Kaitlin is from Vancouver and holds a degree in history and political science from the University of British Columbia. Prior to working in a library, she volunteered with the Vancouver City Archives and found that she really enjoyed it. She also worked as a flight attendant for the United Nations for a year. She was stationed out of Juba and Darfur and lived on a military base during that time.

She enrolled in the MLIS program because she was interested in working with people, from a social and educational perspective, but wasn’t interested in becoming a social worker or a teacher. “I like connecting people to information and teaching them how to use information. I like helping them to determine what is reliable information, and what’s not.”

Kaitlin is spending her summer internship at the Kellogg Health Sciences Library, helping them to prepare for an upcoming move and providing reference assistance. “I love health sciences because I know that equipping health care professionals with information helps them to make better decisions for their patients. I also did a 3-week practicum at Capital Health, which really ignited my interest in this area of librarianship,” said Kaitlin.

“I came to Halifax because I was interested in moving, but I didn’t want to be away from the ocean. People who have graduated from the MLIS program at Dal speak very highly of it and the work experience opportunities provided. I think this program really equips grads to be hireable, which of course is my ultimate goal,” said Kaitlin.

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.