Hello, and welcome to my iPortfolio, created to demonstrate the competencies I have gained through the Master of Information Studies program at the University of Ottawa. On this site, you will find my Career Plan and my statement of Professional Ethics. Under the What I Know tab, you will find evidence of my knowledge base and under the Skills tab, you will find evidence of the skills I have developed.
Biography
I grew up in Winnipeg, where I had my first experiences in library work: volunteering in my middle and high school libraries and, more formally, with the Winnipeg Public Library Youth Advisory Council. For my undergraduate studies, I moved to Halifax, where I did a BA with Combined Honours in Early Modern Studies and English, minoring in Medieval Studies, at the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University. There, I wound up in the library again, this time as a student employee at the university library’s circulation desk and archives. This was where I realized that reference work might be a feasible career for me: I enjoyed helping my fellow students find the resources they needed, no matter what the subject was, and doing so felt like a good use of the research skills I’d been acquiring throughout my own degree.
After moving to Ottawa to pursue my academic interests, completing a Master of Arts in English Literature with a specialization in medieval and renaissance studies at the University of Ottawa in 2023, I decided to continue in graduate studies with a more professionally-oriented degree: this Master of Information Studies. Through this degree, while I have done coursework – including electives – in information management, my main focus has continued to be preparing for a career in a government or academic library, preferably doing reference work. To this end, I’ve done an eight-month co-op term in Branches and Reference at the Library of Parliament and have continued there part-time while completing my final semester.