Musings from my wandering self, 1 year ago

Hello Everyone!

It’s been years since I’ve written, and I’m not extremely concerned about how many people end up reading this post or not. I was looking through my computer today, and found a document I had called “Mush.” I couldn’t remember what on earth this was, so I opened it and took a read. Then I remembered: I had one day taken all of my “wisdom” and written it down in a stream of thoughts as they came to me – I called it “Mush” because it was rather sappy and I figured I would never look at it again. However, when I read it today, I decided it belonged somewhere, and it did offer a bit of insight that I want to keep in mind. I’m very happy with my amazing job and life in Elk Point , but a year ago I had no idea I would be here: I just knew that I was leaving Halifax soon and flying back to Calgary. In any case, I hope you enjoy the read 🙂 Please feel free to stop reading if you do find it too sappy 😉

During the past seven years or so, I have had one fairly strong fear: of my life becoming stagnant. I don’t want to reach a position where I have no excitement, no upcoming things to look forward to, where every day is exactly the same as the day before that. I like to think that this has been such a big part of why I move around so much. Although if I’m being honest, part of that reason is much more petty: I love the way it looks on Facebook. I love that when I talk to people, I never say that I’m just up to the “same old”. For the past two years, I still sometimes encounter people that say “aren’t you living in Europe or something?” and I love getting to clarify and say “no actually, I’m living in Halifax now, doing my Master’s degree”. A big part of me believes that the only way to gain perspective on one’s own beliefs is being exposed to different lifestyles, and deciding what is truly important to you. If I had lived in Calgary my entire life, would I be a vegetarian? Not very likely.

But speaking of vegetarianism, I like to think that represents another important thing I have discovered about myself, and I wish more people would discover. And that reality is this: no one should ever settle for something because “that’s just the way it is”. This was my justification for eating meat for so long, and I one day discovered that in reality, if I didn’t want to eat meat, I was the only person who had to say I didn’t want to eat meat anymore.

I’m not saying this to try and change everyone into a vegetarian. I’m saying this because I feel like people are sometimes afraid of pursuing what they really want, because they figure they have reached the state in life where “that’s just the way it is”. They’ll never change careers, they’ll never move to Europe, because that’s just simply not how it’s done. I really hope that people have the courage to decide that if they really don’t like how things are, they will take the steps to change things. Because let me tell you, as someone that has lived in three different cities in the past seven years and completed two degrees, time speeds by. If I had been daunted by the time it takes to complete a 2-year Master’s, I would be here, two years later, and still no closer to the career of my dreams. Please never think that it is “too late” to achieve your goals. At age 41, my mother decided to become a lawyer. At the time, it felt crazy for her to make such a big decision – how much of a career could you develop when you start at 41? But now, that has been her career for ten years. She is amazing at what she does.

One thing I have realized about myself is I have to have these measurable achievements to feel as though I’m worth something. I have to learn that I can just “be” and that’s okay too. I don’t have to have letters behind my name or places I’ve lived to brag about. It’s hard not to be driven by these goals though. Once I’m in the working world, I’m afraid of getting swallowed up by the stretch of sameness of work ahead of me. But that’s when I’ll learn to have other achievements that are meaningful in other ways. I figure that’s why I’m so drawn to librarianship, and that idea of being connected with influential people and always learning and moving forward with professional development.

Personally, I gain no greater satisfaction than getting to know a place. From the very first time I arrive in Halifax (or Victoria, or Berlin…) and drive from the airport to my new apartment, and then to 8 months later when I return and realize that everything is now familiar, I get such a huge satisfaction – it makes me realize that nothing is too intimidating.

But I’m also only just realizing that this is very different from somewhere becoming home. Victoria became home for me, but it probably took two years of my degree before this happened. I made my own memories, I established my favourite restaurants, I wandered the streets alone and had experiences with friends there, and now I have huge sentimentality associated with it. As for Germany, I was there long enough to establish that it was an amazing place, but would never be home. I put in the work to fit in and I improved my German vastly, but I have never appreciated being a Canadian and being surrounded by too-polite people as much as when I was away for an entire year. As for Halifax, I arrived and expected it to instantly feel like home, and was disappointed when it didn’t. But now that I’m leaving, I can think of so many things and people I will miss. There are a lot of people that have welcomed me with open arms, and I feel ungrateful that I’m about to leave again.

Every new place I go, I meet terrific new people, and it makes me so happy and satisfied to know that such amazing people exist around the world. However, I’m finally establishing that I’m tired of saying goodbye. The true friends stay in touch, no matter what. But I can’t wait to get back into bagpiping with all of my energy, instead of putting it on the backburner while I pursue school. I’m excited to finally be in the same place for an extended period of time.

Also, there are problems in life, no matter what you do. You just have to hope they’re the petty type of problems, like meeting deadlines at work or having a flat tire, instead of the “I have no way to pay my bills” problems or the “I have an incurable illness” problems.

I have some friends who dwell on high school and “the way things were” and I really don’t like that. Things have never been perfect, and idealizing memories doesn’t do anything to enhance the present. Grasp every amazing moment. What I’m now realizing is that you don’t have to be somewhere insane for those amazing moments to happen. You don’t have to be in the Berliner Dom or watching a sunset on the beach for an amazing moment. You can enjoy a moment at a job you love, be surrounded by people who appreciate you for who you are, listen to a good tune. Look far enough into the future that you’re not left without any clue of what to do, but embrace every beautiful moment in your present for what it is. I still have three weeks left in Halifax: I’m job hunting and preparing for leaving, but I’m also enjoying every moment with my friends I can, instead of dwelling on my impending departure.

Never be afraid to pursue your dreams, and never feel trapped by “the way things are”. But don’t be blind to the amazing things right in front of you. Acknowledge the crappy things for what they are, but don’t wish for a time when they don’t exist, because you’ll end up wishing your life away. Leaving home can sometimes make you appreciate what it is that has defined that place as home for you.

Thanks to everyone that has made me so at home, and so sad to leave, everywhere I have been.

