Professional Preparation Strategies – 2012 Speakers

Friday February 17: Corporate Environments:

Elysia Guzik graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2008 with an Honours B.A. in Anthropology and Religion & Culture. After a summer filled with student work following Convocation, Elysia was ready to take on her next academic challenge at U of T’s Faculty of Information. Two years into the Master of Information Studies (Library and Information Science) program, she found herself making a connection at the annual job fair/ networking event hosted by the faculty’s Professional Development committee. This led to her current role as Research Analyst at Egon Zehnder International, a global executive search firm. Elysia can be found on Twitter at @ElysiaGuzik.

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In March 2011 Daniel Lee  joined KPMG International as the Knowledge Manager for KPMG’s Global Healthcare practice.  Prior to joining KPMG, Daniel worked for 9 years with Navigator Ltd., a research-based communications and strategic counsel firm in Toronto first as the Research Librarian and later as Director, Knowledge Services.

Prior to Navigator, Daniel was responsible for managing web-based content at CIPS, Canada’s leading association for information technology professionals.

Since moving to Toronto in 2001, Daniel has been actively involved in the Toronto Chapter of SLA, serving as President in 2008. He served on the SLA Board of Directors as a Director from 2009-2011, is part of the SLA Innovation Laboratory working group and chaired the Technology Review Advisory Group. Daniel has received two Presidential Citations from SLA for innovative uses of technology: the first for introducing twitter as a back channel at SLA’s Annual Conference in 2008 which continues to garner a large following in the library and information community; and the second for introducing WordPress as the content management platform of choice for SLA’s 100+ unit websites.

Daniel was voted “most organized” in high school and is also known as @yankeeincanada on twitter. You can also find him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/danielplee

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Richard McDonald was named an IBM Distinguished Engineer in April, 2003. He is also an Open Group Distinguished IT Architect. He is currently the IBM technical advocate to two clients in the Toronto area. He is also technical lead for a group of senior architects providing strategic guidance to our clients worldwide. His most recent focus has been the developing the “Component Infrastructure Roadmap” (CIR) technique and asset. CIR builds a roadmap for increasing the technical maturity of a customer’s IT environment.

Prior to CIR, Richard was a lead architect in the Canadian pre-sales technical community providing architectural and delivery leadership to major e-business infrastructure projects. Most of his experience has been with financial and public sector projects. He has lead the architecture and design of the infrastructure of some of the largest transactional websites in Canada with a primary focus on high availability and scalability. He has experience developing and teaching architecture methodologies and tools.

Upon joining IBM in 1981 from the University of Toronto, Richard spent fourteen years in the IBM Canada software development laboratory leading the successful development of IBM software products. He co-holds two patents in distributed object technology.

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Laura Warner graduated with her MLIS and MPA degrees from Dalhousie University in 2007. After relocating to Toronto that same year she launched her career in the information profession with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Since then, she has held such positions as a Reference Librarian and Music Librarian with the corporation. She also served as Business and Economics Librarian with Wilfrid Laurier University Library for one semester. Currently, Laura is a Media Librarian at the CBC in their Content Management department, preserving the regional Ontario morning shows from Radio One. 

Laura has been actively volunteering with the SLA since 2008 when she took on the role of New Information Professionals Program Coordinator and now holds the position of President for the Toronto Chapter. Outside the library world, her interests involve blogging and writing, which she has been able to incorporate into her profession. Laura has written for the CBC’s Music Resources weekly music review publication Music Matters. Presently she contributes to various professional and cultural blogs and publications including Critics at Large. Laura can be followed on Twitter at @writinglibrary.

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Jennifer Burns is Collection Development Manager, Western Canada for YBP Library Services. Prior to joining YBP in September 2009, Jennifer worked as an Information Specialist at BMO Financial Group’s Institute for Learning, where she provided reference services in support of learning and development at the Bank of Montreal. She holds a Master’s degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Concordia University. She is fluently bilingual in English and French. An active member of SLA since 2004, Jennifer is serving as Past President of the Toronto Chapter in 2011.

Friday March 2: Government & Academic Environments

Wendy Reynold became a librarian in the era of 3 ¼ inch floppies, which is a very long time ago, indeed. Over the course of her career, she has worked as an indifferent cataloguer, enthusiastic reference librarian and trainer and more recently as a bewildered manager. Currently occupied as the Manager of Library Client Services at the Ontario Legislature, she enjoys asking impertinent questions about how libraries work, and is grateful every day for the superb staff and colleagues surrounding her at “the Ledge”.

