Keynote: Dr. daniel Coleman

“What I’m Learning from Wampum About Relating to Knowledge as Living or Dead”

Dr. Daniel Coleman

Daniel Coleman, Professor of literatures in Canada at McMaster University since 1997, has long been fascinated by the poetic power of narrative arts to generate a sense of place and community, critical social engagement and mindfulness, and especially wonder. Although he has committed considerable effort to learning in and from the natural world, he is still a bookish person who loves the learning that is essential to writing. He has published Masculine Migrations: Reading the Postcolonial Male in "New Canadian" Narratives (U Toronto P, 1998), The Scent of Eucalyptus: A Missionary Childhood in Ethiopia (Goose Lane Editions, 2003), and In Bed with the Word - Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics (U Alberta P, 2009). His book, White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada (U of Toronto P, 2006; winner, Klibansky Prize for best book in the Humanities) is a work of critical race studies that examines the image of Canada as a white, masculinist, British nation conveyed in literary texts between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. His book of literary non-fiction, Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place (Wolsak & Wynn, 2017; finalist, RBC-Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction), routes its examination of human and environmental history in Hamilton, the city where he lives, through a dialogue with Haudenosaunee understandings of the Head of the Lake region. He has co-edited ten scholarly volumes on various issues including early Canadian culture, Caribbean Canadian writing, masculinities, postcoloniality, race, the retooling of the humanities, and displacement for the University of Alberta Press,  Journal of West Indian Literature, Essays on Canadian Writing, Mattoid, Jouvert, Masculinities, and Textual Studies in Canada. He is co-director, with his colleague and friend, Dr. Lorraine York, of McMaster’s Centre for Community Engaged Narrative Arts.

Amanda Wheatley and Helen Power

Currently, there is a massive trend in the workforce for setting boundaries, establishing guardrails, and communicating needs. Librarians are no exception to this movement. Whether it’s through “quiet quitting” or embracing your “villain era”, people are learning the importance of understanding expectations, setting a work-life balance, and avoiding burnout. In academia, there are numerous ways this does not mesh with existing paradigms, including the “publish or perish” mindset, the prevalence of contract work, the pervasiveness of scope creep, and the stress of applying for tenure. A shift in this mindset is required if academic librarians are going to succeed in establishing a balance of personal and professional priorities. This paper will review tenure and promotion standards for librarians at Canadian universities so as to better understand the requirements needed to advance in the field. These regulations are often vague and do not provide prescriptive detail to aid librarians who are seeking promotion. This lack of clarity affords little opportunity for librarians to set boundaries and seek work-life balance. Quiet quitting is often just the acknowledgment that people are already overextending themselves at work and are taking on too many responsibilities. Our institutions have created a space where tenure-track or pre-promotion librarians struggle to set these boundaries because the expectation for the level of work needed to advance is purposefully vague and broad. A change in the landscape of librarian work and promotional requirements, alongside strategies for successful boundary setting will be explored.

Amanda Wheatley is the Liaison Librarian for Management, Business, and Entrepreneurship at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She also serves as the Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Her research focus is dedicated to artificial intelligence (and other emerging technologies) and their impact on the work of public services librarians. She is particularly interested in the way technology is changing the field of librarianship and pushing us into new information seeking paradigms.

Helen Power is the Engineering and Science Librarian at the University of Saskatchewan. She’s embedded within the College of Engineering, and a member of the Learning & Curriculum Support Division. Her research focuses on the evolving role of the librarian and community engagement.

Hilary Barlow

The Open Education (OE) movement promotes openness, participation, collaboration and breaking down barriers to education. Many academic librarians are heavily engaged with the OE movement, including the creation and promotion of Open Education Resources (OER). Special collections and archival materials have particular needs distinct from other library collections. Access to and use of these materials requires considerations of copyright, privacy and donor restrictions that can make them more difficult to share openly online. The librarians and archivists that manage these collections have gone to great lengths to make materials available online, where legally and logistically possible. Yet interaction with the OE movement tends to be lower with special collections librarians and archivists compared with academic librarians outside of special collections. Is this because core principles of OE, such as remixing, are incompatible with the necessary restrictions in place to manage and make available special collections and archives? Is there a space where these diverse systems of practice can meet and make materials more accessible to the public by collaborating with the Open Education movement? This session presents the results of detailed case study interviews with special collections librarians and archivists all over Canada and the United States on the subject of special collections, archives, and OE. What unique contributions can these collections make to the OE movement? What contributions are special collections librarians and archivists already making? Can promotion of and access to these materials be improved with inspiration from the OE movement? Interviewees spoke to these and other questions.

Hilary Barlow is an American academic librarian and archivist based in Toronto. In her capacity as W.P. Scott Chair in Librarianship at York University she is currently researching how special collections librarians and archivists can incorporate Open Education principles into their work. Hilary has worked at institutions throughout Canada and the United States including the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum, and Penn State University.

Peter Gorman & Michael Andreae

Camerise – a digital platform piloted at York University's Glendon College, and designed to support and engage the French as a Second Language (FSL) community – is centred around a digital repository/aggregator of open educational resources (OERs). Its objective is to ensure all FSL stakeholders in Canada – students, educators, researchers, administrators – have access to inclusive and engaging OERs and collaborative tools to reach their full potential as bilingual or plurilingual Canadians. In this workshop, members of the Camerise team will discuss the development and implementation of the platform’s newest phase, reflecting on decisions around balancing the needs of users with the technical requirements of data creation, discovery, and storage; the challenges of translating not just across English and French but across the divergent assumptions and expectations, cultures and vocabularies, of information users and our metadata design team; the different technologies that were considered and why certain ones were ultimately adopted; and ongoing questions and challenges faced, around issues such as copyright, accessibility, language, and user experience.

Peter Gorman serves as bilingual metadata specialist with the Camerise initiative at York University’s Glendon College. He previously worked as a teaching and reference librarian at York, and recently joined the Canadian Music Centre as national librarian.

Michael Andreae works as a metadata expert with the Camerise initiative based out of York University’s Glendon College. He also serves as the information technology system administrator for Victoria University’s E.J. Pratt Library.

Carolyn Caseñas, Cleire Lauron & Melissa Smith

Three librarians from different areas of academic librarianship share how using a lens of abundance rather than deficit has allowed them to rethink how they undertake their work. Through deep self-reflection upon on their positionalites and “how bring their whole selves” to their position, each speaker has identified examples of shifting their mindset and approaches. This shift has enhanced their ability to meet their goals, influence others and create change. They have learned to redefine their worth and value professionally to their institutions and academic librarianship. Each speaker will share a reflection on how their past and present informs their work and provide an example of how this is embodied. This has resulted in reframing notions of value, worth, and evaluation. Cleire Lauron will discuss projects that support and further EDI and decolonialization initiatives. She will share ongoing technical services projects on decolonizing bibliographic descriptions related to Indigenous peoples, Indigenous authors local subject term, and implementing a modified Brian Deer Indigenous Classification System to organize KPU Library’s Indigenous-specific collection. These initiatives reflect and integrate Indigenous ways of knowing into our retrieval systems; thus, amplifying Indigenous voices and supporting equity, diversity and inclusion. Melissa Smith will share reflections on reimagining how to best reach first year students, specifically international and first-generation students, and how these reflections have impacted Library Welcome Week programming. Carolyn Caseñas will share the Displays and Engagement Strategy for Fraser (SFU Surrey) Library and how it is driven by local community and institutional demographics, priorities and values, as well as a professional best practices.Cleire Lauron

Carolyn Caseñas is the Assistant Head, Learning and Instructional Services and User Services and Engagement Librarian - Fraser Library at Simon Fraser University. She previously worked in programming and community engagement in public libraries. In addition to connecting libraries with their communities, her interests include mentorship and coaching. Carolyn co-facilitates the CAPAL Displays, Outreach and Engagement Community of Practice and is a 2022-2023 ARL Leadership and Career Development Program Fellow.

Cleire Lauron is the Metadata & Discovery Librarian at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She graduated her MLIS in 2019 and has previously worked at public and academic libraries. Cleire’s areas of interest include Resource Description and Access (RDA), subject analysis, and classification. Her most recent project is the implementation of a modified Brian Deer Indigenous classification to organize KPU Library’s χʷəχʷéy̓əm Indigenous Collection.

