The 2013 VALA Student Award for a student at Monash University goes to Ailie Smith.
Ailie Smith achieved outstanding results in the Masters of Business Information Systems (MBIS) at Monash University, having undertaken the archives and records management specialisation. Studying as a part-time, distance student, she has been adept at juggling study and work commitments. Among her notable achievements she prepared a research report analysing the 2012 ICA (International Council on Archives) Congress, analysing sample papers from the various conference themes against the literature in order to draw out professional issues and concerns, and using visualisation techniques to see what the titles of papers could reveal if treated as a data set.
Ailie is currently a Research Archivist at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre. Her work ranges from describing archival collections to building and maintaining databases, implementing websites, and managing data storage and virtual machine servers. She previously worked at the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum, and the Corporate Records Unit, Imperial College London.
Congratulations, Ailie, and good luck!