Speaker Biographies
Penney Clark: Dr. Penney Clark is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Curriculum and Pedagogy at UBC and is Director of The History Education Network/Histoire et Education en Reseau. This is a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) funded pan-Canadian collaborative network devoted to the enrichment of history education at every level from Kindergarten through graduate school. She teaches social studies methodology courses in the teacher education program at UBC, as well as graduate courses in history of curriculum and politics of curriculum development and textbook selection. She is a co-author and co-editor of several Canadian history and social studies methodology textbooks. Her current research interests are centered on the history of textbook publishing in Canada.
Lynn Copeland: Lynn Copeland is a graduate of the University of Toronto (BSc), Brandeis University (MA) and Columbia University (MLS). She has been Dean of Library Services at Simon Fraser University since 1998, having been Head, Library Systems at SFU and BC Electronic Library Manager, and held librarian positions at University of British Columbia, BC Union Catalogue Project, Rutgers University and UC Berkeley. Lynn has been involved in a number of digitization projects including, most notably, Multicultural Canada. She is the Vice Chair of the newly formed Canadiana.org. She is also chair of the Scholarly Communication Committee of the Canadian Ass. of Research Libraries.
Loren Fantin: Loren Fantin is the Project Manager for Our Ontario, the digital initiative of Knowledge Ontario that has Ontario discovering and sharing our culture, our history and our stories. Our Ontario's innovative discovery portal, along with other digitization projects, is now in the third year of production - Loren has been a strong project evangelist from conception to its current mainstream acceptance and usage. Her prior professional experience has been focused in the archival sector. Notably, she worked with the Archives Association of Ontario in developing and managing ARCHEION, Ontario's archival information network, as ARCHEION Coordinator.
Shelagh Flaherty: Shelagh Flaherty is the Director of Central Library for Vancouver Public Library. Her responsibilities as Director of Central include public services in Central, online services, multicultural and immigrant services and InfoAction, the Library's fee based service. Shelagh has held a variety of other positions at VPL including Planning Librarian for Library Square, Division Head, Business and Economics, Division Head, Circulation, Interlibrary Loan and Quick Information Service, extensive project work for the Library and many years as a reference librarian.
Karen Hunt: Karen Hunt has a Master of Information Science (1989) from the University of Western Ontario and her undergraduate degree (honours) in Geography from the University of Winnipeg (1986). She's currently the Acting University Librarian at University of Winnipeg, and before that she was the Information Literacy Coordinator at the University of Winnipeg (2000 - 2006), coordinated collection development and access services at Red River College Library and was a reference librarian at the University of Manitoba. She worked on the organizing committee for the Manitoba Digitization Summit in early 2008 and continues to work on the organizing group with the working title of the Digital Alliance of Manitoba (yes, that's DAM!).
John Lutz: Dr. John Lutz teaches Canadian and American History at the University of Victoria and is co-director of the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project www.canadianmysteries.ca and creator of several other historical websites. He is the author of Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations (2008) and editor of Myth and Memory: Stories of Indigenous-European Contact, (2007) and Making and Moving Knowledge (2008).
Brenda Smith: Brenda L. Smith chairs the Education and Planning Committees of the British Columbia Historical Federation. She writes for the Maple Ridge Historical Society Family History Newsletter. She presents research methodology programs for libraries, museums and archives, family history societies and other interested groups.
Irene Van Bavel: Irene Van Bavel is a Program Officer with the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), an agency of the Government of Canada's Department of Canadian Heritage. She has worked for many years in the cultural sector developing and managing digital programs for Library and Archives Canada and the Minnesota Historical Society. Irene has held various archivist positions at Library and Archives Canada.
Christina Wilson: Christina Wilson is the newly appointed Director of the Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library. For the past year, she has worked with the Alberta Public Library Electronic Network (APLEN) as the Emerging Technologies Librarian, where she provided leadership and consulting services to the public library community. Prior to her move to The Alberta Library in 2007 Christina gained considerable senior-level experience as the Manager of Technical Services and Support for the Cambridge Libraries and Galleries in Cambridge, Ontario. She has a keen interest in library digitization projects. While at the Cambridge Libraries and Galleries, she initiated several community-based digitization projects.
Ian Wilson: In 2004, Mr. Ian E. Wilson was appointed Librarian and Archivist of Canada. In his former position as National Archivist of Canada, appointed July 1999, he and National Librarian, Roch Carrier, developed and led the process to create a new knowledge institution for Canada in the 21st century. For more information on Mr. Wilson's achievements please see http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/about-us/012-201-e.html
Lara Wilson: Lara Wilson is President of the Archives Association of British Columbia (AABC) for 2007-2009, having previously held that position in 2002-2003, and is currently Special Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA), having been Secretary-Treasurer of the Board for 2003-2005. She is the University Archivist at the University of Victoria, BC, an appointment she has held since 2007.