 

 

Link to Foothills Library Association Gazette (I wrote an article!)

Hello Everyone!

I admit, I have been the worst for not updating this blog regularly. I wish I had a creative excuse, but basically “life being busy” is about all I can say!

However, part of what I have been so busy with this summer is writing for sources besides this one. Earlier this summer, I was asked to write a blog post for the Foothills Library Association (FLA) Gazette. I wrote about how completing a practicum has enriched my learning experience within the Master of Library and Information Studies program. Please feel free to read it, by going to the following website: http://gazette.fla.org/

Sorry that I’m not giving a more comprehensive update at this point. But thank you so much for reading the blog!

I hope you are all having a fantastic summer!

Cheers,

Robyn

Berlin Libraries and Bookstores

 Hi Everyone!

It is just over one year ago that I returned to Canada from my year in Berlin, Germany. I have to say, it feels like it’s been a lot longer, considering how many things have happened since then!

To commemorate this event, I thought that I should write a blog entry about some of my favourite bookstores and libraries in Berlin, which I think about every so often as I visit my favourite bookstores and libraries in Canada.

Within the first few weeks of arriving in Berlin, I was able to briefly attend an event called the Long Night of Libraries (Lange Nacht der Bibliotheken). This is an event that goes on annually, where people can pay one admission fee and be able to explore as many libraries as they like for the entire evening. Similar events go on throughout the year in Berlin, such as the Long Night of Museums or the Long Night of Sciences.

I was only able to visit two libraries that night, but enjoyed them both immensely (but unfortunately did not bring my camera inside with me!). The City of Berlin Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) was gorgeous, and houses an amazing collection. Here are a few photos of the outside, at night and during the daytime. The feature I enjoyed photographing the most, as you can tell, is that it is so close to the East Berlin TV Tower.

The development of this library was hindered by WWII. There had to be an evacuation of the entire collection, and it was housed in 30 monasteries, castles, and shut-down mines. After 1945, only some of the library’s collection was returned to the original site, which was in East Berlin. Many of the volumes were moved to a new location in the West, which was the one I visited. In divided Berlin, both sites continued to maintain their collections, and since 1992, the reunited Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin provides services at both of its sites.

For more information, feel free to visit http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/about-the-library/ . Also, here are pictures I stole from the internet of one of the reading rooms.

The second library I visited was the library at Berlin Technische Universität (“Volkswagon Universitätsbibliothek”).

This wasn’t quite my favourite library that I’ve ever seen, but it was quite nice! Those lights on the left side of the photo changed colours, and the library itself was spacious inside.

I revisited this library for the Long Night of Sciences a few months later. They were hosting a Silent Disco, which was quite appropriate for a library. A Silent Disco is an event with two or three different DJs, and everyone wears a set of headphones and dances to whichever DJ they choose. So if you take off the headphones, you’re in a room full of people dancing to absolute silence (or occasionally, people belting out the lyrics of whatever song they’re hearing). It feels slightly awkward to dance knowing that there is silence around you, but it’s pretty cool to immerse yourself in the music, being able to control what you’re listening to and what volume it’s at. But it does mean that people are dancing at different tempos a lot of the time.

My absolute favourite library in Berlin was that of the Humboldt University. It was located right near Friedrichstrasse, and I was able to look into the windows of this library every time I took the train to work. When it was dark outside, I could look at the windows zoom by, with all of the rows upon rows of books illuminated inside. It’s hard to describe, but it was one of my favourite things to see from the train! Humboldt University actually had a partnership with the high school I was working at, and I was lucky enough to accompany a few grade 12 classes to the library for a guided tour. During the Long Night of Sciences, I was able to get a demonstration of how the digitization of materials at this library works. The demonstration was in German, but it was still informational!

The library is on the left, and the train track is on the right. The windows were all long and horizontal, which made for a cool view as you zoomed by. And there are a series of restaurants below the tracks.

There were several levels to this library, and the quiet study space spanned several floors and was separated from the stacks of books which lined the exterior walls. In the picture above, you can see the desks lined within this inner space, and outside of the borders of this room there are rows of bookshelves (sorry you can’t see them in this picture, though!)

I have a friend that was attending the Free University of Berlin, and she offered to provide me with a tour of the library, which she thought I would find interesting (and rightfully so!). In this case, I was able to take photos, so I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Yes, that building is the library! You could enter it from the main building – there was a sort of tunnel entrance into it.

Here is just outside the entrance into this library.

In this library, I found a set of Canadian Encyclopedias, and used it to find out that Dalhousie University was established in 1818 (this was right before I was set to begin my degree!)

In my opinion, the most amazing bookstore in Berlin is Dussmann – Google says that the complete title is Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus, which I understand as Dussmann Culture Store. The store consists of six stories, if I remember correctly. There was a separate part of the store dedicated to music scores, and part of the first two floors was dedicated to CDs and DVDs. The other part of the first floor was dedicated to popular fiction and things like stationary. The second floor consisted of children’s materials, which is where I went to get a German copy of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan” so I could start reading in German. I can’t quite recall what is on the third and fourth floors, but there were two floors dedicated to learning materials such as puzzles and globes, and textbooks for school (I know this because I had to visit one of these floors to pick up my textbook for my German class – it took me forever to find the right place!)

 

As you can tell, the view from the upper floors looked all the way down to the first – it was quite an open setup.

My favourite part of this bookstore was walking past the main floor, and going to the entirely English section which was set aside in a separate part of the building – it was two floors, and basically a bookstore all on its own! My most memorable purchase from this bookstore was the book “How to be Vegan” which I bought when I started thinking that maybe I should adopt a vegan diet. But I visited this bookstore often and spent many hours wandering around and enjoying the wide selection.

The cookbooks are right at the top of the stairs straight ahead – not that I remember or anything! The bookstore was one of my favourite places in the city – a place where I could continue to learn German but also escape into my English comfort zone and browse around.

