Dear Colleagues,
Based on an open search for Chair of the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alberta, I am delighted to announce that Dr. Toni Samek emerged as the top candidate for this leadership position, and has agreed to take up the leadership role July 1st, 2015.
Dr. Samek is currently a Professor at SLIS, where she began teaching in 1994. She holds a PhD in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1998). Toni's books include Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship 1967 to 1974 and Librarianship and Human Rights: A twenty-first century guide. Her scholarship has appeared in translation in such countries as Japan, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey.
An award winning teacher, Toni brought acclaim to our School when she received the debut Library Journal Teaching Award in 2007. In 2009, she received a Faculty of Education Graduate Teaching Award, testimony to her enduring competence as a teacher, advisor, supervisor and mentor by the high standards set by a large North American research university. Toni is also recognized for educational leadership and knowledge of trends in higher education transcending her own discipline. In 2012, she received a 3M National Teaching Fellowship from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - the first academic in the field of library and information studies to receive the '3M'.
As a seasoned senior faculty member at the University of Alberta, Toni has accrued a strong record of institutional service at all levels. Toni also has a wide range of professional citizenship experience, including in line with her research and scholarship in information ethics. She served as founding member and first chair of the Association for Library and Information Science Education's Special Interest Group on Information Ethics. She twice chaired the Canadian Library Association's Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom. And she recently completed two consecutive three-year terms on the Canadian Association of University Teacher's Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee. In recognition of her significant contributions, Toni was honoured with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) Distinguished Alumna Award in 2013.
SLIS very much looks forward to Dr. Samek's leadership!
Anna Altmann
Interim Chair, School of Library and Information Studies
University of Alberta