No. 538 - August 6, 2025

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSWrites - Summer Edition
    - Western Farmers Market
    - Western Free Store Donation Day
    - LIS 9004 Research Methods Poster Showcase
    - Workshop: Writing Strong Contributions Sections
    - Trading on Art at the Global Centre for Pluralism

  • Important Dates:

    - Friday, August 8, 2025 - Final day of FIMS graduate classes
    - Monday, September 1, 2025 - Labour Day (no classes, FIMS offices closed)
    - Wednesday, September 3 - Friday, September 5, 2025 - FIMS graduate orientation days
    - Thursday, September 4, 2025 - First day of undergraduate classes
    - Monday, September 8, 2025 - First day of classes for FIMS graduate programs

  • News & Announcements:

    - Book chapter proposals invited
    - Western launches Doctoral Excellence Award

    Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Jack Kausch
    - Shelley Long
    - Emma Hutchinson-Hounsell
    - Amber Matthews (PhD'24, LIS)
    - Luke Stark

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - ELIP Volume 7
    - Jesse Butler
    - Giada Ferrucci
    - Santasil Mallik
    - Myrna Moretti
    - Sarah Smith

  • In the Media:

    - Emily Austin (MLIS'13)
    - Dave Briggs (MA'94, Journalism)
    - Marina Brint
    - James Compton
    - Olivia Douglas
    - Taziah Fioze-Booker
    - Selma Purac
    - James MacDonald (MA'99, Journalism)
    - Sarah Smith
    - Dayanqi Si (with Ali Shahan Butt)
    - Luke Stark

  • News from the FIMS Grad Library:

    - Intersession Library Closure
    - On-Campus Work Opportunity in the FIMS Graduate Library (Fall 2025 & Winter 2026)
    - Winners of the Wikipedia Photo Challenge
    - Let the FIMS Grad Library help with your Course Readings
    - Transfer your print credits to a colleague

  • News from Western Libraries:

    - Course Readings Service

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events

FIMSWrites - Summer Term Edition
Wednesdays
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Attend in-person: FNB 4110
Attend online: Check your Western email for the Zoom link (or contact Pam McKenzie)
Do you expect to have assignment, story, article, report, thesis, and/or book writing deadlines coming up in the Fall term? Does having other people writing around you help keep you on-task? Then join us for FIMSWrites, an informal initiative to provide some solidarity in the sometimes-solitary writing process. What it is: a group of people sitting silently together working on their individual writing projects, a mid-morning coffee, snack, and socializing break. What it's not: a writing tutorial or workshop. Open to FIMS faculty, librarians, postdocs and grad students who have writing to work on.

Western Farmers Market
Wednesdays
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Open space in front of McIntosh Gallery
The Western Farmers Market returns! Pick up fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and other local treats or grab lunch from the on-site food truck.

Western Free Store Donation Day
Wednesdays
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Arts & Humanities Building 1B09
Donate your unwanted items (only clean items that are in good condition, please) every Wednesday over the summer months. Visit their website to see a list of accepted and not accepted items. Hosted by Western's Sustainability Office.

LIS 9004 Research Methods Poster Showcase
Friday, August 8, 2025
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
FIMS Graduate Library (FNB 3020)
MLIS students enrolled in LIS 9004 will showcase their posters. Please join us in welcoming them to the FIMS research community!

Trading on Art at the Global Centre for Pluralism
Thursday, August 28, 2025
5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Global Centre for Pluralism, 330 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
Register now.
Join Associate Professor Sarah E.K. Smith and guests for a discussion of art, free trade, and North American relationships. Hosted by the Carleton Centre for Public History, the Embassy of Mexico in Canada and the Global Centre for Pluralism. To follow event updates, visit NACDI.
 


Important Dates

- Friday, August 8, 2025 - Final day of FIMS graduate classes
- Monday, September 1, 2025 - Labour Day (no classes, FIMS offices closed)
- Wednesday, September 3 - Friday, September 5, 2025 - FIMS graduate orientation days
- Thursday, September 4, 2025 - First day of undergraduate classes
- Monday, September 8, 2025 - First day of classes for FIMS graduate programs


News & Announcements

Book chapter proposals invited
FIMS alumni Yimin Chen (PhD'22, LIS), Victoria O'Meara (PhD'22, Media Studies) and Chantell Gosse (PhD'21, Media Studies) are inviting book chapter proposals for a co-edited volume titled A Research Agenda for Internet Culture. See the full details at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xNzPkly24P7dryMhigzBs6QYnH2EW7AJ/view 

Western launches Doctoral Excellence Award
Western's new Doctoral Excellence Awards are designed to support students connected to U.S. universities ranked among the top 100 globally - specifically those currently enrolled in doctoral programs, reconsidering their admission offers or affected by rescinded offers. The initiative will provide 25 PhD students up to $160,000 ($40,000 per year) for up to four years of study in a research-based doctoral program. For more information visit the award webpage.


