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What's going on at Dalhousie Libraries

Category: Agriculture

Welcome Louise Gillis, Research Data Management Librarian

Louise Gillis

We are pleased to announce that Louise Gillis is the new Research Data Management Librarian for the Dalhousie Libraries.

Louise is a familiar face to many of us at Dalhousie from her time in the Libraries as a limited term librarian, which wrapped up in December 2021. In that term position, Louise served in several librarian roles including Data, Psychology, Post-Graduate Medicine/Medicine, Pharmacy, and Research Data Management.

Before joining the Dal Libraries, Louise worked as a research librarian in Australia and as a bookmobile librarian in Nova Scotia. In addition to holding her Master of Library and Information Science, Louise holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

In this new role, Louise will be responsible for supporting research data management throughout the research life cycle. She will be available for individual consultations, workshops, and presentations while also serving as a resource on national policy and best practices to keep the Dal community informed and involved with the changing landscape for research data management planning, preservation, discovery, and reuse. Louise will be a key part of the Research and Scholarly Communications Team, led by the Associate Dean Research & Scholarly Communications & Head of the Kellogg Library. The Research Data Management Librarian is also responsible for delivering liaison librarian services to the College of Pharmacy including instruction, reference and research support, and collections development.

Thanks very much to the selection committee chaired by Robin Parker and including Jackie Phinney, Shelley McKibbon, Erin MacPherson, Julie Marcoux, and Dr. Jennifer Isenor.

Please join us in welcoming Louise back to the Dalhousie Libraries!

Phil Laugher: New Digital Asset Technician

Please join us in welcoming Phil Laugher to the role of Digital Asset Technician.

Previously, Phil worked as a Library Services Assistant in the Killam performing front-line Access Services duties at the KLSP and performing Resources work, which included organizing, searching, and appraising gifts and donations and training colleagues in how to do so. Phil was also responsible for retrieving and sending MARC records for Federal and Provincial OA government documents to the Novanet Office for loading into the catalogue for the benefit of all Novanet libraries as well as for doing EBSCO serials renewals for the Killam and Sexton libraries. He also did a lot of cataloguing, including fixing or verifying name and subject authorities and upgrading subpar MARC records. We know Phil will be sorely missed by the Access Services and Resources Teams. Thanks to Gail Fraser for supplying many of these details!

In this new role, Phil will coordinate the digital collection activities across the Dal Libraries and the daily operations of the digitization facilities. He will also be digitizing and disseminating library and archival materials, training project team members, and contributing to the development of policies and technical documentation for digitization and digital collections development.

Welcome to the Archives, Phil!

 

Sarah Stevenson: New Associate Dean Archives, Records Management, and Special Collections

Please join us in welcoming Sarah Stevenson to the role of Associate Dean Archives, Records Management, and Special Collections. In addition to this new Associate Dean portfolio, Sarah will also remain as the Head of the Killam Memorial Library, a role she has been serving in since 2016.

Although this is a new title for Sarah, she is not an unfamiliar face in the Archives. In 2021, Sarah took on the duties of the Associate Dean Archives, Records Management, and Special Collections while Michael Moosberger was on leave. We are grateful to have an experienced leader transitioning into this role to work with the fabulous Archives, Records Management, and Special Collections team.

In this role, Sarah plans to build on the previous Associate Dean’s accomplishments, with the ultimate goal of making it easier for researchers to discover what we have by increasing the visibility of our collections and services in the Archives and Special Collections. Sarah’s aspirations include increasing the number of our holdings that are represented in the catalogue (AtoM), improving the promotion and discovery of our special collections, building on the success of our fledgling records management program, and providing support and a renewed vision for the digitization program.

As Head of the Killam Memorial Library, Sarah will continue to provide leadership in the development and provision of knowledgeable and flexible library services and sustainable collection development.

Welcome to the fifth floor, Sarah!

Congratulations and Goodbye to Michael Moosberger

Michael Moosberger in the Archives stacks.

Deaccession news from the Dalhousie Archives NAME: Michael Moosberger CREATOR: Mr. and Mrs. Moosberger INCLUSIVE DATES: [ca.1957 – ] DATE AND SOURCE OF ACQUISITION: 2000 ; U of Manitoba Archives EXTENT: don’t ask CONDITION: excellent RESTRICTIONS: of course FINANCIAL APPRAISAL: priceless DISPOSITION: retirement

Please join us in wishing our Associate Dean Archives, Records Management and Special Collections and University Archivist, Michael Moosberger all the best on his retirement. During his 21 years with the Dalhousie Libraries, the Archives has had tremendous success on many fronts.

