news.library.ualberta.ca
  • BLOG HOME
  • About
    • Author Profiles
    • 5 Things to Know About The Library – Online Edition
    • Newsletter Signup
  • Collections
  • Community
  • Wellness
  • Français
news.library.ualberta.ca
Banner
  • BLOG HOME
  • About
    • Author Profiles
    • 5 Things to Know About The Library – Online Edition
    • Newsletter Signup
  • Collections
  • Community
  • Wellness
  • Français
Author

Hanne Pearce

Hanne Pearce

Hanne Pearce is a proud 3x UAlberta Alumna (2000, BA; 2010, MLIS; 2018, MA) and she has worked at the University of Alberta Libraries since 2004. She currently works in the Libraries Digital Scholarship Centre. When she’s not in the library, she is probably out somewhere taking photos or playing with her two mini-dachshunds.

    Stitching the Curve Update – December 2020

    by Hanne Pearce December 8, 2020
    written by Hanne Pearce
    The long Ontario swatch, knitted by Christine Brown is long enough to be folded many times over. The added buttons indicate days when there were more than 500 cases as colour ranges indicate 101+ cases.

    It is astonishing to think that it has been nearly nine months now since a majority of library staff began working from home. It has also been nine months since a group of us began a project to capture COVID-19 numbers in Canada by working on a collective stitching project we call “Stitching the Curve”. The project aims to capture the ongoing COVID-19 case numbers from province to province, within strips of knitted or crocheted yarn pieces that will be stitched together at the end of the pandemic to form a blanket. As librarians, we are always looking for different ways to teach information and data literacy. The purpose of the project has been to experiment with different ways of representing data and information. Our aim has been to learn about epidemiological data, educate our community about COVID-19 and, also, to work together in capturing a moment in history.

    Kara Blizzard’s long Newfoundland and Labrador swatch.

    It has been a long journey for each of us. We have been busy working from home and dealing with the many challenges that the pandemic has brought into our lives. As we have worked with students and faculty during the day to offer library services, in our off-time our knitting and crocheting have brought our swatches to life. Our strips of data have grown in length and changed in the colours they reflect, as case numbers have risen, dipped and then spiked again. Over the past few months, our swatches have changed dramatically, as provinces that usually lingered in the lower number ranges have shifted to lighter colours (higher numbers). I asked the group to share their thoughts with me:

    “It has certainly been frustrating to follow the numbers in the spreadsheet while also following the news. We know how to bring those numbers down, but people from the Legislature on down refuse to accept medical advice. And so the pandemic will be longer and more painful than it needs to be. I remember when we started, we at first considered charting the number of recoveries rather than the number of new cases, so as to make our project reflect the positive side of the story. Now we find ourselves chronicling a story of unnecessary suffering. Just trying to keep the faith here, and bear witness. It will feel better when the curve starts to bend in the right direction again.”
    Peter Binkley

    “As the person responsible for knitting the north (Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut combined) I’ve been happily knitting in one dark colour for several months, and appreciating that the isolated and vulnerable populations (most of whom are Indigenous) of our northern territories have been “safe”… I’ve been feeling very reluctant to manifest the data representing the recent upsurge in cases since Nov 15 (most of them in Nunavut). I’ve also been experimenting with some techniques that will represent the “North” as a whole, but also acknowledge the difference in experiences between the 3 territories…and I’m also thinking about how the data still doesn’t tell the whole story…in terms of the number of cases compared to the entire population of an area.”
    Lucinda Johnston

    “Much like so many things during this pandemic, I have left my knitting for a while. I suddenly realize I am months behind and then scramble to catch up. I find it very sad that this second wave is so terrible, and I was worried I would have to find more light colours as so far I have only had to use black and purple (I am doing New Brunswick).  While there is good news on the horizon with the vaccine, I know that when we end our knitting in February that the pandemic will not be over. I think about how naive I was when we started this – I thought we would be home for a few weeks, and then a few months. I never would have imagined the devastation that COVID-19 would bring to Canada.”
    Connie Winther

    As a group, we have also been intrigued by other data enthusiasts who are also creating yarncraft objects out of COVID-19 information. Fellow stitcher Kara Blizzard discovered this great video by Dr. Katherine Frey Frøslie, a Professor in Biostatistics in Norway. She has created models that demonstrate R-values, so essentially her video and objects explain the infectiousness of COVID-19 in crocheted strips.

