Lillian Klein: Giving back through cataloguing

By Zahra Mohamed

Lillian's hometown: Montague, PEI

Shelter supervisor, co-op student and master’s student; all responsibilities Lily has taken on during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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After completing a Bachelor of Social Work at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, Lily knew she wanted to continue her education. She sought a program that could open her up to a wide range of opportunities and that wouldn’t confine her to a particular career after graduation. After hearing about Western’s MLIS program, Lily knew it would be a good fit.

With its multidisciplinary style of learning, the MLIS program has given Lily a way to bridge her passion for social services with her interest in information technology and data science.

"I found a way to bridge my passion for social services with my interest in information technology and data science."

“The MLIS program does a great job at teaching information organization that doesn’t just pertain to just libraries,” says Lily. Although she came into the program wanting to be a public librarian, once Lily began taking courses, she quickly realized she had a passion for metadata and information technology.

Despite her classes being completely online this year, Lily’s favourite part of the program is the community of people whom she has met along the way. Not only has she found like-minded classmates in her program, she has also been surrounded by the most supportive professors who have inspired her to explore new career possibilities.

In her second semester, Lily decided to apply for a co-op placement and was able to take on a position at Statistics Canada with the Author Liaison Unit in the Dissemination Division. This experience has encouraged her to want to focus her career toward metadata creation and information systems. She hopes to work for the federal government, or an academic library, upon graduation.

Fun Fact

Lillian has lived in five provinces. Her cat has lived in four.

While studying full-time, Lily works as a site supervisor for Homes First, a COVID-19 emergency response shelter in Toronto that provides homeless people with safe and stable refuge. When she isn’t serving her community, Lily can be found having virtual book clubs with her friends.


Profiles in the Meet Our Students section are written by students in the Master of Media in Journalism & Communication program, who are enrolled in MMJC 9604 - Professional Writing.