Keynotes

Opening Keynote
Kim Martin
LIS PhD Candidate, Western University | Chief Instigator, DH MakerBus
“Grass/Roots: Notes on a Public Digital Humanities”

Kim Martin is entering the fourth (and final!) year of her PhD in Library and Information Science, with a focus on the information habits of digital historians. She is the project manager of a 5 year SSHRC funded grant titled Digging Digital Humanities, for which she has traveled around North America and Europe researching digital humanities centers, projects, people, and networks.

In 2013, Kim and two friends purchased a 1991 school bus, which they have since converted into Ontario’s first mobile makerspace: the DH MakerBus. This past summer, the DH MakerBus team ran their first ever Eurekamp for kids aged 6-10. MakeU was a huge success, proving to Kim and several super-enthusiastic parents that it’s never too early to start a humanities based education.

What started as a passion project quickly became an area of academic interest, and Kim now works to showcase the public benefits of humanities education in London and beyond. She is a co-lead on the Humanities Matters Bus Tour (coming Spring 2015) and is currently implementing a local chapter of 4Humanities at Western University.

 

Closing Keynote
Jesse Brown
Digital Media Expert | Futurist | Broadcast Journalist
“Productivity and Collaboration in the Age of Digital Distraction”

What does the future hold for Canada?  Are our institutions and economy at odds with rapid technological change? Are we keeping up? From business to government to education, disruption is coming. Technology and media expert Jesse Brown explains the challenging shifts ahead, and how to stay on top of them.

Brown was first heard by Canadians on his hit CBC Radio show, The Contrarians, a program about “unpopular ideas” that just might be right. From there, he hosted Search Engine, a podcast that explored the effects of the Internet and social media on politics and culture. He’s now the host of a popular podcast, Canadaland, which sees him sitting down with some of Canada’s best and brightest from industries spanning high-tech to the arts.  Brown is also a co-founder of the worldwide phenomena Bitstrips–the online educational cartooning application that teaches computer literacy and visual literacy to millions of students, which has become a key learning tool for educators around the world and a hit with social media users.

As a journalist, Brown has interviewed the inventor of the World Wide Web, has travelled to China to report on dissident bloggers, and has explained Twitter to Peter Mansbridge on CBC TV’s The National. He writes a regular column for Toronto Life magazine, and has contributed to an array of other publications, including Saturday Night magazine, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Vice magazine.

Session speakers

Kaouther Azouz
PhD Candidate, University Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3 (France)
Lightning Talk: “Linked open data: a new trend of highlighting libraries trustworthiness on the web”

Kaouther Azouz, PhD student at the Geriico’s Research Laboratory of the University Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3 (France). As a professional of Libraries and Information, my interests are turned to the evolution of Web technologies in libraries. The impact of Linked Open Data on the use and practices of librarians and patrons on the web is the current topic of my PhD project.

Sonya Betz
Web and User Experience Librarian, MacEwan University
“Taking Control of Discovery: In-house development to improve student experience and break down silos”

Sonya Betz is the Web and User Experience Librarian at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta. She is actively engaged in seeking out new opportunities to improve the online experience for students and faculty, and was a presenter at Access 2012 in Montreal.

Gillian Byrne
Associate Chief Librarian, Ryerson University
Panel: “Useful Usability”
Panel: “Have you Tried Turning it off and Back On Again? Rebooting Library Technology Conversations”

Gillian Byrne has been the Associate Chief Librarian at Ryerson University since January 2014 (long enough to know for sure it’s the best job in the world), where – among other things – she oversees the Library’s strategic planning. Prior to that she was the director of a regional library consortium and held a variety of positions at Memorial University, including management positions in circulation, document delivery, acquisitions and e-resources, as well as head of the library web team and a reference and instruction librarian. This inability to commit has led to a healthy obsession with library technologies, which she likes to talk and tweet a lot about. She very occasionally goes long form and has published in the areas of linked data and web usability.

