Alyssa is from a town in northern Ontario called Dryden. Before starting library school at Dalhousie, Alyssa completed an interdisciplinary degree at McMaster with a minor in geography. The purpose of an interdisciplinary degree is to foster critical thinking, a love of learning, and the ability to approach a problem from different angles. Students in the interdisciplinary degree programs must take courses from the core arts and sciences programs.

As part of her undergrad degree, Alyssa did some GIS (geographic information system) courses and also worked with a map librarian. “I liked working with the data. I enjoyed fixing up the maps and adding metadata. I came to library school with the interest GIS already,” said Alyssa. “I’d heard Dal has a good GIS department and I knew someone that had taken the MLIS program at Dalhousie. Also, I’d never been to Nova Scotia and I wanted to check it out,” she said.

This summer Alyssa will be assisting with a move of the map collection, doing some weeding, and reviewing the map collection policy. She’s also offering front-line help in the GIS Center on the second floor of the Killam Library, answering reference questions related to maps and GIS and helping with data requests.

In the future, she’d like to do something with GIS like working in a map library, which is the more traditional route. But she’s also doing a thesis on GIS, education, and teaching spatial literacy as part of her MLIS degree, so she is interested in that option as well.

“I’d love to end up in southern Ontario, but I’d be open to going anywhere in Canada,” said Alyssa.