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What's going on at Dalhousie Libraries

Archives for Interns 2019

Intern profile: Mitchell Jabalee

MitchellWhere 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 Slipp

Slipp, NicoleWhere are you interning?
I am one of two Nicoles interning at the Killam Library.

What brought you to the MLIS program at Dal?
When I moved to Halifax a few years ago, I got a part-time job at the Halifax Central Library. I’d worked in a public library in high school and an academic library during my undergraduate degree, then focused on academia for several years. I started at Central during a transitional time, and the job made me realize that libraries are where I want to be.

What drew you to the internship at the Dal Libraries?
The Killam internship provides exposure to such a wide range of experiences in academic librarianship. I also wanted the chance to do reference work with students from a variety of disciplines.

What’s your educational background?
I have a BAH from the University of New Brunswick (Saint John), an MA from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in medieval literature from Queen’s University. My interests are primarily in queer and feminist theories, and I work in both medieval literature and comics studies.

What have you been doing during your internship?
So far, I have had great training opportunities through both Dal’s Research Bootcamp series and attending the Data Liberation Initiative’s Atlantic Workshop. I’m honing my reference skills on the KLSP (Killam Library Service Point). I get to work on many projects, ranging from thematic coding of student surveys to assisting on a research guide on copyright and Indigenous knowledge to creating a management plan for photographs taken from space. I’m so excited about all the things I’ll learn through my project work this summer!

Intern profile: Annalise Benoit

Annalise Benoit

      Where are you interning? Sir James Dunn Law Library

       What brought you to the MLIS program at Dal? I’m one of those people who wants to do all of the things. As a kid, I could never just pick one activity. I wanted to be in dance and theatre and play soccer… and do gymnastics. Fast-forward twentyish years and I found myself struggling, in the last year of my undergrad, to figure out what my next step should be. I knew that I hadn’t reached the end of the academic road yet, but for the life of me, I could not decide which path to pursue. I was interested in law, technology, ethics, digital media, and politics, among other things, so having to pick just one felt like the ultimate injustice. What did all of these disciplines have in common then? The conclusion that I came to was, information. Studying the theory of information has allowed me continue pursuing research that draws from a variety of academic disciplines. It is the critical lens through which I now navigate through the sea of academia. And, ever the over-achiever, I opted to do the combined MLIS/JD option. If you’re a free-spirit with an insatiable curiosity who dreads the thought of devoting yourself to just one area of scholarship, consider the MLIS program at Dal. Scratch all of your itches!

       What drew you to the internship at the Dal Libraries? As a combined degree student beginning law school in September 2019, having my two academic worlds collide in the form of such a wonderful opportunity was just too good to pass up. Since law school will be taking over my life for the next three years, I was keen to find a way to keep one foot in the library world. The opportunity to work at the Dunn library over the summer and throughout the school year not only allows me to stay connected to the library culture that I have come to adore, it will, hopefully, make me a better law student as well. 

What’s your educational background? B.A. in Cultural Studies and History from Mount Saint Vincent University, 2018. 

What have you been doing during your internship? Learning all of the quirky things that set law libraries apart from other libraries, preparing rare books for digitization, managing LibGuides, avoiding being surprised by mouse-traps. 

Intern profile: Elizabeth McElroy

  1. Elizabeth McElroy Where are you interning? 

  2. I am interning at the Sexton Library of Technology and Design.

      What brought you to the MLIS program at Dal?

  3. My grandmother told me about her own experiences in an MLIS program at the University of Toronto in the 1940s, and she inspired me to consider other MLIS programs. After moving from Toronto to Halifax and starting my studies at the University of King’s College, I knew that I wanted to continue my studies and libraries were spaces I always felt at home in and spent a ton of time in throughout high school and university. I looked into the MLIS program at Dalhousie University and knew immediately that the close-knit cohort and wide-range of programs was the right fit for me!

    What drew you to the internship at the Dal Libraries? 

  4. I have always been interested in academic libraries because I love applying myself to research projects and helping with instruction! I also enjoy learning about fields and programs that I do not have experience in, and expanding my knowledge in these areas. The Sexton Library felt like the perfect place to both broaden my knowledge and gain experience!

    What’s your educational background? 

  5. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Cinema and Media Studies from the University of King’s College in 2018. 

  6. What have you been doing during your internship? 

  7.  I am working on the reference desk throughout my internship and I will also be updating the current tour video for the Sexton library. I will also be working on a collections management project.

Intern profile: Nicole Marcoux

Nicole MarcouxWhere 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.

Intern profile: Conor Falvey

 

 

Falvey, ConorI am very excited to be interning at the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library for the coming year. My interest in health information was what first drew me to the MLIS program at Dal. After following a winding road through higher education – first a BA in English, then an MA in History – I found myself working for a health promotion NGO in Nova Scotia. I came to realize that much of our work was similar to librarianship, especially the time spent helping people to locate health information (hello, reference!) and compiling databases of online resources to distribute (a.k.a. digital librarianship). I wanted to know how to do this work properly, so I applied to Dal’s School of Information Management.

The internship at Dal Libraries appealed to me because it provides valuable hands-on training. I wanted the opportunity to see how an academic library works in practice, rather than simply reading about it. So far, my experience has totally reframed what I thought I had learned in my MLIS courses. The internship also allows me to explore my interest in health education from a new angle. So far, much of the intern training has focused on helping health sciences students and faculty with their literature searching. It is very fulfilling to be doing a job that supports medical education and research – in addition to being fun!