Melissa Smith

Melissa Smith is the Student Success Librarian at KPU Library. She was previously contractually employed as the Librarian for Education at SFU Library. Melissa has a strong interest in meaningfully engaging all library users and in bringing compassion and enthusiasm to all library programming. 

Samantha Zani

Current studies need to consider the information-seeking behaviours of liaison librarians since student information- seeking habits have been the primary focus of research. Drawing on a landmark paper by Dr. Diane Sonnenwald (2001), the information behaviour research method to investigate information seeking reveals how humanities liaison librarians meet the needs of their faculty members and students. Using Sonnenwalds methodology, liaison librarians created information horizon maps during an interview which outlined how they stay relevant and informed in their liaison area. The information horizon maps reveal new understandings of how academic librarians acting as liaisons for humanity faculties utilize information resources. If we can promote greater reflection on liaison librarian information-seeking behaviours, students and faculty without formal information science training may develop new ways to engage with academic services.

Samantha Zani is a student in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and works in User Services for Research and Education with the University of Toronto Libraries. Her areas of specialization include post-confederation Canadian History, North American Studies, Archives and Records Management and Library & Information Science

Caitlin Keenan

We think we know what students need to know in order to succeed. But what do *they* think they need to know? And how can their perspective help us adapt and grow our information literacy instruction practices? For over a decade now, the librarians at Royal Roads University have offered an "embedded librarian" program in which a librarian hosts a forum within a course's LMS. During this three-to-five-day virtual embedding, the librarian offers a series of canned posts on standard information literacy topics, and students can interact with the posts or create their own posts to ask questions. These forums meet with mixed success -- some are extremely popular, and others receive little engagement. In 2021-2022, two of the RRU Librarians set out to better understand the value of these forums for students. RRU students are primarily mid-career adults returning to graduate school after an extended period in the workforce; thus, we were particularly interested to see how that lived experience might be reflected in their self-assessed capabilities and needs. As part of this study, we asked students: where are we hitting the mark, and where are we missing it? Which of our posts are resonating, and where are the gaps? Results from this survey revealed many anticipated patterns, but also some areas where student expectations of information literacy instruction appear to be shifting. This talk will describe the feedback we collected, examine shifting patterns in student pain points, and discuss how we might adjust our offerings based on these findings.

Caitlin Keenan has been the Librarian for User Experience, Outreach, and Assessment at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia since 2020. Before transitioning to librarianship, she spent several years as a web content strategist and user experience researcher in the public service. She gets excited about evidence-based practice and improving the research lives of students and faculty.

Aneta Kwak, Kristin Hoffman

Many academic librarians struggle to find time for research and writing. Daily tasks can monopolize our time, leaving little room to focus on our research goals. Research can also feel like a solitary activity that can make research feel like a daunting task and the challenges that come with researching feel like an individual issue. Writing communities and writing retreats can help overcome these challenges, by providing dedicated space, structured time, and a peer support group. University libraries and writing centres often develop writing and research support to students and faculty at their institutions. However, support for librarians with their own research is not as common. In this session, you will hear from members of the Librarians and Archivists Research Support Network at the University of Western Ontario and members of the University of Toronto Libraries Research Interest Group about the virtual spaces they have set up to help librarians focus on research. At Western, an online writing retreat has been running twice monthly since December 2020. At U of T, a Shut Up and Write virtual pilot was offered in summer and fall of 2022 where librarians met every two weeks for a 3 hour block of time to work on their research using the Pomodoro time management technique. Both groups also hosted cross institutional sessions, with Western librarians attending a UofT offering and UofT librarians attending a Western offering, to explore the possibility of larger study hall events. Hear about how these virtual communal spaces have fostered support, connections, accountability, and encouragement. Learn about best practices for starting a virtual writing group with your colleagues. Leave with inspiration to take control of your calendar and make time for the research that matters to you.

Aneta Kwak and Jesse Carline are librarians at the University of Toronto. They are members of the Reasearch Interest Group, which supports librarians research interests.

Kristin Hoffmann, Leanne Olson, and Christy Sich are librarians at the University of Western Ontario. They are (or were recently) members of Western’s Librarians and Archivists Research Support Network, a grassroots initiative that has been in place for fifteen years to encourage and support research.

Lindsay McNiff & Nicole Carter

The temporary contract, an early experience for many in the field of academic librarianship, poses several challenges to librarians around job and emotional security, career opportunities and trajectory, and workload and burnout. Our recently published Canada-wide survey study of individuals who have held contract positions as academic librarians in Canada found that contract academic librarians are caught in a difficult set of competing structural and emotional experiences, some gaining new skills and networks, satisfaction, and confidence from their contract experiences, and others feeling stressed, excluded, overworked, undervalued, and prevented from making life decisions (McNiff & Carter, 2022). Many participants felt that their experiences on a temporary contract have impacted their attitudes about the profession and their approach to their work even after moving into a permanent librarian position. Given the proliferation of contract work in academic librarianship, we need to put more care and effort into supporting colleagues joining us in temporary contract positions. In this session, we will share findings from unpublished data from our survey that pertain specifically to participants’ experiences of supervision, mentorship, and training while in contract positions. Our participants commented on the supervision they experienced while on a temporary contract, including the regularity and helpfulness (or lack thereof) of meetings, the shape and impact of formal and informal mentorships, and the nature and effect of the training they received. We will also engage participants in discussing the challenges of contract work with a focus on these areas. Hearing about our participants’ experiences may help administrators and colleagues provide more support to temporary librarians in the form of better onboarding, training, ongoing professional growth, integration to the team, and immersion into the workplace and professional culture.

Lindsay McNiff is a Learning and Instruction Librarian and the liaison librarian for the Centre for Teaching and Learning, the English Department, and the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University. She also teaches graduate courses in the Dalhousie School of Information Management on information services and information literacy instruction.

Nicole Carter is the Librarian responsible for Reference and Research Services at Saint Mary’s University, Patrick Power Library.

Nirmal Gomes

In the last decades academic library services and programs changed a lot because of technology changes and customer’s demand. Library is not anymore with books and shelves and the library director is not only managing building and collection development. Library is more important than in the past, therefore the academic library urgently needs a transformative leader who sees and acts to uphold the library as a whole for the development of entire community members. Librarianship has become more important acting as a mentor, social worker, youth coordinators, community facilitators, trainer, and social media marketers. Librarians serve as a point of social contact for socially isolated people and continue to reach out to those vulnerable elderly and other community members as they need. Emphasizing the role of library leadership, library and information science educator Stueart and Sullivan demonstrated that the role of the library leaders is, “envisioning, articulating and influencing a future through development of vision, culture and set of values within the organization” (Freedman, 2020, p.9). The primary purpose of this presentation is to describe and analyze transformative leadership, its characteristics, and professionals’ implications that help to transform the academic library for efficient policy development, services, collection development, preservation, staff development, equity, inclusion, and social justice to the libraries. We experienced that technology advancement, COVID-19, and changing customers’ expectations changed library services the way information access and librarians’ duties. With the advent of the digital era information and resources have become more available anywhere and anytime and libraries acting as the social changing agent. The academic library needs the transformative leaders who can manage and transform their library and showcase its importance to all the stakeholders and to transform the organization to be just that process by the leaders to the ends of equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Nirmal L. Gomes is a Librarian and an expert in higher education administration, management-HR, library management earned MSLIS degree in fall 2022 concentration in Community Service Librarianship and Academic Library Specialization at CUA. Mr. Gomes earned MSM with a specialty in HR, and MA in Higher Education from CUA. He works as the Resource Management Specialist at Mullen Library, CUA for 24 years, and serves as the Librarian at Marist College Library, Marist Society Inc., Washington, DC. Mr. Gomes volunteers for 30 years with government and non-government organizations in various leadership positions include schools, universities, and socioeconomic organizations in Bangladesh and United States, such as past President and VP of Association of Graduate LIS Students (AGLISS) and Students Ambassador, CUA. He is a Committee Associate Member, Chapter Relations Committee (2021-2024), ALA and Board Advisory Council, Maryland Representative (2021-2023), PTPL. He served in a leadership position more than ten years in various socioeconomic development organizations in Bangladesh. His awards: 2020 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, ALA, an International Scholar winner, April 2008, recognized by CUA’s Center for Global Education. In 2003, he awarded “Archbishop Gangly Literature Award” a national award distributes by the Weekly Pratibeshi (only a Catholic national publication), Bangladesh.

