October is Canadian Library Month & today, the third Friday in October, is Canadian Library Workers Day. Our colleagues at the Dal Libraries are talented, hard-working, and attentive to the needs of those we serve. Cheers to them and all Canadian Library Workers today!
Congratulations Robin Parker, and all the Killam Trusts Scholarship Recipients!
Congratulations to our brilliant Dal Libraries’ colleague Robin Parker, one of 128 Pre- and Post-doctoral researchers receiving The Killam Trusts Scholarships, Dalhousie University’s most celebrated award!
Happy Retirement, Darlene!
(l-r) Susan Hagen, Andre Richard and Darlene Hazel at a staff Christmas party in 2013.
by Michelle Paon
On September 1, Resources staff member Darlene Hazel retired from the Dal Libraries after a 37-year career. Darlene began work at Dalhousie in 1982 as a Clerk in the Killam Library’s Order Department. Over the years, she progressed to the position of Invoicing Assistant for the Dal Libraries. In 2017, she was one of several Libraries’ staff members to be honoured with a 35-year milestone certificate by then President Richard Florizone.
Darlene’s colleagues valued her frankness and sense of humour. They also appreciated the festive cheer that Darlene’s colourful decorations added to the workplace during seasonal holidays!
Please join us in wishing Darlene a happy retirement. Congratulations, Darlene!
Celebrating inaugural part‑time teaching award recipient Lindsay McNiff
SIM director Sandra Toze, Lindsay McNiff and interim dean Vivian Howard.
by Nicole Maunsell, Faculty of Management
This year, the Faculty of Management created a new award to celebrate part-time instructors who exhibit educational leadership, innovation and sustained commitment to excellence in teaching and learning. The inaugural recipient is Lindsay McNiff.
McNiff is the Learning & Instruction Librarian at Dalhousie Libraries and has been a part-time instructor in the School of Information Management since 2015, where she teaches courses on information retrieval and information literacy instruction. She programs and delivers an academic support workshop series for MI students, which includes topics such as citation management, conference posters and strategies for group work.
McNiff is known for providing practical opportunities for students to learn through role playing, simulations and deep learning exercises in groups. Students appreciate the way her assignments build off each other and include reflective elements.
“Lindsay is an empathetic and engaging teacher,” says Nicole Marcoux, a student in the MI program who nominated McNiff. “Her friendliness and earnest desire to support her students set her apart.”
Sandra Toze, SIM director, notes that “Lindsay exceeds the expectations of her role. She is an incredibly valuable part of the SIM family and has a significant impact on our student experience. She is highly deserving of this award.”
The Faculty of Management Part-time Teaching Award is awarded to a part-time, CUPE or sessional member of the Faculty of Management teaching staff. The award is chosen by a committee comprising the associate dean academic, faculty members and a student representative. The award was created as part of priority 2.3 of the Faculty’s strategic plan, which aims to provide initiatives that recognize the multiple contributions of students, staff and faculty.
Charles Tourneur, New Stack Supervisor
We are pleased to announce Charles Tourner is the new Stack Supervisor in the Killam Library.
Charles has worked with the Dalhousie Libraries since 2009, demonstrating his technical expertise by working on both the Help Desk and the Access Services Desk.
Charles holds diplomas in Library Information Technology and Electronics Engineering from the Nova Scotia Community College. He is skilled in the area organization, which will serve him well in his new role.
Congratulations, Charles!
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Invitation to Participate: Understanding Research Data Management Practices at Dalhousie University
Below is an invitation from Dal Librarians Erin MacPherson and Melissa Rothfus to participate in a survey on the topic of research data management practices at Dal. Your participation will be of great assistance as we finalize our Institutional RDM Strategy for Dalhousie. We want to help our researchers to follow the FAIR principles for research data – ensuring their data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.
Researchers can find more information about current RDM services in the Dal Libraries at https://dal.ca.libguides.com/rdm or contact data.management@dal.ca
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To: Dalhousie University research community, including all current faculty (non-tenured, tenured, limited term appointments), postdoctoral fellows, instructors, staff and graduate students at Dalhousie University
Subject: Invitation to Participate: Understanding Research Data Management Practices at Dalhousie University
Researchers from the Dalhousie Libraries are conducting an anonymous, online survey focusing on the research community at Dalhousie University, including faculty at all ranks (tenure, non-tenure and limited term appointments), instructors, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at all departments, institutes and schools at Dalhousie University.
The purpose of this survey is to contribute to a national growing body of knowledge on research data management in universities and versions of this survey have been conducted at several other Canadian universities. Additionally, results of this survey may help the Libraries develop infrastructure and educational programmes to meet the research data management needs at Dalhousie University. The combined results may also assist in developing national initiatives for research data management.
