Marketing, Communications and Outreach Librarian appointed

The University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Catherine Baird to the position of Marketing, Communications, and Outreach Librarian.  Catherine’s official start date is June 18, 2007.  Catherine comes to us from York University where she is an Adjunct Librarian at the Scott Library.  Catherine is also a section editor for Partnership:  the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research.  Catherine’s primary responsibility will be for developing and implementing a marketing and communications programme for the library.

Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian appointed

The University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Shawn McCann to the position of Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian. Shawn comes to us from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he is the Digital Projects Librarian and has also held the position Web Librarian. Shawn’s official start date is August 1 2007. Shawn’s primary responsibility will be for exploring, creating, supporting and promoting library resources through gaming and virtual worlds. In particular, he brings strong technical skills; library experience; grant writing; classroom teaching experience; and, of course, a personal interest in gaming.

We believe this is the first position of its kind. The hiring of an Immersive Learning Librarian places McMaster in a leadership position. This position will provide an opportunity for the libraries to provide leadership in research, teaching and learning through the implementation of gaming environments and virtal worlds.

Digital Odyssey 2007: Building Our Future

I had the opportunity to present at the Digital Odyssey 2007 for OLITA. My slides are attached.

Gaming in libraries at CNI

Interesting post from Bryan Alexander on a session at the Coalition for Networked Information Krista Godfrey, our librarian who is designing our Second Life space, is at CNI. I hope she’ll blog about it later!

In the meantime, I’m at BCNET where I am also talking about gaming. My slides are now posted. If I get the slides from the other panelists I’ll post those as well. It was an interesting mix of gamers and non-gamers, IT folk, faculty, and a librarian.

It seems gaming in libraries is starting to pick up steam. Good to see people talking about it at national conferences!

Digital Strategies Librarian appointed

The University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicholas Ruest to the position of Digital Strategies Librarian. Nick comes to us from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he will be graduating from the IMLS-funded program for “Recruiting 21st Century Digital Projects Librarians”. Nick’s official start date is September 4, 2007. Nick’s primary responsibility will be for managing our digital library initiatives. In particular, he brings strong technical skills; experience with libraries, archives, and museums; experience with multimple formats, including three-dimensional; and a personal interest in digital music.

Digital Technologies Development Librarian appointed

The University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of John Fink to the position of Digital Technologies Development Librarian. John comes to us from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where he held the position of Electronic Information Services Librarian. John’s official start date is August 1, 2007. John’s primary responsibility will be for managing our ILS. We’re thrilled that John will be joining our team and look forward to making use of his experience with open source solutions. John is also a blogger and can be found at: http://libgrunt.blogspot.com/