The Engineering Library’s ‘interim phase’ is here! There is now much more space for students to research, study, and collaborate — sharing in learning and the creation of new knowledge and ideas. And the students are happy! The library has already seen a significant increase in use these first two weeks — and the buzz will simply grow as the term progresses.

Over this weekend and during the next couple of weeks, wiring will be pulled for the new carrels and the final pieces of furniture will arrive.

A HUGE thank you to Jill, Brenda, Lexi, and Heather. An enormous amount of work went into this project (with things not always going quite as planned) involving collection moves, design changes, furniture ordering, and tight timelines — and they are still smiling!

In April Carolyn Doi took over the full back page of On Campus News with All the right notes (http://words.usask.ca/news/2016/04/15/all-the-right-notes/). This week David Francis is featured in an article about The art and science of instructional design (http://words.usask.ca/news/2016/07/13/the-art-and-science-of-instructional-design/). Congratulations Carolyn and David!

David Francis celebrated receiving his Doctor of Philosophy from the College of Education (Educational Administration) in style. Great hat!!

Congratulations on your PhD!

David’s thesis is titled “A Study of Organizational Learning in a University Efficiency Initiative.”

The University Library couldn’t function without you! Thank you for your commitment to ensuring library resources, services, programs, and spaces are available, accessible, and welcoming to all of our clients.

(image from http://www.ycauk.com/Thankyou-book.jpg – available for non-commercial reuse)

Exciting to see the video on the Star Phoenix website with Carolyn’s voice and our Alberta Slim artifacts! Way to go!
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Alberta+Slim/10916549/story.html

Happy Sustainability Day!

On Monday, in partnership with the university’s Office of Sustainability, we launched our printSMART campaign to encourage students (and perhaps by extension ourselves) to consider when, what, and how they print. Included in the campaign is an infographic designed by a member of the Sustainability Office to highlight the amount of paper used on Learning Commons printers in the last year. Jaw-dropping, at least to me! Continue reading →

Always wondered what was going on in those committees your colleagues were part of? Wonder no more. Check out the annual report for the Learning and Development Committee, the Year in Review for the Circulation Users Group, and the annual report and plan report card for the Client Relations Committee. All are available under the committees’ links on the library intranet.

Over the last few months, a small working group of CUG (Christine Drever, Gail Horbay, and Brenda Butler) has been investigating fines in academic libraries through reading the literature, conversations with other Canadian academic libraries, and looking at our local situation. The working group’s report with recommendations was presented to CUG in March, followed by further discussion at the Dean’s Team. The efforts of that working group and of CUG as a whole have resulted in improved client-focused service and a reduction in service barriers.

Beginning Thursday 1 May:

• the loan period for regular stack items has been increased to 30 days (from 3 weeks).
• fines for overdue regular stack items have been removed; however, there are still fines on overdue recalled, reserve, and ILL items.
• the time period between when an item becomes overdue and when a BFR is issued will be reduced to 30 days (from 52 days).
• library staff will encourage clients to place requests on desired items that are currently out — thus generating a recall notice and revised due date.

Thank you CUG and Gail, Brenda, and Christine for your work in bringing these changes to fruition!

Last Thursday (March 6) I was lucky enough to participate in a COPPUL session focused on librarians as researchers. This session was attached to the regular COPPUL directors’ meeting, but included an additional librarian from each COPPUL institution. The day began with a panel presentation on librarian research that included our Dean as well as the University Librarians from the UofA and UC Berkeley. This was followed by short presentations from eleven librarians — the highlight of the day for me! The librarians spoke about their research, either as part of larger university research activity or as an individual researcher. I took lots of notes and need to follow up with at least a couple of librarians, one from the UofR and one from MRU, who are working in some very interesting areas in information literacy. The day ended with discussion about the role COPPUL could play in supporting and promoting librarian scholarship and research.

In all, a great day of learning, of networking with colleagues across western Canada, and sharing research interests and experiences — with an added benefit of a few days in Victoria where there are flowers and no snow!