Ruth is doing her summer internship at the Sexton Design & Technology Library. She is spending her time working on a number of projects, including:

• Reorganizing the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) journals

• Shifting the serials collection on the second floor to make for more student study space

• Redesigning the database guides, how-to guides and citation style guides

• Answering questions from students at the reference desk

• Helping to purchase new material

Ruth has strong connections to Dal, her mother Brenda (née Lanigan) graduated with an MBA from Dalhousie and taught accounting at TUNS, while her father James Collings graduated with a PhD in biochemistry and an MD in family medicine. He currently teaches at the Dalhousie Medical Education Program in New Brunswick.

Ruth has an undergraduate degree in the combined honours Arts & Science Program at McMaster University, an interdisciplinary-focused degree that allows for concurrent completion of an honours in psychology degree with a focus on cognition and abnormal psychology. She was the founding co-chair of finance for the first student-run undergraduate conference on interdisciplinary education in Canada, Combining Two Cultures.

Ruth came back to Halifax to complete her MLIS degree. She is interested in client-oriented library practices, digital archiving, social media use, community engagement and reference services. “After graduation, I’m hoping to get a job relating to technology use in the library and evidence-gathering for library decision-making,” says Ruth.

In October 2011 she was hired as a reference intern at the Sexton Design & Technology Library and is currently working full-time at the Sexton. She will return to the MLIS program in the fall.