ATHABASCA – Summer students at the Athabasca University (AU) library and archives turned a dusty project into a historical display for the public in their final week of work before school starts back up.
Courtney Hindy, Brayden Murray and Jude Lantz spent their summer working with AU’s librarians and archivists, cataloguing, moving materials into collections, and weeding through a variety of collections projects. One of their assignments to sort through old technology in a storage room inspired the trio to showcase some of the devices used by the university over the years.
“We ended up going through our storage room and seeing what equipment we had that was working and what we had to throw away, and then one of our supervisors said it would be really cool if you guys put this on,” said Hindy.
“We collectively decided what we were going to do.”
Afternoon visitors to the library Aug. 20 were greeted by the buttery smell of popcorn, some smooth music playing from a record machine – Murray said part of his inspiration for the tour was his discovery of records, and the university’s extensive collection thereof – and the flickering light of a 1979 film projector.
“My favourite is the projector for sure. Now, we see all of our stuff on a computer or phone, so it’s really interesting to see how far we’ve come from this machine to technology now,” said Hindy.
Murray echoed his coworkers' sentiments; when the team opened the projector up for the first time, he said he was blown away by the device’s mechanisms and the film reels.
“Compared to what we have today, it’s mind-blowing how just a tiny little device can portray however many things at the same time. So for one reel, that was just one movie, and that takes up a certain amount of space. On a phone, there’s all this stuff,” he said.
“It’s cool to look back and see what they used to do before.”
Not all the technology showcased was quite so ancient. Toward the back of the library, a VHS tape of Ice Age played on an old box television.
“I’d never seen a VHS tape in person before, which probably makes everyone else feel old, so just seeing Ice Age playing in reverse because we had to rewind it. It was pretty funny, but also magical in a way,” said Lantz.
First year back
Hindy, Murray, and Lantz were just three of 22 summer students that worked at Athabasca University this summer. From the Office of the Registrar to the science labs, students got some hands-on experience on the other side of academia before they returned to class in the fall. It was the first time the university had expanded its summer student program outside of the science labs in over a decade.
“It was really nice to see the behind the scenes, especially in the exam department of how everything is run. Also, for me, it was nice to get an experience in a more professional work setting than something I’ve done in the past,” said Molly Martin, who’s currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in biochemistry.
Each week, the students sat down with a member of AU’s senior leadership team and a variety of community figures for a Q&A. Speakers included town mayor Rob Balay, councillor and trainer Jon LeMessurier, as well as people who worked at AU in a variety of roles.
“I really appreciated the speaker series. Them putting in the effort to make summer students feel more welcome and teach them stuff that aren’t necessarily taught in classrooms or pieces of wisdom from people in leadership positions, or people who have gone through life. I think that’s really valuable,” said Eric Geng, a business major who spent his summer working in the university’s finance department.
The program also gave students an opportunity to learn some skills that they could apply in their future studies or in their future careers. Kate Vovchuk is headed into her first year of pharmacology this fall, but her experience working with data analysis was something she was sure she would find a way to benefit from.
“I learned more about technology and the stuff I worked with; I was in front of the screen all the time,” she said.
“So I learned a lot about new applications, especially data analysis applications. I think I’ll definitely use them in the future, no matter what career I choose.”
