New students and projects in the University Archives

September 12, 2016 Creighton Barrett Leave a Comment

The University Archives is very pleased to welcome Rebecca Shaw and Nicole Dalrymple as our 2016/2017 Archives Student Interns. Rebecca and Nicole will be providing public service in the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room and will be working on projects such as archival description, physical storage management, digitization, and other collections-related activities.

The Archives’ 2016 Summer Intern, Domenic Rosati, will shift into a new role as Archives Assistant for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1928 Processing Project. That project started in May with Meaghan Reddy, who recently took a permanent position with the Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish.

The Archives’ 2016 Young Canada Works Summer Student, Alice Albarda, will start a new position as Archives Assistant for the Barbara Hinds Processing Project, funded in part through a grant from the Nova Scotia Provincial Archival Development Program.

Next week, the Archives will begin a six-month Internship funded in part through a grant from the Young Canada Works Building Careers in Heritage Program. Stay tuned for more details!

New student assistants in the Map Collection and Archives and Special Collections

September 17, 2012 Creighton Barrett Leave a Comment

The Archives and Special Collections is pleased to introduce our 2012/2013 student assistants!

Kevin Hartford and Riel Gallant will be working in the Archives and Special Collections during the academic year. Kevin and Riel are in the second year of the Library and Information Studies Program in the School of Information Management. They will be involved in preparing some archival donations for monetary appraisal and migrating some of our finding aids to a new database that will be launched later this year, along with regular daytime shifts on the reference desk in the Archives and Special Collections reading room.

Megan MacCuish has joined the team in the Map Collection and GIS Centre. Megan is in the third year of the Community Design program and will be assisting users of the map collection and helping out with the many projects in the GIS Centre.

We’re excited to have all the help!

Public Participation: An Archival Display

April 2, 2012 Creighton Barrett Leave a Comment

A new exhibition titled “Public Participation: An Archival Display,” curated by MLIS student Doyle Lahey, has opened on the atrium floor of the Kenneth Rowe Management Building. The exhibition displays six items (three objects and three paper-based) and is unique as viewers are encouraged to fill out a survey to choose which item they would preserve in an archive to represent Dalhousie in the future. The following is an excerpt from the exhibition panel:

While professional archivists and curators normally govern the verdict of what to preserve and discard, a push has been issued to include the public in the appraisal process. And why not? Paper-based records, such as a letters, diaries, and newspapers – along with physical objects – are kept for public use because they hold particular significance and are considered culturally valuable. Shouldn’t the public be included in evaluating what our society regards as having meaning? Attempts to include the opinions of the public have been endorsed by archive, museum, and art gallery staff, but few have actively reached beyond their own institutions’ walls due to various constraints and competing ideologies.

However, the decision to choose what to keep and what to dispose of is now up to you. As a member of the Dalhousie community you have many different ways of representing the university, whether by wearing a t-shirt, carrying a travel mug, or driving a car with a Dalhousie license plate. Additionally, there are numerous documents (both visual and textual) that contain information pertaining to activities held at Dalhousie, including photographs, newspapers, and books. The object and paper-based material you select by filling out the survey is what YOU would have preserved in a repository to represent Dalhousie in the future.

The exhibition is a part of a Directed Reading Course, co-supervised by Dr. Bertrum MacDonald and Peter Dykhuis. The exhibition will be open from March 30^th to April 13^th.

Book a Group Study Room

March 19, 2012 Tina Usmiani Leave a Comment

With term assignment deadlines and final exams on the horizon, you’re probably looking for places to work and study with your classmates or colleagues. The Libraries have you covered!

Did you know all four Dal Libraries offer bookable group study rooms for all current students, faculty and staff? They all have laptop hookups, and most have wireless and whiteboards. Computer workstations and display screens are also available at select locations.

Get details and book a room online on our Study Room page! Note: You must have a minimum of at least 3 people to book these spaces.

Tips For Studying For Exams

December 6, 2011 Tina Usmiani Leave a Comment

Master the art of successful, panic-free studying with a few tips via this infographic from Alltop. For instance did you know that…

taking good notes and highlighting them is crucial to retaining information?
those 6-8 hours of sleep a night really do make a difference
listening to music while studying is a major no-no!