Sarah Wood-Gagnon

Advocacy for libraries and librarianship is one of the core values of the profession, however, the emotional effect of librarians advocating within the workplace amongst peers has only been tangentially studied. Previous research on librarians and emotional labour and morale have revealed that librarians struggle with burnout and feeling undervalued. Research regarding librarians’ perceptions of themselves and their relationships with various stakeholders has revealed that many do not have accurate perceptions of the depth and breadth of librarians’ work. I wanted to research how academic librarians feel about advocating for themselves and their libraries within the academic sphere. As part of my master’s degree, I conducted a national survey to investigate the affective impact of professional advocacy in the workplace for academic librarians in Canada. The survey was comprised of demographic questions to provide descriptive data, and long answer questions about workplace situations and associated emotions for thematic analysis. This presentation will discuss some of the findings of this research project with the goal of elucidating experiences of advocating for the library and librarianship within academia, as well as emotions related to these experiences and how this has impacted librarians’ practice.

Sarah Wood-Gagnon is a MISt candidate at McGill University’s School of Information Studies. She holds an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Regina. Her thesis focused on the affective and sensory influence of Catholic relics and responses to the heart of Brother André in archival material. She is interested in applying affect theory to research in librarianship and archival practice.

Emily Carlisle-Johnston, Courtney Waugh

The term openwashing originated in 2009, when Michelle Thorne coined and defined it as the process of “spin[ning] a product or company as open, although it is not.” The term has since become more common among scholars and practitioners, though research on the topic is minimal. From a recent literature review, we have concluded that commentary on openwashing coalesces around two themes: marketing and transparency. Openness as a virtue has become a marketing asset that academic publishers capitalize on by co-opting the language of Open without adherence to Open values. Our current study uses a content analysis methodology to discover how publishers market Open to authors. We examined webpages about Open Access (OA) from 25 medium-to-large size academic publishers. The publishers featured in our study—including Elsevier, Springer, and MDPI—were identified and randomly sampled from a list of publishers we found in a recent paper (Nishikawa-Pacher, 2022). We aim to categorize publisher tactics that are characteristic of openwashing by surfacing themes and comparing publishers’ use of Open language to their actual practices. Themes identified in our analysis will inform a framework that can teach LIS professionals how to spot openwashing, and thereby “lay fertile ground for change” by empowering our field to collectively identify and challenge the ways that publishers use the language of Open to mobilize openwashing. These skills are necessary for librarians in the face of for-profit publishers that develop increasingly complex OA models that authors require our support in understanding, and publishers that also propose new, costly agreements to libraries to appeal to rising interest and requirements for OA. Further, if librarians ever want to collectively dismantle the monopoly that commercial publishers have over scholarly publishing—in favour of an open, community-driven approach—we must first be able to identify and be honest about the ways their OA models are not aligned with the values or vision for scholarly publishing that inspired OA …despite what their marketing suggests. With this in mind, we will present our preliminary findings, focusing especially on one openwashing tactic that we’ve identified: “the hidden-tradeoff.” Through examples, we’ll showcase the ways that commercial publishers “define and discuss OA based on a narrow set of attributes” that support their business model, thereby shaping authors’ understandings of Open, and undermining other advocacy and progress that has been made towards an OA landscape that is motivated by values, not profit.

Emily Carlisle-Johnston provides education and support for researchers and authors to make their work Open Access, helping them to make informed decisions in doing so. She works with editors of open access journals that are hosted and published through Western Libraries. She also works with faculty looking to incorporate Open Educational Resources (OER) in their teaching as a way to support student success.

Courtney Waugh - As a Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian Courtney's work centres on open access advocacy and education. In other words, she helps to educate faculty and students on issues related to scholarly publishing, such as options for making work openly available, copyright and licensing, and author’s rights. She is also the administrator of Western Libraries’ institutional repository, Scholarship@Western, for which she coordinates the collection and dissemination of research in the repository.

Dr. Yumi Shin

This presentation will introduce a faculty in-service program that the Alfred R. Neumann Library at the University of Houston – Clear Lake recently created and will implement in the spring of 23. Academic libraries try their best to find creative and effective ways to market their services to faculty since faculty support is essential to promote and improve library services. The purpose of this new program is to introduce various library services offered to faculty and encourage them to utilize the services available. Two surveys will be conducted before and after the program. The before-survey will be asked to faculty to examine what services they like to know the most, so the library can present the services that they need. The after-survey will be steered to study the impacts of the program. Based on the feedback from faculty, the program can be redesigned to accommodate the needs.

Dr. Yumi Shin is the former assistant director of research and instruction at the University of Houston – Clear Lake. She was in charge of the research and instruction services by managing the team through collaborations with librarians. Throughout her doctoral and MBA programs, Dr. Shin developed extensive knowledge of leadership skills and methods vital to the institution’s success. She has also conducted research and published articles on the topic of leadership and instruction in academic libraries. Lastly, she has been recognized a few times for her professional accomplishments statewide and nationwide.

Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, Dr. Vanessa Jones

It can be argued that there are four varying roles that library professionals play in meeting the needs of patrons: educational needs, entertainment and leisure, preservation of material, and social integration. Being BIPOC females, who have earned degrees at various private and public universities in the United States, we take the position that such aforementioned roles are critical to providing excellent service and integral to our personal and professional growth. In various academic library settings, short, mid-range, and long-term goals for advancing diversity and inclusion competences are encouraged; yet, insufficient attention is afforded into showing how one might demonstrate their growth in these areas and/or provide a measurable means of reaching the goals. This presentation focuses on three components designed to inspire library professionals better serve patrons in academic libraries: 1. Learn the community that you are serving - its history and ever changing demographics; 2. Learn the history of your institution - as a fortress of higher learning and its library as a socio-cultural establishment; and 3. Learn one new way to familiarize yourself with something innovative in your community (e.g., the ability to change the language on a database, an app that students are using on your campus connected to a service on campus, and/or a mental health crisis contact that you can access quickly to share with others). This presentation consists of: • A limited lecture of what we hoped to learn while obtaining the library degrees, but had to learn on our own (10 minutes). • Literature review handout on working with non-traditional students in the library (5 minutes). • Hands-on scenarios with brainstorming in large and small groups (60 minutes). • Any remaining time will allow for questions and answers. We’ve devised 10 scenarios that library professionals may not have faced, but need to consider when attempting to provide agency to those who often are voiceless. These scenarios have three pre-determined options from which to pick, or they come devise brand-new answers.

Dr. Elizabeth Johnson taught for over a decade at three colleges/universities focusing on ethnic/cultural studies and history before returning to school to obtain a MLIS degree. Prior to her arrival at Tennessee State University, Dr. Johnson was the Library Director at the College of Southern Idaho and is currently Assistant Director of Operations and Planning/Associate Professor at Tennessee State University. She is the author of two books: Resistance and Empowerment in Black Women's Hair Styling and Female Narratives in Nollywood Melodramas. Dr. Johnson’s love for researching and writing continues as she is steadfast in publishing articles and book chapters.

Dr. Vanessa Jones has been an academic library professional for over nine years as a Collection Management, Catalog/Reference, Library Media Specialist, and now, as a Technical Service Librarian/Assistant Professor. She enjoys assisting and motivating others to reach their full potential. Her assignment is to work with the faculty and students to integrate information literacy and research skills. As the library liaison to the Business Infom1ation Systems and Public Administration departments, she is responsible for information literacy sessions, embedded librarian service, research appointments, materials selection, and research guides. Dr. Jones also performs all aspects of traditional and electronic reference services, cataloging, and interlibrary loans.