Alex Carruthers
Digital Public Spaces Librarian, Edmonton Public Library
Lightning Talk: “Hacking the city: Libraries and the open data movement”

Alex Carruthers is the newly minted Digital Public Spaces Librarian at Edmonton Public Library. During her internship of the same title she coordinated the 2014 Open Data Day Hackathon. Her primary focus is the development of a digital public space that will support and celebrate the local music scene through crowdsourcing, creative sharing and data visualizations.

Jeff Carter
Solutions Architect, University of New Brunswick
Panel: “Useful Usability”

A reformed educator with a passion purposeful and considered implementation of technology, Jeff has been crushing the Internet since 1993. He believes that good design doesn’t require an FAQ page and intuitive interfaces sell themselves. From the days of web standards evangelism to the mobile and responsive design bandwagon and to “content first,” Jeff always advocates for meaningful inclusion, whether it be devices, users or content. When traveling, Jeff enjoys red meat.

Jason A. Clark
Head, Library Informatics & Computing, Montana State University
“Linked Data is People: Using Linked Data to Reshape the Library Staff Directory”

Jason A. Clark is the Head of Library Informatics & Computing at Montana State University Libraries where he builds digital library applications and sets digital content strategies. He writes and presents on a broad range of topics including structured data and search engine optimization, web services & APIs, interface design, and application development. You can find Jason online by following him on twitter at twitter.com/jaclark or checking out his occasional thoughts and code samples at www.jasonclark.info. When he doesn’t have metadata on the brain, Jason likes to hike the mountains of Montana with his wife, Jennifer, their daughter, Piper, and their dog, Oakley.

Karen Coombs

Senior Product Analyst, WorldShare Platform
RDF and Discovery in the Real World(cat)

Karen is a librarian and geek coder with an interest in mashups, web services, and Linked Data. She currently works as a Senior Product Analyst for the WorldShare Platform. Prior to joining OCLC, she worked in academic library information technology for 10 years. Karen writes, teaches and presents on a broad range of topics including web services & APIs, application development, Linked Data and open source software in libraries.

John Durno
Head, Library Systems, University of Victoria
“Growing the PLN: Challenges and Opportunities”

John Durno is Head of Library Systems at the University of Victoria, where he oversees a small group of highly skilled staff who roll out public and staff desktop deployments, administer servers and enterprise applications, develop software, and manage projects. Prior to joining UVic he worked as a Project Coordinator for the BC Electronic Library Network, and as Public Services Librarian for the Open Learning Agency.

Bobbi Fox
Senior Digital Library Software Engineer, Harvard University
Lightning Talk: “Unlocking the Door”

A long time software engineer and web developer, Bobbi Fox has worked in supporting the libraries at Harvard as part of Library Technology Services for over eight years.

Alex Garnett
Data Curation and Digital Preservation Librarian, Simon Fraser University
Lightning Talk: “Piping Hot: Little Bins in Big Workflows”

Alex Garnett works on Simon Fraser University’s new Research Data Repository and other related Digital Curation-y initiatives. His dog malfunctions about as often as his Linux install. He’s a terrible programmer in the same way that most people are terrible at washing the dishes — he wouldn’t believe you if you told him he didn’t have to do it, and he still feels pretty good about it when he manages to do it well. He likes cold pizza, marginalized software platforms, and most audio recordings of Lyndon Johnson.

Krista Godfrey
Web Services Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Panel: “Useful Usability”

Krista Godfrey is the Web Services Librarian at Memorial University, where she concentrates on the library website, usability testing, user experience and mobile library resources. Krista is a passionate speaker and has spoken internationally on a wide range of topics. She is presently the Vice President for Newfoundland and Labrador on the APLA executive and is a former OLITA president.

Margo Jeske
Director, Brian Dickson Law Library, University of Ottawa
Lightning Talk: “The User Experience Study: Student Views on the Principles of Legal Research Website of the University of Ottawa’s Brian Dickson Law Library”

Margo Jeske has a bachelor’s degree in French translation (Queen’s University) and a master’s degree in Library Science (Western University).  She worked for several years in federal government departments and agencies and at the Library of Parliament, before joining the Brian Dickson Law Library, University of Ottawa as the Library Director.  Margo is an active member of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and sits on the Law Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).

