From the moment the pandemic forced libraries to close their locations across the province, UAlberta Library started doing its best to help patrons get the library items they needed, and to support research and learning efforts at the University. Usage of online access to materials went through the roof, but still there was a constant demand for access to our physical collections. The library launched its curbside pickup at Rutherford library in…

Understanding the past is a powerful way to help keep it from repeating in the future. In trying to be a better ally to those in the Black community, I’ve found it particularly enlightening to learn and understand the fraught road towards equity and civil rights, which is sadly still being traversed. If you’re like me and seek to understand how we have gotten to this point we have some resources for…

In our final interview of IOR Where are They Now? we catch up with Katrina Aranas. Images of Research is accepting submissions for the 2021 competition and exhibition between January 25 and February 12, 2021. See IOR’s website for official rules and FAQs. What did you learn about yourself or your research while you created your IOR image?  Creating my image for IOR reminded me that research has an impact on the…

Culture aficionados rejoice – today, we’re talking Afrofuturism as part of our look at Black Futures for Black History Month. Afrofuturism is special as it reimagines the future but it also reflects on the past of the African diaspora. Afrofuturism, a term coined by Mark Dery in 1993 in his interview article “Black to the Future“, has evolved over time in African American culture and describes creative works that focus on African…