Copyright: The Card Game!

Do you remember that old Shakespeare quote, “To study or not to study copyright, that is the question”? Well, maybe it wasn’t him and instead was something Cathy said when we were talking about playing “Copyright: The Card Game!”.

But, I digress. In honour of Fair Dealing/Fair Use Week that happens annually during the last week of February in Canada and the United States, the Copyright Office hosted five teams to duke it out in a friendly game of who knows the most about copyright. It was kind of like Crossfit® and who can exercise the fastest. Rumour has it that many of the teams pulled all-nighters and diligently scoured the USask copyright website for hints, tips and other advantages. While noshing on Skittles (#DYK they have been in North America since 1979) and peanut butter M&Ms (which Kate accidentally bought instead of normal M&Ms), to a carefully curated 80s Spotify playlist, teams passionately hovered over their cards in hopes to answer the copyright questions posed by Kate. Critical thinking and the highly competitive nature (who knew!?) of library staff helped bring out the copyright ringers on each team (I’m looking at you Myles!).

At the end of the game, after some well-argued-for bonus points had been awarded, we had to go to a tie-breaker between the Legal Eagles and BrainSTEMS!. BrainSTEMS! edged out the Legal Eagles by milliseconds on the squeezing of the squeaky toy to give the correct answer. Congratulations to Team BrainSTEMs! on their inaugural win!

Thank you to all who attended and supported this event – Team TBD ©, Circulation Formation, The Infringers, Legal Eagles and BrainSTEMS! We look forward to seeing you for the second annual Copyright: The Card Game event!

Murray Halloween Door Decorations

Staff members in the Murray Building were tasked with decorating their office doors for some spooky Halloween fun. Which door is your favourite?

(And no, you’re not allowed to pick LS&IT’s door as your favourite.)

Congratulations Retirees!

Congratulations to the most recent retirees from the iPortal, Financial Acquisitions, and Collection Services – Mike B, Donna B, Renée, and Laurianne! These four employees leave the library, taking with them a combined total of 126 years of service on campus. Thank you for your many years of service – you will all be missed. We wish you all the best!

Here are a few pictures from the latest 6th floor celebrations.

 

Happy Retirement Mary Lou!

When Mary Lou Bendig walked through the doors of the Murray Library on March 3, 1976 she had no idea that when she left the library it would be when she retired more than 40 years later.

Mary Lou blog pic 2016-08-15

Mary Lou’s first position in the library was in the Serials Department as a keypunch operator [a few of those key punch cards can still be found in some of the books]. Mr. Serge Lakhanpal was her first department head and Anita Langford was her first supervisor.

Shortly after she began working in the Serials Department, Mary Lou experienced the first of many organizational changes in the Library. This change saw the creation of the Production Unit with RoseAnne McCrory as the Department Head and Peggy Koenig and Eldeen McFaull becoming her co-workers. Apart from a 2 year position in Education (1978) and a brief sojourn as an acquisitions operator, Mary Lou has devoted her entire career at the Library to working with Serials. In her words: “Serials were so complex, interesting, ever changing, there was never a dull moment with them! I loved all the detail. There were so many titles, so much work to do, that you rarely caught up with it. Policies were regularly set to handle each new problem that arose…

In 1998, Mary Lou took on the responsibilities of a new position, that of Bindery supervisor. While serials were still a big part of her work the intricacies of preservation for the entire Library collection became a major focus and once again her attention to detail has been an asset. As she prepares to retire she continues to document the processes required for this focus. Continue reading

ER&L Conference 2016 (part 3)

ERL2016_viewingparty

ER&L Viewing Party [Image courtesy Jaclyn @superjax]

The online viewing party continued today, as library employees took part in day 2 of the ER&L 2016 Conference.

The candy bar made another appearance, much to the delight of all in attendance.

The sessions were also noteworthy and included the following:

Dismantle Your Electronic Resources Fund! Applying The Power of Faceted Classification to Materials Budget Management

Maximizing Management: Getting More Out of Your e-Resource Management Strategy

Alternative Avenues of Discovery: Competition or Potential

Is “E” for Everybody? Reorganizing to Fit E-Resources across Blended Departments

E-Data Quality: How Publishers and Libraries are Working Together to Improve Data Quality

Using the Scrum Project Management Methodology to Create a Comprehensive Collection Assessment Framework

ER&L Conference 2016 (part 1)

For the next 3 days (April 4-6), an engaged and lively group of library employees (14 at the last session) are hanging out in Murray Room 630.27, as we attend an online conference about Electronic Resources and Libraries: ER&L Conference 2016. Thank you to Ken Ladd and Jaclyn McLean for hosting, and thanks to Jaclyn for her fantastic facilitation.

Some of Monday’s sessions include:
Finding Time: From Industrial Mythology to Chronemic Literacy
Gender and Negotiation
Achieving the Holy Grail of Electronic Resource Management: Automated Holdings Feeds in a Knowledge Base
Assessing the User Experience of E-Books in Academic Libraries: Search, Usage, and Information Finding

Follow ER&L 2016 on Twitter using #erl16

If you have any questions or would like access to the recorded sessions, please contact Jaclyn.McLean@usask.ca.

Stay tuned for further information!