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What's going on at the Dalhousie Libraries

Category: Archives & Special Collections

Doors Open — that’s a wrap!

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DOH-logo3This past weekend, the Dal Libraries participated in Doors Open Halifax, an annual event that makes free access to buildings of historical, contemporary or architectural significance to the general public. We welcomed nearly 1,500 visitors to our exhibit over the weekend.

Since we’re celebrating Dal 200 all year, the team in the Archives pulled out all the stops and put together a display including historical documents and binders of hundreds of photographs from Dal’s history, as well as materials from some of our others collections such as items relating to Neptune Theatre, the Olands, the Bluenose, and the Nova Scotia Tattoo.

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We were thrilled to be in Halifax Hall at City Hall for this special event, which in itself was a nod to Dal’s history as City Hall sits on the site of the original Dalhousie College. Thank you to our friends at City Hall for sharing your venue with us. Thank you also to our friends at the Dalhousie Art Gallery for loaning us the beautiful cases that allowed us to safely display some original documents that we generally don’t get to put on display.

Finally, thanks to all of you for coming to see us on the weekend. We were thrilled to share these treasures from our collection with you.

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Double click on a photo to enlarge. Photos by Creighton Barrett.

Welcome Courtney Bayne, Records Manager

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courtney 1We are very pleased to welcome alumna Courtney Bayne to the Dalhousie Libraries in the new role of Records Manager.

Reporting to the University Archivist and working closely with the University’s Records Committee, the Records Manager will work with all administrative and academic units across the university advising them on the development of policies and procedures that supports the implementation of the University’s Records Management Policy. The Records Manager ensures the effective, efficient, and economical management of the University’s information resources are handled in an ethical and sustainable manner.

Courtney holds a Master in Information Management from Dalhousie and has over ten years of experience in the records and information management field. She has held numerous positions with the Province of Nova Scotia and volunteers with the Canadian regional team of the International Records Management Association (ARMA).

“It is great to be a part of the warm and welcoming community here at Dalhousie,” said Courtney. “I started my journey in records management with a Libraries and Technology Diploma from NSCC and while in school I worked at the Nova Scotia Archives. After being introduced to the records management field I felt connected working with individuals in improvement of processes and providing guidance in the application of standards, procedures, and policies. Identifying the operational value of the information that is created in an organization and persevering it accordingly is very important to me. As an ARMA member I keep engaged with the ever-evolving information and records management world. I love the challenges that arise, working though puzzles, and making the end result functional and easy to apply for end users. I look forward to working with the community at Dalhousie to make a robust and proactive records management program,” said Courtney.

“We are pleased to have an individual with Courtney’s extensive knowledge and experience in records management joining us at Dalhousie as the Dal Libraries continue to provide leadership in supporting the implementation of records and information management best practices across the university,” said Michael Moosberger, Associate University Librarian Archives, Special Collections and Records Management & University Archivist.

Courtney is the proud owner of a German Short Haired Pointer puppy named Digby that she enjoys taking on hikes and runs.

Reaching Archival Milestones: 250,000 descriptions and 10,000 digital objects

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The Dalhousie Libraries is very pleased to announce the publication of new finding aids and digital content in its Archives Catalogue and Online Collections: http://findingaids.library.dal.ca/ The catalogue now has more than 250,000 archival descriptions and more than 10,000 digital objects.

What is a finding aid?  Finding aids allow researchers to search our collections from wherever they are. For each collection we have, we create a new finding aid. We currently have over 17,000 finding aids.

What is an archival description?
Archival descriptions establish intellectual control over any body of records held in an archive. An written archival description can describe a single file, a piece of correspondence, a photograph, an audio cassette, etc. Having intellectual control over archival records provides information that explains the administrative structure and social context in which the records were created.

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A screen shot containing many digital objects.

What is a digital object?
Examples of digital objects are digital photographs of objects or scans of a letter. Digital objects are added to records (which includes the archival description) of the various items in each finding aid.

 

 

 


How do we decide which objects to digitize?
With all the items we have in the archives, it’s not possible to digitize every single item. We make decisions about which objects we will digitize based on criteria such as the uniqueness of the item; the reflection of the scope and diversity of the collection; the demand for specific material, especially from users with limited ability to access the Archives in person; and to protect objects where continued use of the originals would damage them.