I would like to give a quick “Shout-out” to two other cool libraries I saw during my adventures in Europe. The first is the library at the Amsterdam Airport. I got to visit this library on one of my trips from Germany to Canada (go figure!). This library does offer a variety of books, but the most notable feature I could see was that it offered places for people to sit, relax, and also reboot their technological devices if they liked. It was a bright and colourful space, and was really cool to see! It spans beyond what my pictures show, but you get the idea.

The other library I wanted to mention was the Herzogin Anna Amelia Bibliothek (Dutchess Anna Amelia Library) in Weimar, Germany. This library was once a personal collection of the Dutchess Anna Amelia, and it is amazing to see it on display. People cannot freely touch the materials, but can request to use them in “the reading room” on the third floor.

So there you have it. These are some of my favourite libraries and bookstores that I was able to visit during my time in Europe – there are others, but I wrote about them a fair bit in my other blog, which you can find at robynpippin.wordpress.com. There are many aspects of life in Germany that I miss (the Christmas Markets, the ability to travel amongst different countries cheaply, Potsdamer Platz, the vegan cuisine…) but it is particularly nice to reflect on this one in this blog.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my reminiscing! Thank you so much for reading 🙂

Auf wiedersehen!

-Robyn

Robyn’s adventures as a practicum student

Hi Everybody!

I’m so sorry that I have been posting so rarely! I swear that I always have the best intentions, but things get so busy that I don’t get a chance to write.

So just to briefly summarize what I have been up to since arriving back in Calgary: I wrote a 5000 word paper for my legal librarianship course, returned to the world of bagpiping, agreed to complete 125 hours of Curriculum Map Editing over the course of the summer, completed a three-week practicum at the University of Calgary, submitted a practicum report, applied for (and received!) a scholarship, and began working at ARC Resources downtown (just finishing up my second week!). So as you can imagine, it’s been pretty busy! Also, my mom will be leaving on a three month adventure in Scotland on Sunday, so I recently set her up with her own blog. You can feel free to follow her at piperannie on wordpress! Setting this up made me realize how much I miss writing entries, so I am finally taking the time to write now.

I have to admit that I’m cheating a bit, since I stole a lot of this content from my practicum report. I was so happy with how my practicum at the University of Calgary went, and writing this report made me reflect a lot on how much I learned from the entire experience. I hope you enjoy learning a bit about what I was up to!

For my practicum, I completed 100 hours of work at the University of Calgary’s Libraries and Cultural Resources, in the Metadata and Cataloguing Department. This organization serves the entire University of Calgary, which encompasses not only the university but also the Military Museums Libraries and Archives, along with an art gallery called the Nickle Galleries. A lot of people aren’t exactly sure of what work is done in Cataloguing and Metadata: the most simple answer is that they are the ones that ensure you are able to find the resources you need. When you want to find a certain book based on certain characteristics, the metadata associated with the book ensures you’re able to locate it. And the cataloguing ensures that once you know what you’re looking for, it will be in the right spot within the library.

Because I did not have an extensive amount of background knowledge in cataloguing and metadata creation (I’m signed up for the cataloguing class next year though!), my first task was to do catalogue searching with a collection of books by H.G. Wells. What this entailed was establishing whether items had already been added to a specific database or not. If they hadn’t been added, these materials would have to be sent to a place where their metadata would be entered into the database.

Another project I engaged in was pulling reference materials from the shelves of the main campus library (the Taylor Family Digital Library, pictured above), and having them sent to the University of Calgary’s High Density Library. When I pulled these materials, I entered the change in location for each volume into the database. Part of this job included filling a cart with numerous heavy volumes…one time I loaded up one side a bit too much and the cart tipped right over. Good thing the students around me had a sense of humour and didn’t mind the commotion!

These exercises helped me to gain context for the next projects I became involved in; while the first projects involved following specific procedures, the later projects involved more research and rewriting of materials.

One of my main projects during this practicum was to create a set of metadata standards for a number of online video games that the University of Calgary Library has acquired. One important lesson I learned from this exercise was that there is not always a prescribed reading and one specific place to look for resources, and there is not always a “right” answer which will be evaluated by a professor. To find answers, one has to use logic to try and establish where to look for the appropriate information. There were a certain amount of “information fields” I had to enter for the video games, and some of them were unique for this type of medium. I had to visit several different videogame websites, and try to determine their authority, in order to establish what these fields should be (for example: how many players each game involves, what year it was released, who published it, and what the rating was). Once I had established the minimum requirements of fields for video games, I incorporated the other fields that are necessary according to the standards that the University of Calgary abides by for all mediums.

The other major project that I engaged in during my time at the University of Calgary was revising Cataloguing guidelines for employees to follow. My job was to review these standards, which had been originally created for an older cataloguing format (AACR2), and adjust them to correspond with the newer format (RDA). This helped me to gain expertise with the RDA guide that the university subscribes to.

Through these two activities, I learned that I enjoy working with metadata and cataloguing. I liked following standards that have been established by various authorities, in order to maintain consistency and allow for ease of access. Also, I appreciated the fact that the organization benefitted from my work. They did not simply create these projects as something for me to do, but actually used the work that I completed.  Before this practicum, I knew that I was extremely interested in working in an academic library upon graduation. But one important aspect of my career I have now learned is that I enjoy working “behind the scenes.” While I was given the chance to shadow one reference shift at the library main desk, and enjoyed the experience, I much preferred to work on my individual projects and occasionally talk with the Cataloguing and Metadata team as opposed to answering the questions of a variety of students. Once I graduate, I will focus on finding a job that involves more behind-the-scenes work, instead of necessarily dealing directly with the public.

One interesting part of my practicum was that I got to watch part of the interview process for the hiring of a new Technology Librarian. When a new academic librarian is hired, there is not just one interview involved. The interview process is carried out over the course of an entire day or maybe two. The candidate meets with the interview committee in a variety of settings, including over meals along with in a formal interview. Each candidate has to prepare a 15-minute presentation that answers a specific question regarding the operations of the library, and the actions that this librarian would take if they were to be hired. In the case of this Technology Librarian candidate, I got to observe the presentation and see how the candidate handled the question period after the fact. Through this process, I also got to learn about the question itself; in this case, data management and the Tri-Agency Mandate for Open Access.

