information more open and accessible through front-end web development, semantic web development, user experience research, and social media. Catch up with him on twitter @hello_scott_
Jonathan Younker
Create a discovery layer in minutes with CouchDB, Elasticsearch and jQuery (almost no programming required) (Lightning talk)
Jonathan Younker is the Head, Library Systems and Technologies at Brock
University in St. Catharines, Ontario. Prior to working at Brock, he
worked in public and academic libraries in Illinois. Jonathan is
particularly interested in finding and developing creative solutions to
ongoing library technology problems.