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Nancy Isozaki wants to confess two things upfront:

1. she graduated from that other school, Western and
2. she did that before most of you were born.

Her excuse for going through Western’s library/info science program is that she spent her undergrad in this very building.  It was time to venture beyond these walls.

Because her degree was issued on real sheepskin and because continuous learning is a fact of professional life, Nancy complemented her Masters with recent certificates in Electronic Records Management, Information Management (from the UofT iSchool), Enterprise Architecture and Masters coursework in Public Administration i.e. the business of local government.

Nancy has spent most of her career emphasizing the ‘Information’ side of Information and Technology.  Working for eons at the City of Toronto, she has been called (mostly) nice names like manager, database adminstrator, data modeller, information architect, project manager and organizational consultant.  But more importantly, Nancy has been fortunate to work with incredible professionals (including card-carrying  librarians) on a range of really cool things including metadata standards, a datamart, a document management system, an open data policy and a classification cross-walk in search of ‘the one ring that binds them all’.

Most recently, Nancy promotes information management from a non-IT role as Director of Corporate Information Policy.  Her team promotes open, transparent, accessible and accountable government.  They interpret legislation so that it can be applied consistently in business practice.  How?  For example, they reinforce a more ‘open government’ culture where staff release raw, machine-readable [i.e. open] datasets for public use via toronto.ca/open.  They consult with businesses to ensure that the City posts clear messages on how it proposes to use and to protect personal data collected from individuals.  And they grapple with the pervasive use of email and social media to document decisions and advice, despite the lack of ‘record-keeping’ functionality in these messaging technologies.

Nancy believes passionately in the iSchool.  Her career, like so many others, demonstrates that what you learn inside these walls gives you the working foundation and intellectual flexibility to be successful outside these walls.  Afterall, if a Shakespeare freak/Japanese history undergraduate can make a career in Information Technology, anything is possible  :  )

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Kathryn Klages has been an Information Services Librarian at Seneca College since 2008. She works on the Information Literacy Team at Seneca Libraries – providing instruction and ensuring library presence across the colleges programs. She works most closely with students and faculty in the Schools of Health Sciences, Community Services, and Recreation. Prior to working at Seneca College, Kathryn was the Project Coordinator for Knowledge Ontario’s virtual reference service askON; a part-time librarian at York University; and very briefly dabbled in Records Management in Doha, Qatar (though she’s not sure why). Kathryn graduated from the University of Western Ontario with her MLIS in 2006. She is wrapping up her third year as Treasurer for
OCULA and is still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she’s already been at Seneca for three years.

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Virginia Roy joined the world of academic libraries 8 months ago as the Manager of Services for non-profit Ontario Colleges Library Service (OCLS) .  She is responsible for managing services such as collective negotiation for ebooks and eResources, licensing, contract management, research and other services operated by OCLS on behalf of the provinces’s 24 publicly funded college libraries. Formerly the Project Manager for Ask Ontario (Knowledge Ontario) Virginia is one of the architects behind Ontario’s provincial virtual reference service – askON. Prior to joining Knowledge Ontario in 2006 Virginia was the Executive Director of the eContent Institute and producer of the Information Highways Conference and magazine. Her one and only true “library” job was at the Royal Bank of Canada in 1989 where she was fortunate to work for Jane Dysart. Between 1991 and 2002 she was Director of Marketing for Faxon Canada. Virginia holds a BA (Hon) in History from Western University (the institution formerly known as UWO), an MLS from the University of Toronto (still U of T) and a Marketing Degree from Ryerson and is interested in social entrepreneurship and how non-profits employ lessons learned from the corporate world to deliver innovation, achieve service excellence and build social capital.

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Patricia Ayala currently serves as an Instruction and Faculty Liaison librarian at Gerstein Science Information Centre. She is the liaison for the Nursing program serving undergraduate and graduate students, as well as, faculty and staff. Patricia is also the coordinator and supervisor of the graduate student library assistants at Gerstein, continuously supporting their training to further develop their skill set.

Previously to joining Gerstein, she served as the the Web Content Specialist for OntarioMD, a subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association where she developed content for the company’s information management strategy. She spearheaded the portal adoption among internal stakeholders, ensured access to the the digital library comprising of clinical information resources and web 2.0 collaboration tools.

Throughout the completion of her graduate studies she worked at Gerstein, Steacie Science and Engineering Library at York University and the Engineering and Computer Science library at U of T, and co-organized the 2nd Annual University of Toronto iSchool Student Conference, IA3C Information Access: Commons, Controls, Controversy in 2010. Patricia has a BFA in Fine Arts and Art History, as well as, Biology from the University of North Carolina. She is furthering her education by pursuing a certificate in e-Learning from the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto.

