We’re Ready for the Future!

Dear Colleagues:

It’s hard to believe it’s already that time again: another year is drawing to a close at SLA Toronto.  The Annual General Meeting, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal for the second year running, was held on Wednesday, November 9 at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. It was a joyous occasion.  We welcomed incoming Chapter President Laura Warner and the 2012 Board, recognized Daniel Lee’s tremendous contributions to our Chapter with the Member of the Year award, and celebrated the spoken word with a poetry slam, courtesy of the Toronto Poetry Project. My sincere thanks to Gayle Gossen, Pam Casey, Elysia Guzik and Bernadette Roca, who planned and organized this event, and to all who turned out on a windy, rainy November evening to celebrate with us!   

 I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on the Chapter’s successes in 2011, and on the steps we’ve taken towards future-readiness.  Despite the current economic climate, Pam Casey, our Partner Relations Director, came in over her goal for sponsorship contributions this year. This enabled us to host events like the Canadian Reception at the SLA Annual Conference with the generous support of our partners at CEDROM-SNi; the upcoming annual Holiday Social on December 13 at the Arts and Letters Club, sponsored by CEDROM and Akendi; and the biannual Volunteer Appreciation Night, which was made possible by Thomson Reuters. With FPinfomart’s investment in the future of our Chapter via the Student to Conference Award, we were able to send two students, Janina Mueller and Yannet Lathrop to the Annual Conference.

 Another future-ready theme in 2011 was communication.  With Daniel Lee’s leadership on Operation Vitality, an ambitious initiative to update allSLAwebsites, a beautiful new online home was created for SLA Toronto.  Daniel, Heather Ritchie, Heather Postill, Britta Jessen and incoming 2012 President-Elect Kim Silk are to be commended for their hard work in getting toronto.sla.org up and running. Our new site has simplified content management, and supports event registration, advertising, images, RSS feeds, a lifestream, and Delicious bookmarks. We’ll continue to refine the user experience in 2012.  Meanwhile, you can still follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, link to us on LinkedIn, and communicate with hundreds of information professionals on the SLA Toronto Discussion List.

 Finally, this year was a fantastic year for events. Elysia Guzik, our 2011 Programming Director, really has a talent for getting people together and making things happen. Elysia coordinated presentations on topics like knowledge management and genealogical research; tours of the Maple Leaf Foods library, the H. N. Pullar Library at the Textile Museum of Canada, and the OCAD Learning Zone; and panels on subjects like media monitoring and library marketing. The Volunteer Appreciation Event, hosted by Laura Warner at Southern Accent, was a big hit; and SLA Toronto closed L’espresso at the annual Summer Social, which was organized by incoming 2012 Technology Director, Greg Barber.  We also explored opportunities for experiential learning events – watch this space!  And of course, 2011 would not have been complete without the Canadian Reception at the Annual Conference, which the three Canadian SLA Chapters take in turn to host every year.  2011 was our year and we put on a great reception for over 150 delegates from across Canada, the US and around the world at this year’s conference in Philadelphia.  

 2011 was a resounding success because of the hard work and dedication of the Executive and Advisory Boards. Their efforts and talents enrich the life of our Chapter and provide a strong foundation on which to build the future.  I’d like to acknowledge the 2011 Executive, whose commitment and enthusiasm made this an unforgettable year:

-        Laura Warner, President-Elect

-        Emmeline Hobbs, Secretary

-        Heather Brunstad, Treasurer

-        Kim Silk, Technology Director

-        Shelley McBride, Membership Director

-        Elysia Guzik, Programming Director

-        Shannon Skelton, First Five Years Director

-        Pam Casey, Partner Relations Director

-        Claire Lysnes, Past President

I am also extremely grateful to our members for their active participation and continued support of our Chapter. We couldn’t do it without you!   

 It has been an honour to serve as your President in 2011.  Thank you. I wish you all the best in the coming year.  Have a wonderful holiday and see you in 2012!

All the best,

Jennifer Burns

2011 President, SLA Toronto Chapter

Welcome to the Fall issue of the Courier.  Thank you to everyone who contributed articles.