Day 2, June 2, 2023

Sarah Coysh & Dominique Scheffel-Dunand

Dans notre discours d'ouverture et notre discussion, nous présenterons brièvement le projet Camerise : sa vision et sa mission, son répertoire de ressources et les outils conçus pour construire une communauté ouverte et inclusive en FLS/FLA, axée sur l'éco-responsabilité et les valeurs humaines. Nous soulignerons les possibilités de répertoire et portail comme Camerise connectés à d’autres répertoires canadiens et francophones pour promouvoir l’éducation ouverte et la production de REL en français. Nous discuterons aussi les résultats d’une pilote d’une série de trois modules de formations pour sensibiliser à l’importance de l’éducation ouverte en Français langue seconde ainsi que pour aider et soutenir les membres de la communauté FLS dans le développement de leur propre parcours professionnel. Ce type de projet répertoire/portail d’engagement communautaire offre la possibilité de mentorer les éducateurs/éducatrices du jardin d’enfant au postsecondaire à la production de REL dans le domaine de l’enseignement du FLS/FLA. Les pratiques pédagogiques innovantes qui peuvent être partagées, traduites et réaffectées dans le cadre du développement professionnel au profit des milieux locaux d'enseignement et de l’apprentissage peuvent être co-conçues, co-pilotées et mises en œuvre avec Camerise et ses communautés de pratique. Après avoir illustré la manière dont l'éducation ouverte, la création de ressources éducatives ouvertes et l'intégration de compétences spécifiques telles que le fait de savoir partager dans la conception et le pilotage des pratiques de développement professionnel, le public sera invité à réfléchir de manière collaborative aux tâches à venir et aux conversations à encourager pour créer et maintenir des pratiques éco-responsables en réseau qui placent les valeurs humaines au cœur de l’enseignement du FLS/FLA.

Sarah Coysh is the Interim Director of York University Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Infrastructure department. She is also a course director with the Department of English, Glendon Campus. Sarah's research interests include open pedagogy, feminist digital methods, and emerging technologies. She is a member of York's Open Education Steering Committee and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries Open Education Working Group.

Dominique Scheffel-Dunand is Associate professor in linguistics in French studies (LAPS) at York university.  She is one of the co-leads of Camerise (an initiative funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Department of Canadian Heritage to develop a repertory for FSL/FLA OER as well as a web interface to engage communities of research and practice in FSL education). Dominique 's research interests include open pedagogy, globally networked learning teaching/research practices and open communities.  She is a member of York's Open Education Steering Committee.

Courtney Lundrigan & Kate MacDonald

As a small library in the University of Toronto system, Graham Library primarily serves the Trinity and Wycliffe College communities. For some time, Graham Library lacked a current strategic plan. We sought to develop a strategic plan that acknowledged our role in the larger system, while still aligning with our unique federated college environment. Past strategic plans had focused on concrete work plans used mostly for internal planning and benchmarking. From these roots, we connected past practices to more abstract, long-term goals and objectives.    Looking to peer institutions for inspiration, we engaged in a collaborative, transparent strategic planning process. From defining our user groups to gathering staff input and seeking community feedback, we cultivated relationships along the way. Small libraries have a lot of potential to cultivate fruitful connections with local constituencies, as well as external communities.  Our presentation will guide participants through our process and will be particularly useful for those in a smaller environment or those engaging in the strategic planning process for the first time. Ultimately, we hope to inspire our audience to find a ‘root’ in strategic planning where they may not otherwise see one. 

Courtney Lundrigan joined Graham Library nearly ten years ago to provide instruction, research, and learning support to undergraduate students at Trinity College. As she becomes more embedded in College programs, Courtney has become increasingly interested in organizational planning and advocating for the importance of critical thinking and research skills instruction as part of the student experience. 

Kate MacDonald began her career at Graham Library in rare and special collections cataloging and more recently took on the role of library director. Kate is highly committed to the student experience, the importance of rare and special collections, and working strategically to incorporate new services and commitments to EDI and sustainability.

Priscilla Carmini & Alexandra Wong

Introducing data skills and data software to diverse groups and fields of study can be challenging. Melding the fields of data physicalization and critical making with traditional crafts like crochet, we created a new workshop that provides a more welcoming and inclusive way to understand and experience data fundamentals. Leveraging the trend in crocheted or knitted temperature blankets, our small group of workshop participants brought data to life through crocheting a potholder that revealed temperature changes. During this presentation, we will discuss the planning process involved in the creation of this workshop to help the audience learn how to bring a craft-based data workshop to life. We will pay particular attention to the learning outcomes and pedagogy. We will further discuss the logistics of implementing a new type of workshop, the budget and materials required, and its relation to the emergence of creative spaces within York University Libraries. Finally, we will explore how this workshop was received by our participants, critically assess strategies for future workshops, and summarize recommendations for others who may want to implement a similar workshop.

Priscilla Carmini (she/her) is a Scholarly Communications Librarian at York University. She holds a Master of Information, and a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science from the University of Guelph. She is interested in assessing, developing, and leveraging library services, such as open-access digital repositories, open-access publishing initiatives, and library teaching opportunities to create a more equitable and sustainable research and publishing environment for York’s faculty, staff, and students.

Alexandra Wong (she/her) is the Data Visualization and Analytics Librarian at York University. She is a graduate of the Master of Information Program at the University of Toronto, concentrating in Library and Information Sciences, and holds a Bachelor of Mathematics and Bachelor of Business Administration double-degree from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, respectively. Having worked for several years in the technology sector as a data analyst, she is particularly interested in democratizing data skills and supporting efforts to make technology inclusive. She is also interested in diversifying what and whom are represented in the public knowledge and linked open data sphere.

The return to in-person environments following COVID shutdowns have brought to light pressures and pain points for libraries, and challenged us to look critically at the services we offer. From a shifting landscape of student needs including mental health and EDIA initiatives to acclimatizing new hires, librarians are being tasked with developing more person-centered approaches. This panel will highlight some of the work that Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) at the University of Calgary is doing to develop individual and tailored approaches aimed at building resilience and fostering inclusivity.

Kim Clarke - Planting Seeds for Successful Librarian Careers New librarians usually obtain information and advice on the general expectations of position and tenure process from their immediate supervisor or colleagues, often in response to their questions. This can result in gaps, inconsistencies, and even inaccuracies in the information they receive. In response, LCR created a formalized program, the Academic Success Program, to provide career advice and support to untenured librarians, archivists, and curators. This session will discuss the purpose, structure, and contents of, and the services provided through, the Academic Success Program.

Kim Clarke is the Director of Staff Engagement (LCR) and the Law & Law and Society Librarian at the University of Calgary. She previously served as the Director of the Bennett Jones Law Library and the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources and as the Associate Vice-Provost of Research Services for Libraries and Cultural Resources.

Alex Alisauskas - Supports for Mental Health in Academic Libraries From yoga rooms to puppy visits, academic libraries are engaging in mental health conversations. No longer places of quiet study, academic libraries are providing services and spaces meant to alleviate some of the mental health struggles our users face, particularly those brought to light by COVID-19 such as anxiety and isolation anxiety to isolation. This presentation will highlight findings of a recent scoping review on mental health supports in academic libraries and discuss various types of services, key success factors, and outcomes of programming mental health supports for students.

Alexandra Alisauskas (she/her) is a Learning and Engagement Librarian at the University of Calgary. Her current research explores contemporary art, artists’ and writers’ archives, and person-centred approaches to library, archival, and information services. She lives and works as a grateful guest on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in southern Alberta.

Sydney Burton - Creating a Virtual Reference Tool for LGBTQIA2S+ Students LCR has long pursued a variety of tools to offer personalized library experiences to patrons. Recent writings and events have shown, however, that academic libraries must do a better job at supporting LGBTQIA2S+ individuals in both their physical and virtual spaces, a finding highlighted by LCR’s work with the Q Centre (a student group that provides resources to LGBTQIA2S+ students and their allies at the UofC). This presentation will outline the process of consulting, planning, and designing a virtual reference tool to create a safer learning space for LGBTQIA2S+ students at the University of Calgary and will place emphasis on 2Spirit and Indigiqueer student needs.

Sydney Burton (she/they) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Classics and Religion and the Indigenous Student Library Assistant with Library and Cultural Resources at the University of Calgary. They are currently working on wayfinding tools to help students access 2Spirit materials within the library and more generally material related to indigeniety within archives. They live and work on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 Region in southern Alberta.

