Ali Shiri, PhD (Univ. of Strathclyde)

Area of Study / Keywords

Digital Libraries Digital Object Reuse Information Retrieval Interaction Learning Analytics AI and Ethics Search User Interfaces Knowledge Organization Systems

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About

Personal website

I am a Professor in the School of Library and Information studies and Vice Dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR). I completed my PhD in Information Science in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland in 2004 and joined the University of Alberta in the same year.

Awards

Outstanding Paper Award in the 2023 Emerald Literati Awards 

Kenfield, A. S., Woolcott, L., Thompson, S., Kelly, E. J., Shiri, A., Muglia, C., Masood, K., Chapman, J., Jefferson, D., Morales, M. E. (2022). Toward a Definition of Digital Object Reuse. Digital Library Perspectives.Vol 38 (3), pp. 378-394.

J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research, University of Alberta, (University of Alberta’s most prestigious research award) (2021)

Faculty of Education Graduate Teaching Award, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta (2016)

Coutts-Clarke Research Fellowship; Faculty of Education, University of Alberta (2007 - 2008)

LISAA Honourary Alumni Award, University of Alberta Library and Information Studies Alumni Association (September 2017)

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Research

My research areas centre on digital libraries, user interaction with digital information, knowledge organization systems, and more recently learning analytics. Currently, I have two funded research projects on digital libraries and learning and data analytics.

My SSHRC-funded project titled 'Inuvialuit Voices: Cultural Heritage Preservation and Access through Digital Storytelling in Digital Libraries' ($239, 614) is a three year (2019 - 2022), collaborative project with research team members from communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) and the University of Alberta. The project team is working to design and develop digital storytelling features to be integrated as part of the Inuvialuit Digital Library. The project aims to collect information on storytelling and the types of stories that community members might like to record and preserve. Based on initial consultations with community members, a prototype audio-recording interface will be designed. This prototype will be tested and evaluated by community members so that it can be refined and implemented. Throughout the project, community input will be sought through conversations, open houses, interviews, focus groups, and workshops. Overall, the goal of this research is to facilitate curltural heritage preservation and access for northern communities in the Western Arctic.

My previous SSHRC funded project titled ‘Digital Library North: Creating a Path for Information Access in Canada's North’ ($295, 817) was a four year project (2014 - 2018) that addressed the following objectives: a) Investigate and identify the information needs and information seeking behaviour of community members in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, b) Develop a digital library of information resources, c) Explore appropriate methodologies for treatment of cultural heritage information, d) Create a culturally appropriate metadata framework as a basis for resource description and discovery, e) Develop requirements for multilingual user interfaces that support the dominant languages, f) Conduct a user-centred evaluation of the digital library and g) Develop a sustainability strategy for the digital library to ensure long-term access to digital information.

The second funded project that I am currently working on is titled Digital Content Reuse Assessment Framework Toolkit (D-CRAFT) (US $249,998), funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)’s National Leadership Grants for Libraries. The D-CRAFT will be an open access, collaboratively-developed toolkit. The project team is developing a resource that will:

• Provide an overview of available assessment tools, best practices, and a code of ethics for measuring the reuse of digital assets, facilitating both standardization and impact measurement in the digital library field.
• Identify sustainable and vetted assessment methods that can be applied to a broad array of digital collections
• Promote exemplary stewardship of library and museum digital collections
• Allow libraries, data archives, and other cultural heritage and knowledge organizations to better understand the ways users engage with, reuse, and transform digital library materials.
• Standardize approaches and best practices for communicating the economic, educational, scholarly, scientific, social, and cultural impact of digital collections, and support the use of evidence-based approaches to build inclusive user-centered platforms and systems

Previously, I was awarded a TLEF grant, titled: ‘Development of a Learning Analytics Application to Support Online Teaching and Learning at the University of Alberta’ ($91, 406). The project developed and evaluated a learning analytics software application for the University of Alberta eClass learning management system in order to support students and instructors to gain insight into learners activities in online, blended, and on-campus courses. Within this project, I collaborated with the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), U of A Information and Technology Services (IST) and the eClass team.

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Teaching

Ali has taught face to face and online courses in the areas of digital libraries, information organization and retrieval, vocabulary control, advanced topics in the organization of knowledge and metadata.

Proceedings of the Canadian Association of Information Science 50th Annual Conference, June 7 – 10, 2022.. 2022 June;

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Samek, T., Shiri, A.

Proceedings of the Canadian Association of Information Science 50th Annual Conference, June 7 – 10, 2022.. 2022 June;

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Shiri, A.

Information Matters. 2022 March; 2 (3)

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Kenfield, A. S., Woolcott, L., Thompson, S., Kelly, E. J., Shiri, A., Muglia, C., Masood, K., Chapman, J., Jefferson, D., Morales, M. E.

Digital Library Perspectives. 2022 February; 38 (3):378-394

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Cui, Ying, Chen, Fu, Shiri, Ali

Scale Up Predictive Models for Early Detection of At-risk Students: A Feasibility Study. 2020 April; 121 (3-4):97-116

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Ying Cui, Fu Chen, Ali Shiri, Yaqin Fan

Information and Learning Sciences. 2019 August; 120 ((3/4)):pp. 208-227.

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Thornton, Gail; Shiri, Ali

Proceedings of the 47th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 3- 5, 2019. . 2019 June;

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Shiri, A., Borys, Christina., Huang, Carolin

roceedings of the 47th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 3- 5, 2019. . 2019 June;

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Ying Cui; Fu Chen; Ali Shiri; Yaqin Fan

Information and Learning Sciences. 2019 June; 120 (3/4)

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Trepanier, Cheryl.: Shiri, Ali: Samek, Toni

IFLA Journal. 2019 May;

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Shiri, Ali

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science . 2019 May; 41 (1-2):94-112

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Farnel, Sharon; Shiri, Ali

Vancouver. 2018 November; ASIS&T 2018, Association for Information Science and Technology Annual Conference, Vancouver, Nov 10 - 14, 2018.

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Shiri, Ali

Fort Worth, Texas,. 2018 June; ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL)

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Shiri, Ali

Toronto, Ontario.. 2017 June; Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science, Ryerson University, May 31 - June 2, Toronto, Ontario.

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Shiri, A.

Learning Analytics: Supporting Teaching and Learning through Learner’s Data AnaProceedings of the International Conference on Data Analytics, Venice, Italy, October 9-14, 2016.. 2016 January;

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Calaresu, M. & Shiri, A.

Library Review. 2015 January; 64 (1/2):82-100

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Shiri, A.

2015 January;

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Shiri, A., Rathi, D., Stobbs, R., Campbell, S., Farnel, S. Cockney, C. and Maloney, E.

Proceedings of the 43th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS). 2015 January;

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Shiri, A

2012 January;

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Shiri, A.

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science. 42 ((1-2)):94-112.

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Shiri, A.

JCDL '18 Proceedings of the 18th ACM/IEEE on Joint Conference on Digital Libraries.