Jenny Jing (Hong Jing)
Information Systems Librarian, Queen’s University
“Adding e-resources license information to library systems- three libraries’ approaches”

Jenny Jing (Hong Jing) has 15 years of experience in the library IT field. She has been the Information Systems Librarian at Queen’s University Library since 2013. After graduating from the McGill MLIS program in 2000, she worked as the Systems Librarian at Baker Library, Harvard Business School (HBS) until 2009. Her experience includes: migrating ILS systems, building library IR and digital repository systems.

Channarong Intahchomphoo
Lightning Talk: “The User Experience Study: Student Views on the Principles of Legal Research Website of the University of Ottawa’s Brian Dickson Law Library”

Channarong Intahchomphoo holds a bachelor’s degree (Chiang Mai University, Thailand) and a bilingual master’s degree (University of Ottawa, Canada) in Information Studies and has several years of work experience in libraries, archives and information centres in Canada and abroad. Currently, Channarong is a computer reference technician at the Brian Dickson Law Library, University of Ottawa.

Paul Joseph
Systems Librarian, University of British Columbia
“When Campus IT Comes Knocking: A New Model for UBC Library IT in the 21 Century”

Paul Joseph is a Systems Librarian at UBC Library. He specializes in architecting solutions and integrating data and applications in innovative ways. Current examples include course reserves in the context of the LMS utilizing the Summon API and digital collections from various UBC repositories indexed and accessible to researchers via an ElasticSearch API. He also attends a lot of meetings, rides his bike to work, and drinks beer (not in any particular order). 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.

Gloria Korsman
Research Librarian, Harvard University
Lightning Talk: “Unlocking the Door”

Gloria Korsman is a Research Librarian at Andover-Harvard Theological Library where she uses participatory design methods, including user interviews and focus groups to improve library services.

Marc Lalonde
Web Coordinator, Librarian, University of Toronto
“Adding e-resources license information to library systems- three libraries’ approaches”

Marc Lalonde has over 25 years of library experience at the University of Toronto. He plans and develops the Libraries’ web sites (now mostly in Drupal) which includes 13 central libraries. He is involved in e-resources management and building and supporting online applications He has made web accessibility a library priority.

James MacKenzie
Associate Director of Libraries (Academic and Scholarly Technologies), University of New Brunswick
Panel: “Useful Usability”

James MacKenzie is currently Associate Director of Libraries (Academic and Scholarly Technologies) at UNB, where he also serves as coordinator for the libraries’ assessment efforts. Since arriving at UNB in 2003, he has been actively involved in library assessment projects, from surveys and focus groups to usability and accessibility testing.

Steve Marks
“Under the Hood with OpenStack”
Panel: “Have you Tried Turning it off and Back On Again? Rebooting Library Technology Conversations”

Steve 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.

Andrew McAlorum
Head, Digital Initiatives, University of Waterloo Library
Panel: “Have you Tried Turning it off and Back On Again? Rebooting Library Technology Conversations”

Andrew McAlorum is the Head of Digital Initiatives at University of Waterloo Library, where he leads the development, maintenance, and ongoing support of user-focused web services for the academic research library community. Prior to joining University of Waterloo, Andrew worked at University of Toronto and York University. Andrew speaks regularly on web development, project management, and technology in libraries.

Catherine McGoveran
Government Information Librarian, University of Ottawa
Lightning Talk: “#HackUOBiblio – libraries, hacking, and open data”

Catherine McGoveran is the Government Information Librarian at the University of Ottawa, and a recent MLIS graduate from Dalhousie University. Some of her recent work experience includes Dalhousie Libraries, Dalhousie’s Social Media Lab, and the Library of Parliament. Her research interests include in open government and open data, data visualization, and civic engagement.

Steve Meyer
Technical Product Manager, OCLC
“RDF and discovery in the real world(cat)”

Steve works as a Technical Product Manager for the WorldShare Platform. He has previously worked in library information technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries and North Carolina State University Libraries. Interests include usability for APIs and exploring the possibilities for Linked Data to enhance metadata management and discovery in libraries.

