April Hilland will be bringing fresh eyes to an old site in her new role.
Hilland is now the Product Development Officer for the Fort St. James National Historic Site, replacing Kevin Gedling, who has moved on to work at Jasper National Park.
Hilland is a teacher-librarian by profession and has just completed her Masters in Education. She says her new position with the historic site has more incommon with her prveious jobs than a person might think, and she has been getting a lot of people asking her how the two mesh.
She said with the development of new, creative programs in community libraries, the historic site programming is not so far removed.
“Its very similar to what libraries are doing now,” she said. “It’s just fascinating, I’m used to being a storyteller, but it’s another thing to be immersed in the story.”
The site offers her the opportunity to develop experiences for visitors beyond what she could in a library setting.
“As libraries, we try to give that experience, but there’s only so much we can do,” said Hilland.
While a library may have many different types of media today, with video, audio and books, the experience at a historic site is something else entirely.
“You’re in it,” explains Hilland.
While Hilland started teaching in Maple Ridge in 2007, she had already become a district librarian before moving to Fort St. James, and was teaching everything from French, to dance, drama, music and fine arts.
After moving to Fort St. James on July 3 of last year to join her husband who was posted here with the RCMP, Hilland worked part time at the Fort St. James Bicentennial Library as a library aid and consultant, where she still helps as a consultant on a casual basis. She also works as a digital librarian on the side.
“I just can’t let go of the library,” she said. “I just love it so much.”
On the other hand, the site itself, by breathing life into the history of Fort St. James and the educational programming, is “like a big living library,” said Hilland.
And she is looking forward to the stability of her new position at the historic site and the start of the new season, especially opening day events, which included a Victorian Costume contest and a pancake breakfast.Hilland likes the fact the visitors themselves will be dressing up for the costume contest.
“The veil between the visitor and the interpreter, it completely vanishes,” said Hilland.
Another event Hilland is excited for is the Salmon Day cook-off as part of this year’s Caledonia Days events.
It will be the fourth annual salmon-cooking competition at the site, and she’s hoping to inject some new elements into it to increase the competitiveness. Hilland also has not yet experienced a Fort St. James Canada Day, which as anyone here knows, is an event not to be missed.
Hilland can be found at the historic site or reached at 250-996-7191 and for more information on this year’s events visit: http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/bc/stjames/index.aspx
