Phil Laugher is the newest member of the Dal Libraries team, effective November 27. We are very pleased to welcome him (back) to Dal.

As a Library Services Assistant, Phil will have a busy schedule between serving the public at the Killam Library Service Point and cataloguing materials for addition to the collection. Fortunately, Phil — a Dalhousie alumnus with a degree in history — is up to the task with his background in customer service and his diploma in Library and Information Technology.

For seventeen years, Phil was the day manager at the iconic bookstore, John W. Doull, affectionately known by many as JWD’s. Phil handled day-to-day book sales, catalogued inventory and did research. He has also worked as a student reference assistant giving Live Help through Novanet, and he worked in the Dalhousie Archives earlier this year.

“One of my favourite parts of my previous work, and am excited to carry on with at Dalhousie in my new role, is handling the materials in order to create access points that may not have been readily apparent upon initial examination, making new connections along the way, both for myself and for the patron,” said Phil. “It is always satisfying to be able to first describe and then locate the most useful resources for patrons, whether they knew these materials existed or not, and whether they realized it is exactly what they were looking for. I look forward to providing access to these materials free of charge,” he said.

Phil is a third-generation librarian, whose grandfather, Charles, worked in Special Collections at the Killam Library in the late-1970s and early-1980s and previously as director of the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College (Melvil Dewey’s alma mater); grandmother, Ann, worked in public libraries in Massachusetts and Ohio; and father, Stephen, worked for thirty years in technical services for Halifax Public Libraries. In his spare time, Phil enjoys travelling (“visiting the Swiss Alps and Reykjavik have been my favourite experiences so far”), cycling (“commuting can be fun too!”), and reading (“generally books about books, travel narratives, and European fiction”).

“I’m excited to be continuing my family’s tradition of librarianship; all the more so for it to be back here with Dalhousie Libraries, where I spent countless hours during my undergrad.”