For her long time commitment and in recognition of her contributions to the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), Professor Lynne Howarth is receiving its prestigious 2015 ALISE Service Award at the 2015 annual conference in Chicago.
The ALISE Board of Directors says the 2015 ALISE award winners “exemplify the excellence that ALISE encourages and represents in the LIS community.”
“I am honoured to have been nominated by my peers to receive the ALISE Service Award, even more so as 2015 marks the 100th anniversary, and the Centennial Celebration, of the Association,” Prof. Howarth says. “This is an international scholarly community that welcomes doctoral students and supports the career path of academics within the information disciplines as educators, researchers, and leaders. It is a privilege to be recognized within a scholarly association that promotes both inclusiveness and excellence.”
Prof. Howarth was elected as Vice-President of ALISE in 2010, serving as President from 2011 to 2012, and Past President from 2012 to 2013. During her Presidential year, she convened a highly successful and profitable annual conference in Dallas, Texas, launched a new strategic plan for 2010-2013, and initiated a review of ALISE policies and procedures.
She had previously been elected to the ALISE Board of Directors as Secretary-Treasurer for a three-year term from 1997-2000. Since joining ALISE in 1987, Prof. Howarth has served on a number of committees, including those of Membership, Governance, Budget & Finance, and Nominating, as well as the Council of Deans, Directors, and Program Chairs.
In 2014 she co-convened, with 2009 PhD graduate Prof. Mary Cavanagh (Ottawa), the President’s Program, “Shush no more! An Activist Agenda for LIS Scholars” that provided a backdrop to the invitational Institute for Museum and Library Services-funded Planning Forum, “Envisioning Our Information Future and How to Educate for It”, held January 14-16, 2015, in Boston.
“It is wonderful that Professor Lynne Howarth’s numerous distinguished contributions to our field have been recognized by this award,” commented Dean Seamus Ross. “Over many decades, she has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to ALISE and its mission through illustrious service, which has included many leadership roles.”
A double graduate of the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Lynne earned her MLS in 1978 and her PhD in 1990. That same year, she was appointed to the Faculty, earned a reputation as an excellent teacher, and served as Dean from 1995-2003.
Currently, Dr. Howarth teaches the doctoral course, Research in Information: Frameworks and Methods, and Master of Information courses, Research Methods, Information in a Disabling Society, Metadata Schemas and Applications, and a “bootcamp,” The Information Professional Landscape, among others.
Prior to her time at the Faculty of Information, Dr. Howarth worked as cataloguing manager, and systems librarian at North York Public Library. She has taught cataloguing and classification at McGill University, “Principles of Information Management” at Ryerson University, and “Knowledge Access Management” at the OCLC Institute.
Her Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SHRCC)-funded research has supported “Modelling Technical Services in Libraries” (1993-1997), “Towards More Useful Bibliographic Displays” (with J. Cherry, 1994-1998), “Modelling a Metalevel Ontology” (1999-2003), “Connecting Metadata-enabled Multilingual Resources” (2003-2007), and “Creating Pathways to Memory” (2008-2011). The latter study examined the role of representation — in the form of tokens serving as memory cues — in sense-making, and memory recall among individuals with mild Alzheimer’s Disease.
Along with Museum Studies colleague, Professor Cara Krmpotich, and Michigan State University Anthropology Professor, Heather Howard, she is currently working with aboriginal senior and intergenerational groups as part of the “Memory, Meaning-making and Collections” study to combine reminiscence and storytelling with object handling. Funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, and in partnership with the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (NCCT), the research will yield both a collection of “souvenir art” hand-crafted by indigenous beaders, weavers, quillbox makers, and carvers conserved for future generations, and a collection of documented memories and photographs shared by study volunteers.
Dr. Howarth is a member of the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, the IFLA Classification and Indexing Section, the IFLA Working Group on Metadata Schemes, and the ISBD Review Group (IFLA). She holds an affiliation as Distinguished Researcher in Information Organization at the School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, has served on committees within the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) and as part of program and other committees for iConference, and was the Canadian representative to the ALA Committee on Accreditation for four years.
Congratulations from the iSchool community on this prestigious recognition.
