Finding our Future Conferences
Facing the Challenges of an Aging Workforce
Bios and photos
Stephen Abram, B.A. (hon), M.L.S. (top)
Stephen Abram is Vice President of Corporate Development for Micromedia ProQuest and the President of the Ontario Library Association for 2002.
In March 2002 Stephen was named by Library Journal as one of the Top 50 librarians who are shaping the future of libraries and librarianship.
Micromedia ProQuest is Canada's largest electronic publisher. Stephen's role is to be responsible for the long term development of their successful print, microform, CD-ROM, intranet and web-based news, periodical, directory, corporate, engineering and government information publishing lines.
He has been Publisher, Electronic Information for Carswell and Thomson Electronic Publishing in Canada and the U.S., creating some of the leading legal information finding tools in North America in CD-ROM, online and web formats. He has managed libraries, marketing and information resources for Hay Management Consultants, Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers) as well as positions with the Canadian law firm Smith, Lyons, Torrance, Stevenson, & Mayer, and Suncor.
Stephen has also held positions nationally and internationally for many information industry and librarian organizations, including the Special Libraries Association (SLA), Canadian Library Association (CLA), Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services (CASLIS), Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), and The Electronic Rights Licensing Association (TERLA). He is the 2002 president of the Ontario Library Association. He writes and speaks frequently on new roles for librarians, developing effective knowledge ecologies, product creation and marketing, library technology trends and e-learning.
Stephen was 1992 Member of the Year for the SLA Toronto Chapter. He was made an international Fellow of SLA in 1995. In 1998 Stephen was CASLIS Canadian Special Librarian of the Year. In June 1999 Stephen was awarded the prestigious SLA Management Leadership Award. In June 2000, he was presented with the SLA Public Relations Member Achievement Award in Philadelphia. In June 2001 Stephen received the Alumni Jubilee Award from the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto.
Stephen spends his copious amounts of leisure time with his two children (a writer son in Grade 12 and a gymnast daughter in grade 9 French immersion) and his wife (author of over 24 books including novel studies, major history textbooks as well as several websites and Phys Ed curricula) and enjoys telling off people who talk during the movie in theatres.
Dr. Ethel Auster (top)
Professor Auster joined the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto after teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and professional experiences in school, special and academic libraries. She has done research in the following areas: information-seeking behaviour of managers; evaluation of online services; information dissemination and use, and downsizing in Canadian academic research libraries. Her current SSHRC-funded project concerns the ways in which public reference librarians maintain their professional competence in an era of rapidly changing technologies. Other areas of interest include management of information organizations; information needs and uses; human resources management in information organizations; and management and evaluation of reference services. She has published in numerous professional journals. Her book Managing Online References Services appeared in 1986; The Online Searcher in 1990; Retrenchment in Canadian Academic Libraries in 1991. Her most recent book Managing Information for the Competitive Edge, co-edited with Prof. C.W. Choo was published in 1996. A former Governor of the University of Toronto, she serves as Chair of the Committee on Doctoral Studies.
Renée Bazile-Jones (top)
Renée Bazile-Jones is the President of unparalleled inc. which helps its clients to create workplace environments, structures, policies and practices that optimize the strategic utilization of human capital.
Ms. Bazile-Jones is known in both Canada and the United States for her work in Diversity Management, strategic planning, and the Management of Change, and her accomplishments have been acknowledged by Who's Who in Business. Renée is an expert on issues of Workplace Harassment. She has over 28 years experience working for such Fortune 500 companies as Xerox, AT&T, and Shell Canada Limited. Renée has worked as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse Associates and William M. Mercer, as well as a Director with the Provincial Employment Equity Commission, prior to founding unparalleled inc.
Renée has worked as a volunteer on ground-breaking environmental scenarios for United Way of America such as What Lies Ahead: Scenarios for the Year 2000, has written and consulted extensively on work in the future, and was a featured speaker at the Couchiching Institutes planning form on The Future World of Work. Renée co-authored Measuring the Impact of Diversity, and has published articles on Aspects of Sexism and Workplace Harassment.. She is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer on Diversity in both Canada and the United States.
Donna C. Chan (top)
Donna C. Chan is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario. She holds a PhD and MISt. from the University of Toronto, an MA in Sociology from Carleton University and a B.Math from the University of Waterloo. Her research interests are in the areas of professional development of librarians, particularly informal modes of learning, and aging workforce issues.
Ian Cullwick, CMC, CCP, CHRP (top)
Ian Cullwick is a Partner and national service line leader for Human Capital Advisory Services at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Ian specializes in human resources strategy, compensation strategy, organization design, performance measurement, and performance management. Ian is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a Master's degree in Business Administration. He also holds a Master's degree in Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto and a B.A. (Honours) degree from Queen's University. Ian is a member of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Canada, the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario and the Canadian Compensation Association.