This issue includes reports from recent SLA Toronto events including the September Dine-Around on copyright, the Solos’ session on RDA and  the Student Group’s tour of the CBC Libraries and Archives.

Additionally, Katya Pereyaslavska and Shireen Harbin have written an article about the creative way their library at OCAD collected overdue fines while supporting an organization in need.  And, Zachary Osborne’s article outlines his investigation into measuring the impact of his organization’s  publications.

All the best for a very happy holiday season!

Sandra Craig

Bruce Harpham

If You Write It, They Will Come

How can librarians increase the profitability of their libraries? How can they improve students’ understanding of the scientific research process? How can they increase diversity among library staff?

Every year, SLA members share their answers to these and other questions challenging the special library field. They do so by writing research papers and presenting them at the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO. The contributed paper sessions are among the most revealing and rewarding conference activities because they provide a glimpse into the issues, trends and initiatives that drive our profession and our future.  Read More

 Membership Rewards

When you recruit a new member, you both can win!

Tell your friends and colleagues about your meaningful SLA experience, and invite them to join and reap the benefits of SLA membership.  New members and recruiters are eligible to win prizes and recognition. Recruit by 1 December for prize eligibility.  Read More

  2011 Board of Directors Results

 Meet the incoming 2012 SLA Board of Directors. Learn more about your future leaders.  Read More

 Vengeful Librarians

Librarians find things better than anyone, people should know this by now. It certainly seems that the United States CIA has caught on.

In a recent Associated Press exclusive, a team known as “vengeful librarians” are described as using Twitter, Facebook, the Web, and their natural sleuthing abilities to provide intelligence that is sought-after by the highest levels in Washington, D.C. Read More

Please join me in welcoming the following new members who joined our Chapter from August through October 2011.

Amanda Adams, North Bay
Trevor Balla, Toronto
Reena Besa, Thorold
Joanna Bielecki, Mississauga
Juliya Borie, Toronto
Brian Chenoweth, Kingston
Jiancheng Dai, Maple   
Eva Fischer, London
Erin Gendron, Courtice
Erica Lenton, Ottawa   
Melissa Man, Toronto
Anna Mathew, Toronto
Barbara McDonald, Dundas       
Emily McHugh, Montreal
Katya Pereyaslavska, Toronto
Jamien Sandhu, Toronto 
Stephen Spong, Toronto 
Samantha Thompson, Mississauga
Lindsay Timmins, Toronto
Kelley Wadson,  Toronto

I look forward to meeting each of you at an upcoming SLA Toronto event!

At many non-profit and for-profit companies, it is important to measure the reach, influence, and success of the organization’s efforts. This is not always easy and sometimes not even feasible, but when quantification is possible, it should be carried out to gauge the impact of a task on an audience. This is often done through media monitoring, but what about measuring your organizations other outputs?

An organization’s publications (e.g. reports, conference proceedings, authored works, etc.) are a good starting place where impact can be measured, and in organizations where an information professional is employed, the work is cut out for them. Tracking and measuring the impact of your organization’s output is a clear-cut way to demonstrate your value, contribute to department goals, and generate useful statistics that will benefit your employer.

I work as the librarian at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a think tank that produces a wide variety of publications, from policy briefs to books. Earlier this year, I began to investigate tools to help measure the impact that CIGI’s publications have in academic, policy, and government literature. My objective was to determine where, and how often CIGI’s publications are demonstrating influence. CIGI’s primary stated mission is to “influence policy makers”, so an understanding of whether or not its publications are being read, cited, and shared, is an important step to fulfilling this goal.

Many information professionals will be familiar with the concept of citation analysis, and its application in the activities of scholarly research. Citation analysis is a method of bibliometrics that attempts to gauge the impact of an author’s work through the frequency of being cited in other works. The process of citing acknowledges previous works, and debatably, implies that a work is significant. The practice of measuring the number of cites is predominantly of interest to authors and stakeholders in the sciences, and some in economics, but is helpful in other fields as well. Citation analysis is also prevalent (and of greater interest) in academic environments where an author’s published research enhances their clout, and professional profile.