One aspect of this practicum that gave me ample opportunity to learn was taking tours of all the different areas of the University of Calgary libraries. I was able to explore all aspects of the library on campus, as well as have a tour of the High Density Library, which is the storage site used by the university for books that are no longer regularly circulated and requested. It was interesting to hear a summary of what goes on within each department; I was able to visit the Digitization unit, Archives and Special Collections, the reference desk of the main library, the Health and Sciences Library, and the Business Library. I learned what some of the functions are of each area, and in particular established the difference between the Digitization unit and the activities that Archives partakes in. While Archives does involve a certain amount of digitization (seeing as many materials are being duplicated onto a website), the projects and clients that it deals with are quite different from the actual Digitization unit. While visiting the Special Collections area of Archives, I got to see a few of the gems of this collection. I got to physically handle manuscripts that were typewritten by Alice Munro herself (multiple drafts of the same stories), touch a first edition Anne of Green Gables (which is worth more than most houses cost), and an edition of “Paradise Lost” from 1645. It was an amazing experience! I quite admired how the Special Collections librarian encourages students  access to these materials, and she is so understanding of the wonder that a person can have at their rarity. It’s so fun to get excited about books!

One interesting challenge that is being faced by the digitization unit is how to preserve materials. The issue isn’t the digitization itself, but ensuring that it will be digitized in a format that will still be readable in 100 years. Think how useless it would be now to preserve something in the form of a VHS – in a hundred years, no one will be able to access this information because of the format! One of the most interesting positions I learned about in the digitization unit was the person that helps create Open Access journals. More and more academic journals are being created in a format that is free to all users, and the role of this individual is to help academic associations to get their journals up and running.

Through my visits to the Health and Sciences Library, which was recently renovated, I was able to see the ways in which libraries have changed their layouts in a way that meets the needs of students. When the library was being renovated, students’ feedback was taken into consideration, and as a result the new library has incorporated more collaborative workspaces, more quiet workspaces, and more opportunities to use technology. It was interesting to compare this to the Business Library, which has yet to undergo renovations but has plans in place for changing the space to better suit a modern student’s needs.

The High Density Library is absolutely amazing to see. Rows upon rows, stacks upon stacks of books. Each book is assigned to a box with a specific barcode, and each shelf is two boxes deep. It is amazing to see the shelves from both the first and second levelo of the building, and a special machine is used to retrieve the boxes that are too high to reach (the machine is on a track so that it never bumps into the shelves accidentally). This room is kept at a low temperature to help preserve the books, and the lighting is sensor activated so that the books are kept in as much darkness as possible to prevent fading.

Through each of these visits, I was able to learn about the ways in which these libraries are interacting with the community and with other areas of the University. Some areas, such as Digitization and Archives, have clients coming to them with activities they want to involve the libraries in. For example, an English professor worked with the Digitization unit to create an assignment where students compared different digital editions of Shakespearean plays. The libraries are then very eager and willing to accommodate these requests, but do not need to reach out to students a lot on their own. On the other hand, business librarians have a very intimate knowledge of students, because they use so many different techniques to reach out to students and make them aware of the services their libraries can provide. The Business Library prides itself on the amount of outreach it does, and has formed close connections with students as a result. All of the University of Calgary librarians seek to form connections with students and the community, and there are different ways of meeting this goal.

Another extremely valuable aspect of my practicum was attending meetings. I was able to be part of many groups’ collaborations, and it was interesting to see the ways in which people interacted and shared ideas. This once again proved to me that there are no prescribed, “right” answers in the working world the way that there may be in the classroom. One of the most interesting meetings for me was the Budget Review, and this meeting showed me how people have to share ideas and try to establish a solution. In this meeting in particular, it was interesting to see the head librarian of collections take on a level of confidence and authority to advise the best course of action, even though there was not a clear “right” answer. This meeting proved to me that I do not yet have the knowledge to make authoritative decisions the way that she did; however, I am confident that this knowledge would come with having the amount of experience that she has.

I also enjoyed attending meetings regarding libguides and databases. There is a great deal of thought and collaboration that goes into establishing which libguides and databases to subscribe to and offer to students. There was a presentation by one of the University of Calgary’s ebook providers, and they demonstrated the upgrades to their system that would make it more easily useable by students. There was also a presentation about libguides which showed the changes that will soon be established to make the guide more visibly clear and user-friendly. One example of this change is having the menu along the left side of the webpage instead of along the top It is difficult to say the extent to which students will notice the difference in their libguides, but the amount of thought that goes into the layout of these pages is quite fascinating. There are librarians who dedicate their entire careers to making information as easily accessible to students as possible.

Even though I learned a great deal from completing my tasks in the workplace, the most that I learned was from conversing with the people I was working with. I was able to learn from fellow librarians and library technicians in a variety of settings; from going on coffee breaks to having an afternoon walk, from taking a tour of the Digitization unit to learning specifically how to do my project. I had two supervisors for the practicum: one who was more in charge of my administrative duties, and the other who worked with me more directly. The one working with me directly is only a few years older than myself, and yet has stepped into a role in which she supervises a large number of people twice her age. She is able to manage these individuals with confidence, consider every employee’s needs, oversee everything that goes on, and make authoritative decisions. While I currently do not feel that I could take on such an authoritative role within the workplace, I hope that if I were to be placed in that position, I could rise to the challenge in the same way that she has. One thing that I have learned from my Master’s program so far is to be resourceful and establish where to find information that I need. My supervisors have attended numerous leadership workshops and information sessions, and this proves to me how much this field is about continuing to learn. Completing my degree will only be the beginning of my education, and I will have to think on my feet to figure out how to manage my situation within the workplace.

