December’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features Mary Weasel Fat, Library Coordinator, Red Crow Community College Resource Centre

1. When was the last time you were nervous?  I was kind of nervous at the TAL meeting in November when I did the RCCC fire update but once I got going I felt like I couldn’t stop talking.

2. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad, but it turned out to be for the best?  The RCCC fire of August 2015 which destroyed the campus including the library-it was a blessing in disguise as we have a new campus located at the Old Saipoyi (Standoff) Elementary School and we will be building a new college campus to be completed in two years. We hope to build our dream library/archives in this facility-New Beginnings-Looking Forward.

3. If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be? Setting up the RCCC Archives.

4. What is your favourite thing to binge watch? Reign TV show

5. What is your proudest work-related accomplishment? Receiving the LAA President’s Award for helping to set up the Kainai Public Library on my Reserve-Kainai First Nation. The award burnt in the RCCC fire in August along with some other awards I received.

6. What is your proudest non-work related accomplishment? My daughter Maya and my grandson Ryder Maxwell.

7. What is your favourite colour? Turquoise

November’s installment of 7 Questions With… AAAL Members features Liz Fulton-Lyne, Lead Instruction Librarian, NorQuest College. 

1. What is something interesting you learned in the last month? Last month I attended the Augustana Information Literacy workshop and learned about McTighe and Wiggins’ “Understanding by Design Framework,” which is a backwards design method. It could be quite useful as a tool for curriculum planning and thinking about information literacy in relation to broader learning goals. I learned a lot that day. It was a great workshop.

2.  When was the last time you were nervous? I recently ran a 10K “race” for pancreatic cancer, and leading up to the day I was really nervous! I hadn’t run that far for years. In fact, up until 2 months ago I had not run at all for over a decade.

3. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? Make perfect pastry.

4. Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad, but it turned out to be for the best? In 1998 my husband was transferred to a job in Ontario. It was our 3rd move in 3 years. I had a baby and toddler and was reluctant to move far away from family and friends here in Alberta but during our time there we made great friends, had another child, and I discovered my career in libraries!

5. What is your best piece of career advice? Say yes more than you say no. Sometimes saying yes means taking a risk, or rising to a challenge, but in my experience, it often leads to opportunities.
6. What is your favourite thing to binge watch? Game of Thrones and House of Cards.

7. What is your favourite quote? “You’ve really got to start hitting the books because it’s no joke out here.” – Spike Lee