Collectively, these articles cover several topic areas (i.e., Canadian Indigenous peoples, Canadian refugees and immigrants, Canadian older adults, Canadian knowledge mobilization, Canadian research process models, Canadian iSchools and Library & Information Science departments, Canadian Information Science education, Canadian libraries, Canadian AI governance, and Canadian Right to Repair). These articles are described as follows:

i) Canadian Indigenous Peoples

• In Digital Self-Determination: Data Sovereignty in Inuvialuit Communities of Canada’s Western Arctic, Ali Shiri describes key lessons learned from three Canadian research projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Importantly, these projects showcase how positive collaborations between University of Alberta researchers and Inuvialuit elders, leaders, and community members in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in Canada’s Northwest Territories result in the development of digital library and digital storytelling platforms that support Inuvialuit cultural heritage preservation and access.

ii) Canadian Refugees and Immigrants

• In Toward Sustainable Data Governance in Refugee and Immigrant Serving Sector in Canada, Cansu Ekmekcioglu provides an overview of the current practices associated with the intake and processing of data collected from refugees and immigrants in the provision of Canadian social services to this population. Her research highlights the complexities and challenges of collecting and processing standardized settlement data that doesn’t always fit the messy, personal, and continually evolving realities of refugees and immigrants’ lives and their settlement outcomes.

iii) Canadian Older Adults

• In A Canadian Approach to Rethinking Technology Design for Aging Populations, Milena Head showcases a major Canadian program of research, coined EMPOWrD, underway at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario funded by the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging. The initiative seeks to improve the lives of older adults by embracing a co-design approach where Canadian seniors work collaboratively with researchers to develop design solutions for older adults that remove barriers to technology use, enhance digital capabilities through digital skills training, and create guidelines and frameworks for the design of technology interfaces that align with older adults’ real-world needs and experiences.

• In Health Information Without Borders: The Struggles and Strategies of Older Chinese Adults in Canada, Xiaoqian Zhang and Yi Wan describe the various factors that affect how Chinese older adults in Canada seek and use health information. Their research identifies the various challenges Chinese older adults in Canada face navigating Canadian healthcare systems and provides recommendations how to help this demographic receive equitable healthcare access in Canada.

iv) Canadian Knowledge Mobilization

• In Setting the Course and Embracing the Journey: Reflections on Knowledge Mobilization in the Canadian Research Context, Heather O’Brien and Kristina McDavid reflect on their experience expanding traditional modes of research knowledge mobilization (e.g., journal articles) with alternative outputs (e.g., infographics, videos, blogs, and in-person workshops) utilized in various Canadian research projects. Their work is supported through funding from Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

• In Tracing “CanCon” in Library and Information Science Research, Lisa Shamchuk presents an overview of Canadian content found in Library & Information Science (LIS) journals. Her analysis recommends a shortlist of key academic journals with Canadian representation, content, and perspectives to aid LIS educators, professionals, and practitioners looking to ground their work in Canadian content. Importantly, Shamchuk’s work highlights gaps in the LIS research knowledge mobilization space, namely the dominance of academic voices and the underrepresentation of certain library sectors like public and school libraries, calling for the need for more diversity in the Canadian content found in LIS journals.

• In Multilingual Scholarly Communication and Translation Technologies, Lynne Bowker – recognizing Canada’s two official languages (English, French), more than 70 Indigenous languages, and numerous heritage languages – questions the utility of AI-based translation tools in helping researchers discover and access each other’s work if everyone publishes in their own language. In response, Bowker describes her research program carried out at Université Laval, Canada that aims to uncover the potential and limitations of these tools for research knowledge mobilization as well as to support scholars so that they can get the most out of these tools while using them in an informed and responsible manner.

v) Canadian Research Process Models

• In Stepping Up to BAT: Inspiration for a Research Process Model, Valerie Nesset presents an innovative information-based model of the research process developed during her time at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The model, coined BAT, comprises three steps: i) Beginning (i.e., general inquiry… browsing, reading, constructing); ii) Acting (focused inquiry… searching, gathering and analyzing information); and iii) Telling (presenting information).

vi) Canadian iSchools / Library & Information Science Departments

• In Western Alumni Leading the Discipline, Pam McKenzie presents an overview of the strong contributions made by graduates of the Library and Information Science PhD program at The University of Western Ontario, colloquially known as Western, situated in London, Ontario, Canada. Her article gives a healthy synopsis of the impact Western PhD graduates have made and continue to make on the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) specifically, and on the Information Science field in general.

• In Information and You: McGill’s Perspectives on Human-Information Interaction Research, Joan Bartlett provides an overview of the innovative research being conducted in the area of Human-Information Interaction (HII) at McGill University’s School of Information Studies (SIS) in Montreal, Canada. Her submission provides vignettes on how McGill SIS faculty is tackling key HII topics such as the use of artificial intelligence for cybersecurity, the building of a community-based digital archive for disability, accessible computing technologies, knowledge management, information behavior and practices, the use of sound, and the sense of touch, among other areas of focus.

vii) Canadian Information Science Education

• In Naloxone Now! Canadian Librarians Save Lives, Atticus Hawk and Nadia Caidi respond to an alarming statistic – that nearly 50% of public library workers in Canada have dealt with opioid overdose at work – by calling for the need to incorporate standardized, practical opioid overdose training to graduate students enrolled Library & Information Science (LIS) master’s programs. The authors share their experience offering such training as part of a mandatory class segment in a graduate LIS course taught at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. This innovative Canadian education example was the first time any opioid overdose training for credit has been offered in a Master’s of LIS degree granting program in North America.

