Grace Chen
2019/20 iSchool MLIS Co-op Student of the Year
Excellence in the Workplace
During her time as Library Technician at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Grace’s primary duty was to design and single-handedly manage the Archives Library Barcoding Project, a volunteer program that facilitated the barcoding of the museum’s collections, which carries over 100,000 titles. As part of this project, Grace prepared the catalogue’s holding records so that they were ready for barcoding, established barcoding procedures, wrote documentation, as well as trained, supervised and provided ongoing support to over 30 volunteers of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels.
According to her supervisor, Taryn Jones, Grace arranged for the barcoding of the collection “at a rate that far surpassed expectations.” Grace is particularly proud of implementing a Quality Control stage with volunteers. This helped their efforts in catching and solving inevitable volunteer mistakes within the project. Significantly, the Archives Library Barcoding Project was presented at a provincial library conference in May 2020, and Taryn stated that “librarians and information professionals across the province expressed their admiration for the project’s progress.” Given her outstanding achievements, Grace was asked to stay on at the Royal BC Museum for a second co-op work term.
Community Involvement
Grace has been actively exploring her interests in information management out in the community. As a Digitization Assistant at UBC Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSC), she created high quality images of RBSC bookplates and conducted research for the creation of Dublin Core metadata. Moreover, Grace has participated in multiple workshops and conferences in the local community. In 2019, she helped to organize a two-day Archival Basics Workshop and tabled materials at the BC Archives Open House. In 2020, she took the initiative to complete online training offered by the Library of Congress Subject Headings Workshop, as well as attended the BC Library Associations’ Summer Conference. This year, Grace was asked to return to Royal BC Museum to complete the barcoding project without volunteers. In fact, she and Taryn ended up presenting the barcoding project at another conference: the 2021 Vancouver Island Library Staff Conference.
Co-op: A Foundation for Future Success
Through co-op, Grace was given an opportunity to practically apply what she had learned in the School of Information. The class LIBR509: Foundations of Bibliographic Control provided her with preparatory knowledge about working with Machine-Readable Cataloguing (MARC) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). In her position as Library Technician, she needed to learn MARC in order to continuously update and improve existing catalogue records. Furthermore, she drew from what she had learned in LIBR574: Project Management to effectively supervise the daily operations of the Archives Library Barcoding Project. Ultimately, Grace’s time at Royal BC Museum not only enabled her to learn about new technologies and library processes, but it also allowed her to gain confidence in her capabilities and skills. Indeed, her leadership in the barcoding project has led her, in her words, “to believe that [she] could thrive in future management positions.”
About the iSchool Co-op Student of the Year Award
The Arts Co-op Program’s Student of the Year Award recognizes two co-op students in UBC iSchool (Library, Archival, and Information Studies). Two annual awards of $1,000 are available: one to a MLIS or dual student (who used their MLIS background on the co-op job) and the other to a MAS or dual student (who used their MAS background on the co-op job).
These annual awards recognize outstanding achievement in all aspects of the UBC iSchool co-op student’s performance, including academics, the workplace, and professional/community involvement.
Grace Chen
2019/20 iSchool MLIS Co-op Student of the Year
Excellence in the Workplace
During her time as Library Technician at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Grace’s primary duty was to design and single-handedly manage the Archives Library Barcoding Project, a volunteer program that facilitated the barcoding of the museum’s collections, which carries over 100,000 titles. As part of this project, Grace prepared the catalogue’s holding records so that they were ready for barcoding, established barcoding procedures, wrote documentation, as well as trained, supervised and provided ongoing support to over 30 volunteers of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels.
According to her supervisor, Taryn Jones, Grace arranged for the barcoding of the collection “at a rate that far surpassed expectations.” Grace is particularly proud of implementing a Quality Control stage with volunteers. This helped their efforts in catching and solving inevitable volunteer mistakes within the project. Significantly, the Archives Library Barcoding Project was presented at a provincial library conference in May 2020, and Taryn stated that “librarians and information professionals across the province expressed their admiration for the project’s progress.” Given her outstanding achievements, Grace was asked to stay on at the Royal BC Museum for a second co-op work term.
Community Involvement
Grace has been actively exploring her interests in information management out in the community. As a Digitization Assistant at UBC Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSC), she created high quality images of RBSC bookplates and conducted research for the creation of Dublin Core metadata. Moreover, Grace has participated in multiple workshops and conferences in the local community. In 2019, she helped to organize a two-day Archival Basics Workshop and tabled materials at the BC Archives Open House. In 2020, she took the initiative to complete online training offered by the Library of Congress Subject Headings Workshop, as well as attended the BC Library Associations’ Summer Conference. This year, Grace was asked to return to Royal BC Museum to complete the barcoding project without volunteers. In fact, she and Taryn ended up presenting the barcoding project at another conference: the 2021 Vancouver Island Library Staff Conference.
Co-op: A Foundation for Future Success
Through co-op, Grace was given an opportunity to practically apply what she had learned in the School of Information. The class LIBR509: Foundations of Bibliographic Control provided her with preparatory knowledge about working with Machine-Readable Cataloguing (MARC) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). In her position as Library Technician, she needed to learn MARC in order to continuously update and improve existing catalogue records. Furthermore, she drew from what she had learned in LIBR574: Project Management to effectively supervise the daily operations of the Archives Library Barcoding Project. Ultimately, Grace’s time at Royal BC Museum not only enabled her to learn about new technologies and library processes, but it also allowed her to gain confidence in her capabilities and skills. Indeed, her leadership in the barcoding project has led her, in her words, “to believe that [she] could thrive in future management positions.”
About the iSchool Co-op Student of the Year Award
The Arts Co-op Program’s Student of the Year Award recognizes two co-op students in UBC iSchool (Library, Archival, and Information Studies). Two annual awards of $1,000 are available: one to a MLIS or dual student (who used their MLIS background on the co-op job) and the other to a MAS or dual student (who used their MAS background on the co-op job).
These annual awards recognize outstanding achievement in all aspects of the UBC iSchool co-op student’s performance, including academics, the workplace, and professional/community involvement.