Alex Lent

I am a PhD student in the School of Information Studies at McGill University, researching small public libraries under the direction of Professor Jamshid Beheshti. I am also a librarian at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. Scroll down to see some of what I've been up to, follow me on Twitter, read my blog, or send me an email.

Research

In February 2013, I spoke at the 6th Annual Web2.U Symposium in Montreal on the habits of the top 269 librarians on Twitter, as listed by Twitter's own search function. My talk showed that many librarians tweet throughout the work day and that while most of the librarians I looked at were followed by more people than they followed, tweeting more does not necessarily lead to more followers.

In September 2012, I presented a poster at the #Influence12: Symposium & Workshop in Halifax on Measuring Influence on Social Media. My poster, co-created with Dr. Carolyn Hank, was titled "Dispatches from Blog Purgatory: Final Messages from Scholars' Inactive Blogs." You can view it here.

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, GLIS 611: Research Principles and Analysis, Prof. Karyn Moffat, School of Information Studies, Winter 2013.

Fundamental aspects of reflective thinking and the methods and techniques of research appropriate to the investigation of library/information problems. Criteria helpful in evaluating published research in library/information studies by analyzing the various steps of the research process, thereby providing guidelines for planning, conducting, and reporting research.

Teaching Assistant, GLIS 607: Organization of Information, Prof. Elaine Ménard, School of Information Studies, Fall 2012.

Theory and techniques of bibliographic control for information. Basic cataloguing and indexing principles and practices incorporating the concepts of main entry, subject analysis, and classification according to standard codes. Introduction to ISBD and MARC formats for description and automated support applications. Practical assignments in the organization of materials laboratory.

Instructor, GLIS 651: Humanities and Social Science Information, School of Information Studies, Winter 2012.

This course investigates the structure of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences and their constituent disciplines in order to understand how information and knowledge in these fields is created, organized, communicated and retrieved.

Teaching Assistant, EDEC 262: Media, Technology, and Education, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, Fall 2011, Winter 2012.

Orientation to the equipment and systems of educational technology. Examination of theories of educational technology, media education, and technology education and the exploration and development of possible applications in school settings.