Congratulations and best wishes to Michelle Paon!

January 3, 2023 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Please join us in wishing Michelle Paon all the best on the occasion of her retirement from the Dalhousie Libraries.

Michelle started working with the Dal Libraries in the summer of 1997 as an MLIS graduate student intern. A few years later, she was hired as a part-time Evening & Weekend Librarian at the Killam Library, a role she held for three academic years. In 2002, Michelle was appointed as a science librarian, supporting faculty and students in biology, environment, oceanography, and marine management, and for shorter periods, psychology and neuroscience, sustainability, and Indigenous issues. She has been an inspiration and a mentor in the Dal Libraries as a leader in the delivery of effective liaison librarian services.

In addition to her liaison duties, Michelle was actively involved in larger initiatives such as the establishment of DalSpace and the Killam Library Learning Commons – at the time, both ground-breaking projects for a Canadian research library.

In 2018, Michelle was appointed to the role of interim Associate University Librarian Resources and Head of Sexton Library, and later, she became the Associate Dean Resources. While at the Sexton Library, Michelle provided leadership to a team of professional librarians and a team of staff and student employees, serving the faculties of Engineering and Architecture & Planning. In her role as Associate Dean Resources, she successfully oversaw the development of a streaming video acquisitions process and oversaw a system-wide budget of more than $7 million, led the Resources team, and oversaw the libraries’ sixth branch, our website.

Michelle is a caring and thoughtful colleague. She was a founding member of the Dal Libraries green team, a team that was responsible for staff education on adopting more sustainable practices. She is also deeply committed to reconciliation, regularly attending seminars and lectures and taking courses from Indigenous Elders and scholars every year.

We will all miss Michelle’s kind nature and gentle mentorship as we wish her all the best in her well-earned retirement!

Welcome, Robin!

November 30, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Please join us in welcoming Robin Bishop to the Dalhousie Libraries. Robin is the new Manager, Acquisitions and Content Management on the Resources Team.

Robin comes to us with a strong background in academic libraries, having worked as the Manager, Library Services at the Higher Colleges of Technology Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates where she provided leadership for 40+ technical services and campus library staff to deliver services, training, and access to 100+ databases across 14 campus libraries, serving over 20,000 students. Prior to that, she also worked as a Library Supervisor in Dubai, UAE at the Higher Colleges of Technology where she led the strategic planning process, library services, and the annual acquisitions budget across two Dubai libraries for 4,000+ students and 300 staff.

Prior to her time in the UAE, Robin worked in California where she guided librarians and library staff through the design and implementation of customized computing environments around the world, and in Washington where she was part of a team that provided computers to public libraries in low-income communities for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Robin holds a Master of Library & Information Studies from the University of Alberta as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of New Brunswick.

Congratulations and Farewell, Andrew Finch!

November 23, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

On January 13, 2023, after more than 40 years at the Dalhousie University Libraries, Andrew Finch will begin his retirement. Due to vacation, his last day of work will be Friday, November 25.

Andrew’s career at the Libraries started as a student employee in September 1979. On December 16, 1982, he accepted the position of Evening Circulation Supervisor in the Circulation Department of the Killam Library. After four years in the evening position Andrew accepted a promotion, in May of 1986, to the Reserve Library Assistant position in the MacDonald Science Library, Circulation Department.

In August 1989, the Science Library Circulation merged with the Killam Circulation Department and Andrew’s duties evolved into Circulation Database Assistant. By the early 1990s, Andrew was working in Circulation as well as Technical Services where he provided collections support and worked with Government documents. In 1997, Andrew, along with other members of the access services and technical services teams, played an important role in the very successful integration of the Maritime School of Social Work Collection. This integration took a phenomenal effort and was extremely well done.

Andrew is finishing up a long career in the Libraries as a full-time Library Assistant in the Access Services Department of the Killam Library. Please join us in wishing him all the best as he begins this new chapter of his life.

The Joy of Reclaiming Family Medicines for Yourself, Your Community and for Future Generations with Richard Van Camp

November 22, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Please join us this Friday, November 25 at 3:45 p.m. as we partner with the English Department to host Tłı̨chǫ Dene author and storyteller Richard Van Camp as part of their Friday Speaker Series.

Richard’s talk is titled The Joy of Reclaiming Family Medicines for Yourself, Your Community and for Future Generations, and it will take place on Zoom.

Richard describes his talk as follows: “Please join us for this lively conversation with Tłı̨chǫ Dene author and storyteller Richard Van Camp as he shares his journey of reclaiming family recipes, photos, videos, lullabies, songs, names, cooking techniques and more. We promise uplifting stories and everyone who attend will receive gifts from Richard just for being the sweet miracle that you are.”

In addition to the gifts Richard has prepared for all attendees, the organizers will also have a draw for a few of Richard’s books.