While I feel as though I still have a lot to learn before I would feel confident in an influential role at a library, I would be able to rise to the challenge that one of these roles entails. If there were areas in which I did not feel completely sure of myself, I would expose myself to resources to become better prepared and more educated. Along with my experiences in class, I realize that the best way to learn answers in the workplace is to collaborate with others. With different perspectives and levels of knowledge being brought together, innovative ways of meeting clients’ needs can be established. While I am still a student, I can see that I will be able to prepare myself for my career and take on a role within a library once I have graduated, through always being willing to learn, and collaborating with those around me. This practicum has made me extremely eager to continue my career journey.

So there you go. I hope you enjoyed learning about my practicum experience! As I mentioned, I have now completed my second week at ARC Resources, as a Records and Information Management Summer Student. It’s really nice to have this workplace where I will be able to gain confidence in my role, since I will become familiarized with all of my tasks over the next four months.Plus I love having a sense of routine for my days and being able to establish myself somewhere – I even have a work phone number and email!

I suppose that’s enough rambling for one day. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic long weekend!

All the best,

Robyn

The end of first year! A glimpse at my second semester of classes

Hey everyone!

I am currently writing this on the flight from Halifax to Calgary (well, I started it on the plane, but finished it at home in Calgary). I have officially (almost) finished my first year of the Master of Library and Information Studies program! I say “almost” because I still have one 5000-word paper to go for my legal librarianship class. Our professor gave us a very generous extension – despite my best intentions to have it done by today, I have a long way to go in terms of the word count. It will certainly be a relief when I have that all done with, and can then officially say that I am halfway through my program.

So once again, for those that wonder to themselves “what on earth does one study in library school?” I am writing this blog entry to outline a bit of what my classes were like this semester.

First year does not offer a lot of flexibility in terms of which classes one can take, which ensures that we learn about a variety of topics. This semester, three of our classes were mandatory, and the fourth one was something we could choose for ourselves. For my “elective course,” I chose Legal Literature and Librarianship. This class explored the variety of positions that law librarians can have in today’s society. One topic of debate nowadays is whether law librarians need to have a law degree on top of their MLIS degree to get hired. I used to think there was no chance of employment in a law library if someone did not have a law degree, but in reality there are a variety of positions that would be available without it. However, having a law degree is more ideal for positions within academic law libraries or at a more managerial position. In this class, we also examined the different courts and types of law. We were able to use different legal databases, such as CanLII, LexusNexus, and WestLaw Next Canada. Most of our assignments (besides this very fun 5000 word research paper I have to do) were using these databases to look up jurisdictions or specific case law.

One of the mandatory course I had to take was “Organizational Management and Strategy,” which focussed on preparing us for if we become managers of our workplaces in the future. This course discussed concepts like the creation of policies, handling conflict within the workplace, encouraging employee development, and dealing with workplace harassment. Fortunately, this course was not too intense of a workload, which was good since the other courses more than made up for that!

Another course I took was called “Research Methods”. We hit the ground running in terms of workload, but this class proved to be a terrific learning experience on so many levels. While usually a research project would be something that a student takes on as a thesis that takes place over months or even years, we conducted a “mini” research project over a very short period of time, in groups of four.

One of the library associations that I am a part of through Dal is the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL). Three of my fellow first-year classmates are a part of this association as well, so we decided to conduct our Research Methods project together. One common practice is for library students to take on an internship at an academic library, where they can get hands-on experience in the field. CAPAL had noticed that there was a lack of research that examined how much these interns earn while working at academic libraries, and it had been a thought to do more research about this topic. So for this class, our group decided to conduct a study that asked students from the different library schools across Canada about where they conducted their academic internships, and the wages that they earned. We weren’t able to establish “firm conclusions” from this survey, but it was educational to go through the entire process.

Within three weeks of this first class, we had to conduct a literature review where we examined other papers that may have been written on this topic. After we examined the different types of literature and wrote a report about it, we had to receive ethics approval. Once we had created the exact survey that we would distribute to library students across Canada, we emailed student representatives at each of these universities (there are eight universities across Canada that offer the equivalent to the MLIS program).

After a month of having our survey available to students, we created a set of conclusions that could be drawn. We received about 30 responses, from five of the eight schools that we had sent the survey to. We created an extensive report outlining the entire project; along with this, we also created a poster and did an in-class presentation.

We were able to take part in a poster session. It was interesting to attend this and be able to learn about some of the other research projects that students created. After our poster session, we did our presentations – once again, it was very interesting to learn about some of the things that other students had spent the semester researching. Some of these topics involved “social media and activism”, “open data” and “Tweets delivered by Atlantic divisions of the police”. Overall, this project was huge; I still can’t believe that we are finally done, after having a group project that went on for the entirety of the semester! It’s lucky that I really liked my group members, because we spent a lot of days working for hours at a time! This class really broadened my horizons in terms of what is possible in the world of original research.

The last class I took this semester was “Database Management Systems.” We were warned on the first day of class that it was unlike the other classes we were used to. Usually, our work involves writing papers that can vary in quality. But in this class, there was very much a right answer and a wrong one. We entered the world of SQL and Excel, where there is a lot of trial and error involved before finding the right results. We had to take large amounts of data and manipulate it so that we could see specific information; for example, we were provided with a massive list of all of the people that donated money to different political parties in 2013, and had to establish which political parties received the most funding. We also learned a lot about “the Cloud” and different ways of storing massive amounts of data. Different professionals have different amounts of data that they work with, and we learned about how to adapt a system so that it best suits those professionals’ needs. This class involved a lot of very stressful moments (for all of us!) but it definitely provided me with a unique set of skills I never envisioned having.

Tomorrow, I begin my 3-week practicum at the University of Calgary. This practicum is required for the completion of my degree, and once I have finished it I will have to write a report about the experience. I am very much looking forward to it! My practicum will involve cataloguing collections of materials. After this practicum, I will begin my 4-month internship as a Records and Information Summer Student at an oil company. I am so excited for what the summer holds!

Thank you so much for reading this! I hope that you found it mildly entertaining. Have a terrific week!