Recently, Ian served as the Engagement Partner for the Ottawa Public Library Succession and Retention Plan project, with ultimate responsibility for all work performed by Deloitte & Touche on this engagement. He also acted as an advisor focusing on quality control, while lending his expertise in the facilitation of key meetings and working sessions, as well as providing advice with respect to HR Strategy based on his extensive experience in this area.
William Curran (top)
William (Bill) Curran has been Director of Libraries at Concordia University since 1998, following his position as University Librarian at Bishop's University. Bill has a special interest in succession planning issues for academic libraries.
Deborah Defoe (top)
Deborah Defoe has served as the Chief Librarian/Chief Executive Officer of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library since 1998. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trent University and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Western Ontario.
She is the author of InfoHealth: Community Health Service at the Kingston Public Library and the Compiler of Kingston, A Selected Bibliography.
As the former Coordinator of Information and Reference Services at Kingston Frontenac Public Library, she has over 20 years of experience in Information Management, and reference work remains her secret passion.
Julia Goodman (top)
Currently on a two year assignment with the National Library of Canada, Julia Goodman supports the work of the Council of Federal Libraries in her capacity of Development Officer. The Council is engaged in implementing new priorities, relevant to Government Online, and in assisting the library community to renew itself. Julia is permanently based with the Canadian Agriculture Library, where she holds the position of Chief, Acquisitions and Technical Services. In this position she worked on the development of a suite of desktop tools for the staff of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and on AgriWeb Canada, an online directory of Canadian Internet resources in agriculture. In her eleven years with the National Library of Canada at the beginning of her career, Julia worked in the planning function and as a cataloguer and a cataloguing section head.
Dr. Joanne Marshall (top)
Dr. Joanne Marshall joined the School of Information & Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Dean and Professor in January 1999. Previously, she was a faculty member at the University of Toronto, where she taught courses in health sciences information resources, management of corporate and other specialized information centers, research methods and online information retrieval. In addition to her Ph.D. in Community Health, Joanne also holds a Master of Health Science Degree from McMaster University and a Master of Library Science degree from McGill University.
Prior to her faculty appointment at the University of Toronto, Joanne worked for 15 years as a librarian in various academic and health sciences libraries. She has received a number of awards including the Medical Library Association (MLA) doctoral fellowship, the MLA Eliot Prize for the most significant research in medical librarianship for 1982 and 1992, the Award of Outstanding Achievement from the Canadian Health Libraries Association in 1992, the H.W. Wilson Award in 1997, and the John Cotton Dana Award from the Special Libraries Association in 1998. Her current research interests include:
- health information needs and services;
- value and impact of library and information services;
- information technology and the aging workforce; and
- competencies of library and information professionals.
Leslie Weir (top)
Leslie Weir become University Chief Librarian at the University of Ottawa in January 2003 after acting in the position for a year. She is also Chair of the Canadian National Site Licence Project Management Committee and Chair of the Task Group on Access to Scholarly Information resources (SIR) which is the group charged with the implementation of the Ontario Scholar's Portal.
Previously Ms. Weir was Assistant Chief Librarian, responsible for Electronic Resources & Systems, at the University of Ottawa. During the past couple of years she has been actively involved in a number of information resource-related projects, including the Canadian National Site License Project (CNLSP), SmartLibraries (an Industry Canada funded, OCRI sponsored project to implement Z39.50 between five National Capital area libraries), OCULIR (the Ontario Council of University Libraries Information Resources, a provincial consortium that negociates licences for university access to electronic resources) and the Ontario Scholar's Portal (The Ontario Information Infrastructure project that is developing a leading edge interface for University researchers to access electronic resources).
Before joining the University in 1992, she worked at the National Library of Canada where she was a senior manager in information technology. She has worked as an information professional since 1979, and holds a Masters of Library Science from McGill University.
Vicki Whitmell (top)
Vicki Whitmell, Principal Consultant of Whitmell & Associates and the host of the conference, was made aware of the importance of succession planning and retention issues in libraries and information management organizations while in her position as Executive Director of the Canadian Library Association. As Principal Consultant of Whitmell & Associates she assists libraries, information management organizations and associations to look to their future and to make the right strategic choices and decisions.
She believes that organizations must plan now to ensure that the staffing requirements of their organization can be found in the future. Such planning must take into account the strategic vision of the organization, the needs of the individual and the new generation of workers and professionals, and the competitive hiring environment. Vicki also believes that associations and individual members of the profession all have a role to play in ensuring that the profession is renewed and is made attractive to those seeking a career.
Vicki received her MLS from the University of Toronto. Current and future projects are centred around succession planning issues, group facilitiation projects and long term strategies for individual organizations. She will be speaking at the upcoming Vital 3 Link Conference in Adelaide, Australia in November 2002 and at the British Columbia Library Association's Annual Conference in May 2003.
Conference Links
- Overview
- Program and Speakers
- Bios and photos
- Sponsors
- Registration (PDF form)
- Local Accommodation