Because of its wide acceptance in academic settings, many of the tools available to analyze citations do not incorporate “non-scholarly” literature (often termed “grey literature” e.g. working papers), since they do not undergo the same scholarly publishing process. The majority of grey literature is not indexed in proprietary or free citation databases, because it is not controlled by commercial publishing. Consequently, the trickiest aspect of measuring the impact of grey literature is that citation indexes will often not include the publications you seek to evaluate.

With these obstacles is mind, I began my attempt to track mentions of CIGI’s publications in other published works. For CIGI’s purposes, I was most concerned with identifying a citation tool that indexes grey literature, and other “non-academic” materials in the social sciences. I wanted to test many products to determine which would be most useful. Throughout my investigation of possible options, I compiled a list of tools for conducting citation analysis, some are fee-based and others are free:

Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science/Knowledge: (http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science/) (subscription required)

Web of Science (WoS) is the premier citation index and includes an extensive range of very impressive analysis tools. With a lofty price tag, not every organization will be able to afford this product (and unfortunately, they do not offer a non-profit rate). The indexed content is drawn almost exclusively from scholarly journals and conference proceedings, and its historical coverage is unmatched. Free 30-day trials are available, and you can select from seven subject database packages based on subject area. Thomson Reuters also provides access to “Highly Cited Research” (http://www.highlycited.com), a free resource to identify highly cited authors and works. WoS is tremendously useful for tracking cites in academic journals, but quite disappointing for measuring citations from grey literature.

Elsevier’s Scopus: http://www.scopus.com/home.url (subscription required)

Scopus is a slightly less expensive alternative to Web of Science, and boasts having “the largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources.” Scopus has a free author/organization lookup tool, which I highly recommend testing. This will give you an idea of your organization’s cited works in the Scopus indexed content. Similar to WoS, grey literature is relatively absent from this database.

Google Scholar: (http://scholar.google.ca/) (free)

Using the advanced Google Scholar search option, you can perform searches by author name, or by affiliated organization to retrieve articles where either are mentioned or cited. This can be tricky however, as it is not possible to narrow search results to the bibliography or footnotes. Your search results might include many unwanted items. That said, Google does a much better job than WoS or Scopus of retrieving obscure and grey literature citation mentions.

Publish or Perish: (http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm) (free)

Public or Perish (PoP) uses Google Scholar citations, and runs as standalone software that links to the web. You must first download PoP, then perform your citation queries to retrieve the analysis of an author or publisher’s works. It is less accurate than the fee-based products like Scopus or WoS, but PoP is also quite straightforward about its shortcomings. PoP performs much better than Google on the web, and as a free software, is worthwhile and effective.

CiteSeerX: (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/) (free)

CiteSeerX focuses on (but is not limited to) literature in the areas of computer and information-science. As an index database, CiteSeerX is unique for adding complex metadata to its contents, which enable a greater capacity for linking documents, and locating related materials. Documents are automatically harvested from the web, so indexed content is continuously up-to-date. Try this tool in combination with others, as depending on the field of your organization and its outputs, CiteSeerX’s subject specificity might not track your publications.

Scirus: (http://www.scirus.com/) (free)

Scirus is a science-specific index database encompassing a very wide range of web pages, government resources, academic articles, and special information sources (e.g. patent data from LexisNexis, technical reports from NASA, institutional digital repositories, etc.).  Scirus’ capabilities rival some fee-based indexes, and it also includes an impressive range of non-scholarly grey literature content.

RePEc: (http://repec.org/) (free)

Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a database of over one million items, largely in the social sciences, economics, finance, and computer sciences. The items in RePEc are unpublished papers, non-commercially published materials, and also pre-published versions of academic articles. RePEc is useful for many types of organizations that produce literature because it encourages free and open dissemination of these materials throughout a variety of outlets. It works by users (e.g. authors of works, or information professionals on behalf on their organization) uploading publications and providing the metadata and bibliographic information. To perform citation analyses, RePEc has an embedded system for tracking these uploaded items. With this, you can quantify how often your publications are downloaded, cited, and shared. RePEc is also a collaborative effort with many other repositories, such as EconLit, EDIRC, and IDEAS.

