Department of Library & Information Technology Faculty

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MLIS

Fiona has an MLIS from UBC and has worked in academic libraries for most of her career.  She lived for 15 years overseas in the United Arab Emirates, working as Information Literacy (IL) librarian in an American style university, where she taught IL skills and developed the information literacy curriculum for the university. Closer to home, Fiona has worked in several of the academic and public libraries in the Lower Mainland. As such, she brings a broad knowledge of libraries to her work with Langara Library Technician students, as well as a familiarity with both local and international library practices.  Fiona has a passion for teaching and enjoys the creativity inherent in crafting engaging, student-centred lessons.  She is happiest when she is teaching and working with students to help them reach their goals. Fiona has been an instructor in the Library and Information Technology program here at Langara since 2017, and Department Chair since 2020.  

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MLIS, MA, BA

As well as teaching in the Library & Information Technology Program, Francesca is a Children's Librarian at the Vancouver Public Library. She has over a decade of experience working with children, teens, and their families in a public library setting. Before joining the library world, Francesca worked as a technical writer, web developer, IT project manager, and business analyst. She has a BA and MA from the National University of Ireland, and an MLIS from UBC. Francesca loves sharing the joys of both her careers with the students at Langara.

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Ashley is Métis-settler, with her Métis ancestors coming from the historic community of St. Francois Xavier MB, though she grew up on Stó:lō téméxw and is a MNBC citizen. Ashley has a LIT diploma (2009) and BA (2015) from UFV, a MLIS from UofA (2020) and is a doctoral student at SFU in the Faculty of Education. Her research interest is how decolonization can make space for Indigenous informed curriculum in LIS programs. Ashley’s library career started as the library assistant in the library at the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre and has been working in academic libraries since 2013. She joined Langara College in 2022 as an instructor in the Library and Information Technology program. As an instructor, Ashley promotes self-reflection as part of the learning process and critical librarianship.

Ashley’s publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0631-3107 

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MLS

Debbie holds a Masters of Library Science from the University of British Columbia, and is an experienced librarian and library administrator. As an instructor in Langara’s Library Technician program since 2013, she teaches subject analysis and classification, supervisory skills, and special topics, and has been an adjunct professor at UBC’s iSchool@SLAIS for over a decade. Prior to joining Lawson Lundell LLP in 2014 in her current role as Manager of Information Resources, she worked at a national law firm as its Vancouver library manager, and for over twenty years worked in Vancouver as a research librarian and library manager for one of Canada’s major news organizations. Debbie is an active member of the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries, the Special Libraries Association, and the BC Legal Management Association.

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MLIS

Since 1993, Guy Robertson has taught courses in rare books and bibliography, archives, records management, reference and readers’ advisory, Aboriginal reference, and information security. An internationally experienced emergency management consultant and planner, he has published several books and dozens of articles on different aspects of disaster response, business continuity, corporate security, risk management, fraud and forgery detection, and post-disaster recovery. He has been a keynote speaker and workshop leader at conferences across North America. Since 1982 he has managed the library at the Vancouver office of Thurber Engineering Ltd. In 2016 he joined TMC IT & Telecom Consulting Ltd. to provide information security, records management, and disaster planning services to a broad range of clients. Outside work, Guy is a director of the Alcuin Society, which is dedicated to book collecting and design..

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MLIS, BFA

Diane has a Masters of Library and Information Studies from the University of British Columbia and has over 30 years working in a variety of different roles in libraries. She also holds a Lib Tech Dipl. from Langara College. The main focus of her work over the last decade has been in library management and administration, information literacy and instruction. Prior to working at Langara College, Diane was the regional coordinator and library manager at Natural Resources Canada. She has also been an adjunct professor at UBC’s SLAIS. Currently, she teaches information literacy, online search and library systems as part of the curriculum. Diane has been the Chair of the Library & Information Technology Program since 2013.

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MLIS, BA

Dale West has followed her curiosity and innate need to organize things to reach her position here at Langara. Her education began with a BA from Simon Fraser University in Archaeology, with a focus on using historic ethnographic research as an archaeological tool. She next spent time working in the video game industry, before completing a Certificate in Genealogical Studies from the University of Toronto, and then branching into libraries with a Library Technician Diploma from the University of the Fraser Valley. She worked as a library technician at several academic and school libraries before she received her MLIS from San Jose State University in 2011, with a focus on cataloging. She has cataloged at academic, school and special libraries. Dale sees cataloging not just as a set of rules to be followed but as an act of customer service, allowing everyone to find the information they need.