Read more helpful tips and good luck with your exams!

What Can Students Do About Open Access?

October 26, 2011 Tina Usmiani 1 Comment

“It’s a familiar story: You’re writing a paper for class and you need to cite articles from peer-reviewed journals. Eventually, you find an article that looks good — maybe via a search engine, a footnote from another source, or a reference in an index. You search the Web for the full text, but you can’t get past the abstract. You look on your library’s Web site but they don’t have a subscription. You’re stuck. Maybe that article would have been a major source for your work — you’ll never know. You don’t have access.”
from The Right To Research: The Student Guide to Opening Access to Scholarship

How often have you encountered this frustrating scenario? Would you like to do something about it?

Learn more about what open access means in this special guide for students published by SPARC, and then then take action with these 5 practical steps.

Students have the right to research!

How Do Librarians Help Students?

October 3, 2011 Tina Usmiani 2 Comments

“Since I started university in September, I’ve been really pleased with the services the library provided. Staff are always knowledgeable when I ask for information and if they weren’t then they would easily stir me in the right direction.”

“I have always had excellent service at the library and their abilities are top-notch. I’ve never been disappointed. “

“I truly appreciate the ‘ask a librarian.’ The librarians are fabulous. They are ALWAYS very helpful and appear to want to answer your questions! They obviously like their jobs!”

These comments are among many we’ve received from students who have enjoyed working with our Dal librarians. But recent studies show that librarians come pretty far down the list when most students go looking for help with their academic work.

We get it that Google and Wikipedia are handy and helpful; in fact, we use them too. But if you’re depending on only these sources for the best quality information, you’re missing out. Did you know …..

There’s a librarian for every subject taught at Dal
Librarians are research experts. Many do their own professional research, so they know just where to look and how to search for information
Librarians can show you how to search the web effectively, evaluate websites, avoid plagiarism, and research online from home
Librarians are happy to work with you one-on-one to help you with your assignments
They will come to your class to teach you how to find and use library resources in your area of study (just ask your prof)
Working with a librarian will save you time and stress—guaranteed!

Don’t be shy about asking a librarian for help. The students quoted above were happy they did, and you will be too!

Backstage at the Archives: Kenda Landry

August 9, 2011 Tina Usmiani Leave a Comment

Hi, I’m Kenda and I’ve been working at the Archives on and off for the past couple years as an Archives Assistant. For the next five months I’ll be working on professional and personal papers of faculty members thanks to funding from the Provincial Archival Development Program.

There are eleven collections (or ‘fonds’ as we call them) to be processed and I’ve included the fonds number for each one. The areas range from research by former psychologist and psychology professor Robert Weil (MS-2-750) on the effects of surviving miners from the Springhill Mine disasters (1956 & 1958), to extensive interviews and surveys done by anthropologist and former professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Marion Binkley (MS-2-172) on the health and safety of fishermen and the effects of the profession on their wives and family. Other faculty members who will have their papers processed in the next few months include:

former head and chair of the Department of Political Science James Aitchison (MS-2-666)
View incomplete finding aid
Richard Apostle (MS-2-681) professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology
View incomplete finding aid
professor of law, history and Canadian studies Philip Girard (MS-2-757)
John Graham (MS-2-623) former chairman and professor in the Department of Economics
philosophy and political science professor David Braybrooke (MS-2-641)
View incomplete finding aid
former lawyer and law professor George Nicholls (MS-2-561)
Samuel Ernest Sprott (MS-2-660) former English professor with an expertise on the works of Shakespeare and John Milton
former history professor, King’s College President and vice-chancellor John Godfrey (MS-2-575)
Donald Higgins (MS-2-706), former public administration professor at Saint Mary’s University and co-founder of the Gorsebrooke Research Institute

With such a diverse and fascinating group of individuals, these collections will provide a wealth of information to researchers and prove to be very interesting to spend the next few months processing. Look for the completed finding aids and file lists on our website in December!

Archives for students