After testing these tools, I am still in the process of determining the best solution for measuring the impact of CIGI’s publications. Although I have not arrived at a solid recommendation for my own organization, I have found that using a combination of these tools can produce a rough picture of the impact of your organization’s publications. Optimistically, there are ongoing developments in this field, such as Google Scholar Citations (http://scholar.google.ca/intl/en/scholar/citations.html), and Open Grey (www.opengrey.eu), and the maturation of these products will benefit the efforts of citation analysis for grey literature.

If your organization produces publications for stakeholders or a general audience, consider tracking cites through the abovementioned means. It will strengthen your value to the organization, and provide them with a quantifiable source of evidence-based measurement for organizational outputs.

Listed below are additional sources that review and compare citation analysis tools:

Badia, Giovanna. “Google Scholar out-performs many subscription databases when keyword searching.” Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2010: 39-41. Available from https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/8543

Bosman, J., et al. “Scopus reviewed and compared.” Utrecht University Library, 2006. Available from http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/DARLIN/2006-1220-200432/Scopus%20doorgelicht%20&%20vergeleken%20-%20translated.pdf

Connor, E. “Searching for science: a descriptive comparison of CiteSeer, FirstGov for Science, and Scirus.” Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2005: 35-47.

Pauly, D. And Stergiou K. I. “Equivalence of results from two citation analyses: Thomson ISI’s Citation Index and Google’s Scholar service.” Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, December 22, 2005: 33-35.  Available from http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep/2005/E65.pdf

Science Intelligence and InfoPros. “Google Scholar Vs Web of Science: McDonalds Vs a Gourmet restaurant?!” December 7, 2010. Available from http://scienceintelligence.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/google-scholar-vs-web-of-science-macdonalds-vs-a-gourmet-restaurant/

Zachary Osborne is the Research Librarian at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. His current research interests include trends in grey literature, emerging information technologies, and information-seeking behaviours. He can be contacted by email at zosborne@cigionline.org, on Twitter at @zackosborne, and his blog can be read at http://zacharyosborne.wordpress.com.

On September 7, a Dine-Around event was held at the Bedford Academy on the subject of copyright and libraries. As the organizer of the event, I felt that it was important to create a forum for library and information professionals to discuss an issue that has crept up to the forefront of pressing issues that are facing libraries today. With universities and colleges across the country embroiled in an ongoing dispute with Access Copyright over copyright issues in libraries and on campuses, and with marked differences in opinions on fair dealing, pricing, and the future of compliance and enforcement, the stakes are tremendously high and positions are increasingly entrenched.

 The discussion proved to be lively and spirited, with participants discussing a panoply of issues and ideas drawn from the Access Copyright dispute, as well as on the future of copyright and on the evolution ideas of authorship and copyright – especially since the days of Napster. This was also reflected in discussion over generational differences of opinion, with younger users – and this demographic is highly reflective of most current undergraduate students – having a significantly different outlook and opinions on copyright from older users. There was also discussion on the proposed amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act – which have since been re-tabled, after having died on the order paper in the spring – which has the potential to simultaneously expand and restrict copyright in the field of academia.

 Although there were no hard-and-fast conclusions at the end of the evening, the sharing of opinions and ideas, many of which were markedly divergent, ultimately built a stronger understanding of the challenges that face those who deal with contemporary copyright issues. As many institutions attempt to navigate the choppy waters out of the old Access Copyright tariff system status quo and into the brave new world of open access and fair dealing, these discussions will undoubtedly become increasingly urgent and important, with the outcome having the potential to shape the future of Canadian copyright. While there are many players in this particular dance, it should fall to librarians and information professionals to lead the way.

“RDA (Resource, Description and Access) Cataloguing Rules and Their Potential Impact on a Special Library” – what a mouthful! This was the official name of a very timely and informative presentation organized by the SLA Toronto Solos on October 19, 2011. The interesting topic attracted quite a large audience (25 participants is a record high number for a solo session).