Cheers,

Robyn

First Semester of Library School Complete!

Hi Everybody! After a long hiatus, it feels great to be back in the world of blogging! It’s about time I provide you with an update on what I’ve been up to over the past while. When I last wrote here, I knew that I really wanted to have a career in librarianship, and had registered for the “Master of Library and Information Studies” program at Dalhousie University. I only had a vague idea of what my potential classes would look like, and of the range of careers that would potentially be available. I started following blogs written by librarians and library students, and visited every library I could during my time in Europe. Signing back into my WordPress account a few moments ago, I found it exciting to look through the librarian blogs I’m following, and realize that I now have a much better sense of what they’re talking about. While I still have a lot to learn, I have come pretty far since this past summer! So here is a bit of information about what my semester has looked like.

Within the first week of classes, I got to know my fellow classmates quite well through tons of orientation events. There are about 32 of us all starting out in this program, and 7 out of our 8 first-year courses are all together (as opposed to us having different options for classes). We all got pretty comfortable to walking up to each other as strangers and striking up a conversation as the week went on. A fair amount of my classmates are from the Maritime provinces, some from Ontario, about a handful of us are from Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan, and there are a few international students as well. One of the highlights of the first week was a boat cruise held for the students in the Management department – while I had expected a ferry or cruise ship, it was actually a gorgeous sailboat from which we got to watch the sunset.

Shortly before the semester started, I secured a job as a tutor at the Dalhousie Writing Centre – I did between 11 and 15 hours a week at this job, and will continue working there next semester. Students will make appointments to come and work on their papers in 30 minute or hour long sessions; my job is to go over the paper with them and help them make it into a more cohesive and clear piece of writing. Each student and paper is so unique; while some students will come in with papers that need a lot of grammatical work, sometimes it will be more about making sure that each argument fits in with the thesis. Some students come in multiple times in the weeks leading up to a due date, while some come in hours before they have to hand an assignment in. The most difficult part of the job is to not just “edit” work for students, but to instead help them make their own changes.

In October I took on a second job as a “Curriculum Map Editor”, which only takes up 4-5 hours a week. There is a website being created where all of the required courses for a program are listed, and when students select a specific course they can see all of the “Student Learning Outcomes” associated with that course. My job is to examine a course syllabus, create a list of the “Student Learning Outcomes” for an individual class, and send a list of these to the professor of that class. The professor then tells me if they approve of this list or not, and then I enter the material on the website. This job has been quite interesting, but will probably end sometime in January.

But back to the library stuff! The amount of different library associations that the school supports was slightly overwhelming – I knew that I wanted to get involved in an association or two, but didn’t want to become too busy either. In the end, I joined CAPAL (the Canadian Association of Professional and Academic Librarians) – this association has been a pretty minimal commitment so far. I have partaken in an event held by the CLA (Canadian Library Association) where you are set up with a mentor that is a working librarian. I have been lucky enough to meet with my mentor twice – she graduated from the MLIS program in 2011, and she has given me lots of advice on what to expect in the working world. Another student association is the SLA (Special Library Association) and they have offered opportunities such as taking tours of unique libraries. Last month, we were given a tour of a library that specializes in resources for children that have seeing or hearing issues. There were books in brail, textbooks with especially large font, and a large selection of modified toys. I have become involved in a conference that is run by Dalhousie MLIS students – it is called “Information Without Borders” and is held in February. This year, the theme of the conference is the interaction between climate change and information management. My role is the “incoming financial and fundraising chair” for this conference – there is a second-year student who is the “outgoing”, and she has been teaching me about how to handle the finances. This semester, we have been spending time sending letters to different groups requesting sponsorship, and next semester we will focus more on accumulating donations for a silent auction to raise funds for the conference. We get together for meetings every second week (although in the new year it will be every week) and it has been interesting to see the different aspects of the conference come together – from establishing the different speakers to organizing the catering for the conference, to setting up registration. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone involved in organizing the conference, and the group has been very supportive at each stage.

My courses covered a wide range of aspects of librarianship. I had to take four this semester: “Information Management Systems”, “Information Sources and Retrieval”, “Organization of Information”, and “Information in Society”. “Info Management Systems” focussed namely on technology, and in this course we studied things like Wikipedia, website and iPhone app designing, and the history of certain technological developments. “Info Sources and Retrieval” revolved around the idea of a reference interview, where individuals come with specific questions they want help with. While many people think that this job is practically unnecessary thanks to Google, the ability to use specific databases or books can help ensure that information and results are relevant for what an individual needs. I was a bit intimidated by this class in the beginning, but thanks to repetitive research work in the assignments, I now think that I can search fairly effectively on different databases, including legal, medical, and historical ones. “Organization of Information” was an introduction to things such as cataloguing information items to make them easily retrievable, and describing these items in an effective way. “Information in Society” was a class that involved a lot of talk about Facebook, Google, and Twitter (is it okay for Facebook to conduct social experiments without peoples’ knowledge? Do people have the right to have their past actions be forgotten? Is there a barrier still existing between the public life and the private life?). We discussed issues regarding information and libraries, such as censorship on computers (children should not be at risk of accidentally seeing pornography on a computer, but people should be able to discern appropriate resources for themselves instead of being censored), as well as ethics of sharing certain information (for example, if a depressed child comes to a library and asks for books on committing suicide, should the librarian provide that information?). I found all of these classes extremely interesting, and am excited to see what next semester is like!

Along with my regular courses, I have had quite a few opportunities for learning. I attended a 6 hour seminar on how to do HTML coding, which was really interesting. I have also taken a few short lessons on working with Geographic Information Systems, which enables me to design maps on computers using certain software. There have been several interesting guest lectures offered through my program, including a lecture on the future of “bitcoin” technology (virtual money), a lecture on “why the book is always better than the movie”, one on copyright issues, and one that was presented by a man that spent time mapping Inuit trade routes through the Arctic. Also, a few public and academic librarians came to describe their work and particular projects to us.

