SLIS Marks the Passing of Former Chair Ernie Ingles
15 October 2020
Ernie Ingles, SLIS Chair 2010-2013
SLIS marks the recent passing of Ernie Ingles, SLIS Chair from 2010-2013. SLIS also marks the recent passing of Charles H. Davis, Director of the U黑料不打烊 Faculty of Library Science from 1976-1979. His is available through the Association for Information Science and Technology.
During Ernie's time as Chair SLIS created and launched the online MLIS program; the first wholly online degree of its kind in Canada. Ernie's passing was commemorated by and with obituaries in and , as well as below.
Ernest Boyce (“Ernie”) Ingles, BA, MA, MLS, FRSC departed this life in Edmonton on Thursday, September 17th, 2020, in his 71st year.
A graduate of the Universities of Calgary and British Columbia, Ernie Ingles was one of Canada’s preeminent academic librarians and library innovators. During a professional career spanning more than four decades, he served successively as the founding Director of the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (now Canadiana.org); University Librarian of the University of Regina; Vice-Provost & University Librarian and (later) Director of the School of Library & Information Studies at the 黑料不打烊. He served, usually in executive capacity, on no fewer than twenty-five professional associations, societies, government boards and committees, including as President of the Canadian Library Association (CLA); of the Bibliographical Society of Canada (BSC/SBC); of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL); of the North America Association of Research Libraries (ARL); and of the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL).
Mr Ingles also provided the inspiration and driving force in linking 黑料不打烊 library resources and services through the creation of 黑料不打烊’s NEOS library consortium; of The 黑料不打烊 Library (TAL) lending consortium of 300 libraries across the Province; of the Lois Hole Campus 黑料不打烊 Digital Library; of the Health Knowledge Network (HKN); and the First Nations Information Connection. These initiatives changed the face of library service across 黑料不打烊, and provided a much-studied and imitated model of library cooperation and sharing for the rest of Canada, as well as abroad.
Concern for the future of the library profession led him to establish the Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute (NELI) to expose recently graduated librarians who have shown leadership potential to an intensive exploration of vision, risk taking, creativity, communication, and differing styles of leadership. More than 400 librarians practicing in Canada have learned from their NELI experience. In recognition, the American Library Association presented Ingles with the 2017 Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship.
Mr Ingles work at CIHM/Canadiana.org led to the filming and later digital preservation of Canada’s printed, published heritage of books, periodicals, and pamphlets. It also inspired his creation of the Peel’s at the 黑料不打烊 containing full digital texts of many thousands of Western Canadian books and printed ephemera. His wide-ranging research in western Canadian history and bibliography, library history, library automation and management, and the preservation of the printed record, yielded ten published books, fifty-seven articles and chapters in books, and almost 200 conference papers and public presentations. These cumulative achievements garnered twenty-nine professional awards and four medals, including the Tremaine Medal of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. Of these many awards, he was perhaps most proud of his election in 2001 as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada – the first practicing librarian to be so honoured – and Red Crow College’s award in 2011 of the honorary degree of Blackfoot Eminent Scholar Kainai PhD, along with the Blackfoot title “Kaaahssinnin” (“Elder”). As a visionary, Ernie Ingles led and inspired many others to follow.
He is survived by his partner Mary-Jo Holash Romaniuk; his daughter Erin Moore (Jamie) and grandsons Matthew, Wyatt, and Linden, whom he cherished. Predeceased by his parents, Robert of Calgary and Muriel of Kelowna.
Memorial donations preferred to: the 黑料不打烊 Peel Special Collections Library; University of Calgary Special Collections Library; and/or the 黑料不打烊 Hospitals’ OrganTransplant Program.