We were thrilled to have Mark Rose (Information Services Manager at the Intergovernmental Committee on Urban and Regional Research) present. Mark is an extremely busy solo librarian with a remarkable passion for cataloguing and technology, among other things. He is one of few Toronto librarians who tested converting his library catalogue records to conform with RDA. I would like to express my big thanks for all the efforts, sleepless nights and countless corrections Mark built into this session.

Mark first gave us some background information on AACR2’s demise and how RDA came about. He reviewed the core concepts, principles and elements of RDA – a standard designed for digital world. RDA is based on two models: FRBR (Functional requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data). A number of examples of how the new rules deviate from AACR2 included a long list; I’ll name just a few here: vocabulary changes; entity-relationship database model; enter as found; and, removal of abbreviations. Various FRBR types of “entities” as well as different content, media and carrier types were also covered.

The lessons learned following Mark’s “uncompleted” catalogue conversion project, offered some really valuable observations:

• Library system vendors don’t provide much support for the conversion and a few are only starting to look   into it (you will need lots of time and money to set aside for conversion)
• Benefits of new rules for the end users are difficult to assess/measure

• Return on investment for making the conversion is still unclear

• Bibliographic records will be longer (space may be an issue for fields and database size)

• The standard seems to work well in theory, but in practice remains to be seen

• Must think how the OPAC could be modified to make use of the new fields and relationships

The time and space limitations didn’t allow for showing record examples side by side (the presentation could easily hit over 50 slides), so our speaker recommended the best RDA training modules and comparison presentations (to which an addendum was made via email).

For anyone planning an RDA conversion, the summary of required changes (slides 29-30) provides a great starting point. That is where you get an idea about a potential impact on your library. Don’t forget the RDA toolkit and regular free workshops: RDA Essentials. Add to that the selection of RDA resources and you are good to go. If you are just starting to catalogue your collection from a scratch, you should be exploring the RDA rules to ensure standards compliance in the future.

Mark’s presentation (Google docs) is posted on the Toronto Solos’ wiki (login required) and LinkedIn group discussion. Brenda Wong blogged about the workshop at: http://brendawoa.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/rda-overview/.

The recent Library of Congress announcements show how RDA issues could be evolving for a very long time. Stay tuned.

Amra Porobic, M.L.S., is Manager of Library Services for the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). Prior to taking on the position of the Chair of the Toronto Chapter Solo Subgroup in May 2008, Amra co-chaired the group with Jasmina Landekic from 2000-2001. Amra has been a solo librarian since the onset of her IBC career in 1998. A member of TALL, AIIM, and ARMA, she can be reached at aporobic@ibc.ca, or via LinkedIn http://ca.linkedin.com/in/porobica where she manages the Solo group discussions.

IBC has been sponsoring Solo events since 2008.

On October 6, 2011, the SLA: Toronto Student Group (SLA:TSG) started the fall semester with an exciting tour of the CBC Libraries and Archives for new and returning members. Our informative and engaging tour guides, Geoffrey Hopkinson (Director of Content Management, Special Programming and Library Partnerships) and Laura Warner (CBC Media Librarian) took us on a two-hour tour of the various media archives and libraries housed within the CBC. While they insisted that it was their first time hosting a large tour group, the SLA: TSG members were thoroughly impressed with Geoffrey and Laura’s knowledgeable and well-organized tour of the CBC.

The tour started off in the bowels of the CBC building, where we were guided through the various vaults and storage facilities for the Video Archives. Our first stop was the VTR library, which house literally shelves upon shelves of tapes. The CBC estimates that this area holds approximately 190,000 tapes. The primary goal of the Video Archives is to have a copy of each program the CBC has played a role in producing. This creates the need for specialized archive facilities and media content management systems. Part of the process consists of giving each tape its own unique ID and bar code, making these resources easy to retrieve and reshelve for CBC staff.

The next stop on the tour took us to the chilly Film Vault, where 115,000 cans of film are kept at 4°C. This is an extraordinary amount of film, as the CBC calculates that this amount of film would “span the distance from St. John’s, N.L., to Victoria, B.C., three times over” (CBC, 2011). We also saw the CBC’s StoragTek 5L8500 robotic system in action. This fully automated machine is part of the CBC’s DIVA archives solution for managing their media assets.