Jacquelyn Sundberg

Rare, special, and archival collections are rich grounds for inspiration, research, and community engagement. For every book and item in the collections, there is a community that would benefit from exploring its contents. There is an artist searching for inspiration, a scholar looking for connections, or a student looking for sources. Connecting collections with those who can use and be inspired by them is the ongoing project of outreach librarianship. How do we find where an idea, or an item will really take root and grow? When connected with an interested community, ideas and connections take root, allowing items in the special collections to grow into new stories and contexts. This growth is often rich and unexpected, taking the form of creative projects, exhibitions, articles, publications, research initiatives, or even opening new dialogues with similar items at other institutions. As librarians, we cannot predict what ways a given item may be of use, nor what may grow out of the fruitful connection of the right item with the right individual. Unfortunately, given the unique nature of rare, archival, and special collections, they are often more difficult to access for the general public. Identifying and working with primary sources takes education, and for many, that alone is barrier enough to discourage engagement. This presentation will discuss a creative outreach model we have been developing to address some of these barriers and to connect the broader public with items and ideas in the special collections. This model has allowed us to foster community engagement with our rare and unique items. By combining creative methods with more familiar program pieces, like virtual events and more interactive workshops, we developed a new model for creative community engagement with primary source collections. Over the past three years, ROAAr has built up a community of interest through regular public events in both virtual and in-person formats. These events showcase and animate individual items in the collections. leveraging the reach of the growing ROAAr events community to branch out to new audiences and already established community interest groups.

Jacquelyn Sundberg is an Outreach librarian for the special collections units at the McGill University Library. Combining experience in both public and academic libraries with her Masters degrees in English Literature and Information Studies, she uses her skillset to make library collections accessible to a broader audience. Her work includes grant projects, publications, multimedia projects, websites, videos, and games. Most recently, she created Moments in Time, a chronological card game supported by the library’s SSHRC-funded Serious play initiative.

Micheal McNally, Michelle de Agostini

This lightning talk examines the history and relationship between organizing library workers and creating spaces for critical conversations among those in the field that has occurred in Edmonton over the past dozen years. The talk begins with a short history of the rise and fall of the Edmonton Chapter of the Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG), which despite achieving some success, particularly in organizing its local symposiums (Cannon, 2014; MacDonald, 2013), ultimately collapsed as an organization. However, the connections forged there and the desire for an ongoing space for critical conversation facilitated the emergence of the local Politics of Libraries (PoL) Conference一a conference largely organized by student volunteers. The goal of PoL was twofold一to serve as a space for critical conversations too often excluded from workplaces and classrooms, and to facilitate the development of a national library workers organization. However, any degree of success has only been achieved in the former. Because of pandemic health restrictions, PoL itself has evolved from a local in person event to an online speaker series. While this change in format has broadened the reach of the event, with it now being able to attract attendees and speakers from around North America, PoL has so far been unable to achieve the goal of using the conference/speaker series format to sustain broader conversations about developing a library workers’ organization. The talk concludes with two foci: First, reflecting on the nature of Edmonton PLG and PoL, it underscores the seemingly unidirectional nature of the relationship between organizations and conferences/discussion spaces一organizations can much more easily create spaces for critical conversations than can conversation fora be converted into larger organizations. Second, it serves as a discussion point for conversations about how a national library workers’ organization in Canada can be created.

Michael B. McNally is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. He has been involved in open education/OER advocacy at the local, provincial and national levels. In addition to undertaking broadband advocacy work, he is the author of several articles and studies examining broadband advocacy in Canada.

Michelle De Agostini (she/her) is the Manager of Access Services at York University. Michelle has worked in almost every type of library - academic, public, special, and prison - and has a special interest in prison librarianship, accessibility, and social justice.

Elizabeth Stregger & Jaclyn McLean

People growing weary of the digital world are increasingly turning to craft to find creative satisfaction. What happens when these tangible crafts meet the digital world of social media? As librarians with craft practices and considerable digital experience, we’ve become interested in how makers reference their sources and inspirations in ways analogous to scholarly citations. In this project, we consider how expanding social media conversations about diversity and sustainability relate to citation practices in an online knitting event, the Great Canadian Wool-a-Long. Combining librarianship, creative passions, and new data analysis skills has shifted our research collaboration from a focus on assessment and critique to one of creative joy. The Great Canadian Wool-a-Long was an online event designed to celebrate Canadian wool that ran from August 1 – October 31, 2022. Participants included vendors of Canadian-grown wool, designers of craft patterns, and makers. Many of the vendors of Canadian-grown wool are individual farmers, operators of small historic mills, and independent dyers. We are using Instagram data to study the network created by the participants in this event. Participants reference each other by tagging tangible agricultural and creative products, as well as intellectual and creative contributions. Can an intervention such as a wool-a-long, specifically designed to shift knitting paradigms, create sustainable new connections online? We focused on learning about Social Network Analysis and evaluated digital tools for analyzing the data. In the second phase of our research project, we’ll interview participants in the wool-a-long to gain a qualitative perspective on the network. We’ve embraced the identity of librarian as expert learner—that is, experts who have expertise in how to learn, not learners who consider themselves experts in any one domain. To grow our practice as academic librarians, while still making our research relevant to academia’s structures and demands, we’ve challenged ourselves to bring our creative selves to work, and our research back to our creative network.

Elizabeth Stregger is the Data and Digital Services Librarian at Mount Allison University. I teach data literacy and support Research Data Management needs. My research is currently focused on social network analysis and the creative economy. My knitting habits tend to be deeply focused on exploring a colour palette from the local landscape or a technique like brioche or sequence knitting.

Jaclyn McLean is the electronic resources librarian at the University of Saskatchewan. My research interests include impostor syndrome, trends in scholarly publishing and access, and the application of evidence-based library & information practice (EBLIP) in professional practice. I am also exploring new ways to expand my identity as a researcher and look beyond librarianship. When I'm not at the library, you will likely find me with knitting needles or a cup of tea in hand and a ginger cat or two nearby.

Merran Carr-Wiggin

Advocacy initiatives by library associations seek to enact change by influencing governments and other stakeholder organizations for the benefit of libraries, their clients, and the profession of librarianship. This session will describe an exploratory study to see what seeds of advocacy and change have been sown by Canadian library associations, with a view to growing effective strategies for the future. The importance of advocacy work is underscored by the library field's ethical code (CFLA, 2019/IFLA 2012). Library advocacy literature to date has focused on practical guidance for librarians that can be used at the grassroots level (Million and Bossaler, 2020). In the Canadian context, there are few empirical studies and the field mostly relies on the literature of thought leaders (Cleyle, 2020; Bourne-Tyson, 2017). The research team looked at three organizations at the national level representing libraries and organizations of various types: the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, the Canadian Urban Libraries Council and the Canadian Federation of Library Associations. Data was collected from a variety of sources, including association documentation records of federal government consultations, and lobbying activities. A thematic analysis was conducted using open coding and visual theme mapping, and the results analyzed using Schein’s organizational behaviour lens. The results provide a cohesive view of the topics, directions and mechanisms of the advocacy efforts of these associations since 2016, as well as an initial assessment of gaps in themes and advocacy practices. This study will form the foundation of a further investigation to explore the impact of library association advocacy and to identify successful patterns and strategies for advocacy initiatives in the future.

Merran Carr-Wiggin is a Learning and Engagement Librarian at the University of Calgary. Prior to this she was a community librarian at Calgary Public Library and worked with Dalhousie University Libraries as the Research Information System Coordinator. She completed her MLIS degree at the University of Alberta in 2019, and was a visiting student at Dalhousie University. Before library school she held positions at Edmonton Public Library. She has worked professionally across Canada as an actor in theatre and film. Merran believes strongly in a community led approach to library practices and infusing library spaces with joy!

Céline Gareau-Brennan is the Business Librarian, Co-lead of the Library's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Team, Co-Lead for the Library's Communications Team at the University of Alberta. Through her work on numerous library associations boards, she developed an interest and passion for library advocacy. Her background, having completed a joint MBA & MLIS, raised her awareness and passion for organizational theory and governance.

Michael B. McNally is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. He has been involved in open education/OER advocacy at the local, provincial and national levels. In addition to undertaking broadband advocacy work, he is the author of several articles and studies examining broadband advocacy in Canada.

Hélène Carrier has experience working on boards of Canadian library associations (Ontario Library Association, Canadian Federation of Library Associations, ASTED). She currently is Associate University Librarian (Learning and User Services) at the University of Ottawa and previously held the positions of Interim Director of the School of Information Studies (2017-2020) as well as Director of the Morisset Library (Arts and Science).