Friday March 9: Public Libraries, Archives and Galleries

Moe Hosseini-Ara graduated from the University of Western Ontario’s School of Library and Information Science in 1996. He holds an honours BA in Anthropology from York University and is a motorcycle training instructor in his spare time. Moe has worked in libraries for over 25 years and has held positions as a page, circulation clerk, acquisitions clerk, children’s librarian, librarian supervisor and manager. He is currently Director of Service Excellence at Markham Public Library where he has led the organization through numerous innovative and transformational changes. Moe is a regular presenter at library conferences, speaking on RFID, customer service metrics and MPL’s award winning Customer Centred Classification system.

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Sylvia Frank is the Director of The Film Reference Library and Special Collections at TIFF Bell Lightbox; she is also Curator for the Canadian Film Gallery which shares space with the Library.  She has worked with TIFF since 1993.  Frank was curator of “Brave Film, Wild Nights” a poster exhibit created to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival^®, and developed the popular online version of Canadian Film Encyclopaedia, and under her guidance the Library’s Special Collections continue to grow including such Canadian luminaries as David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan. Her most recent exhibition is “Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star” which opened in January 2010.  Prior to joining to The Film Reference Library, Frank was the Special Projects Librarian for Vaughan Public Libraries.  During her seven year tenure in that role, she was responsible for the planning and development of four libraries: Dufferin Clark, Ansley Grove, Maple and Bathurst Clark.  Frank obtained her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario and her first job took her to North Battleford, Saskatchewan where she was responsible for 17 public libraries within a regional library system.  Currently, Frank is serving her third term on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), which works to preserve the world’s film heritage through its various programmes, educational projects.

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Jonathan Lofft was educated at Trinity College, Toronto and hold a MISt from the iSchool@Toronto. He serves as president of the Toronto Area Archivists’ Group (TAAG) and on the Professional Development Committee of the Archives Association of Ontario. He is currently the archivist of Royal St. George’s College and a graduate theology student at an Anglican seminary at U of T.

Friday March 16: Self-Employed Info Pros, and Not-for-Profits

Gillian Clinton, Aero. Eng. Tech., B.A., MISt., is the principal of Clinton Research, a Toronto-based information research firm. As an independent information researcher for almost 20 years with experience in engineering, law, corporate, academic, document and reference librarianship, Ms. Clinton provides high quality information services to academics, authors, government organizations and private corporations alike.  Several of her bibliographies, on Civil Society, Information Management and Environmental Reform, have been published both online and in academic texts.  With a strong reputation for analyzing reports and statistical data, and locating missing documents, Clinton Research has been providing competitive intelligence, background research, literature reviews and editorial services to Canadian and international clients for almost 20 years.  Gillian is actively involved in a number of professional associations and can’t imagine actually having to retire some day.

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Connie Crosby is a consultant specializing in information management, knowledge management, and social media. Before founding Crosby Group Consulting in 2008, Connie was a law librarian, most recently working as library manager for 10 years in the Toronto law firm WeirFoulds. She has served as President of the Toronto Association of Law Libraries and on the Executive Board of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.  Connie is a founding director and contributor for the prominent co-operative law blog Slaw.ca and also writes for her own blog http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com. Connie is winner of The iSchool Institute Award for Outstanding Teaching 2010-2011 for her continuing education courses on social media at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. Her book Effective Blogging for Libraries is part of the Tech Set series from Neal-Schuman Publishers. She is also a co-organizer of the local meetup group Knowledge Workers: Methods which has a monthly speaker talking about knowledge management-related subjects. And she is also a lead organizer for PodCamp Toronto, Canada’s largest social media event, held each year at Ryerson University in February. She also speaks frequently to law, library and knowledge management communities on topics such as collaboration, change management, and social media.  Connie has a BA and MA in English Literature from the University of Guelph and an MLS from the University of Toronto. She recently completed the Information Management Certificate at the iSchool Institute.

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Gayle Gossen has a B.A in English Literature from the University of Toronto and an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario. She worked as a librarian at the Toronto Star before moving as an Education Consultant to LexisNexis Canada where she also worked as an Account Executive, Marketing Manager, Manager of Customer Education and National Sales Manager. She has worked for CNW Group, Carswell, a Thomson Reuters Company and Dow Jones in sales and sales management in Canada and the United States.   Gayle currently is running her own consulting practice helping companies improve their sales and marketing efforts.