After exploring the various archives of the CBC, we then toured the newly integrated Reference Library at the CBC. This area includes not only the main Reference Library, but also the Visual Research Desk, and Music Library. We learned that reference librarians at the CBC are responsible for a variety of exciting and ever-changing research tasks. This can include providing answers to basic ready-reference questions, performing detailed research on companies and individuals, and also fact-checking during live TV programs and reporting back to producers and TV personalities via earpiece. Overall, the skills required of a media Reference Librarian include savvy research skills and an ability to meet the consistently shorter timelines of reporters and producers. For example, while CBC Reference Librarians used to have a couple days to fact check a story for producers, they may now have less than an hour to find and verify information. Understandably, this makes for an intense work environment, but the reference librarians at the CBC thrive in this type of break-neck atmosphere.

Geoffrey and Laura also took our group to see the Image Research library. We learned from the staff working at this library that researching and navigating copyright law is an important skill set for image librarians. In order to clear the use of photos and artwork in CBC TV shows and news broadcasts, image librarians need to track down the artist and obtain their permission. If they are unable to track the artist down or if they use an image taken from a database that did not record the proper citation information, the CBC will sometimes be sued by artists and end up paying significantly more for the right to use the image or artwork. Ultimately, speedy research skills and extensive knowledge of copyright issues is a must-have for image librarians.

Finally, we finished off the tour by going to the top floor of the CBC and saw the crew for Cover Me Canada preparing the set for filming. Some of the SLA:TSG members were excited to see the spot where Jordan Knight (of New Kids on the Block fame) sits during taping. After thanking Laura and Geoffrey for taking the time to put together such a fantastic tour, we took the elevator down to the main floor of the CBC and spotted Margaret Atwood entering the CBC. An honest-to-goodness Canadian celebrity sighting proved to be a fantastic finale to the SLA:TSG’s tour of the CBC Libraries and Archives.

Bibliography:

Canada Broadcasting Corporation (2011). Virtual tour: A visit to the archives. Retrieved from http://archives.cbc.ca/info/archives/archives_en_02.asp?IDLan=1

Front Porch Digital (2011). SAMMA robot. Retrieved from http://fpdigital.com/Solutions/Migrate/Default.aspx?mrsc=Overview

Stephanie Quail is the co-chair of the SLA:TSG and is in her second year of graduate studies at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. If you have any tour suggestions for the SLA:TSG, please send an email to sla.tsg.1@gmail.com

Libraries and Librarians have enjoyed a plethora of stereotypes, including one that portrays the Librarian as a passive-aggressive gatekeeper, jealously guarding the books and punishing users with fines. However, the Librarian of the 21^st Century is a culturally diverse, creative, active and socially-engaged individual dedicated to promoting intellectual freedom. It is precisely this sense of social responsibility which inspired OCAD University’s Dorothy H. Hoover Library staff to take action and get involved in soliciting food donations for the Student Union’s Starving Artist Pantry.

 The premise of this campaign was simple. For each non-perishable food item donated, patrons would receive two dollars off their overdue fines to a maximum of twenty dollars. Donations unrelated to fines were also encouraged. Operating under the catchy headline “Food 4 Fines” and equipped with an attractive orange bucket, customized buttons featuring a logo designed in-house, and social media tools, between October 3^rd and October 15^th Library staff campaigned for food donations in return for clearing library fines. 

With Facebook and Twitter accounts dedicated specifically to Food 4 Fines, as well as targeted e-mail notifications to staff, students and faculty through partnership with the Student Union, we began to distribute promotional material a few weeks ahead of the scheduled event. Posters featuring the catchy logo created by our very own Learning Zone Librarian, Marta Chudolinska, were also prepared ahead of the event. The posters were put up in key areas on campus and in the library and Learning Zone spaces. The logo was included on all communications – a quick way to promote instant recognition of Food 4 Fines-related advertising. Having prepared our plan of action, we wore our buttons and held our collective breath on the first day of the event. Would the event prove to be successful? Would users be interested in participating? Were we wasting our time?