Dr. Ben Mitchell

In the history of science and medicine there are numerous examples of how the “best available evidence” promoted by professional societies was profoundly, destructively wrong. This can be seen in the widespread support of scientific racism and eugenics as well as the pathologization of “sexual inversion” and gender variance. When, as librarians, we talk about the nature of authority and hold up peer review as an example of a methodological gold standard, we must always ask ourselves: whose peers are we talking about? For that matter, whose interests are we talking about? How tenable is the division between "grey literature," trade publications, and the "academic" literature of peer review? It is becoming increasingly evident, even to those outside the autistic community, that despite claims of being grounded in evidence-based practices, most studies on the effectiveness of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) are poorly designed, do not disclose conflicts of interest, display a strategic disregard of the harmful outcomes of interventions, and do not reflect the interests of the majority of autistic people. At best, ABA is expensive, intensive, and ineffective at improving life outcomes. At worst, it is actively traumatic and makes us more susceptible to further victimization. This discussion will examine recent challenges to the evidence-based nature of ABA and how ABA practitioners have historically taken advantage of the internalist nature of the peer-review system. These challenges reinforce what autistic activists have been saying for over twenty years and have consequences for how librarians deliver information literacy instruction and liaise with departments that may include faculty who have built their careers on ABA and related practices. Information literacy and librarianship are not neutral activities and must include a place for own voice narratives, patient, and survivor accounts if we are to avoid perpetuating harmful industry standards with a shrug and a gesture to how “well, everyone is doing it.”

Dr. Ben Mitchell is a librarian and educator with a background in the history of science and medicine. They have been a curator involved in the public history of mental health and neurodivergence and have delivered talks and programming on topics related to neurodiversity and information literacy at numerous conferences and events, including as an invited speaker at the Waterloo Public Library and as part of CAPAL’s Diversity & Equity Committee.

Nalissa Khan, Nathan Wolfe, Candy Yip, Kaley Young

The University of Toronto Mississauga Library maintains an in-person and online reference service that produces print and digital help guides. During the pandemic, members of our reference services team undertook training with WebAIM to make our digital help guides as accessible and barrier-free as possible. In this presentation, our team will discuss their experiences receiving WebAIM training, planning and negotiating challenges and compromises as they redesigned current help guides, as well as creating policies, procedures and templates to create help guides in the future that are born accessible. Our main objectives for our help guide redesign was to improve user experience and enhance our reference services by creating resources that were more accessible, usable and to foster a more inclusive environment for library patrons. It is essential that designing for accessibility be considered from the start and maintained throughout the entire design process; rather than thought of as an afterthought. As a front facing, student-oriented service point, the Reference Services team felt it was a priority to address accessibility. Using universal design principles, we focused on making documents both accessible and user-friendly for all students, regardless of their needs or abilities. Our help guides are a valuable resource for students and cover topics from peer review, citation and evaluating information sources. These guides effectively complement both in-person and virtual teaching and learning instruction.

Nalissa, Candy, Kaley and Nathan work in reference and research services at the University of Toronto Mississauga Library where they provide front line services to university students and design print guides, videos and other instructional resources.

Kristin Hoffman

Many academic librarians and archivists in Canada do research as part of their job responsibilities, but expectations and requirements for research vary considerably from one institution to the next. The subject area of research is one area of variation—are librarians and archivists able to undertake research in any area of their choosing? At some Canadian academic libraries the answer is Yes, but at others, research must be related to librarianship or archival studies. And at some libraries, there is a further expectation from administrators that librarians’ and archivists’ research should align with their professional practice. Not only does this raise concerns about academic freedom for librarians and archivists, but it also has implications for how we cultivate the research component of our work. Limiting the acceptable research topics for librarians and archivists is a less inclusive approach to research. However, there is no published evidence about librarians and archivists in Canada who carry out research in areas outside librarianship or archival studies, making it difficult to advocate for a broader, more inclusive scope for our research. In this presentation, I will present findings from a 2022 study that used an online questionnaire to gather responses from librarians and archivists who work at academic libraries in Canada to explore questions related to research in areas outside librarianship or archival studies, including creative works. How many librarians and archivists are doing research outside of librarianship or archival studies? What kinds of research are they doing? What are their perceptions of the importance of doing such research? What barriers do they experience in doing this research? Findings from this exploratory study will help answer these questions. The fuller picture that this study provides will help us better understand perspectives about research that is outside librarianship and archival studies. With this enhanced understanding, we can start to imagine how an expanded scope of research for all librarians and archivists in Canada can allow us to better support and encourage each other as researchers.

Kristin Hoffmann is a Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Western Ontario, where she has worked since 2006. Her professional work primarily involves supporting editors of open access journals that are hosted and published by Western Libraries. Kristin takes an active role in the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association and currently serves as the association’s secretary and as Deputy Chief Negotiator for the Librarians and Archivists Bargaining Team. Kristin was one of the founding co-editors of the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship. Her research focuses on the role of academic librarians as practitioner-researchers.

Allison Sivak, Jessica Thorlakson, Lisa Prins

Academic libraries can offer much to communities beyond campus boundaries. These offerings have traditionally included initiatives such as library cards for the public, open use of library space, and open access publishing. While technically "open to all," these types of services are more likely to be accessed by those who already have some comfort with coming on campus and using academic resources. They also are offered passively, waiting for users to come to us. But we can extend our reach, to actively share with those who cannot physically visit our academic library spaces. The University of Alberta Library collaborates to offer a correspondence book club to incarcerated people at the Edmonton Institution for Women (EIFW), a federal penitentiary. Our partner is Humanities 101 (HUM), a program that hosts free university classes both on- and off-campus. We have run two eight-week clubs that include writing and artwork by Indigenous scholars and creators. Each package includes copies of 4-7 readings and artworks, as well as writing and art-creation prompts, which encourage people to reflect on the readings through the filters of their own knowledges. We create sets that have multiple points of entry (memes, contemporary art, traditional art, poems, stories, personal essays, newspaper articles) to offer something to all kinds of readers. The club is rooted in a strengths-based approach, where we share materials that demonstrate the richness of Indigenous cultures and creation. We try to express a spirit of play, and to emphasize the pleasure of learning. Within prisons, people are often required to complete programming in which they must tell their stories of trauma and shame repeatedly in order to "demonstrate" how they have changed as people. This book club offers one counterbalance: people can accept packages without creating artwork, share work on any other topic, and visit with us during our "office hours." Over the club's lifespan, we have created an archive of readings, artwork, and activities developed by our team. We share access to this archive upon request, but require an agreement that other clubs will acknowledge the sources of the materials and contribute in kind to share with others. Our three-person panel will discuss how this club addresses Library strategic initiatives around decolonization and equity of access, how to build partnerships for targeted outreach, and the reasons why your library should consider bringing–not just "offering"– materials to people beyond campus.

Allison has worked at the University of Alberta Library since 2003, and is currently working with the Health Sciences library. She is one of five co-founders of the Greater Edmonton Library Association Prison Libraries Project, active in several Edmonton-area institutions since 2007.

Jessica Thorlakson is a librarian at the Science & Technology library, and has worked at UAlberta for nine years. She is the lead for 3-D printing services at Cameron Library. She has offered creative writing workshops to incarcerated people since 2015.

Lisa works as Program Coordinator of Humanities 101 (HUM), where she has been for over a decade. HUM offers unique, asset-based curriculum for several free, non-credit, university-level courses held both on and off the University of Alberta campus.

Digital Accessibility in Academic Libraries (DAAL) Community of Practice Seed Sharing Session

The Seed Share Session is a collection of short presentations where CAPAL members share a digital accessibility idea, initiative, issue or anything else! Join us as we hear from the following presenters:

“Sowing Digital Accessibility One Seed at a Time” by James Bachmann, Instruction Librarian at the Law Library, The University of British Columbia.

Many people may recognize the importance of digital accessibility but feel that they lack the knowledge and time to make a difference. Learn how you can bring about positive change by sowing the seeds of digital accessibility even if you have little relevant knowledge and little free time, how you can use these small amounts of knowledge and time to enact exponential change, and how you can grow this change even further if you happen to find yourself with a bit more knowledge or a bit more time.