We will be sharing our aggregate and anonymized data with the participating schools and the wider community in a data repository such as Dataverse. The researchers also aim to publish and/or present the research results openly within the academic community through academic journals and/or conference presentation and in an institutional repository such as DalSpace.
This research is being conducted by Erin MacPherson (Research Data Management Librarian – MacRae Library, 902-893-3296) and Melissa Rothfus (Scholarly Communications Librarian, Kellogg Library, 902-494-1649) and has been approved by the Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie (REB #2019-4738)
The survey deadline has been extended and is now open until midnight, August 16th, 2019. It can be accessed here: https://surveys.dal.ca/opinio/s?s=48047
Welcome Carl Harvey, New Help Desk Technician
We are pleased to announce that Carl Harvey is the new Academic Technology Services (ATS) Help Desk Technician for the Dal Libraries, based at the Help Desk located in the Chanie Wenjack Legacy Space in the Killam Library.
Carl will be a familiar face to many as he has been working as an intern and in term positions in the Dalhousie Libraries since 2017, spending time at the Sexton and Killam Libraries. Carl has worked both as a Library Services Technician with Access Services and as a Help Desk Technician with the ATS team.
Carl is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University and the Nova Scotia Community College’s Library & Information Technology program, from which he graduated with honours. While in school, he was awarded the Student Recognition Award for first-year students and the Atlantic Provinces Library Association Award for High Standing & Commitment to Professional Advancement Beyond the Program Requirements.
In his spare time, Carl enjoys board games, designing posters for local gaming clubs, and assembling and painting miniature figures. We are very pleased to have Carl as a permanent employee of the Dalhousie Libraries.
Intern profile: Mitchell Jabalee
Where are you interning?
I am interning at the Dalhousie University Archives.
What brought you to the MLIS program at Dal?
What brought me to the MLIS program was in interest in learning and developing a broad range of skills to add to what I already have. My goal is to learn many flexible skills that make me a great fit for working in the field of archives.
What drew you to the internship at the Dal Libraries?
I was interested in gaining more experience working in an archive and the summer intern job at Dalhousie’s archives was the perfect opportunity.
What’s your educational background?
Previously I have completed an undergraduate degree with honours in history at Cape Breton University.
What have you been doing during your internship?
So far during my time at the Dalhousie Archives, I have been processing records and creating archival descriptions for the materials of Canadian writer and poet Charles Bruce that get uploaded to the archives’ online catalog, helping with the preparations for the renovations to the archives collections space and assisting in daily operations and tasks alongside other small tasks here and there.
Intern profile: Nicole Marcoux
Where are you interning?
I am one of two Nicoles interning at the Killam.
What drew you to the internship at the Dal Libraries?
I am excited about academic libraries! Research projects are so varied and interesting, and working one-on-one with people to support their information needs is fun and satisfying work.
What’s your educational background?
I have a BA in Russian Studies from Dalhousie and a diploma of Holistic Nutrition.
What have you been doing during your internship?
The extensive training period has been a great way to get an idea of the inner workings at the Killam and the projects I’ll get to take on this summer. In particular, I am excited about working on a Killam Escape Room and cataloguing a collection of Russian microfilm.
Goodbye and Congratulations, Karen!
by Michelle Paon
After 38 years with the Dal Libraries, Karen Chandler is retiring.
Karen’s career at Dalhousie began in August 1981 when she accepted a Clerk-Typist position in the Killam Library’s Circulation Department. In January 1984, she was promoted to Head of Reserve. By December 1991, Karen had advanced to become the Head of the Serials & Microform Department (later known as the Serials Unit).
In December 2013, Karen was promoted to the position of Manager, System-Wide Resources, a role in which she skillfully negotiates vendor licenses for direct subscriptions to electronic resources & databases and shepherds the subscription renewals of a vast array of consortially-purchased products.
Proficient in dealing with financials, Karen forecasts expenditures and calculates variances that are crucial in preparing Resources budgets. Karen provides timely information to Library Heads and librarian liaisons to enable their decision-making with regard to licensed consortial products. She also alerts her Resources team members of license and product changes to assist in providing seamless access to electronic resources.
Karen has contributed in valuable ways to both the Dal Libraries as well as to the broader Novanet community. She served as Co-Chair of the Novanet Acquisitions/Serials Committee as well as being a long-standing Acquisitions/Serials Functional Contact. She was a member of the Novanet Data Migration Team and the Novanet Training Team (Acquisitions/Serials clients “Train the Trainers”). Within the Dal Libraries, Karen served on the Technical Services Management Team, the Dal Libraries Technical Services Task Force, and more recently on the Resources Managers Group.
We will miss Karen’s astute negotiation skills, conscientious attention to detail, and remarkable memory and record-keeping with regard to serials and database subscriptions.
Please join us in congratulating Karen on her upcoming retirement.
Congratulations, Karen!