Here are some highlights:

  • Number of new accessions: University Archives – 490 accessions, Private Manuscripts – 579 accessions.
  • Total Increase in holdings: Approx. 1,900 metres of material.
  • Number of collections appraised for monetary value and appraised value: 179 appraisals valued at $2,178,447.
  • Number of grants and bequests received by the Archives: 64 grants/donations – just over $710,000.
  • Transitioning the Archives from paper-based finding aids and lists to a stand-alone database, to web-based finding aids, and finally to the development of our online holdings system AtoM – currently over 274,000 unique descriptive records documenting 887 fonds/collections with over 22,000 digital objects available online.
  • Building the Archives staff complement from 2.5 staff in 2000 to 9.5 staff in 2020 including the appointment of the Digital Archivist, the University Records Manager, and the Digitization Coordinator.
  • Creation of the University Records Management Policy, the University Records Committee, and the ongoing development of the records management program including the creation of DalCLASS, university-wide records management training, and the development of a transfer tool application that will allow for the transfer of digital university records to the Archives.

Additionally, under Michaels’ leadership, the Archives was a key participant in many of the University’s 200th anniversary activities including the Dal Originals, the production of the 200th anniversary publication; the digitization of a number of historical university publications; and the creation of the University time capsule. He also provided professional work experiences to over 50 graduates from the Dalhousie School of Information and other programs through internships and contractual work; many of whom have gone on to gain professional success in various archival, library, and information management positions. In his time with the Dalhousie Libraries, Michael has had five title changes and has overseen five moves of the collection, but his dedication to the Archives has remained a constant.

Thank you, Michael!

 

 

Presentations by the candidates for the Research Data Management Librarian position

We invite all members of Dalhousie community to attend public presentations by the five short-listed candidates for the position of Research Data Management Librarian, to be appointed through the W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library. The 20-minute presentations will take place on Zoom with time for questions and answers. The times and links are provided below. Please join any of the sessions a few minutes before the start time. 

Candidates will be asked to the present on the following topic:
“You have been invited to the monthly faculty meeting at the College of Pharmacy to present on your proposed training program regarding Research Data Management in the Health Sciences. Your contact in the College has asked for you to make the case for how the proposed curriculum (series of workshops or other educational interventions) will help pharmacy research students at various levels (undergrad, graduate, postgraduate) navigate funding requirements and learn best practices for RDM in pharmacy research. You have 20 minutes to make your case and get buy-in from faculty and other Pharmacy researchers so they will support implementation of the training for learners associated with the College.”

All the members of the Search Committee welcome your feedback and comments! 

Search committee members are: Robin Parker (Chair), Shelley McKibbon, Jackie Phinney, Erin MacPherson, Julie Marcoux, and Dr. Jennifer Isenor. 

Candidate #1
Tuesday December 14, 2021
9–9:45 a.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.

 ——

Candidate #2 
Tuesday December 14, 2021
12–12:45 p.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.

 ——

Candidate #3 
Wednesday December 15, 2021
9–9:45 a.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.

 ——

Candidate #4  
Thursday December 16, 2021
2–2:45 p.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.

 ——

Candidate #5  
Tuesday December 21, 2021
10–10:45 a.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.

 

Congratulations to the 2022 CAUL-CBUA Collaborative Research Grant Recipients

Nicole Carter

Nicole Carter

Lindsay McNiff

Lindsay McNiff

The Dal Libraries’ own Learning & Instruction Librarian Lindsay McNiff along with her colleague Nicole Carter, the Reference & Research Librarian at Saint Mary’s University, have been awarded $1,000 to help support their project, Investigating the experiences of academic librarians on temporary contracts in Canada before and during COVID-19. Congratulations!

From CAUL/CBUA:
In their proposal, Lindsay and Nicole propose to investigate the demographics of those academic librarians engaged in precarious work in Canada (including age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, years since graduation), in what postsecondary environments they have been employed precariously (college, university, size of institution), the nature of these contracts (reason, duration), and some key questions about their experience in these positions, including those raised in prior literature around training, socialization, and supervision. This is the first Canada-wide survey to investigate these questions with a focus on academic librarians with temporary contracts. The study will also zero in on how COVID-19 has affected the working life of librarians holding temporary contracts in academic libraries.