“How Accessible are your Documents?” by Fiona Kovacaj, Web Librarian at the Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries, Toronto Metropolitan University

How often do you think about the accessibility of your work documents? Due to the busy nature of our jobs, we can sometimes overlook document accessibility. Alternatively, we may not always know how to make a document accessible. This session will focus on improving the accessibility of internal documents in your organization. It will consider such methods as staff training for digital accessibility, placing accessibility at the forefront of our internal policies and procedures, and fostering better habits when it comes to document accessibility.

Helen Power

The embedded librarianship model has gained traction in academic libraries over the past twenty years. Through this model, librarians become a part of the user group, rather than a service provider standing apart (Shumaker & Talley, 2009). In recent years, there has also been an increase in organizational restructuring. Academic libraries are moving away from a liaison model towards a functional model. With the functional model, librarians can specialize in an area of library and information science, becoming an expert in that field, but this may be at the expense of subject expertise and relationship building with faculty, students, and staff. While there has been some literature on the effect of organizational restructuring on librarians, staff, faculty, and students, the impact on existing embedded librarians has yet to be explored. How does this movement affect the work of embedded and partially embedded librarians? Does this shift toward a centralized services model negate the work that has been done with communities by embedded librarians? This paper strives to find a balance between the two models—functional and embedded--as they need not be mutually exclusive. Is it possible for the two models to work in tandem and complement one another? Or will the functional model of librarianship devour the embedded model within academia, resulting in it becoming little more than a footnote in LIS history books? This session will delve into the theory behind both models, identifying ways that they can complement and strengthen one another, allowing for a more robust and user-centric approach to academic librarianship. References: Shumaker, D., & Talley, M. (2009). Models of Embedded Librarianship: Final Report. http://www.talleypartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Models-of-Embedded-Librarianship_FinalReportRev-copy.pdf

Helen Power is the Engineering and Science Librarian at the University of Saskatchewan. She’s embedded within the College of Engineering, and a member of the Learning & Curriculum Support Division. Her research focuses on the evolving role of the librarian and community engagement.

Mariamawit Tesfaye Belete

The information revolution has resulted in dynamic changes in information dissemination services. Accordingly, the dynamic changes and absence of heed to students with disability lead them to face many challenges. Some social psychology depicts physical, mental, and social differences between the societies may be useful for better understanding the cognitive and social background of human information processing and may have important implications or a likely consequence for information dissemination services and systems. This research initiated to address the problem of information seeking behavior on students with disability. Data collected from different students studying in different disciplines. Different data collection tools (questionnaire, guided interview, and observation) used to gather information from the target samples. Since the total population of the study size is less, the availability sampling techniques was used. The objective of this research is to identify the possible challenges, identify the type of information services, and examine the factors affecting students’ information seeking behavior. Hence, it is pertinent to explore the disability differences in information seeking behavior of university students to better assist them in their information search processes. The students were surveyed by means of a semi-structured interview and guided questionnaires to assess what their information needs were, how they met those needs and whether the information they found from the institution’s information system met their needs or not. The preliminary research result shows that 66.6% of the participants granted libraries were established to service only non-physically challenged users that the first factor to meet their information need. Based on the findings of the study it is very clear that disabled students are not benefiting from the ongoing technological revolution thus, Information sources and formats improvement highly needed.

Mariamawit Tesfaye Belete I have teaching experience in the college of computing and informatics under the department of Information Science in one of the renowned University of Haramaya, Ethiopia for seven years and continuing until now. Additionally, I also give training for disabled and female students’ computer literacy (IT essentials) based on internationally recognized certificate CISCO in order to achieve good grades, communication and social life in their University stay.

Sarah Adams

With current struggles facing students with rising costs, measures to reduce financial and other barriers to higher education are now more important than ever. Open Educational Resources (OER) are an effective way to reduce additional costs for course materials, while also assisting in increasing student engagement, representation and diversity, and accessibility. This presentation will discuss considerations, strategies, and partnerships built through the development of an Open Education program at the University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources. Open Education initiatives will be presented with an emphasis on awareness building, adoption, and development of open educational resources (OER). When building Open Education programs, every institution is unique in their structure, user focus, and barriers they may face. This presentation will offer attendees one example of how an institution has gone about this and offer resources and services that attendees may adopt or adapt for their own institution. Following the presentation, time will be provided for attendees to ask questions and share their own Open Education program strategies.

Sarah Adams is the Open Education Librarian with Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) at the University of Calgary. In her role, she supports awareness and institutional community building around open education and open educational resources, use and development of OER, and publishing services for OER and open access journals. As an advocate for open education and OER, Sarah works closely with institutional partners, including the Students’ Union and the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, along with other provincial and national leaders on open education initiatives and advocacy efforts.

Alison J. Moore, Joey Takeda

Like many academic libraries in Canada, in the mid 2010s SFU Library began shifting away from a subject-based to a functional-based liaison librarian model. Digital scholarship services (including support for digital humanities project development, as well as consultation and training in new forms of scholarship) was one of the first emerging functional specialties, with support initially provided on an ad hoc basis and then formally through the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab (DHIL), established in 2017. Five years on, the DHIL, and digital scholarship services at academic libraries generally, have matured. In this presentation, we will describe our efforts to update DHIL policies and practices to make our services and supports more accessible, transparent, and equitable. We will share some observations about the strategies that digital scholarship centres use to reduce barriers to access, manage student and faculty expectations, and scope digital projects, while highlighting the opportunities and challenges of these approaches. Finally, we will outline some key outcomes from our update of the DHIL’s policies and procedures and what this has meant for how we structure collaboration in our unit.

Alison J. Moore is a Digital Scholarship Librarian in the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab at the Simon Fraser University Library Research Commons. Ali supports the DHIL projects, in addition to offering consultations and facilitating workshops on DH projects and tools.

Joey Takeda is a Developer in the DHIL. He has worked as a programmer for a number of DH projects, including The Map of Early Modern London, Landscapes of Injustice, Linked Early Modern Drama Online, and The Winnifred Eaton Archive.

Amy Minix, James Henry Smith, Thea Atwood

A Community of Practice (CoP) fosters the exploration of a topic through an informal setting, where group members learn from each other. CoPs have the potential to bring many perspectives and ideas to fruition due to the fluid coming together of disparate positions and responsibilities within an academic library. At Indiana University, librarians are in the process of building a CoP to support the exploration of multiliteracies. With the success of the Information Literacy Toolkit, conversations began budding about how to expand this tool to incorporate the multitude of literacies that students experience. Possible literacies to consider are: data, visual, algorithmic, health, emotional, financial, civic/voting, etc. The tried-and-true structure of the Information Literacy toolkit combined with an invested, mixed group of library professionals provides ample ground to germinate new ideas and move our collective progress forward. In this presentation, we plan to talk about: our experience pulling this CoP together, what seeds were planted, and how we anticipate the group to grow. As a result of this session, participants will be able to define what a community of practice is, describe what a CoP can look like within an academic library lens, and reflect on what multiliteracies they can explore at their own organization. Presenters would also like to open the conversation up to discuss how attendees have been able to leverage other frameworks to tackle big ideas.

Amy is the Neuro-Health Sciences Librarian at Indiana University, Bloomington. In this role, she serves as the liaison to the following departments and schools: psychological & brain sciences, nursing, optometry, and speech, language, & hearing sciences. She works closely with other units on campus, including the Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning, to promote services and opportunities for faculty and students. She is interested in retaining underrepresented students who are pursuing degrees and careers in STEM.

James Henry is the Information Literacy Librarian for Online Learning at Indiana University Bloomington. They work closely with the Teaching and Learning Department and the Business Library to create online learning modules centered around finding, accessing, and critically evaluating information. In this work, they focus on implementing trauma-informed pedagogy and promoting accessibility best practices in digital spaces. They are currently the steward of the Information Literacy Online Toolkit for the Indiana University System. 