• In Building Capacity for Decision Making Where Information Matters, Rachael Cadman Sandra Toze and Bertrum H. MacDonald describe an innovative graduate course they have offered over the last decade called “Information in Public Policy and Decision Making” in the Master of Information program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Different from typical courses taught in Information Studies graduate programs, the course introduces students from different interdisciplinary backgrounds to the many facets of evidence-informed policy and decision-making as a means of training next generation professionals to understand when and how to facilitate policy development at organizational and local, national, and international levels. While broad in scope, the course is unique in emphasizing social science perspectives and information literacy skills in the education of future policy decision-makers.

• In Colonial Tensions: Reconciling Intellectual Freedom and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in One Canadian iSchool, Cameron M. Pierson discusses his teaching of a unique and innovative course on intellectual freedom and Indigenous knowledge systems at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool. Thought is given to the benefits and challenges of teaching such a course, and the pedagogical decisions made surrounding the structure of the course in ways that are authentic to Indigenous peoples while not perpetuating more harm. The course is primarily student-led with the instructor serving dual roles as both a facilitator and devil’s advocate as a means of fostering civil discourse in the course through the exchange of ideas and argumentation.

• In Information in Times of Crisis: Learning Together, Lisa Nathan, Luanne Sinnamon, and Rachael Huegerich describe and share insights on an innovative experimental course entitled “Information in Times of Crisis” taught at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) School of Information during the Covid-19 pandemic. Uniquely, the course prepared library and information studies graduates for the actions they would take as information professionals to help their communities plan, carry out, and recover from immediate episodic crises such as climate change disasters (e.g., floods, wildfires) and shelter-in-place quarantine directives. Interestingly, the teaching of this course has inspired several other projects at UBC to further explore the connections between Library & Information Science (LIS) education, libraries and the climate crisis.

viii) Canadian Libraries

• In Information Literacy Instruction in Canadian Libraries, Heidi Julien showcases a Canadian study that surveyed academic librarians at multiple points over a 30-year period to understand their instructional goals and practices. Longitudinal research is a rarity in the field of Information Science and Julien’s Canadian study is an exception to that rule. Julien’s exemplary work identifies important implications for research as well as practices in the delivery of information (digital) literacy instruction by academic and public libraries in the Canadian context.

• In Studying Exploratory Search in Public Digital Libraries: Collaboration & Partnerships, Orland Hoeber, Dale Storie, Veronica Ramshaw, Robert Zylstra, and Jeff Barber describe a successful collaboration between academic researchers and librarians at the University of Regina, and established partnerships with the Regina Public Library and its library technology service provider Saskatchewan Information and Library Services Consortium (SILS). Funded by Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the collaboration had led to the discovery of strategies and processes that public library patrons employ when undertaking complex search scenarios, and ways to design and develop search interfaces that better support search tasks and exploratory search processes conducted by library patrons.

ix) Canadian AI Governance

• In Forging a Middle Path: Canada’s Moment to Lead in AI Governance, Jodie Lobana outlines Canada’s unique position to take charge and figure out how to lead the governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) both responsibly and effectively. Acknowledging the contrasting AI governance approaches currently advocated by the European Union and the Unites States, Lobana argues the need for Canada to chart its own course in terms of a middle path that balances economic competitiveness with democratic values and social responsibility. Importantly, Lobana identifies a top ten list of priorities for Canada to follow to secure global AI leadership, and calls Canada’s unique position to lead in AI governance a defining moment for the country.

x) Canadian Right to Repair

• In The Great Canadian Breakdown: What will it take to get a “Right to Repair” in Canada?, Alissa Centivany advocates the need to remove barriers to the repair of devices and equipment used in homes and workplaces across Canada. Barriers are widespread, such as: product designs being ambivalent or antagonistic to repair; the many incentives for consumers to repair rather than replace; the difficulties accessing repair manuals, schematics and proprietary parts and tools; and the deployment of technological protection measures such as digital locks that prevent consumers from fixing their own devices and that lock consumers into an ongoing dependence on manufacturers for repair. Of note, Centivany points out that discontent about barriers to repair are giving rise to a growing “Right to Repair” movement in Canada.

Overall, the submissions made to this Special Issue signal the strong contributions Canadian researchers and practitioners have made to the field of Information Science. The articles span several important topic areas and uniquely provide a Canadian perspective on Information Science research and practice. The articles in this Special Issue showcase Canada’s achievements in the field and position Canada as a key international leader in examining and exploring the technologies, social consequences, and theoretical understanding of information and its use.