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Last Updated: 2007, April 8
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The Editor
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Jim Parrott, the Editor of the
Scholarly Societies Project, worked as a librarian from 1970, May 4
to 2007, March 31 at the
University of Waterloo Library in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
He is now officially retired from that job, but continues as the Editor
of the Scholarly Societies Project.
Further information is given below, in the following categories:
Academic Curriculum Vitae, and
Personal Interests.
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Academic Curriculum Vitae
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Time Period |
Activity |
| 1965
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B.Sc (Physics) from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario,
Canada
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| 1966 |
M.Sc. (Theoretical Physics) from University of Toronto,
Ontario, Canada
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| 1969 |
B.L.S. (Library Science) from University of Toronto,
Ontario, Canada
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| 1970 - 2007 |
I worked from 1970, May 4 to 2007, March 31 as a
reference and collections librarian
at the University of Waterloo Library in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Over this time, I gained
various skills beyond those I had acquired in the process of obtaining my
university degrees:
- In general, I strengthened my skill in
tracking down obscure information.
- In particular, I learned a great deal about the
bibliography of the 17th and 18th century scholarly
literature;
specifically, I
made extensive use of the monumental
Reuss
Repertorium.
- In addition to the French, Latin and Russian courses I had taken
before becoming a librarian, I took additional language courses:
Russian (a refresher), Latin (a
refresher),
Italian, German, and Dutch.
I am now beginning to learn a bit of Arabic.
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| 1985 - 1990 |
I did research on and wrote
several articles exploring issues in the foundations and
implementation of expert systems to aid in
reference work in libraries (the process of finding
information of various types).
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| 1993 - present |
I have worked on various Internet-based projects at the University of
Waterloo Library, including:
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Personal Interests
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Category |
Specifics |
| Music
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I enjoy a broad range of music, most of it composed between 1600 and 1900.
But, for some time, my special passion has been Baroque
opera, mainly from
the late period (1700 - 1750), and especially that composed by
Handel and Rameau.
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| Art & Architecture
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I tend to enjoy representational, or semi-representational art (such as
Surrealism).
My special passions are the gentle, magical Surrealism of the
Spanish-Mexican artist
Remedios Varo (1908-1963)
and the Symbolism of the Pre-Raphaelites, especially
Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898).
My favourite architect is Antonio Gaudi (1852 - 1926), best
known for his
Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona.
One might reasonably conclude from my interests in art and architecture
that I am fond of detail.
A fascination with detail is also a feature of
parts of this Project.
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| Sprituality
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Although I was born a Christian (Anglican), and still see much to admire
in that faith, I long ago left behind any commitment to an organized
religion.
My spritual feelings are probably most closely allied with those of
various neo-pagan movements, particularly those that
emphasize the relationship between humans and the other creatures with
whom we share this planet.
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| Cuisine
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I've been vegetarian since 1989.
Within that constraint, I tend to enjoy
food from the Middle and Far East
especially that from Egypt, Lebanon, India, Thailand and
Indonesia.
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| Continuing Education
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In the three decades since I completed my university degrees, I
have continued to take courses.
To date, these have been in
mathematics, philosophy, and
various languages.
The most recent courses were a couple of courses in Dutch, taken partly to
help in my research on the Scholarly Societies Project, and
partly because it is the first language of
my partner (and husband as of 2003, June 14), William Pensaert, who grew
up in East Flanders in Belgium.
The work I did in the Summer of 2001 in
encoding various non-Latin scripts
using the
Unicode Standard has increased my interest in studying more
languages, especially those employing non-Latin scripts.
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| Community Work
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The communities with which I identify most strongly are the
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered
communities in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of
Southern Ontario. I've lived in this area since 1970. I've been active in
LGBT community work here from 1971 to about 1981, and from 1991 to the
present.
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