Intern Profiles 2014: Alyssa Harder, GISciences Centre

August 26, 2014 Marlo MacKay

Alyssa is from a town in northern Ontario called Dryden. Before starting library school at Dalhousie, Alyssa completed an interdisciplinary degree at McMaster with a minor in geography. The purpose of an interdisciplinary degree is to foster critical thinking, a love of learning, and the ability to approach a problem from different angles. Students in the interdisciplinary degree programs must take courses from the core arts and sciences programs.

As part of her undergrad degree, Alyssa did some GIS (geographic information system) courses and also worked with a map librarian. “I liked working with the data. I enjoyed fixing up the maps and adding metadata. I came to library school with the interest GIS already,” said Alyssa. “I’d heard Dal has a good GIS department and I knew someone that had taken the MLIS program at Dalhousie. Also, I’d never been to Nova Scotia and I wanted to check it out,” she said.

This summer Alyssa will be assisting with a move of the map collection, doing some weeding, and reviewing the map collection policy. She’s also offering front-line help in the GIS Center on the second floor of the Killam Library, answering reference questions related to maps and GIS and helping with data requests.

In the future, she’d like to do something with GIS like working in a map library, which is the more traditional route. But she’s also doing a thesis on GIS, education, and teaching spatial literacy as part of her MLIS degree, so she is interested in that option as well.

“I’d love to end up in southern Ontario, but I’d be open to going anywhere in Canada,” said Alyssa.

Intern Profiles 2014: Emily Colford, MacRae Library

August 25, 2014 Marlo MacKay

Emily comes from Bedford and studied English at Acadia, with a minor in biology. While studying at Acadia, she worked as a student assistant at the Vaughn Library. This is where she discovered she really liked the environment of libraries, as well as being exposed to future career opportunities. Emily went directly from graduating with her BA to starting the MLIS program.

“I chose the MLIS program at Dal because it’s close to home and also because it’s positioned as a smaller program than some of the others in Canada. While at Acadia, I realized the importance of smaller classes, it fosters a supportive environment between professors and students,” said Emily.

Emily is spending her summer outside of the city, working at the MacRae Library on the Agricultural Campus and living on campus while there. “I was interested in the MacRae internship because I had spent the last two summers working in Wolfville at the Vaughn Library and I got to enjoy the pace of small town life in the summer. I wanted to recreate that, so being on the Agricultural Campus is perfect. The campus has so much to offer, I especially like the farm animals,” said Emily.

In addition to reference services and customer service assistance, Emily is involved in a digitization project this summer. She is digitizing a serial publication called the MSA – Maritime Student Agriculturalist, published by the Agricultural College beginning in 1909. This particular publication was an important reference tool for farmers in the community, it was the kind of publication that they referred to time again to help them with challenges they would encounter in their work. By digitizing this publication, the MacRae Library is bringing it to a new generation of farmers in a new format.

“My doors are really open in terms of what I’d to do when I graduate. I’m not geographically limited, so I could go anywhere. The academic environment does strike me as an area where I have developed a skill set and an enjoyment for the work, but I am also interested in teaching. This year I’ll be taking records management and a law in libraries course, so I’m sure I’ll get some new ideas from my studies this year, too,” said Emily.

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.

Dave MacLachlan joins University Archives for Young Canada Works Internship

June 5, 2014 Creighton Barrett

The University Archives is thrilled to announce that Dave MacLachlan has joined the Dalhousie Libraries as the 2014 Young Canada Works Intern. Dave just graduated with his Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from the Dalhousie School of Information Management, where he focused his studies on archives and quickly became familiar with the Nova Scotia archives community.

As the 2014 Young Canada Works Intern, Dave will be focusing on the Archives’ audiovisual collections. He started on Monday and will be with the University Archives until November. Please join us in welcoming Dave to the Dalhousie Libraries!

Welcome Library Interns!

May 22, 2014 Marlo MacKay

Every year, the Dalhousie Libraries hire student interns from the School of Information Management and NSCC to give them hands-on library experience. Intern training day gives these interns a chance to learn more about all aspects of the Dalhousie Libraries.

The students heard presentations from representatives of all five Dal libraries, the Archives and GIS centre, copyright, and Library IT services. The interns also participated in an activity called Inventory, which allowed them to figure out what style of person they are in a work setting: Driver, Amiable, Analytical or Expressive. The interns also learned about updating subject guides, navigating the library website, searching techniques, and RefWorks.

Watch for the interns this summer in a Dalhousie Library near you. They are ready and willing to help. Welcome library interns!

Intern Profiles 2013: Veronika Kollbrand, Sir James Dunn Law Library

August 28, 2013 Marlo MacKay

This is Veronika’s second summer working as an intern at the Sir James Dunn Law Library. It’s the ideal place for Veronika, who is working on a combined degree, pursuing both her JD (Juris Doctor) and MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies). In the winter, she works at the circulation desk at the Law Library.

Before coming to Halifax from British Columbia, Veronika enjoyed working in a public library. She also had an interest in law, so when she found Dal’s combined degree program, she knew it would be a perfect fit for her.

Veronika is spending some of her time this summer working on a metrics project that looks at publication and citation rates of law faculty across Canada. This kind of information can be used to compare Dalhousie’s law school to other schools across Canada.

“This internship has helped me with all the research and writing that I have to do as a law student,” she says. “Working at the law library has also made me more aware of the kinds of legal assistance that people need. So many of the skills I’ve learned here will make me a better lawyer, if I decide to practice law.”

Veronika hasn’t yet decided if she will practice law or work as a librarian in a firm or a university. “The combined degree program gives me many exciting options,” says Veronika.

Intern Profiles 2013: Jannaya Jensen, Dalhousie University Archives

August 28, 2013 Marlo MacKay

Jannaya with some very old, bound editions of the Dal Gazette.

When asked why she chose to enrol in the Master of Library and Information Studies degree at Dalhousie, Jannaya Jensen answers, “It felt natural.”

“I’ve always loved the educational environment of libraries,” says Jannaya, who has experience in both academic and public libraries, and now, in archives. With a Bachelor of Arts in history, Jannaya says working in the Dal Archives makes a nice connection with her educational background.

She is fascinated by the sheer variety of materials held in the Archives, and also by all the steps involved in making these materials available to people. “It can be very complex, processing these materials so they can be found and accessed by researchers and other archive users,” she says.

Jannaya has been spending her summer migrating accession records (the initial records created for newly acquired materials) from Microsoft Access to Archivist’s Toolkit, cleaning up the data in resource records (the larger and more detailed descriptions of archival materials), publishing them online to create finding aids, and describing issues of the Dalhousie Gazette, which was first published in 1869. “Right now, I’m describing issues from the 1890s. There is so much interesting content in them, so it’s exciting to be involved in the process of making the issues more accessible,” says Jannaya.

Coming all the way from Saskatoon, Jannaya says she was drawn to Halifax because she loved the idea of living in such a different area of Canada. She’d also heard great things about the MLIS program at Dalhousie.

“My time at the Archives has been so valuable to me. It’s been a hugely educational experience and one that I recommend to any student interested in working in this field,” says Jannaya.

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