The Technology & Social Change Group is hosting A Conversation with Sheila Weir on February 25, 2010 at 3:30 – 5:00pm.  Join us for a discussion that covers:

-An MLIS career that ranges from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the State Department Foreign Service

-The ICT and library landscape in East Africa where she is currently posted with the Foreign Service

-Why the State Department thinks that libraries support US public diplomacy efforts

When: Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 3:30pm-5:00pm. A no-host happy hour will follow at The District.

Where: Mary Gates Hall (MGH) 420

Why: You are considering a career in an international context, are interested in information & communication technologies and libraries in East Africa, or are curious about how US embassy libraries support US policy goals

What: A 60-minute conversation in an interview format

Sheila Weir: As an Information Resource Officer with the State Department Foreign Service, Sheila Weir serves as a US diplomatic liaison between the Embassy and the local library and information community to help nurture professional relationships and expand access to US information resources. She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya with regional responsibilities for ten east African Countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, Madagascar, Sudan, Somalia). Prior to Nairobi she lived in Frankfurt, Germany and worked in the Baltics, Switzerland, and Germany.

Before joining the US Foreign Service in March, 2006 she lived in Seattle, Washington working with an International Public Health organization, PATH. At PATH she worked as a reference librarian on international public health issues by providing customized biomedical, business, and pharmaceutical research and served as an in-house technology and database trainer. She also worked developing and implementing internal knowledge-sharing initiatives.

After graduating with an MLIS from University of British Columbia in 1998, she worked at King County Hazardous Waste Library as a specialized librarian in hazardous waste information and outreach. From 1999-2001, she worked with the Gates Foundation's US Library program as a Public Computer Access trainer. As a traveling trainer, she worked with librarians throughout the US and on the Navajo reservation to set up public access computing in their libraries and provide training to both the librarians and the public on how to use the Internet and other software.

Technology & Social Change Group: Founded in 1999 as the Center for Internet & Society (CIS), the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington Information School explores the design, use, and effects of information and communication technologies in communities facing social and economic challenges. Active in over 40 countries, TASCHA brings together a multidisciplinary network of social scientists, engineers, and development practitioners to conduct research, advance knowledge, create public resources, and improve policy and program design. Our purpose? To spark innovation and create more opportunities for those who need it most. To learn more visit tascha.uw.edu.

Questions?: Contact Rebecca by email at rmsears@uw.edu