Highlights of this digital content include:

  1. More than 2,400 digitized photographs in the Dalhousie University Photograph Collection: http://findingaids.library.dal.ca/dalhousie-university-photograph-collection/digitalobject/browse
  2. Digitized issues of The Dalhousian a student newspaper published in 1914 as part of a campaign for a new student building: http://findingaids.library.dal.ca/the-dalhousian
  3. Digitized issues of Dal News a newspaper published by Dalhousie University: http://findingaids.library.dal.ca/dalhousie-news-2/digitalobject/browse
  4. Digitized issues of University News, the predecessor to Dal News: http://findingaids.library.dal.ca/university-news-1976/digitalobject/browse
  5. More than 900 digitized slides and photographs of Arctic communities in the early 1960s from the Barbara Hinds fonds: http://findingaids.library.dal.ca/barbara-hinds-fonds/digitalobject/browse (this project was funded by Nova Scotia’s Provincial Archival Development Program)

We have been actively digitizing material in anticipation of Dalhousie’s 200th anniversary to be celebrated in 2018, and will continue to add digital content in the coming months. Visit the Dal 200 website for more information about bicentennial celebrations: https://dal200.ca/

Our catalogue was launched in January 2015 and is proudly powered by the open source Access to Memory (AtoM) software. Visit the Archives’ website for more information about our collections and services: https://dal.ca/archives

 

 

University Records Management Training

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The Dalhousie Libraries is offering sessions to introduce individuals to the university’s new Records Management Policy and the tools and resources being developed to support its implementation.
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The session will outline the policy, discuss the fundamentals of good records management practice and highlight the various records management resources available to assist you. DalCLASS, the University’s new records classification, retention and disposition tool, will be discussed.

Register for a session here: https://register-eod.dal.ca/index.php?search%5Bis_external%5D=0&startdate1=2017-07-11&enddate1=2018-01-12&search%5Bcategory_id%5D=10&filters-action=Apply

All training sessions will be held in room 2902 of the Killam Library. Here’s how to find the room: https://vimeo.com/221249919

If you plan on attending a session, please bring a laptop if you have one.

Donna Bourne-Tyson Named President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)

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The Canadian Association of Research Libraries has elected Donna Bourne-Tyson, Dalhousie’s University Librarian, as CARL President for a two year-term, 2017–2019. “It’s a great honour to serve the research library community in Canada in this capacity,” said Donna. “Academic research libraries are at the vanguard of technology as the sharing and dissemination of information shifts to digital environments. It’s a time of rapid change and growth for libraries.”

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Donna has recently commenced her second term as the University Librarian at Dalhousie and has been in the role since 2011, previously having served as the University Librarian at Mount Saint Vincent University. Currently, she oversees a team of 120 librarians and staff and ensures Dal Libraries meet the needs of the Dalhousie community through supporting initiatives such as open access, scholarly communications, research data preservation and learning communities.

As President of CARL, Donna will work collaboratively with 29 of Canada’s largest university libraries plus Library and Archives Canada and Canada’s National Science Library. CARL supports Canada’s research community by providing improved access to research services, promoting effective and sustainable scholarly communication and advocating public policies that enable broad access to scholarly information. CARL member libraries spend over $335 million annually on information resources to support learning, teaching and research and act as a foundation for Canadian-led innovation by providing access to knowledge, as well as preserving vital information required to support Canada’s research community.

As CARL’s president, Donna will be joining an impressive group of university leaders who have served in this role, including: Tom Hickerson, Vice-Provost for Libraries and Cultural Resources at the University of Calgary; Gerald Beasley, Vice-Provost and Chief Librarian at the University of Alberta, soon to become the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian for Cornell University; and most recently Martha Whitehead, Vice-Provost Libraries & Digital Planning at Queen’s University.

 

Final Student Input & Feedback Team Meeting for 2016/17

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We met with you earlier in the school year, in November and January. Now, let’s continue the conversation! Did we hear you?

Join us as we report on our findings from the meetings on each campus. All students are welcome, even if you didn’t make it to the meetings earlier this year. This meeting will run in Halifax and concurrently in Truro via video conferencing. Free pizza and drinks at both sites.

Tuesday, March 14/12–1 p.m.
Halifax: Killam Library, 3rd floor (LITS Conference Room)
Truro: MacRae Library, Cobequid Room

See you then!

final SIFT meeting poster Halifax and Truro copy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving hours at the Dalhousie Libraries & Learning Commons

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Sir James Dunn Law Library ———————>  9 a.m.–10:45 p.m.
Kellogg Library Learning Commons (CHEB) —> 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Kellogg Library Collection (Chapter House) —->  1–4 p.m.
Killam Memorial Library ————————–>  1–9 p.m.
MacRae Library ————————————>   10 a.m.–11 p.m. 
Sexton Design & Technology Library ————>   10 a.m.–6 p.m. 
Wallace McCain Learning Commons ————>   1:30–8:30 p.m.