Awards & Accomplishments

Jack Kausch, LIS PhD student won Best Graduate Student Paper at the NASKO (North American Society for Knowledge Organization) Conference 2025 (June 19-20) for a paper he presented titled Cosine Similarity Indexing of Word Embeddings Using Knowledge.

Shelley Long, Graduate Programs Support staff, was named winner of the Fall 2025 Fantastic FIMS award. The award is given out each term by the MLISSC.

MLIS student Emma Hutchinson-Hounsell was named winner of the Fall 2025 Spirit of Librarianship award. The award is given out each term by the MLISSC.

Amber Matthews, PhD'24 (LIS), was named the recipient of the 2025 Doctoral Dissertation Award by the Canadian Association for Information Science for her 2024 dissertation titled Advancing Anti-Racism in Public Libraries for Black Youth in Canada. The award was announced at the CAIS Annual Meeting, May 27-29, 2025. 

Assistant Professor Luke Stark was named as one of Western's Outstanding Emerging Scholars as part of the 2025 Western Research Excellence Awards. The Outstanding Emerging Scholar award recognizes faculty members at the Assistant Professor level and who have demonstrated meaningful and impactful research, scholarly accomplishments and/or creative activity in the early stages of their career.


Publications & Presentations

ELIP Volume 7 now available
Emerging Library and Information Perspectives (ELIP)—the MLIS program's student-run academic journal—Volume 7 is here! After a year of editorial work, ELIP’s core Editorial Team is thrilled to share this volume with the FIMS community and beyond. A wholehearted thank you to authors, peer reviewers, copy editors, Western Library and FIMS Graduate Library staff, and the ELIP Advisory Board for offering your invaluable insight, perspectives, and efforts to Volume 7. Happy reading!

MLIS student Jesse Butler published a poem titled "The Archive of Readerless Books" in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily on June 25. Jesse originally wrote the poem as an arts-based response to an assignment in LIS 9003 - Information Sources and Services during the Winter 2025 term.

Postdoctoral Associate Giada Ferrucci (PhD'24, Media Studies) presented a paper titled "Ecologies of Memory and Resistance: Historical Memory, Environmental Justice, and Resilience in Post-War El Salvador" at the 2nd International Congress of Ecological Humanities in Barcelona, Spain, from June 30 to July 1st.

Media Studies PhD candidate Santasil Mallik published a book chapter titled, "Photography contra Real-Estate Imaginary: Global City Phantasms in India's National Capital Region," in the book Oikography: Homemaking through Photography, edited by Ali Shobeiri and Helen Westgeest, from Leiden University Press.

Postdoctoral Associate Myrna Moretti presented a talk titled "Before Action, After Cut: Finding the Second Shift in the Studio Archives," at the Hollywood Conference at the University of Southern California, July 17-20.

Associate Professor Sarah Smith co-authored a new policy brief published by the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance:

Budziszewska, A., Jessup, L., Lettau, M., Smith, S.E.K., Villanueva, C., & Tadeo, E. Decolonizing International Relations: Building Trust. Policy Brief based on the 2024/2025 International Cultural Relations Research Alliance online conference. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen in partnership with British Council, 2025.

It is also available in Spanish and French.

Professor Smith also ran a workshop on July 28 on Agonistic Museum Diplomacy funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). Hosted by the Aga Khan Museum, the workshop brought together a team of German and Canadian academics along with a range of Canadian arts practitioners, including policymakers, arts funders, and cultural programmers. This was part of a larger week of activities (July 28-31) focused on forging a new international collaboration addressing museum diplomacy, cultural policies, and theories of agonism.

Lastly, Smith presented research at her recent book launch Trading on Art in Collaboration with the Words Festival and Museum London on July 24. If you missed the event, the talks from Sarah Smith, Ruth Skinner and Judith Rodger are all available on YouTube.


In the Media

Emily Austin's (MLIS'13) novel We Could Be Rats was included in a CBC article titled "50 fiction books featured on Bookends with Mattea Roach," published on July 24.

Dave Briggs, MA'94, Journalism, was featured in an article titled "He Knows Plenty About Horses Now," published in Standardbred Canada on July 10.

MLIS student Marina Brint was featured in a blog article titled "Freshly Minted: Marina 'Mars' Brint," published by Librarianship.ca on August 5.

Professor Emeritus James Compton joined CBC Afternoon Drive in July to discuss how the cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" could be seen as an example of Trump's intimidation tactics against media outlets.

MLIS student Olivia Douglas was featured in a blog article titled "Freshly Minted: Olivia Douglas," published by Librarianship.ca on July 31.

MLIS student Taziah Fioze-Booker was featured in an article titled "Library co-op student reviews SPL shelves for inclusion and representation," published by Stratford Today on July 9.

