Dal Libraries at the Canada +55 Games

September 8, 2014 Marlo MacKay

A shout-out to the W. K. Kellogg Library’s own Cindy Miller who recently returned from the Canada +55 Games in Alberta. Cindy plays on the Nova Scotia women’s hockey team, and they took home a silver medal. Congrats, ladies!

Cindy is in the front row, 2nd from the right.

Intern Profiles 2014: Kaitlin Haley, W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library

September 3, 2014 Marlo MacKay

Kaitlin is from Vancouver and holds a degree in history and political science from the University of British Columbia. Prior to working in a library, she volunteered with the Vancouver City Archives and found that she really enjoyed it. She also worked as a flight attendant for the United Nations for a year. She was stationed out of Juba and Darfur and lived on a military base during that time.

She enrolled in the MLIS program because she was interested in working with people, from a social and educational perspective, but wasn’t interested in becoming a social worker or a teacher. “I like connecting people to information and teaching them how to use information. I like helping them to determine what is reliable information, and what’s not.”

Kaitlin is spending her summer internship at the Kellogg Health Sciences Library, helping them to prepare for an upcoming move and providing reference assistance. “I love health sciences because I know that equipping health care professionals with information helps them to make better decisions for their patients. I also did a 3-week practicum at Capital Health, which really ignited my interest in this area of librarianship,” said Kaitlin.

“I came to Halifax because I was interested in moving, but I didn’t want to be away from the ocean. People who have graduated from the MLIS program at Dal speak very highly of it and the work experience opportunities provided. I think this program really equips grads to be hireable, which of course is my ultimate goal,” said Kaitlin.

3D Printer Price Increase

August 25, 2014 Marlo MacKay

The cost of 3D printing will increase on September 2. We will be moving from an hourly pricing rate to a weight-based pricing rate. This price rate will apply at all four Dal Libraries that have a 3D printer, the Kellogg Health Sciences Library, the Killam Library, the MacRae Library, and the Sexton Library.

The price will increase from $1 per hour to 8¢ per gram. While it is difficult to directly compare an hourly price rate with a weight-based price rate, in most cases, this will result in a price increase per 3D printed model.

Although this is a price increase, we continue to keep the costs as low as possible, charging just enough so that we can recover the cost of materials. We maintain our goal of making the 3D printer as accessible as possible for everyone to use.

We are moving to this weight-based pricing model for a number of reasons:

We need to more accurately recover the cost of materials for each model printed. The hourly pricing rate was introduced with the original 3D printer two years ago. We’ve since upgraded the printers and the newer printers can print models faster while using the same amount of PLA plastic.
This pricing model is more fair because the time that each printer can take to print a model can vary (we have 3D printers at four Dal Libraries).
We need to factor in cost not just for the PLA plastic in each model, but also for the inevitable wastage. Often we have to print a number of models for success, and we don’t charge individuals for failed models.

More information about 3D printing is available on our website.

Small model weighing 25 grams at ten per cent fill will cost $2 with the new weight-based price structure. (Model was $1.50 under the hourly price structure.)

Average-sized model weighing 50 grams at ten per cent fill will cost $4 with the new weight-based price structure. (Model was $3 under the hourly price structure.)

Large model weighing 100 grams at ten per cent fill will cost $8 with the new weight-based price structure. (Model was $6.50 under the hourly price structure.)

Intern Profiles 2014: Alison Manley, W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library

August 19, 2014 Marlo MacKay

Alison hails from Moncton, New Brunswick. She has an honours degree in political science with a subsidiary in English from St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish. A scholarship and a family connection brought her to X.

She applied to the MLIS program after having met someone who took the program at the University of Toronto. “I had intended to go to law school like all good poli sci grads,” laughed Alison. “But this MLIS grad I knew talked about the way information is changing, and I realized that I am really interested in information literacy. I want to help educate others on how to find information,” said Alison.

When asked why she chose the MLIS program at Dal, Alison had multiple reasons, including Dal’s closeness to home, and smaller program size.

“I’m still trying to figure out where I’d like to go when I graduate next year. Right now, I’m really enjoying health sciences at the Kellogg Library, which is not something I’d even considered at this time last year,” she said. One of the main projects she is working on this summer is preparing for the upcoming move of the Kellogg Library.

“The opportunity at the Kellogg was just so different from what I had expected. I had no library experience prior to coming to Dalhousie, and the fact that I’m working in a library now, that’s a real strength of the program,” said Alison.

Go Online with Your Reading List: eReserves Service for Faculty

August 13, 2014 Marlo MacKay

Make course-related articles and book chapters available electronically to your students in BbLearn. The Dalhousie Libraries are offering faculty an option to have links to licensed e-content added to their reading lists and uploaded to BbLearn by one of the Dal Libraries’ staff, with copyright clearance obtained if necessary.

You can do this online via the Reserve page on our website:

Go to the Reserves page and select the appropriate library submission form
Login and fill in the brief course particulars
Choose “Upload Reading List for OWL (you still have the option to fill out our regular form for “In-Library Reserves” if you don’t want your list annotated and added to your BbLearn course)

And that’s it! Once you’ve submitted your list, Libraries’ staff will create persistent URLs for electronic items and post the list to BbLearn for you.

We work with paper as well. We’ll seek copyright clearance for print material—articles and book chapters—through our Intellectual Property Officer and then scan and upload the items into BbLearn. If we’re not able to obtain copyright clearance, the material will be placed on Reserve at the Service Point/Circulation Desk of your selected library and you will be notified of this change.

By offering this service the Dal Libraries are hoping to build new partnerships with faculty, meet the students where they are, and provide quick and reliable access to library resources. We also hope you find it useful.

Note: Please allow at least 2 weeks for your reading lists to be processed. For further information or to get started, please contact:

Nancy Melvin, Killam Memorial Library, 494-2147
Jan Pelley, Kellogg Health Sciences Library, 494-3895
Amanda Sparks, Sexton Design & Technology Library, 494-6095
Sherree Miller, MacRae Library, 893-4576
Please contact the Sir James Dunn Law Library directly for Reserve information at that location, 494-2124
Jason MacDonald, Dalhousie Libraries Intellectual Property Officer, 494-4346

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Category: General Library News