Originally published on the Arts Co-op Program website
Each year, the Arts Co-op Program recognizes two SLAIS co-op students for outstanding achievement in all aspects of student performance, including academics, the workplace, and professional and/or community involvement.
This year’s Master of Archival Studies winner is Dual Master of Archival & Master of Library and Information Studies candidate Dan Gillean. In his work as an Archivist with the BC Government’s Records Management Operations (RMO), Dan designed innovative communication tools that accomplished “far more” than what his employer had counted on; this work earned him an outstanding reference letter from his supervisor, Susan Hart, and her “highest possible recommendation” for this year’s award.
Outside of Co-op, Dan’s many accomplishments include several student scholarships, publication in Archivi, and active executive member positions in the Association of Canadian Archivists student chapter at UBC (ACA@UBC) and the Library and Archival Studies Student Association (LASSA).
Excellence in the Workplace
Dan’s stellar performance in RMO surpassed all his employers could have hoped for, says Susan, and quickly won him a valued position as “a fully contributing member of this team.”
During his work term, Dan was responsible not only for appraising and selecting provincial government records for retention in the archives, but also for developing a new series of guides for use by all BC Government employees. His supervisor commends him highly for his “outstanding” work in synthesizing, analyzing and writing these guides. Describing his communication tool designs as “innovative” and “unlike anything we had produced thus far in our branch,” Susan praises Dan for far exceeding expectations.
In addition, Dan was part of the team of archival professionals responsible for developing and advising upon government records management policy, with an emphasis on digital records management. To succeed in this role, it is imperative for team members to actively participate, shift priorities and yield to group consensus when needed, and to balance the capacity to work independently with consulting team members. His supervisor points out that while not every individual is capable of working in this fashion, Dan “leapt into our team … with energy, thoughtfulness, grace, agility, and tremendous goodwill.” It is a testament to Dan’s extraordinary qualifications and personality that his whole team expresses hopes for his continued work in the information management field after he graduates.
These qualities also manifest themselves in the manner in which Dan successfully bridges his co-op experiences with his academics. In 2011, he wrote an essay based on his co-op experience with RMO and submitted it to the ARMA International Education Foundation; this won him a substantial scholarship in August. Dan also speaks to how co-op deepens his understanding of SLAIS classes: drawing on his experiences with Enterprise Document Records Management Systems and Microsoft’s SharePoint 2010, he is able to participate and contribute more in class than he used to, thereby benefitting his fellow students.