 Food 4 Fines turned out to be bigger and more successful than we could have imagined! Bags and bags of donations were brought to the Library containing pasta, pickles, soups and even cat food (our patrons are so thoughtful!). Each donation was rewarded with a button and, in some cases, a completely clean record (so those patrons who had been hiding from the Library because of fines could now confidently stride in, head held high, and peruse for research material).

 While there may be budgetary concerns for some libraries, we found that many patrons continued to pay their fines in addition to bringing in donations. We also received much positive feedback from the community. Students were thrilled to participate in this initiative, oftentimes commenting on how much they admired the creative aspect of it. Some Library staff wore buttons to organizational meetings, prompting questions from staff and faculty and praise upon hearing the purpose behind the event. Word of mouth promotions proved to be the most winning form of advertising. The most successful endeavour was phoning people on the overdue list to notify or remind them of their overdue fines and let them know the event was happening. This resulted in a rush of donations, as soon as the following day.  This event fostered teamwork and creativity in staff as everyone brainstormed and shared ideas to maintain or improve service during the event. The ultimate measure of success was that the food drive resulted in so much food donated to the Starving Artist Pantry that the Student Union asked when we would do it again!

 This is just one example of how libraries can engage in their communities and support organizations in need.  After all, nurturing intellectual freedom requires not only healthy minds, but nourished bodies.  Libraries can opt to support local or national organizations, dedicating their time to supporting food banks, women’s shelters, youth in need and new immigrant communities. The possibilities are truly endless and it only really takes a creative approach, willing and supportive administration and a strong team spirit!

 Katya Pereyaslavska (M.F.A., M.I.) is a recent iSchool graduate from the University of Toronto currently assisting with the provision of Reference Services at the Dorothy. H. Hoover Library at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. She has worked in a variety of library settings as a Foreign Language Rare Book Cataloguer (AGO Library), Slavic Studies Reference Assistant (PJRC, Robarts Library), a Library Intern at both, the Davis Centre at Harvard University and the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. Her professional experience has been quite diverse, the common thread that connects the variety of positions she has held is her dedication to the advancement of the field of librarianship – be it through promotions, effective reference and cataloguing services or publications. She is. also the co-founder of the Toronto Desk Set, a local organization for librarians and information professionals passionate about our field (www.torontodeskset.org). As a dedicated blogger, I co-run a food blog (http://foodsluts.tumblr.com) and also run my own blog (http://socialitelibrarian.blogspot.com/)

 Shireen Harbin (B.Sc.N., Library Technician) is a recent graduate of Seneca College’s Library and Information Technician program with a certificate in Archival and Records Management Practices from George Brown College and a background in Nursing. She currently provides circulation services at Dorothy H. Hoover Library, Ontario College of Art and Design University, and is interested in reference service, collection development, promotions, and archival practices.

Akendi is a Canadian consultancy with usability researchers, user experience architects & service designers. We are passionate about the creation of intentional experiences – whether those involve digital products, mobile, web portals or bricks-and-mortar interactions. We work with you to create evidence-based digital product and service experiences. We help you align your organisational strategies with client goals by applying user research, innovative design and user validation so that you will deliver the highest quality experiences.

Library and information centres are constantly asked to prove their value to their parent organisations.  By applying evidence-based methods to create your Library’s information products, finding aids, websites, mobile sites or mobile apps, as well as services, your users and stakeholders’ goals are able to be met in ways that best serve their needs.  When products and services fulfill stakeholder and users’ goals very well, the Library’s value is indisputable.  Akendi can also work with you to create metrics and performance measures to illustrate exactly how and where your Library is adding value.

Akendi’s process is a rigorous, repeatable research and design process – Human Experience Design. We use scientific and systematic steps involving you, your users and your stakeholders – at the right time, in the right amount.

Cindy Beggs
Partner, Director of Experience Research
225 Richmond Street West, Suite 402
Toronto, ON M5V 1W2
Tel: (866) 565.1660
Email: cindy@akendi.com
Web: www.akendi.ca