Alice Albarda
Chair

Alice Albarda is from Gaspereau, Nova Scotia and graduated from Acadia University in 2015 with a BA with Honours in Classics. At Acadia, Alice wrote an honours thesis about Latin poetry and also developed an interest in children’s literature. This interest led to her current passion for children’s literature and youth librarianship. So far, Alice has held student positions at Acadia’s Vaughan Memorial Library, Dalhousie’s Dunn Law Library, and the Dalhousie Archives. However, her field of choice is public librarianship and she has completed a practicum at the Halifax Central Library. Outside of librarianship, Alice’s interests include cross stitching, playing the piano, and complaining about her cat.

As well as being the chair of SIMSA for 2016-2017, she is the communications officer for Librarians Without Borders (LWB). You can email Alice at alice.albarda@dal.ca

 

Zara Palevani
Academic Vice-Chair

Originally from Tehran, Iran, Zara called Halifax home 11 years ago. She completed the first 2 years of her undergraduates studies in Business Administration at Southern New Hampshire University (Dubai Campus) and finished her last two years at Saint Mary’s University Sobeys School of Business where she earned a Bachelor degree with a Major in Marketing and a Minor in Psychology.

As a young immigrant in Canada Zara had to work very hard and leverage the power of the knowledge she gained by reading books to realize her dreams. Zara has been a part-time and full-time MLIS student while working full-time as a Digital Analytics consultant. She found her way to SIM after earning an Award of Achievement in Web Analytics from the UBC.

Zara is a data analytics evangelist, avid reader, and a basketball player and would love to get to know SIM students and learn how she can better serve them. Whether you have an idea or question, or would like to chat about IM, data, library related topics or even play a game of basketball, Zara is always available through email (zara.palevani@dal.ca) or Twitter(@zarapalevani). Keep in touch please!

 

Jacob Ericson
Non-Academic Vice Chair

Jacob Ericson is an MLIS student originally from Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelors of Arts in Medieval Studies, where he focused his studies on how gender and sexuality featured in medieval literature. While at the University of Virginia, Jacob worked with the school’s Special Collections to digitize their rare manuscript collection. His work in digital curation led him to pursue an MLIS degree at Dalhousie University. He is currently interested in learning about how Big Data and Data management are influencing the field of Information Management and what new jobs they are creating. Some of his interests outside of libraries include: Photography, coffee, video games, and Fencing.

You can email Jacob at jacob.ericson@dal.ca

 

Alison Eagles
Communications Officer

A returning MLIS student, Alison is originally from Nova Scotia, and grew up in Halifax and Ottawa. She completed a Bachelor degree in Anthropology from Carleton University and then a Library & Information Technician diploma from Seneca College. After a few years experience working in academic libraries, she has decided to pursue an MLIS degree to learn more about other areas of librarianship and hopes to continue combining an interest in people and culture, with a love of books and stories. Her other interests include yoga, knitting, and she is learning to become a cat person.

You can email Alison at alison.eagles@dal.ca

 

Domenic Rosati
Financial Officer

My name is Domenic Rosati, second year MLIS student, and I am the current Financial Officer of SIMSA. I currently work at the Dalhousie University Archives doing digital preservation work (touching floppy disks all day) and other standard archival practice. I love archives, records, and academic libraries because I care about the stewardship and making available of what can be found in documents and books – there is a lot of work to be done by librarians and archivists to ensure the integrity of information across time and I hope to be involved in that work! I have a family with two daughters that I really love! I am excited for the coming year to learn how I can best serve our SIM students to make their experience enriching!

 

Katie Gallant
Digital Publications Officer
Katie Gallant is an MLIS student from Elmsdale, Prince Edward Island. She graduated from the University of Prince Edward Island in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in English with Honours. Katie currently works on the reference desk and in the information literacy department at the Patrick Power Library at Saint Mary’s University. Her interests outside of librarianship include reading, playing video games, social media, and eating.

As well as being the Digital Publications Officer for SIMSA 2016-2017, Katie is also the website administrator co-chair for the Special Librarians Association and the web and communications co-chair for the Information Without Borders Conference. You can reach her at katie.gallant@dal.ca

 

 

 

Keri McCaffrey
Information Without Borders Conference Co-Chair

Keri McCaffrey is  an outgoing MLIS Candidate 2017. Born and raised in whimsical “Anne-land” (Prince Edward Island), but secretly a Haligonian at heart, she came to the rainy city last year from a BA in History at UPEI. Her favourite hobbies include reading (duh), knitting, playing her trombone, dance, and watching a disgusting amount of Netflix. Keri was drawn towards the program by a mystical force that is unexplainable. Although she originally came to here with an interest in archives — as all history majors do — she is now set on a path of health science librarianship, and hopes to some day live in a world ruled by cats where everyone can take naps, eat all they want, and pounce and play all day.

You can email Keri at keri.mccaffrey@Dal.Ca