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Take part in the Kellogg Health Sciences Library eBook collection consultation

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Your input is needed regarding our eBook collections that are currently under review. Please use the survey link provided to indicate which eBooks you consider core to your research, teaching or learning: https://surveys.dal.ca/opinio/s?s=33482

Your advice and feedback, combined with our statistics on usage patterns, will help us identify the most-needed titles and we will continue to subscribe to as many that our budget will permit. Please respond to the survey by Saturday, October 15.

Additional feedback after this deadline is welcomed and will be integrated, but we appreciate your response as soon as possible to develop an optimal strategy. Contact: Kellogg.Library@dal.ca

Ongoing communications will be shared on our website and through your collections and liaison librarians as we move through this process over the coming months.

Thank you for your participation.

Oriel MacLennan: an enduring study of Marie-Claire Blais

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Dalhousie Librarian Oriel MacLennan has just published a second bibliography about Québec writer Marie-Claire Blais. Oriel has been researching Marie-Claire Blais for almost thirty years. In addition to the two bibliographies, she has also written and collaborated on two articles and appeared in a documentary about Blais.

An important figure in the Canadian literary scene, Blais is known for producing works of great scholarly interest. She has written more than thirty novels that have been translated into English, German, Russian, and Chinese.[1] Blais has also won many awards for her work, including four Governor General’s Literary Awards, in 1968, 1979, 1996, and 2008.

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Marie-Claire Blais

Oriel’s scholarship on Blais began in 1988 when she was invited to collaborate with Dr. Irène Oore of Dalhousie’s French Department on the first Marie-Claire Blais bibliography. Published by ECW Press with funding from SSHRCC, the bibliography came out in 1998.

“I continued collecting material beyond the 1959–1991 scope, partly out of habit, but also in hope of developing a second volume eventually,” said Oriel. She also continued to publish about Blais.

In 2004, Oriel collaborated with John Barnstead of Dal’s Russian Department to publish “Marie-Claire Blais and Dostoyevsky: Observations from the Notebooks” in Canadian Slavonic Papers 46.3-4 (fall 2004): 381-400. “This project emerged from some sabbatical work transcribing and studying Marie-Claire Blais’s diaries from 1962–74 in the National Library — Dostoyevsky is a major influence, as evidenced there, and one continues to see those traces and references in her most recent writing,” said Oriel.  In 2008, this article was translated into French for inclusion in a Québec publication called Visions poétiques de Marie-Claire Blais.[2]

Oriel’s next article appeared in the Journal of Canadian Studies, “Boundaries, Borders, and Barriers:  Marie-Claire Blais and the Archival Adventure,” 40.2 (spring 2006): 60-78. “This project emerged from scouring archives all over for collections of Marie-Claire Blais correspondence with other notables in the literary and artistic world — some interesting insights into her literary development emerged,” said Oriel.

Marie-Claire Blais herself referred Suzette Lagacé, a filmmaker from Moncton who was working on a documentary about Blais, to Oriel. “Suzette and I had many discussions concerning themes and ideas for the documentary, and I ended up, to my great surprise, participating in it, along with Antonine Maillet, Michel Tremblay, Margaret Atwood, etc. — a most interesting experience. The documentary debuted at the Festival des films sur l’art in Montréal in 2006,” said Oriel. The English version of the documentary, Illuminations, is available at the Killam.

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The second bibliography by Oriel. Featuring cover art by her brother Mark, an award-winning graphic designer.

Most recently, Oriel has produced a second bibliography about Blais. “I hope this bibliography will serve students and researchers in Blaisian scholarship well,” said Oriel. The second bibliography follows the original, but some modifications have been made, such as the inclusion of a “primary” section comprising works, parts, archival listings, and interviews; archival fonds are described in more detail than in the average finding aid; a “secondary” section including critique, theses, dissertations, and reviews; a third section comprising entries in standard reference works available in most academic libraries; keyword and mot-clé indexing replacing annotations in the interview, critique, and thesis sections, presenting an added bilingual dimension; and more.[3] This “new” bibliography will be “officially” launched in Québec in November, at the Journées internationales Marie-Claire Blais, and features a cover designed by Oriel’s brother Mark, an award-winning graphic designer based in Germany. It is available electronically through DalSpace, our institutional repository.

 

[1] http://canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/french/writers/mcblais/mcblais.php

[2] Visions poètiques de Marie-Claire Blais. Eds. Janine Ricouart & Roseanna Dufault. Montréal: les éditions du remue-ménage, 2008.

[3] Marie-Claire Blais: a bibliography, compiled by Oriel MacLennan, 2015.

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