Laine G.M. Ruus
Experience: My working life has been concentrated in the areas of data preservation, data management, data documentation, and supporting empirical research, that is to say, helping researchers with statistical analysis. My expertise includes locating and interpreting sources of data and statistics, especially Canadian, as well as the analysis of data to generate statistics, major software tools for statistical analysis, such as SPSS and SAS, and the critical evaluation of data and statistics. My main focus has been in the acquisition of quantitative and other data, secondary analysis of data, making data available in a useable form for research, and the use of data to test hypotheses. In the course of my career, I have been involved in the start-up of data services, in academic environments in Canada, Sweden, and Scotland. Over time, I have been actively involved in a number of professional associations such as IASSIST, CAPDU, DINO and others, and had numerous teaching and speaking engagements, as well as a few publications.
Issues I am passionate about: The erosion of Canadian research capability due to (a) the erosion of the collection of socially and economically relevant data in Canada, and (b) the lack of an appropriate infrastructure to preserve existing data for the future (ie the lack of a Canadian national data archive); the teaching of numeracy, to better enable Canadians to critically evaluate and utilize existing data and statistical resources.
Non-professional activities: post-retirement, I have become more involved with translating from Swedish and other Scandinavian languages to English, and teaching Scandinavian folkdancing. Related interests include Scandinavian folk costume and folk culture, and learning to play Scandinavian folk music on the fiddle. I have also been involved with things as disparate as compiling a bibliography on the Sasquatch and its cousins, as well as with the creation of the Toronto Free-Net. And while I am not particularly enthusiastic about cooking any more, I do like to eat, and am collecting some of my favourite recipes here.
Education: BA and BLS (University of British Columbia), MA Soc. (University of Toronto)
Links: General links: utilities, mina svenska länkar Scandinavian folkdance links: general, my translations/descriptions, recent workshops Scandinavian folk costume links: general
Spouse: Thomas Anthony (Terry) Sawyer
Social media: Linkedin
E-mail: laine.ruus@utoronto.ca
Rev. 2017-11-14