The CAUL-CBUA Collaborative Research Grant is intended to encourage collaborative research by librarians and staff working in academic libraries in the region through projects which involve structured, evidence-based research. We are pleased to continue offering support to researchers in the region and look forward to the results of Lindsay and Nicole’s study.

 

Two Awards for the Dalhousie Archives for Outstanding Archival Work

with content from Creighton Barrett and Sarah Stevenson

The Dalhousie Libraries is delighted to share wonderful news that the Archives was recently the recipient of two awards from the Council of Nova Scotia Archives. The Archives serves as Dalhousie’s corporate memory by identifying, preserving, and making available institutional records of enduring value, including textural, photographic, audiovisual, and electronic materials. The Archives also acquires records of independent student, alumni and employee organizations, private papers from prominent faculty and alumni, and university publications. Together, these records document the work of the university, and tell the story of the Dalhousie community and its people over time.

Doug Kirby Award for outstanding achievement in archival preservation

The Dalhousie Archives won the Doug Kirby Award for their Digital Preservation System Project, which began in 2018. Led by Digital Archivist Creighton Barrett, the Archives’ need for a robust digital preservation solution became increasingly apparent as the Libraries began digitizing historic university records to celebrate Dalhousie’s 200th anniversary in 2018.

With support from the senior leadership team of the Dalhousie Libraries and colleagues in Procurement, Creighton outlined the functional requirements and wrote a request for proposals for a digital preservation system based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and other international digital preservation standards.

After years of testing and development, the Archives created its first standards-compliant Archival Information Packages (AIPs) in April 2021. While this research and development was under way, the Dal Libraries also took other initiatives to support its emerging digital preservation program:

  • Established a new Preservation Committee with a mandate to carry out Preservation Planning functions described in the Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
  • Implemented new user-friendly “Managed File Transfer” software that will support a new file transfer service to be launched later this year. See our YouTube tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_fU8Ssz4FQ
  • Reconfigured the Storage Area Network (SAN) digital storage environment that houses approximately 120 TB of archival data waiting to be ingested into the digital preservation system.
  • Developed documentation on Archivematica and the Managed File Transfer software.

The Dal Libraries continues to work with Artefactual Systems to configure and maintain the digital preservation system.

Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for outstanding accomplishment in archival work

The Dalhousie Archives won the Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for the Ronald St. John MacDonald fonds processing project. Paulo Matheus de Sousa Lima, Archives Assistant, was the primary staff person for this project, receiving support from the Digital Archivist, the University Records Manager, and staff Archives Assistants.

The project ran from September 2020–March 2021 and was funded through a grant from the Provincial Archival Development Program (PADP). This funding allowed the Dalhousie University Archives to hire Matheus to focus on the personal archives of Ronald St. John MacDonald, an international law professor and judge. The archival fonds includes 15.64 metres of textual records and other material.

Matheus conducted an archival appraisal and then created and carried out a detailed plan to arrange and describe the fonds. He also rehoused the material in archival quality file folders and boxes. In total, Matheus created 691 file-level descriptions, 25 sub-series level descriptions, four series-level descriptions, and one fonds-level description. He also drafted an archival authority record that describes the life and career of Ronald St. John MacDonald. The archival appraisal and processing project resulted in the deaccessioning of 1.5 metres of textual records.

The finding aid for the Ronald St. John MacDonald fonds is available here: https://findingaids.library.dal.ca/ronald-st-john-macdonalds-fonds

Congratulations to the entire Dalhousie Archives team on the completion of these extensive projects and for winning two well-deserved awards! With thanks to Creighton Barrett and Sarah Stevenson for providing much of the content for this message.

Goodbye and Congratulations, Roger Brush!

Roger Brush, pictured third from left in the back row, with the rest of the Classroom Technologies Team; Director of ATS Marc Comeau; Manager of Services, Support & Training for ATS Mick Bottom; former Dalhousie President Richard Florizone; and Dean of Libraries Donna Bourne-Tyson.

At the end of July, our colleague Roger Brush retired. Roger’s affiliation with Dalhousie began in the 80s; as a student, he worked in the Language Lab in the basement of the Killam before being hired as the lab supervisor in 1987.

