Young Canada Works

Employer Success Stories ~ YCW in Heritage Organizations 2008

Another Man’s Poison Book Collection at OCAD

“This summer the OCAD Library added more than 1,600 new design books, from the Another Man’s Poison book collection, which was donated to the university last year. Laine Gabel, a graduate student from the Faculty of Information Science (FIS) program at the University of Toronto was a key member of the Technical Services team. A Young Canada Works grant was obtained through Heritage Canada/Canadian Library Association to give Laine the opportunity to work on this collection over the summer. With the YCW financial support we were able to integrate this significant design book collection into the Dorothy H. Hoover Library catalogue”

Dorothy H. Hoover Library (OCAD) and their Special Project Assistant Laine Gabel

Here's what a few YCW employers had to tell us about their summer students.

"The three students we hired this summer were exceptional. Their interests and background were in library science and education, and they found the summer experience to be extremely valuable. We cannot praise our student assistants enough. Their professionalism, their enthusiasm and their conscientious attention and focus on the child made the annual summer reading club a wonderfully positive and motivating experience."

North Vancouver District Public Library, funded for Summer Reading Club Program Assistant

South Shore Regional Library's Web Developer at work

"Art museum libraries in Canada are rich depositories of cultural documents of national importance. Yet as libraries within poorly staffed non-profit institutions the goals of preserving and making accessible this heritage can be daunting. The YCW program helped our library move closer to attaining these goals by assisting us to hire an energetic and capable student this summer."

Vancouver Art Gallery, funded for Library Technician

"Our organization has accumulated numerous tapes over the years that contain interviews with Northern elders in both Cree and Dene languages, as well as English. We have hoped to make them accessible to our students via the library. The summer student we hired through YCW made a major contribution towards this goal."

The Northern Teacher Education Program, funded for Library Assistant

"Being able to hire a student through the YCW-HO program was a real boon to our school board. Not only had she just recently completed her Library Techniques diploma, she also had experience cataloguing and using the new software! She picked up the details of the job far more quickly than I anticipated which left me more time to work on other related projects. I would not hesitate to recommend this program to my friends and associates."

London District Catholic School Board, funded for Database Conversion Assistant

Summer Programs Coordinator reads a story at the
Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library

"Over the past two years, with the assistance of YCW summer students, the Redpath Siemens project has made amazing progress. At the end of two years, there is now a definitive listing of all pamphlets, by author and subject. Without the YCW summer students, the completion of this project would have been virtually impossible."

McGill Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, funded for
Bibliographic Assistant

"Because of one student's bilingualism we were able to prepare 12 annotated lists of new books in French. This hadn't been part of our original proposal, but we were thrilled that we were able to accomplish this. And that's the great thing about being able to hire such good students with the YCW funding - we always receive much more than we planned for!"

Western Counties Regional Library, funded for Student Assistant

CNIB Library Communications Assistant applies braille bodypaint
to a visitor at the Word on the Street festival in Toronto

"Our Program Coordinator successfully doubled our program statistics from last summer and she has had a positive influence on hundred's of children in our community. She has developed many highly marketable skills, including public relations skills, a proficiency in marketing, and a proven knack for program development. I am proud to say that our student has earned the respect of her colleagues, patrons and important figures in our community, thanks to the opportunity given to us by the YCW program."