Since having been home for the holidays, I have been lucky enough to do a job shadow at both an academic library and the Calgary Courthouse library. I am finding the people in the librarian field to be extremely friendly and helpful, and have appreciated getting to know fellow graduates of the program who are willing to share advice and tips. I find the multiple areas of librarianship to be daunting; I could become a law librarian, work in archives, be a medical librarian, work in a public library or academic library, or work in a corporate setting. In a way, I wish I could do it all, but I suppose the key is to be open to different opportunities and then see what aspects of each area of work appeal most to me. I am in the process of setting up a 3-week practicum involving cataloguing at the University of Calgary in April, so I hope that will all work out and lead to an interesting experience! Also, I am very happy to say that I have been hired for a job as a Records and Information Management Summer Student at Arc Resources in Calgary. That will take place from May until August, and I am very much looking forward to it.

So there you have it. I hope I haven’t bored you too much in describing everything about my first semester at library school!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic New Year!

Bye for now,

Robyn

Literary Gems on the Road to Amsterdam

Hello, all!

It has been about two weeks since I took a road trip to Amsterdam, and this particular trip is what I shall use to begin telling my European library tales.

We left Berlin on a Thursday morning. I made the mistake of beginning the novel “Water for Elephants” as we began the trip, and would definitely say that I recommend this book to anyone who does not have other things they should be doing. It’s fantastic, and it’s extremely hard to drag oneself away from. Despite the sights to be seen and the following days spent wandering through Amsterdam, I managed to finish the book within three days.

Two hours after we began our road trip, we reached our first major stop: Wolfenbüttel. This is a small German city, which houses a terrific library. I’m pretty lucky to have a boyfriend that does his research when it comes to road-trip planning!

This library is called the “Herzog August Bibliothek” (Herzog is German for “Duke”) and is one of the oldest libraries in the world to have never suffered any significant losses to its collection. It was founded in 1572, and has hosted famous historical figures such as the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leipniz. For more information about the library’s history and collection, please visit the following website: http://www.hab.de/en/home/museum-cultural-programme/history-of-the-library.html

A large part of the library is still actively used today, and there are numerous buildings in which the library’s functions are carried out. The building in the photo above is the one which we entered, and where the museum is housed. When we first entered the building, we could see through one window to where several people were studying and using the library’s resources. Instead of entering here, we paid admission for the museum part of the library. I can’t speak for my dad and boyfriend, but I was extremely impressed with what I saw. The “museum” consisted of one large library, along with other exhibition areas you could go to which housed historical documents, along with globes and maps. The first room was huge and dimly lit, with rows upon rows of books along all four walls. The ceilings were high, with detailed paintings along them. The carpet in the room, along with the small number of visitors, resulted in absolute silence. I love the way that silence makes my other senses heightened, and stabilizes me in the present moment. There were several open books on display, with pages boasting intricate and colourful letters and drawings. There were many more individual books on display in the exhibition rooms we visited, but it was a long time before I could draw myself away from the main library.

 

Exhibitions are housed in the Augusteerhalle, the Cabinet, and in the Treasure room at this library, and we saw a great number of books that showed paintings and depictions of war. I found it interesting to see a large amount of gold painted into these pictures, and there were huge amounts of detail to be seen. In one room, they had multiple pages on display with significant quotes written out by hand. My favourite was a sonnet by Shakespeare – one of his lovely works that sounds so beautiful and poetic until you realize that he’s comparing current beauty to death (but hey! At least your kids will carry on your beauty once you’re old and wrinkled). The globes and maps were interesting to see as well; I don’t remember a lot of the details they depicted, but globes are such an interesting way to trace the history of the world’s borders and land knowledge. I’m sorry that I don’t have any more photos of this amazing library and it’s collections, but it was an enlightening experience.

Another literary stop we made on this road trip was in Amsterdam. In a previous blog of mine, I mentioned that I had read a list of the “Top 16 Bookstores You have to See” ( http://www.buzzfeed.com/harpercollins/16-bookstores-you-have-to-see-before-you-die-9npd ). Number 14 on this list was “Mendo” in Amsterdam, and I was excited at the prospect of tracking it down and getting it checked off the list.

So what is my personal opinion of this bookstore? It is indeed quite cool, but perhaps not one I would insist that everyone has to see. The design of the store itself is artistic and unique; I’m sorry that my photos aren’t quite as nice as the ones on the website, but hopefully you get a sense for what the atmosphere is like.

 

In regards to books, this store sells a very specific type. They’re all extremely large and heavy, with large photos and minimal text. They sell these books for a variety of subject matter: from modelling and fashion to tree-houses and vacation destinations. Unfortunately, a huge picture book is not exactly what I had in mind when I wanted to buy a book I could take along in my backpack.

Once we had walked a few blocks away from “Mendo” and snacked on fresh fries that Amsterdam is famous for, we stumbled upon another bookstore that made me extremely happy. It was simply called “The American Book Center” (meaning English as opposed to Dutch reading material) and it looked very plain from the outside. However, from the inside it had four floors worth of books. Books lining the staircases, lining the walls, and there were so many bookshelves that you could easily lose track of where you had entered from (it took me five minutes to find the staircase from which I had emerged). I found several of my favourites straightaway, and since I was in need of a new novel (I had by then finished “Water for Elephants”) I picked up “The Blind Assasin” by Margaret Atwood. Who doesn’t love picking up a book by a Canadian author in the middle of Amsterdam, and receiving a 10% student discount?

I suppose the moral of this bookstore story is that a random online list should not dictate my choice of bookstores and dream literary destinations. When I first found the list, I was angry at myself for the places I had missed out on, like “Shakespeare and Company” in Paris, and “Munro’s Books” in Victoria, BC. But this list was made using someone’s personal opinion, and is not based on scientific data that proves these are THE bookstores to visit. In the future, I will still make a point of visiting these bookstores when I can, but I plan on keeping my eye out and discovering literary gems for myself. While in Amsterdam, I spotted a British bookstore that looked pretty fancy from the outside, but proved to be not nearly as cool as “The American Book Center” on the inside – at least in my opinion.