Over the years, Roger has worked in various roles with the Centre for Learning & Teaching and Information Technology Services. We were fortunate to have him join the Dal Libraries in April 2017 when the Classroom Technologies department was created within our Academic Technology Services unit.

Roger’s wealth of experience made him an incredibly valuable member of the Classroom Technologies team. During his time with us, Roger worked in the Life Sciences Centre AV support office — a very busy location — but he always rose to the challenges that came his way. He consistently provided excellent service and ensured that the classroom technology needs of faculty were met.

Please join us in thanking Roger for his hard work and wish him the best on his retirement!

Intern Profile: McKenzie Young 

Name: McKenzie Young
Pronouns: She/Her
Hometown: Vancouver, BC  

What is your favorite summer activity? Or your favorite Halifax activity?
Anything outdoors! I love patios, hiking and camping during the summer and Nova Scotia has plenty of opportunities to do all of those. This summer I have been enjoying the farmers markets as well. 

What is your internship title? Which library (and archives!) location are you affiliated with?
Sexton Design & Technology Library Reference Intern 

What brought you to the MI program at Dal?
This is a unique program because it is not exclusively GLAM(Gallery, Library, Archive, Museum) focused, as many are in Canada, which I think opens more potential career paths for graduates.  I also love Halifax so it was an easy choice! 

What drew you to the internship opportunity at the Dal Libraries?
I knew I wanted a library job and wanted to feel connected to Dal, especially because I was learning online. I was attracted to Sexton because I have no experience with Engineering/Architecture/Planning, but I really think that’s why librarianship is interesting, because librarians have to be very adaptable, and become experts in fields that they may not be accustom to.  

What’s your educational background?
BA with a Double Major in History and Anthropology 

What have you been doing during your internship and how has the pandemic shaped your internship? 
I have been able to do Sexton Library specific projects, including collections, reference services and basic circulation tasks, as well as University wide projects, working with Dalhousie Archives and other Dal subject specialists.  

The pandemic has shaped my internship in so many ways! The biggest learning for me due to the pandemic is how to have strong interpersonal interaction online. This was important to learn for interactions with my coworkers, the wider Dal Libraries community and especially with the people seeking library services. Meaningful interactions are so important to me and, in my opinion, this was the most powerful way for Dal to serve its community this past year and a half.  

Intern Profile: Sam Elliot Schwanak 

Name: Sam Elliot Schwanak
Pronouns: they/them
Hometown: Sherwood Park, AB 

What is your favourite summer activity? Or your favourite Halifax activity?
These days I play a lot of boardgames and table-top roleplaying games and write novel length fanfics, but in the before times I could be found at the theater, the symphony, haunting the comic shop or staring at the ocean.   

What is your internship title? Which library (and archives!) location are you affiliated with? 
I am a Dalhousie Libraries Intern based out of the Killam Library.  

What brought you to the MI program at Dal?
I worked at the SMU Patrick Power library as a student assistant for three years and that cemented in my mind that I wanted to continue working in a library in some capacity. It also felt like I would be able to take my skills from my English degree and push them even further through library science, as well as working towards a career that would allow for constant learning and growth, provide new challenges every year, would leave me fulfilled and happy, and aligns closely with my morals and convictions.  

What drew you to the internship opportunity at the Dal Libraries?
The opportunity to learn and experience working at an academic library was a big draw, as well as the fact that I would be given the opportunity to work on projects in a fairly self-directed manner, and do work that would create a tangible benefit for students that used the Killam.  

What’s your educational background?
I took a bachelor’s degree at Saint Mary’s majoring in honours English, with a double minor in German language and creative writing.  

What have you been doing during your internship and how has the pandemic shaped your internship?
So far I’ve been working on an involved project to create an audit that will allow the library to easily collect data about the accessibility of ebook databases and readers, so that the library can make more informed decisions about which ones to invest in when it comes to supporting students with (dis)abilities. I’m also helping with some tutorials for business software and a project on copyright processes, among other projects that will come down the pipeline later this summer.  

The pandemic has shaped my internship by allowing me to have extremely self-guided productivity, which has grown my confidence in running projects on my own. It is also useful because while my workspace isn’t always the best because it was never meant for working, working from home when you’re disabled can be much easier, especially if you’ve already built-in whatever accommodations you need.  

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