What are you working on at BC ELN?
My time with BC ELN has been dedicated to AskAway. Whether I’m staffing the service or providing support in the Admin Centre, it’s great to be involved with this branch of BC ELN. Staffing AskAway is a rewarding experience, especially when providing research guidance to those who are new to the joys of conducting research through their library. My contributions with the Admin Centre include refreshing documentation, updates to the AskAway website, and compiling data from the service evaluation tools.
How has your time at BC ELN helped to inform your career aspirations?
My time at BC ELN has broadened my understanding of what ‘counts’ as library work and demonstrated the wide range of necessary roles. It is inspiring to witness the collaboration and leadership of the BC ELN team as the surprisingly large range of tools and services are developed, supported, and maintained. This work has drawn me in to a greater appreciation for the teamwork and service mindset.
What is one surprising thing you've learned about AskAway?
One thing I was pleasantly surprised to learn about was the cooperative nature of relations between different library consortia, from service development to conference planning. It’s encouraging to know that best practices are shared and compared across differing environments by librarians in similar roles.
Tell us something interesting about yourself...
During my time at the iSchool I’ve had the chance to take on some fascinating projects through coursework. My favourite project to date has been the digitization of the Sointula Scuttlebutt – a newsletter created by high school students at Malcolm Island Superior High School in the mid 20th century. The newsletter presented interesting challenges. The physical state of the pages led to many, many hours of work to enhance visual clarity. The content of the newsletters was a product of its time, which was communicated in the humour. Overall, the experience was a great motivator to reflect on the time and effort digitization requires and a great way to witness how values, humour, and community interactions change over time. For anyone interested, the collection is available for viewing in both ContentDM and Arca.