In any case, those are my thoughts for today. Perhaps it’s strange I started off with my most recent adventure instead of telling you about my travels in September (or December…or February…), but I figured it was just as well to write about this while it’s fresh in my memory. Stay tuned for the blog about the rest of my Amsterdam adventures on robynpippin, coming soon!

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you all have had a wonderful Easter!

Cheers,

Robyn

Why a Librarian?

Hello all!

Before I get into more detail about the steps I’m taking towards becoming a librarian, I want to discuss how and why I decided that becoming a librarian is my dream.

During my last year at UVic, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I should do after graduation. I already knew that I would be coming to Germany for 9 months to act as an English teaching assistant, but I also knew that I would need a long-term plan once that 9 months was complete.

I was fairly certain that I wanted to do a Master’s of some sort. I love being in university, I love to learn, and I figured that it was a good idea to pursue another degree while I was still in the essay-writing / all-night-studying frame of mind. What I couldn’t decide was what my Master’s would be in. I considered the English literature Master’s at UVic, a Master’s in Publishing in Ontario, and even considered a Law Degree. But each of these ideas would only last about a week before I would lose interest.

On a sunny day last February, I somehow ended up inside the library. I had come in there looking for a book, and it ended up being on the top floor – the one that isn’t a separate floor, but more like a raised platform. I found the book in just about no time, but was so content with being in the library that I walked around for quite a while before finally leaving. Everything was so silent, and I enjoyed looking at the rows of books a level down from the platform. I even took pictures, despite it not exactly being a photograph-worthy sight.

After walking around the library for way longer than necessary, it occurred to me that I would love to work in a place like this. I had always dismissed the idea of being a librarian before; even when I learned that you need a Master’s degree to become a librarian (instead of just needing the ability to alphabetize books), I figured that the need for librarians is fading away as the electronic age takes over. But on that day, I decided to do a little more research. The people who had been telling me that librarianship is a dying profession weren’t exactly professionals on the matter.

When I got home, I typed in “Librarian Master’s” on Google, and slowly realized that society’s limited view of librarianship was leaving out a lot of information. Modern librarians work with so much more than just physical books, and technology plays an important role. I found out that there are seven universities in Canada that offer the Library Science program, including Dalhousie in Halifax. I joked to my boyfriend that it would be pretty cool if I could go to Halifax for my Master’s – a large amount of people in my family live there, and it’s always been a thought for me to spend more time there.

I expected the librarian idea to fade away after a week, same as all my other ideas did. I mentioned it to my roommate after about a week, and of course she also thought I would change my mind quickly. But a month went by, and then two…and it was still an idea that excited and intrigued me.

Over the summer, I discovered several blogs on wordpress written by librarians, and began following all of them. At one point, a friend of mine posted a link to an article called “16 Bookstores Around the World that you Must See” (http://www.buzzfeed.com/harpercollins/16-bookstores-you-have-to-see-before-you-die-9npd). After looking at that, it occurred to me that I should be seeing more libraries and bookstores while I travel. Now, while others spend a lot of time in museums and cathedrals throughout Europe, I focus in on the libraries.

In December, I began applying for Library Schools. After a lot of research, I decided to apply for Dalhousie, the University of Toronto,  Western Ontario, and the University of British Columbia. UBC currently has me on a waitlist, but I was very happy to be accepted into the other three schools. After a bit of debating back and forth, I ended up sticking with my gut instinct: I can’t wait to begin at Dalhousie!

I realize that my librarian dream is not exactly ideal. It is not a career that’s in high demand, and it may take me a lot of work to find a full-time job. I’m not going to become a millionaire, and with all of the recent closures of libraries across North America, I will probably have to face fighting to keep libraries open. But I am excited to pursue it nonetheless. I feel like it’s best to pursue something that excites me, instead of something that will make a lot of money right away. Maybe I’ll regret everything I’ve just said within the next two years, but for now: I’m going for it!

Thank you to everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Next time, I shall begin to tell tales of my European library travels. Exciting stuff!

All the best,

Robyn

Hello, World!

Hi there!

I would like to welcome you to Robyn’s newest blog. As you may have noticed, my web address is written as “bagpippin” instead of “bagpiping”. Before you panic about how terrible my spelling is, I will let you know that this was an intentional reference to my other blog-identity: robynpippin. I use my robynpippin blog to write all about my travelling adventures, as I am currently spending a year living in Berlin, Germany. If you happen to love reading about Prague and English-teaching-assistants attempting to learn German, please feel free to check this blog out! http://robynpippin.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/a-weekend-in-prague/

So, why on earth would I begin a new blog, you might ask? Because I like to think that this blog corresponds with a new chapter in my life. In September 2014, I will begin my Master of Library and Information Studies at Dalhousie University. From what I have read on other librarian blogs, it is important to treat Library Science as a community of professionals, instead of just a form of work. I appreciate everything that I’ve already been able to learn about Library Science through the perspective of other librarians and students, and am pleased to think that I am on my way to joining a community that is passionate about the preservation and exploration of knowledge.

So what can you expect to find in this blog? In the beginning, I will most often write about influential libraries and bookstores that I have had the opportunity to visit. While living in Europe, I have made it my goal to see as many as possible, and I have been blown away with every one so far! Once I begin my program, I hope to provide updates with what student life is like, and what sort of riveting things I learn about. Something tells me that the frequency of my blog writing will drop as my coursework increases, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!

One of my favourite ideas about writing this blog is that eventually, I’ll look back and realize how far I’ve come in terms of what I know. All I have at this point is a rough idea of what it would be like to be a librarian: of course I know that it’s not the stereotypical idea of an old lady with glasses and a hair bun shushing people, but I have a long path ahead of me.

Anyways, sorry for getting all sappy. I shall now bring this introductory post to a close. Thank you so much for reading, and I look forward to providing you with many lovely and informative posts!

Cheers,

Robyn