Oakland University
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Faculty Spotlight: Dominique Daniel

Faculty Spotlight



At Kresge Library, Dr. Dominique Daniel is our newest librarian. Her primary duties are library instruction, reference, research consultations, and collection development. Behind the scenes she conducts research on the history of North American libraries and archives and how they gather and store information on immigration and ethnicity. In addition, Dr. Daniel teaches the first 4-credit course offered through the Library.
A Historian in France

Before Dr. Daniel began her career as a librarian in the US she had a distinguished career in France as Professor of North American Studies at the University of Tours. Beginning in the 1990’s, she researched and taught about the history of immigration, citizenship, and the inherent political challenges faced by US policy changes. Her interests evolved from the academic pursuit of a student to the refined scholarship of a historian.

In 1994, the North American Studies Association in France honored Dr. Daniel with the Best Doctoral Dissertation award. She went on to publish several books and articles on North American immigration and multiculturalism.

Dr. Daniel had always been interested with library studies, especially the preliminaries of research. In 2006, she moved to the US and chose to pursue a new career as a librarian.


Kresge Library

Because Kresge is “A teaching library with an outstanding student-centered information literacy program,” Dr. Daniel had little trouble finding her niche here. Her expertise on research methodology and the history of libraries and
archives fits side by side with teaching the Golden Grizzlies. She works closely with Writing 160 classes, a freshman class that integrates the fundamentals of library research. She also works with the more advanced classes that are more heavily reliant on research and need to utilize specialized database tools.

Dr. Daniel’s knack for teaching students how to best utilize Kresge’s research tools put her in the opportune position to develop and teach the first 4-credit course offered through the library. During the fall semester of 2010, Kresge launched the pilot course LIB 250: Library Research and Technology in the Information Age.

The first class received great feedback from student participants, and students can look forward to taking LIB 250 in the fall 2011 semester for General Education credit, since it counts both as a Writing Intensive and Knowledge Application course.

Dr. Daniel has also received a Faculty Research Award, which funded her research in Ontario. Building on previous research experiences, she began researching the provincial archives in Ontario and the ways they collect information on immigration and ethnicity.

Behind the Scenes: Affiliations:
  • American Library Assocation (ALA)
  • Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
  • Society of American Archivists (SAA)
  • Organization of American Historians (OAH)
Awards & Honors:
  • Faculty Research Award, Oakland University 2010
  • Margaret Mann Award, University of Michigan School of Information 2009
  • Best Doctoral Dissertation Award, North American Studies Association (France) 1994


Created by Sarah Brooks (sjbrooks@oakland.edu) on Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Modified by Sarah Brooks (sjbrooks@oakland.edu) on Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Article Start Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2011