Link to register: https://tinyurl.com/Van-Camp

Welcome Ratna!

November 21, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Please join us in welcoming Ratna Dhaliwal to the Dalhousie Libraries. Ratna, who is based in the Killam, is the new Collections & Metadata Librarian. Her first day was November 1.

As a member of the Resources team, Ratna will provide leadership and oversight related to metadata, cataloguing, and resource discovery to the Libraries’ community, as well as contribute to collections management decisions. She is a recent graduate of the Master of Information program at Dalhousie University and she holds a Diploma in Library Information Technology from Langara College and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Film Studies from Brock University.

Ratna has previously worked as an eResources Assistant in Collections Services at the University of Saskatchewan, an Information Assistant in Collections Development at the King’s College Library (UK), a Library Technician/Cataloguer at Inspire Health in Vancouver and as a School of Information Management Summer Student in Instructional Development at the Patrick Power Library, Saint Mary’s University. As a Dalhousie graduate student, Ratna also worked as both a teaching assistant and a research assistant.

Problems Accessing Electronic Content Through the Dalhousie Libraries This Week

November 18, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

This week, the Libraries received an unusually high volume of messages regarding log in problems to many of our subscription databases. These problems largely affected off-campus users and were caused by an issue with our proxy service, i.e. the tool that authenticates you as a Dalhousie user when accessing subscription content online. The error has been fixed and all access was restored as of Thursday morning. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this lengthy outage has caused, as well as for failing to communicate about this issue with our users in a timely manner.

While the issue has since been resolved, if you ever encounter a problem accessing our electronic content, we encourage you to submit the information via the Libraries’ E-Resources help form: https://libraries.dal.ca/help/eresource-access-help-form.html.

Off campus users who encounter issues connecting to resources can try to use the VPN as an alternative until the problem is resolved. You can find more information about our VPN service at this link- https://dalu.sharepoint.com/sites/its/SitePages/vpn.aspx

Farewell and thank you to Gwen MacNairn!

November 18, 2022 Marlo MacKay 3 Comments

Today we say goodbye to our friend and colleague Gwen MacNairn, who is retiring after 21 years with the Dalhousie Libraries. With this post, we want to share a few of her career highlights while paying tribute to Gwen.

Gwen came to us from Auburn Drive High School to be our new Computer Science Librarian in 2001, a role she held until 2016. Before that, she had also worked for ESRI in California writing technical manuals, as she holds a Diploma in GIS from COGS (NSCC), among many other credentials. Later in Gwen’s career, that experience and education would prove to be very useful. In 2015, Gwen became the Assistant Head of Killam, and in 2016, she became the GIS & Data Services coordinator. At that time, she also took on liaison duties for medical sciences, adding biology in 2018.

Throughout her career, Gwen has been an active collaborator with Integrated Science, Science Communications, CLT, and the Writing Centre. During Gwen’s time as the Coordinator of GIS & Data Services, they launched a popular newsletter, Layers, created a new service-focused landing page for GIS & Data Services on the Libraries’ website, and launched the Chris Hadfield Space Photographs Collection in 2019. The launch of this collection was the single largest event, from a media perspective, that the Dal Libraries have ever had, resulting in 58 media hits and remarks from Commander Hadfield himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otebueyo6Vo. In short, Gwen easily met one of her early goals as the GIS & Data Services Coordinator to grow the service awareness beyond the client base in Planning, Earth Sciences, and Economics.

Gwen embodies the ethos of life-long learning, with her annual reports typically including at least one full page detailing the continuing education activities she had engaged in in the previous year. She has a strong commitment to academic integrity, being active in plagiarism prevention from the beginning of her time at Dal. She was an early adopter of citation management software, and her special leave in 2008–2009 was focussed on Zotero and RefWorks as digital scholarship tools. Gwen’s commitment to teaching and information literacy was demonstrated through her involvement in several iterations of information literacy groups over the years. She also taught an Info Lit class at SIM in the fall of 2008.

Gwen’s approach was always user-centred, and she served on many committees and teams throughout her 21 years with us. We can’t list them all here, but we will try to provide some highlights. Soon after her arrival in 2002, she joined the Learning Commons implementation team, and in 2006 she chaired the Central Search Committee, which was our first foray into federated searching, resulting in the Prowler interface. In 2009, she joined the Web Renewal team, and in 2012 she worked on the Killam Single Service Point team. In 2015, she was part of the Strategic Alignment Plan and strategic planning group as well as the Primo Implementation team for Novanet Discovery.

It would be a huge oversight to not mention that Gwen is always energetic, fun, positive, and interesting. She brings her refreshing perspective to every project she is involved in. We hope that in her retirement, she will get to do more of the traveling she so dearly loves to do.

With great admiration and affection, we wish you all the best in your retirement, Gwen!

Welcome Nora!

August 29, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Please join us in welcoming Nora Frauley-Elson (she/her) to the Dalhousie Libraries.

