Three professors leaving iSchool

At the end of June, we will bid adieu to iSchool professors Joan Cherry (left), Lynne Teather (right), and Jens-Erik Mai.

Although she is retiring, Prof. Cherry, will still be supervising a doctoral student and teaching two courses, Research Methods (INF1240) and an Information Workshop (INF1005/1006) on usability. She will also continue to serve on the Editorial Board of Library and Information Science Research. Her recent research has focused on students’ perceptions of their master’s programs in information studies with Wendy Duff and Luanne Freund (SLAIS, UBC); collaboration and convergence among libraries, archives and museums with Wendy Duff, Jennifer Carter, Heather MacNeil and Lynne Howarth; and the use of social media by archives with Wendy Duff and Catherine Johnson (FIMS, UWO).

Prof. Teather joined the iSchool in 2006 following the integration of the Department of Museum Studies into the Faculty of Information Studies but has been teaching at U of T for more than 30 years. Her research includes the history of Canadian museums, contemporary issues in national and international museum development, and the training of museum professionals. She was recently awarded a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada through the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) in recognition of her exceptional contributions to Canadian culture and heritage. Lynne plans on retiring but will remain a consultant to cultural institutions.

Prof. Mai will be heading back home to Denmark this summer where he will take up a prestigious Professorship at the Royal School of Library and Information Science. Prof. Mai’s research interests lie in the broad area of representation and organization of information; his current scholarship questions the conceptual foundation of classification and it seeks to establish an epistemological foundation that accepts the plurality of interpretations across communities. He recently received an Outstanding Paper Award as part of the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012 for his paper "The Modernity of Classification," published in the Journal of Documentation from its January 2011 edition. He was also awarded $144,417 by SSHRC for the Insight Grant, for his project entitled: “Classification in the Late-Modern Society: Trustworthiness, Bias, and Moral Values.”

Best wishes on this next phase of your lives.