Laura Thorne, learning services librarian.
A warm campus community welcome to Laura Thorne, the Okanagan campus’ newest learning services librarian.
Originally from London, Ontario, Thorne earned her BA with a double major in history and anthropology at the University of Guelph. While completing her undergraduate degree, Thorne worked at the McLaughlin Library, an experience that confirmed her passion for working in academic libraries.
From Guelph, she moved to Halifax to complete her master’s of library and information studies at Dalhousie University. While in the program, Thorne was a reference and research services intern at the Killam Memorial Library and conducted a collaborative independent study course examining the use of interactive online tools to engage students and faculty at Dalhousie’s libraries and its services.
Thorne has experience working in both academic and special libraries, as well as in student services and communications. She enjoys mixing communications and libraries and is an avid supporter of open access and student research — having been published in and volunteered for an open access, student-run journal (Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management) while completing her MLIS.
For the coming year, Thorne will be working as a subject liaison for the areas of management, political science, economics and philosophy and handling the library’s research portfolio, which includes responsibilities such as copyright and cIRcle — UBC’s digital repository for research and teaching materials. She will also be working with the Centre for Scholarly Communication.
Thorne can be reached at laura.thorne@ubc.ca or at 250-807-8063.
