The University of British Columbia’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, The iSchool at UBC, is pleased to announce that Dr. Victoria Lemieux has been appointed Acting Director of MAGIC, the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre at UBC. She will remain on the SLAIS faculty as she is taking up the position from Dr. Sidney Fels while he is on leave for one year. As Acting Director, Dr. Lemieux will be responsible for the organization and activities of MAGIC, including developing and supporting research initiatives associated with MAGIC, working with the human computer interaction subcommittee on its HCI specialization, and exploring synergies with the iSchool.

“This leading presence with MAGIC is a great opportunity for us all, extending the reach of SLAIS and further solidifying our position as an iSchool,” Director Caroline Haythornthwaite said in announcing the appointment. “I look forward to building these connections, and congratulate and thank Vicki for taking on this challenging position.”

MAGIC was created at UBC to foster research covering the entire spectrum of new computer-based and computer-associated media. Some examples include multimedia, mobile computing, computer animation, 3-D modeling, interactive Web-based applications, hypermedia, computer music and computer-based tools for collaboration in education, medicine and entertainment. For more information about MAGIC, visit http://www.magic.ubc.ca/.

UBC students continue to earn national and international awards and accolades at all stages of their programs of study. Graduating Dual MAS/MLIS student Kevin Read has been selected for a prestigious 2012 National Library of Medicine Associate Fellowship. He will be moving to Washington D.C. next month to take up the fellowship, where he will be exploring the role of research and development in providing biomedical information services to the health professions, and examining current issues and trends affecting the library and information fields.

Additionally, two of our students have been successful in this year’s Canada Graduate Scholarships competition from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). These are highly competitive awards, with fewer than 60 master’s students across all UBC obtaining this scholarship in 2012-13.