Facebook Twitter Linkedin
Sign in
Sign In

SI Canada

FeaturedTranslation
Orland Hoeber

Studying Exploratory Search in Public Digital Libraries: Collaboration & Partnerships

Most search interfaces currently used in public digital libraries have been influenced by design patterns based on web search, even though the complexity of the information seeking process when searching within a public library can be far greater than web search. Web search interfaces work extremely well for lookup search tasks, but they struggle to support complex search, especially those related to exploratory search.

Read More
EducationFeaturedProfessional Development
Rachael Cadman

Building Capacity for Decision Making Where Information Matters

As educators, we believe we have a responsibility to equip students entering professional careers with the knowledge and skills to consider evidence critically, to understand the roles of various actors who could and should be included in decision processes, and how to arrive at solutions to societal problems effectively. Accordingly, for over a decade we have offered a graduate course, Information in Public Policy and Decision Making, in the Dalhousie University Master of Information program. Unique among the Canadian Information Studies programs, this course is designed to introduce students to the many facets of evidence-based (or evidence-informed) policy and decision-making with the expectation that as the next generation professionals they will understand when and how to facilitate policy development at organizational and local, national, and international levels.

Read More
FeaturedOriginal
Ali Shiri

Digital Self-Determination: Data Sovereignty in Inuvialuit Communities of Canada’s Western Arctic

Since 2013, researchers from the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies and the Inuvialuit elders, leaders, and community members in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR), Northwest Territories have collaborated to develop digital library and digital storytelling platforms to support Inuvialuit cultural heritage digitization, revitalization, preservation and access.

Read More
FeaturedProfessional Development
Atticus Hawk

Naloxone Now! Canadian Librarians Save Lives

Nearly 50% of library workers in Canada have responded to an opioid overdose at work, while only half of library workers who had responded to a suspected overdose on the job felt that they had been properly trained or were confident in how they handled the situation. This situation should give us pause: most library workers are unequipped to handle this very real part of the job. As iSchool educators, we ought to ask ourselves: what are we going to do about this? Can saving lives be considered a core LIS principle?

Read More
library shelves with sunny window
EducationFeatured
Lisa Shamchuk

Tracing “CanCon” in Library and Information Science Research

LIS professionals and practitioners may find it challenging to access current research that supports library decision-making, program development, or service evaluation through a distinctly Canadian lens. Public, school, and special libraries did not seem to have the same kind of representation in the research, and it made me wonder: what is the state of Canadian LIS research content?

Read More
FeaturedTranslation
Cansu Ekmekcioglu

Toward Sustainable Data Governance in Refugee and Immigrant Serving Sector in Canada

For governments across the world, evaluating the impact of social service programs is a growing challenge – and they are increasingly turning to data and technology to help manage it. This is especially true for programs serving refugees and immigrants to settle in a new country. From tracking who needs settlement support to deciding who gets benefits first, digital systems and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming key tools in how social services support refugees and immigrants. But what happens when data systems try to capture something as human and complex as “support”?  

Read More
Original
Milena Head

A Canadian Approach to Rethinking Technology Design for Aging Populations

Older adults are the fastest-growing segment of the population. In Canada, one in five people are 65 or older, and by 2065, this will increase to more than one in four. Yet, despite their growing numbers, older adults often face exclusion and marginalization in technology design. This digital divide has significant consequences, leading to isolation, loneliness, frustration, and poor health outcomes, particularly when we intersect factors like lower socioeconomic status, race, gender, and immigrant status.

Read More
Translation
Lynne Bowker

Multilingual Scholarly Communication and Translation Technologies

While a multilingual scholarly communication ecosystem would help to mitigate many of the inequities created by the single-language model that currently prevails, multilingualism nonetheless presents its own challenges. If researchers all publish in their own language, how will they be able to discover and access each other’s work? Can new AI-based translation technologies help?

Read More