Nora joined us on May 9, where she holds the position of Library Services Supervisor at the Sexton Library. She previously worked at Manulife Financial where she was employed as a Business Information Specialist.

Nora holds a Master of Information from the University of Toronto, where she worked several different student positions at an academic library while completing her degree. She recently completed a certificate in Canadian copyright law.

Nora is an avid embroiderer and crafter and can be found working on DIY projects when she is not out exploring Halifax.

Welcome Jaclyn Page, Copyright Librarian

August 19, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Jaclyn Page

We are pleased to introduce Jaclyn Page (she/her), the new Copyright Librarian for the Dalhousie Libraries. She is based in the MacRae Library on the Agricultural Campus.

Jaclyn comes to us from Niagara College in Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario, where she held the position of Library Facilitator: Information Literacy and was the campus lead on copyright compliance. She also has experience as the subject liaison for Niagara College’s horticultural science and agribusiness programs.

Prior to coming to Dalhousie, Jaclyn has also worked as a librarian and a library assistant. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design from Royal Roads University, a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario, and a Bachelor of Arts from McMaster University.

Jaclyn will be a lead member of the Copyright Team, responsible for supporting research, teaching, and learning by providing guidance for faculty, students, and staff in matters relating to copyright. This position will also work with the Research & Scholarly Communications team, participating in team projects and outreach activities as well as offering assistance and resources related to the development of scholarly communications and research initiatives. Jaclyn will also deliver liaison librarian services for the Faculty of Agriculture and related areas in the Faculty of Science, including instruction, reference and research support, and collections development.

Please join us in welcoming Jaclyn to Dalhousie!

Intern Profiles 2022: Maddie Hare

August 16, 2022 Marlo MacKay Leave a Comment

Maddie Hare (she/her)

What is your favorite summer activity? Or your favourite Halifax activity?

During the summer I am usually tending to my garden or going for a dip in the Atlantic! I also love cooking with seasonal produce: Nova Scotian strawberries, rhubarb, fiddleheads, the list goes on! I am hoping to get out clam digging this year; it brings me so much joy to cook and eat things I’ve grown or gathered myself. During the summertime I also find it hard to extract myself from the Halifax Public Gardens, my favourite place in the city.

What internship are you affiliated with?

I am an intern at the W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library located on Dalhousie’s beautiful and historic Carleton campus.

What brought you to the MI program at Dal?

Having earned my BA and MA at Dalhousie, I had already strong ties with the school and deep connections with its community. My background is in History and I had my sights set on Archival Studies. Upon researching programs in the field, I once again found myself looking at the dynamic program at Dalhousie’s School of Information Management. After attending one information session I was sold on its esteemed faculty, close-knit community, and the potentials and opportunities for applying its curriculum to any realm of Information Management.

What drew you to the internship opportunity at the Dal Libraries?

I began working at the W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library as a student assistant when I started the MI program. I thought it would be a good way to gain experience working in an academic library setting, learn more about the needs of the community it serves, and put what I was learning at SIM directly into practice. After meeting the 2021-2022 interns, Vinson and Kendell, I learned about how the internship was an immersive and fulfilling experience. I was interested in expanding my knowledge by learning from librarians and other Dalhousie staff. I also developed a strong interest in the Health Sciences after spending so much time among the Faculty of Medicine. I had heard from my peers that the internship program helped them grow a great deal as information professionals and I was interested in challenging myself to develop my Information Management competencies.

What’s your educational background?

I am a long-time Dalhousie attendee, having completed both my BA and MA in History here in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

What projects have you worked on so far during your internship?

I have been working on a diversity of different projects so far! Dalhousie Libraries recently switched to using the system Alma. I worked on updating Health Sciences LibGuides to make sure links to Dalhousie’s catalogue are working and accessible for patrons. Many of the libraries’ video tutorials have also required updating as a result of this migration, and I have been assisting with creating new online video tutorials using Camtasia.

Additionally, I have performed a bit of Collections work which involves searching for textbooks and other literature to supplement the Kellogg library’s current holdings. I received training on Health Sciences databases and am now conducting PRESS reviews and search translations. Using these skills, I have worked on translating searches and am looking forward to further developing my search competencies. Through shadowing librarians’ consultations with students and faculty working on systematic reviews and other research projects, I have enjoyed learning more about evidence synthesis, how to construct effective and comprehensive searches, and how to teach these skills to patrons. I am working on integrating this new knowledge into providing reference services for students, faculty, and the broader community.

Projects I have had the opportunity to work on with the extended Dalhousie library community include putting together a book display on Nova Scotian medical history for Dr. Allan Marble’s book launch. It was great to get a sense of how the practice of medicine evolved over the centuries, while working with Dalhousie students and faculty in the modern-day field!

Category: Architecture, Engineering & Planning