November is, of course, a month of remembrance — and so, it is appropriate that this was the month selected for the installation of Patrick Hayes’ Link Exhibition on the Great War. The display has a degree of interactivity, with QR codes directing viewers to certain pages on the Great War site for further information.

We are also running a draw for the high-quality reproduction of a trench map displayed near Murray 154. If you would like to enter, like the post pinned to the top of our Facebook page. The draw will occur in January, when the display is being taken down.

Edmund Oliver’s Trench Map for draw

Patrick’s display has garnered some media attention, with the Saskatoon Star Phoenix running an article on the letters of Nursing Sister Brock, featured in the exhibit.

Our autumnal mini-display was replaced with 349 poppies around Remembrance Day — one for every member of the University community who served during the First World War. This display was, in turn, replaced with a mini-exhibit on Truth and Reconciliation, which will be shown in the cases on the ground floor next to Starbucks and room 301 through January.

Also this month:

• I put together a little post on the importance of collecting Queer-negative literature in a collection like the Neil Richards Collection for Sexual and Gender Diversity.
• A great deal of archival material was featured in The Sheaf’s Throwback Issue thanks to the hardworking gals on staff there who were willing to come into the archives and do some digging. You can see some of their throwback materials at The Sheaf website.
• Material from our collection was featured recently (actually September) in the documentary Al Purdy Was Here, directed by Brian Johnson. To view the trailer from the Toronto International Film Festival, go here.

And last, but definitely not least, we were thrilled to welcome Beth Richert back to our ranks in November–looking forward to having her around!

Asking around the office for ideas of what to post for October-in-review, I was met with a general sense that October was busy, went by much too quickly, and nobody can pinpoint what, exactly, occurred in it.So, a few points.

• Amy put together her first mini-exhibit — “All About Autumn: From Acorns to Zombies”. This is the poster she made for it. Fun fact: The green arm is a cleverly photoshopped version of her own arm.
• A few days ago we had British novelist Patrick Gale come visit in the Reading Room, where he was kind enough to sign (in his words, “deface”) a stack of his books from the Neil Richards collection.
• Jill Crawley-Lowe’s excellent horse display in the Link is now being replaced with a display on the First World War by Patrick Hayes. Keep an eye out for it — it looks to be really interesting.
• A series of Great War vignettes are being released by University Communications in honour of the hundred-year anniversary of that terrible conflict. The latest, on a local nurse who spent years overseas in France and Greece, can be found here .

The College of Education had a pumpkin carving contest this year complete with a lunch. We had a great time carving the pumpkin and seeing all the entries. Rohan had never carved a pumpkin before so we put his surgical skills to good use!

Can you guess who is this crazy cat lady? First one to answer correctly in the comments wins a brand new to-go mug…..

Our Group Study Rooms are coming together. Most of the chairs were delivered yesterday and, as I went to take a photo, the delivery person lept right in to have his photo taken! White boards and screens are all that’s left to make these rooms perfect.

Our first display attracted a lot of attention today we took a photo while there are still relevant materials left to display!

Friday afternoon fun. EEEEKKKK!

Woo what a month! Laurie and I (with the help of the Clelland scholarship), along with Tim and Cheryl were able to attend the Association for Canadian Archivists Conference in Regina during the second week of the month. It was a deeply interesting and fruitful experience, I think, and while speaking in front of a ballroom during the poster presentation was a bit nerve-wracking, we came out the better for it. Thanks to all of you who came to our Brown Bag session last week, and who have been following along with my conference-in-review posts on the archives blog.

I offer a dark fuzzy photograph as evidence

In tandem with Saskatoon’s Pride Festival, the Neil Richard’s Collection for Sexual and Gender Diversity received some attention this year, with an article appearing in The Star Phoenix and the National Post, and Neil himself being interviewed for CBC radio!

Patrick was busy for part of the month preparing for the Aboriginal Round Table session held last week, due to his involvement with the Great War Commemoration Committee. The round table, which focused on aboriginal speakers sharing the oral history of the Great War and the effects it had on their communities, was largely successful, with coverage of the event even being picked up by a newspaper in Great Britain!

The LDC also hosted an historic walking tour event, with Cheryl Avery and Patrick Hayes acting as interpreters. I toddled along with the group and took some pictures (if anyone doesn’t like seeing their picture up here, let me know and I’ll take it down). In no particular order:

Cheryl talking about St. Chad

Walking

The Group

Laurie welcoming The Group

Learning about the little schoolhouse

Patrick mid-grand-armsweep

Thank you to the 22-odd people who came out, and congratulations to our doorprize winner! If anyone wants to get in on the walking tours, another one will be held on August 11th, and will focus on a different area of campus.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting some content recounting my experiences at the Association for Canadian Archivists conference over on the archive’s blog (to avoid cluttering up Branching Out too badly). The posts are available here:

ACA Conference Bites: Stevie, Day 1

ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 2 – Gail Bowen

ACA Conference Bites: Stevie, Day 2 – Digital Preservation

ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 2 – Extending Our Reach

ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – LAC Plenary

ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – Poster Session

ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – Metamorphosis

ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – New takes on the old lifecycle