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David Whelan  improves information access for legal professionals. He received his law degree from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and his library degree at the University of North Texas. David has managed information and technology teams at the Southern Methodist University School of Law, the American Bar Association, and the Cincinnati Law Library Association. He moved to Toronto to take on the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Great Library and Corporate Records & Archives. David also consults and collaborates with LibraryCo, a funder of 48 county law libraries around Ontario, as well as managing the Law Society’s Web content management team. His book on Finding and Managing Legal Information on the Internet is in its second edition and he writes and speaks frequently on legal technology, information, and research topics.

Friday March 30: Leadership Panel

Until January 2012 Michael Ridley was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Librarian at the University of Guelph. Currently he is on sabbatical and writing a “book-like-thing” on literacy, completing a graduate degree in higher education, editing Access (the magazine of the Ontario Library Association), teaching, and consulting with a number of professional organizations. Ridley has been a professional librarian since 1979 working at a variety of positions at the University of Guelph, the Health Sciences Library at McMaster University, and the University of Waterloo. In 1995 he returned to the University of Guelph as the Chief Librarian and in 2004 was named the CIO.

Michael as served as the President of the Canadian Association for Information Science, President of the Ontario Library Association, and Chair of the Ontario Council of University Libraries. He has been a member of the Board of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN),and the Canadian University Council of CIOs (CUCCIO). Currently he is serving on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION).

Mike blogs at MichaelRidley.ca and is on Twitter as mridley. Mike refers to himself as a failed rock star (but that’s another story entirely).

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Gordon Vala-Webb is National Director of Knowledge Management for PwC Canada. He has over ten years experience as a knowledge management and enterprise social-media strategist and implementer in both the private and public sectors. As a thought leader he is frequently asked to speak at conferences and other events in both North America and Europe. Teams he has led have been recognized through awards such as the NN/g Top Ten Government Intranets and the IIR Best Portal, Content and Collaboration Excellence Award. He has twenty years of experience leading change at every level from Board to manager. Gordon has a Masters in Management Science (Technology) from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo and is certified as a Human Capital Strategist (HCI). His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/gordonvalawebb.

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Vicki Whitmell has been aware of the importance of leadership abilities and skills since taking her first leadership role in a school group in the 1970s. She has always looked for leaders to emulate and many of her career moves as a librarian have been made seeking leadership role models. This has taken her to academia, law firms, a professional association and a government position. Currently Vicki is Executive Director of the Information and Technology Services Division at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario where she has the responsibility for the Legislative Library, the Legislative Research Service, the IT department and the Information Management and Information Records Office. She is also the organizer of the Library Leaders Institute, a program that highlights the importance of personal development and growth as a way to strengthen and understand our own roles as leaders.

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Prior to founding Dysart & Jones in 1992, Jane Dysart spent seventeen years as Manager, Information Resources, Royal Bank of Canada. Since then she has created and developed programs (content and speakers) for over 50 major conference events in Canada, the US and the UK.  She is currently the program director for Internet Librarian 2010, webcom Toronto 2010, KMWorld 2010, and Computers in Libraries 2011.  With her business partner, Rebecca Jones, and associates, Jane has created and participated in hundreds of one or two day learning and leadership events for many different associations, universities, companies, libraries, and other organizations.  Jane is a Past-President of the Special Libraries Association and recipient of that organization’s John Cotton Dana Award. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Library and Information Science (now the iSchool), has served on their advisory council, taught many workshops and courses, and is the recipient of their Alumni Jubilee Award. She is currently a member of the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science Advisory Council and the Information Officer of IFLA’s Knowledge Management Standing Committee.

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Juanita Richardson is Principal of Richardson Jalakas & Associates – an information strategy company which she founded in 1998.  Juanita has worked on both sides of the information industry.  Most recently, she worked for many years as a Business Development Consultant for CEDROM-SNi.  Prior to that, she was the Manager of Licensing, Product Strategy and Client Services with InfomartDialog.  Before “crossing the street”, she was the Manager of the Business Information Centre in the Toronto Office of Deloitte & Touche and previously held positions in the Research Departments of Wood Gundy and ScotiaMcLeod.  She teaches at Seneca College in the Library and Information Technician program, and for University of Toronto’s iSchool Institute.

Past consulting engagements have included assisting corporations implementing knowledge initiatives and furthering marketing opportunities for information service companies. She recently joined Dysart & Jones as an Associate.

Juanita holds a Master of Library and Information Studies from McGill University as well as a Master of Business Administration from Athabasca University.  She has served on the Board of Directors of SLA and is an active member of the Canadian Library Association.  She has spoken at various information industry conferences and has also published articles in industry magazines.