Cynthia Ng
Content Coordinator, BC Libraries Coop
“We’re All Disabled! Part 2: Building Accessible Web Services with Universal Design”

Tech-savvy and keen, Cynthia Ng has been working on making libraries and the web more accessible and usable. She is currently the Content Coordinator of NNELS (the National Network of Equitable Library Service), but has worked in Ontario and BC to improve the accessibility and usability of web and library services. She blogs, presents, and advises on accessibility in and outside of the library context.
She is also a mentor and contributor to Mozilla Webmaker, and mentors at technology events, such as those organized by Ladies Learning Code.

Sam Popowich

Discovery Systems Librarian, University of Alberta
“Taking Control of Discovery: In-house development to improve student experience and break down silos”

Sam Popowich is the Discovery Systems Librarian at the University of Alberta. He presented at Access 2010 in Winnipeg, and gave an Ignite talk at Access 2013 on the plans for the discovery system that is now being implemented.

Bronwen Sprout
Digital Initiatives Coordinator, University of British Columbia Library
“Growing the PLN: Challenges and Opportunities”

Bronwen is the Digital Initiatives Coordinator at UBC Library. She manages the operations of the Library’s Digitization Centre, including the development of locally created digital collections and the activities around digital preservation. She has over ten years’ experience managing digitization projects and digital collections. Prior to joining UBC Library in 2005 as Digital Initiatives Librarian, Bronwen worked as a Cybrarian at a dot com and as a consultant for small businesses and non-profits, assessing information needs and implementing a variety of web-based solutions.

Graham Stewart
Network and Storage Services Manager, University of Toronto Libraries

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; the open source world; improving the culture of IT; improving users’ experiences of technology.

Amaz Taufique
Assistant Director of Systems and Technical Operations, Scholars Portal
“Adding e-resources license information to library systems- three libraries’ approaches”
“Under the Hood with OpenStack”

Amaz Taufique is Scholars Portal’s Assistant Director of Systems and Technical Operations. He is involved in systems, security, workflow design and implementation of SP’s E-Journals, E-Books, Geoportal, Odesi, and “OUR” license management applications. He is currently working on the technology and implementation of the ODLRC (Ontario Digital Library Research Cloud) and is excited to play his part in shaping the future of technology in university libraries for years to come.

Mike Tisi
Library Systems Administrator, Brock University
Lightning Talk: “Using library lab PCs to crunch academic research data”

Mike Tisi is a Systems Administrator at the Brock University Library, where he has worked since 2006.

Scott W. H. Young
Digital Initiatives Librarian, Montana State University
“Linked Data is People: Using Linked Data to Reshape the Library Staff Directory”

As Digital Initiatives Librarian at Montana State University, Scott Young leads user experience research and web analytics reporting. His work focuses on front-end web design, digital library development, information architecture, search engine optimization, and social media, and he has presented research nationally and internationally.

Jonathan Younker
Acting Associate University Librarian, Brock University
Lightning Talk: “Using library lab PCs to crunch academic research data”

Jonathan Younker is the Acting Associate University Librarian (Collections, Liaison and Systems) at Brock University, where he has worked since 2002 as both Electronic Services Librarian and Head, Library Systems and Technologies.

Christina Zoricic
Metadata Management Librarian, Western University
“Adding e-resources license information to library systems- three libraries’ approaches”

Christina Zoricic is a Metadata Management Librarian at Western University. When not cataloguing or performing authority control, she manages the library’s Discovery Layer, supports acquisitions and access to electronic resources, and co-manages Western Libraries’ project to load licensed terms of use information for display in the library’s catalogue and discovery layer.

Lydia Zvyagintseva
MA/MLIS Candidate, University of Alberta
Lightning Talk: “Hacking the city: Libraries and the open data movement.”

Lydia Zvyagintseva is a Humanities Computing/LIS candidate at the University of Alberta and Digital Initiatives Curator Assistant at the University of Alberta Libraries, where she works to support open access repository services. Her interests include data curation, improving workflows and systems, digital civic engagement, and Myers-Briggs.