Sam Popowich

Academic libraries see themselves as knowledge institutions participating in the mission of universities. What constitutes “knowledge” in this context is often uninterrogated, which places real limits on the practical politics of equality, diversity, and inclusion. The imperial Western variety of knowledge that underpins universities and academic libraries presents itself as the single true, universal way of knowing arising out of raw, unmediated data contextualized into information. Truth in this view means simply accurate correspondence with reality. Through the data-information-knowledge-wisdom model as well as an unacknowledged positivism, this singular way of knowing is presented as uncontroversial common sense in library schools and thereby informs academic library theory and practice, creating a real risk that through our seemingly unobjectionable view of knowledge and truth, we are in fact participating in settler-colonialism and reinforcing other structures of domination on the epistemological plane. In recent years, however, this perspective has been criticized by Indigenous scholars like Linda Tuhiwai Smith as a way of erasing Indigenous ways of knowing and thereby reinforcing settler-colonialism. By the same token, the dominant view of knowledge in the West is deeply implicated in capitalist social and economic relations, including relations of planetary exploitation. Even within the Western tradition, however, alternative ways of thinking about data, information, and knowledge exist, but these tend to be similarly repressed and obscured. This talk will look at the way a single version of knowledge became dominant in European thought, the reasons it needs to erase alternatives, what those alternatives look like and consequences for library theory and practice, suggesting that if we want to adequately support Indigenous sovereignty and confront climate change, we must first open up the academy to alternative varieties of knowledge.

Sam Popowich (he/him) is a librarian at University of Winnipeg and a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Birmingham. His research interests include political and cultural theory, Marxism, technology, and the politics of librarianship. He is the author of _Confronting the Democratic Discourse of Librarianship: A Marxist Approach_ (Library Juice Press, 2019).

Elizabeth Nicholson, Erika Hosselkus

Strategic planning processes typically serve to articulate institutional priorities. They are often led by upper administration and traditionally involve individual employees in management positions or with longevity. At Hesburgh Libraries, with the initial guidance of the University’s Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research, we have shifted this traditional paradigm by placing core functions and sustaining work on par with high-level goals and objectives in an effort to mitigate skepticism, fears, and alienation that may characterize processes of institutional change. Moreover, our most recent strategic framework planning process has emphasized a highly collaborative approach to engage all employees. Throughout this effort we have endeavored to center the idea that daily sustaining work is equally, if not more, important than new initiatives, affirming the regular contributions that we all make. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of our strategic framework process, as well as share the impact of our efforts to recognize and forefront individuals and core functions.

As Unit Head for User Education and Engagement in the Teaching, Research & User (TRU) Services program at Hesburgh Libraries, Elizabeth collaborates with library faculty and campus faculty to develop creative and innovative ways of fostering information literacy skills for undergraduate students. She also serves as the library liaison to the Writing & Rhetoric program, and was recently a member of the libraries’ strategic planning development and implementation teams.

Erika is presently serving as Strategic Implementation Project Manager for the Hesburgh Libraries. In this role she is leading Phase 3 of strategic framework development, facilitating implementation and organization-wide alignment, on behalf of the Dean of the Hesburgh Libraries. She is also curator of Latin Americana and subject specialist for Latin American and Latinx Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in History and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University.

Information Literacy Community of Practice

Brief presentation and facilitated discussion by Marta Samokishyn and Rachel Moylan. "Beyond the Black Box: Academic librarians' approach to algorithm literacy in the age of ChatGPT"

Marta Samokishyn, Catherine Lachaîne, Ryan Rivando

Academic libraries are often described as “a beacon of diversity and inclusion” (Jones et al., 2021). For example, Cruz (2019) states that “diversity is a cornerstone of the library profession” (p. 220), while Wagner & Crowley (2020) believe that academic librarians have a duty to call attention to the underrepresented voices. However, in practice is this truly the case? As libraries navigate in a society that is inherently racist, unjust, and oppressive, it is crucial to critically examine libraries’ collection policies and practices, and whether these policies and practices “contribute to inequity, marginalization, and injustice” (Morales et al., 2014, p. 448). In fact, this active and critical self-investigation is the necessary path over neutrality. The process of decolonizing library collections is essential to “combat a traditionally Eurocentric focus by focusing on intentionally acquiring materials” (Blume & Roylance, 2020). While many Canadian Universities have adopted and issued equity, diversity, inclusion, and indigenization (EDII) statements, academic libraries do not necessarily proceed to make their own EDII statements or reflect EDII principles in their collection development policies. Thus, this research stems from the pressing need to understand how Canadian University libraries respond to incorporating the EDII principles into their policy and professional practice. During the first phase of the project, an environmental scan, the researchers investigated whether the institutions contained an EDII statement on their websites and if any references to the libraries and/or their collections were present in this statement. During the second phase of the project, the researchers conducted a textual analysis of collection development policies to identify whether Canadian university libraries incorporate EDII language in their policies. This presentation will provide an overview of the results and findings, as well as reflections on how collection development policies of academic libraries in Canada represent the EDII principles and how it aligns with the professional practice of academic librarians. This project offers a unique and important insight into how, if so, Canadian academic libraries adapt to the EDII-specific needs in the University and research communities while amplifying diverse voices through their collections. As library collections reflect universities' mission and values, critical thinking on EDII principles is a fertile ground for change and growth as an institution.

Marta Samokishyn is a Collection Development and Liaison Librarian at Saint Paul University and a Research Fellow at BC Campus. She has over 12 years of experience in collection development. She holds her MIS from the University of Ottawa.

Catherine Lachaîne is a Student Success Librarian at the University of Ottawa. She holds an MIS and is currently completing a master's degree in education, both from the University of Ottawa. She’s the 2022-2023 president of ABO-Franco, a division of the Ontario Library Association (OLA).

Ryan is an MLIS candidate at Western University (complete April 2023). Ryan works at Scholars Portal doing virtual reference and the Fort Erie Public Library.

Closing Keynote: Re-storying A vision for change

Dr. Kathy Absolon, MSW Ph.D

I am not a librarian. I have found libraries to be strange places. They are quiet, reserved, and full of old smells. I was raised in the bush – my library of reference is quite different than the academy, yet, I have spent countless hours searching in stacks and in virtual spaces for knowledge and information to complete a total of 10 years of post-secondary education. I have spent most of my academic life combing academic libraries in search of Indigenous knowledge, not knowing, that an erasure had occurred. Where are we I wondered? My experiences, representations, stories, and knowledge were absent and omitted in libraries. Most academic libraries still use racist terms that reinforce stereotypes and negative representations. During my own doctoral journey, I began a search for Indigenous knowledge with a goal to privilege and begin the journey of restoring Indigenous places of where knowledge is held. An Indigenous knowledge carrier once told me that we need to rebuild Indigenous libraries.

Revisioning change takes time:  Let’s move around a wholistic framework to help you consider elements of re-imaging for change. We know that change is needed but what things needed to change. What does it mean to decolonize libraries. In this presentation, I will present a lens or a way of looking at colonial structures toward unpacking and finding pathways toward change and inclusion. I will take you on a journey of visioning change and more to what it means and what needs to decentre colonizing knowledge? I will plants seeds toward inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and diverse representations of knowing. I am a bit of a storyteller and knowledge seeker, therefore in this presentation you will receive stories that can inform how you move forward.

 Kathy Absolon (Minogiizhigokwe – Shining Day Woman) is Anishinaabe kwe who is a community helper, knowledge seeker, knowledge carrier, educator, re-searcher and writer. Kathy is a member of Flying Post First Nation Treaty 9. At the age of 61, Kathy carries truth stories about both a rich cultural history and Canada’s colonial history. Her lifetime of work in decolonial stories and Indigenous education has been informed by her land-based philosophy. Currently, Kathy is a Professor in the Indigenous Field of Study, Masters of Social Work Program in the Faculty of Social Work and the Director of the Centre for Indigegogy at Wilfrid Laurier University. She spent the first 20 years of her life living in the bush in a place called Cranberry Lake.  The land, she says, taught her so much about life and she continues to reflect and draw on her land based teachings.  Her passion for wellness among her peoples and the restoration of Indigenous knowledge in Creation has been one of the driving forces in her life work as an Indigenous wholistic practitioner in child welfare, Native mental heath, youth justice, education, and community work.  Over the last 35 years, her academic and cultural work has been in restoring, reclaiming, re-righting Indigenous history, knowledge, cultural worldviews and making the invisible visible.  She promotes this through Indigenous research methodologies and published “Kaandossiwin, How we come to know” (2011) and in her recently published 2nd edition May 2022 release date (Fernwood Publishing) of Kaandossiwin How We Come to Know. Indigenous re-Search.  She has authored book chapters, journal articles, multi-media projects and other works in wholistic practice, social inclusion, reconciliation, community healing and wellness and Indigenous knowledge.