May’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features Kristine Plastow, Chief Librarian, Red Deer College.

1. What is something interesting you learned in the last month? I feel like I am always learning something – it’s the remembering I have a hard time with! I was just in a Google Drive/Docs workshop today and learned about how to sync your Drive files to your personal computer to use offline. I hadn’t actually thought about that and didn’t know how to do it. Here’s hoping I remember by the time I get home to try it on my laptop!

2. When was the last time you were nervous? Just last week! I convened a session at Alberta Library Conference in Jasper and that was more nerve-wracking then actually presenting, don’t ask me why!

3. If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose? Elizabeth Bennett

4. What is your best piece of career advice? It’s not about you – people have their own perceptions and perspectives that aren’t right or wrong; they just are. If you make it personal, that’s when things start to go wrong.

5. What is your favourite thing to binge watch? Forensic Files

6. What is your proudest non-work related accomplishment? Truly it is my children. When I stop to think that I had anything to do with the amazing little people they are, it makes me very proud. Case in point – with the provincial election, both my kids were interested, asking questions, and forming their own opinions. It was very cool!

7. What is your favourite quote?  I have two: “Be the change you wish to see in the world” and “That which does not kill us makes us stronger”.

April’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features Karen Hildebrandt, Assistant Director, Library Services, Concordia University College of Alberta Library.

1. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad, but it turned out to be for the best? Definitely. In a previous job I ended up working with a workplace bully. It was a year from hell but it forced me to find another job. I knew I wouldn’t leave unless it was going to be something better. I ended up at Concordia and it has been an amazing 14 years! I’ve had so many wonderful opportunities that I would never have had if I had stayed with the previous job. In this case the bully did me a huge favour!

2. What songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? 

• Feels like home – BSB
• Warriors – Imagine Dragons
• Close Your Eyes – Meghan Trainor
• Don’t Bring me down – ELO
• One Life – Hedley
• Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum
• Unmistakable – BSB
• Perfect – Hedley

3. If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be? If we’re talking about work it would be one library card to be used in any Alberta library. If we’re talking personally, it would be my kitchen redesign/reno.

4. What is your best piece of career advice? Go beyond your comfort level. Explore opportunities and challenge yourself. I’ve had so many great opportunities by pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. I’ve met so many wonderful people and it would never have happened if I would have stayed within my comfortable little rut/safe place.

5. What is your proudest work-related accomplishment? There are so many and they all involved an amazing team to accomplish. I think implementation of the L Pass and the NEOS Centralized ILL are the two that come to mind. But the Centralized ILL would probably come out as #1 because I had the privilege to be involved with the implementation from the conception stage right through to implementation and it seems to be working really well!

6. What is your proudest non-work related accomplishment? Raising my two sons, Matt and Dave. Both have grown up to accomplished good men with beautiful wives. They are kind, hard working and they both love to cook and bake!

7. What is your favourite quote? And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

March’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features CJ de Jong, Access Services Coordinator, University of Alberta Libraries.

1. When was the last time you were nervous? I’m pretty nervous right now for the weekend. I’m taking a three-day acroyoga workshop and I’m still a novice. I hope I’ll survive the three days without too many drops on my head! Google images has lots of pics of acroyoga if you’re not sure what it is. They sure make it look easy!

2. What is your best piece of life advice? Get involved in something you enjoy! A cause, a group, a sport, anything. Without a doubt, you’ll find your life enriched.

3. What is your favourite thing to binge watch? Documentaries. EPL is my source as I always find things there I would have never thought to look for!

4. What is your proudest work-related accomplishment? It’s my staff that make me proud. When I see them grow in their jobs and take on new responsibilities through a promotion, that brings me pride.

5. What do you do when you’re not working? Work-life balance is important to me, so I do find all kinds of things to do outside of work. You can often find me at the Lion’s Breath Yoga Studio, as I take a number of yoga classes there (Sattva, Dynamic Flow, Hatha, Acroyoga). For some good laughs I love going to Rapid Fire Theatre, even took a couple of improv classes with them last year. When my feet are itching, I might end up at a Sugar Swing Dance or wherever the music is happening!

6.What is your favourite quote? Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

7. What is your favourite colour? Looking at my wardrobe, there’s a lot of blue and purple.

February’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features Corene Kozey, Information Services Librarian  at Buchanan Library, Lethbridge College.

1. What is something interesting you learned in the last month? I was watching Charlie Rose and was excited about a new procedure being used to rectify blindness using stem cells.

2. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad, but it turned out to be for the best? The one thing that comes to mind is a trip my husband and I took to Mexico. The trip was a tribute to Murphy’s Law! Our travel agent had changed jobs and so our account slipped through the cracks. We were booked on Mexicana Airlines flight 212 from LA to Mexico, an imaginary flight. Our luggage didn’t arrive in Mexico city for 4 days, and the only English our taxi driver could speak was ‘bad hotel’ when we told him where we were staying. In the end, the holiday was probably one of the most enjoyable because we learned to ‘go with the flow’.

3. What is your favourite thing to binge watch? Grey’s Anatomy.

4. What do you eat for breakfast? Dry white toast!

5. What do you do when you’re not working? I think I may have been a bag lady or some type of scavenger bird in my previous life because I get so much enjoyment out of cruising second-hand stores.

6. What is your favourite quote? I don’t really have a favourite quote, but I was researching Murphy’s law with respect to work and found a rather funny law I’d like to share with everyone. ‘A pat on the back is merely centimeters from a kick in the pants.’

7. What is your favourite colour? Green ‘is the colour, football is the game’

January’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features Leigh Cunningham, Collections & Instruction Librarian at Medicine Hat College.

1. When was the last time you were nervous? I don’t usually get really nervous. I taught a course for the first time at the college in fall semester and I was pretty nervous getting up in front of 24 eager, paying students that first morning!

2. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? Build cool furniture.

3. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad, but it turned out to be for the best? I got laid off right before Christmas in 2007. It was a good job that was helping me get through library school. Being laid off actually allowed me more flexibility to take on hours at my library job, which ended up becoming a full time opportunity.

4. If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be? I would focus on developing our information literacy program to be embedded in the curriculum. Right now, this is just one of many projects!

5. If you could throw any kind of party, what would it be like and what would it be for? I’m not much for parties, so maybe a house concert with margaritas and kittens.

6. What is your best piece of career advice? Be flexible and open to opportunities. I was able to move from Ontario to Alberta for my job but I don’t think that’s for everyone.

7. What is your favourite thing to binge watch? Terrible reality shows like America’s Next Top Model or The Bachelor.