    Peter Binkley standing tall with his long Quebec swatch. He has annotated dates with higher case numbers using red yarn marks.

    Frøslie’s video is an excellent example of how data physicalization can be used to understand complex concepts. In our stitching, some of us have learned how each province is collecting their data (in weekly cycles for example), while others have had to stitch on with either the monotony of constantly low case numbers (dark colours) or the frustration of constant case high numbers (light colours). In some cases, each stitcher has used markings or ‘annotations’ on their swatches to indicate important dates or numbers that cannot be reflected in the set colour ranges of the project.

    As the pandemic continues, many have wondered when we might stop our stitching. After some discussion this fall, we have decided as a group to continue our swatches and to finish the project at the end of February. By ending the swatches in February, they will comprise 12 full months, or a full year snapshot of the pandemic. We felt with the rising numbers it was important to continue for the time being, but as the pandemic grows longer, we also want to put an end date to the project. The pandemic will likely continue past February 28th, but ending at a full year will allow us to bring the project full circle, while also providing us all with closure and a sense of accomplishment.

    The British Columbia swatch stretching long, knitted by Hanne Pearce

    It has been a difficult year for everyone, and when we started on this journey we never imagined it would continue for so long, nor did we have a sense of how much this pandemic would come to affect all our lives. Over time, the project has come to have a lot of meaning for each of us. Sometimes it brings to light the very sad realities of how many people are getting sick, but it also reminds us of the rebirth of kindness and sense of community that has been reborn through all this adversity. We are hanging onto the hope that as the government is beginning vaccine distribution, we will soon be able to come together with our swatches and find a way to bind them together as one final blanket; as an object of comfort, caring, and remembrance, of a year felt keenly all over the world.

    December 8, 2020 0 comment
    0 FacebookTwitterEmail
  • Dans les coulisses de la bibliothèque : Prêts entre bibliothèques

    by Hanne Pearce November 3, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce November 3, 2020

    Avec la contribution d’Alanna Scott La bibliothèque de l’Université de l’Alberta est fière de ses vastes collections de documents imprimés et numériques, ainsi que des documents disponibles via nos partenaires NEOS. Ceux d’entre vous qui utilisent la bibliothèque trouvent généralement que nous pouvons répondre au besoin de tout type d’information universitaire : livres, revues, rapports, thèses – tout est là. Mais que se passe-t-il lorsque nous n’avons pas accès à un document…

  • The Library Behind the Scenes: Interlibrary Loans

    by Hanne Pearce November 3, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce November 3, 2020

    With contributions by Alanna Scott The University of Alberta Library prides itself on its vast collections of print and digital material, and the materials available via our NEOS partners. Those of you who use the library typically find that we can fulfill a need for any kind of academic information: books, journals, reports, theses – you name it. But, what happens when we don’t have access to a specific item within our…

  • Stitching the Curve: An Update

    by Hanne Pearce July 28, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce July 28, 2020

    It has now been well over five months since a group of us University of Alberta Library staff began a data physicalization project to stitch Covid-19 data in Canada. It’s a project that we called “Stitching the Curve”. This is a little update on this data physicalization project’s progress.  To quickly recap the project, members of our team have all selected provinces to either knit or crochet. Our colleague and fellow knitter,…

  • ACCÈS À DISTANCE À LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE POUR LES ÉTUDIANTS DU SECOND CYCLE

    by Hanne Pearce July 16, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce July 16, 2020

