Community

The University of Alberta librarians were out in full force this fall developing online library instruction sessions for students and faculty. This year required some changes to the traditional ways and they seized the opportunity. Live, online class sessions – morning, afternoon and night! There was also an 18% increase in attendance, reaching 10,321 individuals. Topics of the sessions ranged from the traditional inquiries of searching strategies, library orientation and citations. There…

Are you on the fence about entering the Images of Research Competition and Exhibition this year? We caught up with former IOR semifinalists to find out about their past experience with IOR and what happened afterwards. Please meet Jonathan Green! What did you learn about yourself or your research while you created your IOR image? Looking upon all the research I had done – the books, the journals, articles, photos, conversations –…

The University of Alberta Library subscribes to numerous databases that are core for certain disciplines, but also really deserving of wider attention. Here is just one of those gems… Birds of the World is primarily considered a Sciences database. But you don’t have to be a scientist, or a Birder, to use it! “Every bird has a story – Take a deep dive into the remarkable lives of birds with this dynamic…

With the majority of students and staff being advised to work and study from home, this is how our staff are supporting online learning… As the Publishing & Digitization Specialist on the Library Publishing and Digital Production Services team, Emily is busy answering emails on the daily. On the “publishing” side, Digital Initiatives supports journal editors and textbook authors working on open access projects. For many students, researchers, authors and editors who…

As the fall term comes to an end, and we draw closer to the end of this challenging year, everyone deserves to take a break, a breath and do something that brings us joy. For some of us that might mean an invigorating outdoor adventure, while others may prefer some cozy, quiet time with a good book, perhaps even… a colouring book. If you are amongst the artistically inclined, or long for…

This year the University of Alberta’s Winter Closure will span from December 25, 2020 to January 3, 2021. Here is where you can find dates of closure and resumption of our library services. PANDEMIC — is the word that defines the year 2020. I know I am not alone when I say this year has been HARD. That is why I propose that we take the 10 days of Winter Closure as…

Our work has changed a lot since the pandemic began in March 2020. The library has invested in a robust online service over the past ten years, but since we began studying and working from home, those numbers have vastly increased. September is always an exciting time at the library and this year was no exception, despite being online. Students and staff alike were reaching out in record numbers. From March to…

With the majority of students and staff being advised to work and study from home, this is how our librarians are supporting online learning… Our Academic Librarian, David, is not really doing anything new. We’ve been using online materials and interacting digitally, often outside “normal” business hours, for a long time. Learning on our own through recordings of other people’s ideas is nothing new either; think of books, journals, newspapers, videos, tapes,…

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…