The University of British Columbia’s annual “Queer U” Academic Conference will be hosted on February 9th (Saturday) 2013. The theme is “Fluidity of Queer Identities” and we are currently accepted abstracts from graduate students, established scholars and strong undergraduates. Attached, please find the official Call For Papers. The deadline is November 20th.

Thank You —

Michael Oeckel
Candidate for Master of Arts in Asia Pacific Policy Studies University of British Columbia http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeloeckel

To see flyer:

https://slais.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2012/10/Call-For-Papers-QUEER-U-2013.pdf

We are pleased to announce Julienne Molineaux , lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology, will be the guest speaker at the first of our Fall 2012 Colloquium Series. Dr. Molineaux will present her talk, “Library and Archives Canada, Ten Years After the Merger,” on Wednesday, October 3, 12-1 p.m., in the Dodson Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC.

Integration of collections and institutions in the libraries, archives and museums sector is almost commonplace now, but in the early 2000s the merger of Canada’s National Archives and National Library to create Library and Archives Canada /Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (LAC-BAC), was novel. Ten years since that process formally began it is worth asking, how is this institution faring? Restructuring does not always solve the problems it sets out to solve. Additionally, new problems are created along the way. This talk addresses two questions: have the problems that prompted the LAC merger been solved and what new problems have emerged?

Dr. Molineux completed her PhD in 2009, examining the machinery of government reforms for New Zealand’s official archives.  She continues to research government reforms in archives, focusing her study on archives policy in both Canada and New Zealand. For more information about the Fall 2012 Colloquia, please visit http://www.slais.ubc.ca/news/colloquia.htm.

SLAIS students are invited to the “open doors” event of the Andrew Wade Visual Analytics Challenge Program on Monday, October 1st, 12 noon in the Dodson Room, Irving K. Barber Learning Center. This event  is presented by the Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics (VIVA), a joint SFU/UBC initiative to promote Visual Analytics (“the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces”).

VA is a multidisciplinary field intended to help people interactively explore and synthesize information in order to derive insights from massive, dynamic, and often ambiguous and conflicting data. VA draws on research from areas such as information visualization, human-computer interaction, machine learning, statistics, decision making and problem solving, communication, and the cognitive and social sciences. VA can prepare you for internships leading to high-demand positions of data scientists and analysts.

VIVA offers students an opportunity to participate in VA research projects and work with cutting edge VA tools, using real-world data, in collaboration with domain subject matter experts.  

At this session, participants will learn how to get involved in VA through the Andrew Wade Visual Analytics Challenge program, and about the new Graduate Certificate in Visual Analytics at SFU.

Pizza and soft drinks will be provided.

Registration is free at: http://awva.eventbrite.com (limit 60)
Location: University of British Columbia – Vancouver Campus, Dodson Room, Irving K. Barber Learning Center
Date: Monday, October 1st, 2012
Time: 12:00 – 13:00

For more information: challenge@viva-viva.ca

Each year, ACCOLEDS (A COPPUL Consortium of Library Electronic Data Services) holds a workshop on various aspects of data librarianship over three days in late November.  This year’s workshop, ACCOLEDS 2012, will be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 27-29.

The program coordinators for ACCOLEDS 2012 annually sponsor one student from each library school in the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) region to attend the workshop, and this includes students at SLAIS.  Since 1996, the annual ACCOLEDS workshops have been sponsored by Statistics Canada’s Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), and this sponsorship covers travel, accommodation and meal costs for attending students. 

Data librarianship is an exciting and dynamic field, and attending ACCOLEDS 2012 is an excellent way for interested students to learn about primary Canadian socio-economic data sources and the work of data librarians in post-secondary institutions.  Students interested in social science, GIS, or government documents librarianship may find this opportunity particularly useful.

For more information and background, please see the following:

• The ACCOLEDS 2012 program at http://datalib.library.ualberta.ca/accoleds.
• The DLI web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/dli-idd-eng.htm.
• The 2010/2011 DLI Annual Report at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/doc/ar10-11-eng.pdf.

You will be expected to attend the entire three-day workshop (November 27-29). This may conflict with final classes and assignments, depending on your course schedule.

SLAIS students are encouraged to nominate themselves for this funding. Here is the procedure:

•              Write a brief statement (maximum one page) demonstrating your interest in social science, GIS, government documents or data librarianship. Include a discussion of how you have demonstrated, if applicable, leadership in your activities at SLAIS.

•              Include a resume

•              Email the documents to Debra Locke by 9 a.m. Thursday, October 4, 2012.

Note, an interest in these areas is helpful but not required. You are welcome to use this as an opportunity to further explore this as a career. It’s a terrific networking and learning experience and will be a strong addition to your resume as well. And you won’t get the award if you don’t apply.

If you are interested in presenting at, attending, organising, or participating in the organization of a conference in your area of study or any allied field (children’s and young adult literature and media and allied fields) before April 2013, SLAIS may be able to provide a small amount of financial support.

To apply for it write a letter to the Chair of the MACL program (Judith Saltman) with an attached description of the conference and, if applicable, evidence of your paper or poster proposal submission/acceptance. This money is separate from the conference travel awards on the SLAIS website.

Please, note that

— support is for one conference per year for a Master’s student.
— students should indicate that they have not received other travel money from this SLAIS specific fund for the current academic year.
— support for students *presenting* at or organizing a conference takes precedence over participation in the organization of a conference or attendance; presenting a paper takes precedence over presenting a poster — the program chair will evaluate the application letters on a case by case basis — e.g., accepted, submitted, or attending — letters submitted by November 1st, 2012, will be considered at that time.