Professor Andrew Large PHOTO: OWEN EGAN

New chair is first of its kind

SYLVAIN-JACQUES DESJARDINS | Professor Andrew Large says being appointed to McGill's newly created Canadian National-Phebe Pratt Chair in Information Studies -- the first endowed chair in his discipline in Canada -- is nothing short of delightful. "It's an honour, not only for myself, but for our field too," says the 51-year-old, sitting in his book-filled office in the McLennan Library Building and looking casual in jeans, comfy button-down shirt and cowboy boots. The former director of McGill's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, who stepped down last July, discovered in June that he had been selected for the new position. The chair, one of about 95 at McGill, was created last year by the University with the aim of increasing information studies research well into the next century and was funded through two sources: one a donation from Canadian National; the second from Phebe Pratt, who lectured at the McGill Library School, and bequeathed a significant endowment to the University upon her death in 1983. Large was a logical candidate for the new position. One of the country's most respected experts in his field, he was studying the implications of CD-ROMs, searchable databases, and the Internet on information gathering long before the rest of us became aware of the impact that digitized data systems would have on our world. Large probed the possibilities of being wired before there was a Wired. Prior to arriving at McGill in 1989, he was an active researcher and a senior lecturer at the University of Wales. He holds a bachelor's in science from the London School of Economics, a PhD from the University of Glasgow and a post-graduate diploma in library and information studies from the University of London. A man who enjoys writing, calling it a "tangible achievement," Large has penned a plethora of articles on information retrieval, applied linguistics and multimedia education for library and information studies. He has also edited or contributed chapters to dozens of books related to library or information studies, authored three of his own in the same field and co-authored several more, the latest called Information Seeking in the Online Age: Principles and Practice, to be published in November. Some of his works have been translated into French, Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Polish and Spanish. As well, he has been busy with consulting work for UNESCO, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and institutions throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. His research projects have been funded through such diverse organizations as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the British Library Research and Development Department, the European Space Agency and IBM. One current collaborative research project involves studying how Indonesian school children utilize multimedia products. He has examined how well computer animation works as an educational tool and how language can serve as a barrier to the sharing of scientific knowledge. One of Large's most recent projects, the design and development of a multimedia CD-ROM on Islamic art, called The Islamic Book, was funded by CIDA through an $81,500 grant. Sliding the CD-ROM into his computer, he says it was created to help attract people into libraries. Since much of the Islamic art contained on the disc was culled from McGill's Rare Books Division, Large adds the technology will allow people from all over the world to view the material, without ever visiting the University. "It also saves the original copies from being handled," he stresses. "And the works come out almost clearer (on the CD-ROM) than the originals." Seemingly enthralled with computer technology and its unlimited possibilities, Large says he realized in the early 1970s the vital role computers would play in libraries. But keeping abreast of the dizzying speed at which computers evolve, he acknowledges, can be a librarian's toughest job. "It can be a nightmare," he adds, yet one that needs to be tackled if McGill students are to receive a cutting edge education.