James MacDonald, MA'99, Journalism, was featured in a profile titled "Life in Ornge: U of GH instructor James MacDonald brings students lessons from the front lines of crisis communications, journalism," published by Guelph Humber News on July 31.

Assistant Professor Selma Purac was interviewed for an article titled "Barbie maker Mattel is adding AI to children's toys. Here's why Ontario experts are concerned," published by Metroland Media on July 14. The article was reprinted in a number of places including the Cambridge Times and others across the region.

Associate Professor Sarah Smith was interviewed by host Dave O'Brien for a New Books Network podcast episode on August 2. The two discussed Professor Smith's recent publication, Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America.

Professor Smith's book is also discussed in a Policy Magazine article titled "The Case for a Renaissance in Canadian Cultural Diplomacy," published on August 4.

LIS PhD student Dayanqi Si was featured in a profile titled "Libraries, languages and motherhood: PhD candidate defies stereotypes," published by Western News on July 24. The article was written by MMJC student Ali Shahan Butt, originally as an assignment for MMJC 9604 - Corporate Communications in the Winter 2025 term.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark was featured in an article titled "Six scholars honoured with Western Research Excellence Awards" published by Western News on July 10.

Professor Stark was also quoted in an article titled "'It has become a big problem': Artists frustrated with increase in AI 'art'," published by CTV News on July 22.

Lastly, Professor Stark joined Ottawa Now on 580 CFRA to discuss the social impact of AI and people who are turning to AI as an alternative to therapy. 

News from the FIMS Grad Library

Intersession Library Closure

The library will be closed from Saturday, August 9, to Monday, September 1, 2025. Regular hours will resume, Tuesday, September 2.

*If you require access to the library during this closure, please email fimslib@uwo.ca to make arrangements

On-Campus Work Opportunity in the FIMS Graduate Library (Fall 2025 & Winter 2026)

The FIMS Graduate Library is looking for motivated and detail-oriented MLIS students to join our team as Student Library Assistants. This opportunity is ideal for students who enjoy helping others, working in a collaborative environment, and gaining experience in a special academic library setting. The position runs during both the Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 terms.

For full details, including responsibilities, hours, and how to apply, please see the job posting on our website.

Winners of the Wikipedia Photo Challenge

We are excited to announce the winners of FGL’s Wikimedia Photo Challenge!

🏆 Most Uploads: Briar Grayson
For their incredible contribution of numerous photos to the Wikimedia library.

🎯 Best Quality Image: Sarah Cornwell
Beautiful capture of nature in the city: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMonarch_butterfly_on_Purple_Coneflower.jpg

Huge thanks to everyone who took part in the challenge. Your contributions support open access to photography for reuse and to enhance Wikipedia articles. Overall, we uploaded 68 images, 12 of which are now associated with Wikipedia articles.

https://lib.fims.uwo.ca/2025/08/05/__wikimedia_photo_challenge_winners/

Let the FIMS Grad Library help with your Course Readings

Remember the FIMS Grad Library can help with your Course Readings. We can help as much or as little as you need. Just email fimslib@uwo.ca with your syllabus, reading list or even a single title, and we will digitize, track down, or purchase copies of the materials you need. We can email these materials to you, place them on physical reserve, or upload them to the Course Readings tab of your Brightspace site.

Bear in mind if we do not own the materials, acquiring them can take up to 3 weeks.

You may also receive communication about Course Readings from Western Libraries. Our library works closely with Western Libraries in fulfilling your readings requests. Whether you follow Western Libraries’ instructions or ours, rest assured your Course Readings will be fulfilled.

Transfer your print credits to a colleague

Graduating this term? Still have funds on your PaperCut account? Want to transfer that money to a friend? You can do that! Login to your FIMS PaperCut account and click on the ‘Transfers’ button on the left-hand menu. Enter the amount you want to transfer and the username of the person to whom you want to transfer it and that's it. Reach out to the library if you require assistance (fimslib@uwo.ca).


News from Western Libraries

Course Readings Service

Give students free and easy access to your course readings with Western Libraries Course Readings Service. Simply email your syllabus to coursereadings@uwo.ca and we'll do the rest.

At no cost to you or your students, our team will:

  • Scan and upload book chapters and articles
  • Ensure stable links to online resources
  • Place materials on short-term loan at your preferred library
  • Purchase new books and e-books for the collection
  • Assist with copyright compliance and pay clearance costs
  • Help you integrate your course readings into OWL Brightspace
  • Support your students' accessibility needs

You can also add the Brightspace Course Readings tool to your Brightspace course sites, so your students can find the readings easily.


Next Issue


The FIMS Bulletin is your source for news, announcements, and events pertaining to FIMS graduate programs. Submissions from the FIMS community are always welcome and may be sent via e-mail to fims-communications@uwo.ca.

This is the final summer issue of the FIMS Bulletin. The Bulletin will resume its normal publication schedule on September 24, 2025.