    Être un étudiant du second cycle n’est pas facile dans des circonstances normales, et nous reconnaissons que l’année à venir va être différente à bien des égards. Prenez une profonde inspiration, car la bibliothèque offre un grand nombre de services spécifiquement pour les étudiants du second cycle, qui sont présentement facilement accessible en ligne – et j’en suis heureux de vous en faire part. Afin de mieux décrire ces services, je les…

  • Library Remotely for Graduate Students

    by Hanne Pearce July 16, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce July 16, 2020

    Being a grad student is not easy under normal circumstances, and we recognize this coming year is going to be different in many respects. Take a deep breath, because the library provides a great many services specifically for graduate students; all of which are still readily available online – and I am happy to share them with you. To better outline these services I will present them in sections based on the…

  • Explore Queer Theory and LGBTQ Resources Digitally

    by Hanne Pearce June 18, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce June 18, 2020

    With restrictions on mass gatherings still in place, many of us are looking for other ways we can celebrate Pride season with LGBTQ2S+ communities. Reading and learning about sexual minority issues in academic and non-academic literature is one way we can participate in Pride this year.  I recently broadened my own understandings in this area, when I was asked to conduct a literature review into queer theory for our team learning purposes.…

  • HathiTrust, service d’accès temporaire d’urgence

    by Hanne Pearce May 28, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce May 28, 2020

    En temps normal, HathiTrust est l’une des nombreuses archives fiables que le personnel de la bibliothèque utilise parmi leur arsenal secret lorsqu’il recherche des sources obscures pour nos utilisateurs. Je l’ai moi-même utilisé à plusieurs reprises, par exemple lorsque j’essaie de localiser une version numérisée d’une ancienne publication, ou lorsque je cherche la source d’une citation qui doit être citée directement plutôt que de façon secondaire. HathiTrust est une collaboration à but…

  • HathiTrust, Emergency Temporary Access Service

    by Hanne Pearce May 27, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce May 27, 2020

    On an ordinary day, HathiTrust is one of a number of trusted archives that front-line library staff use as a part of their secret arsenal when finding obscure sources for our users. I myself have used it numerous times, for example when trying to locate a digitized version of an older publication, or when trying to find the source of a quote that needs to be cited directly rather than second hand.…

  • Stitching the Curve: Un projet de la bibliothèque de l’UAlberta basé sur les données

    by Hanne Pearce April 24, 2020
    by Hanne Pearce April 24, 2020

    Le personnel de la bibliothèque de l’Université de l’Alberta partage une grande passion pour l’information et nous sommes toujours à la recherche de nouvelles façons de nous y intéresser et de la rendre plus accessible pour nous et notre communauté. En mars, lorsque la crise de la COVID-19 a entraîné un changement soudain dans notre vie à tous, certains membres du personnel de la bibliothèque ayant des penchants pour le tricottage on…

Newer Posts
Older Posts

Instagram Corner

Categories

  • Collections (79)
    • Borrowing (12)
    • Collection Connection (1)
    • Digital Collections (33)
    • Special Collections (4)
  • Community (137)
    • Awards (11)
    • Events (7)
    • Exhibits (6)
    • News (5)
    • Staff (41)
  • Digital Scholarship Centre (7)
  • Français (63)
  • Wellness (20)
    • Dogs in the Library (4)

BLOG ARCHIVES

Popular Posts

  • 1

    Hidden Gems: Birds of the World

    January 14, 2021
  • 2

    New York Times Digital – Now at UAlberta

    February 19, 2019
  • 3

    LIBRARY STAFF WORKING FROM HOME: MEET EMILY!

    January 12, 2021

Ask Us!

https://youtu.be/WUzJdzuyx1s

Newsletter Signup

Privacy policy

@2020- University of Alberta Library
The University of Alberta is situated on traditional Treaty 6 territory and homeland of the Métis peoples. Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᕀᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton


Back To Top