This article investigates the conceptual and practical evolution of digital libraries designed to provide access to community repositories centred on agency, collaboration, and cultural stewardship. Grounded in the guiding principles of community-engaged research, the article identifies seven key elements essential to the design and governance of such repositories: shared ownership, knowledge reciprocity, collaborative design, community utility, relational accountability, epistemic plurality, and iterative evaluation. These elements interrogate dominant academic norms by affirming community agency over how knowledge is curated, contextualized, and disseminated. The article argues that community repositories must be co-developed through respectful and reciprocal partnerships between scholars, librarians, and communities to support cultural stewardship and epistemic equality. Shifting the focus from access to agency provides opportunity to challenge the dominant academic norms and conventional bibliographic practices by centring community voices and the legitimacy of community-sourced materials. This approach not only invites a reconfiguration of library and academic praxis to better reflect the principles of community-engaged research but also enhances visibility for marginalized knowledge traditions. Through the salutary example of the ginans, a corpus of devotional hymns central to the Ismaili Muslim community, this article shows how digital repositories can be used to transform knowledge production, support inclusive research partnerships, and recast digital libraries as active infrastructure for community‑engaged scholarship.
This case study describes the process we undertook at the University of Victoria between fall 2023 and spring 2024 to upgrade our institutional repository’s software from DSpace version 6.4 to 7.6.1. The open-source software had reached the end of its developer-support period, and some features were no longer functional. This new version offered several new and improved features that we were excited about. We provide a short history about our institutional repository; a literature review including an environmental scan of other Canadian repositories using DSpace; an explanation of our implementation strategy, user interface upgrades, workflow, and submission form changes; training we offered to our major stakeholders; the outcomes of our project; and some thoughts on future directions. We also share our lessons learned from this major upgrade of UVicSpace with the goal of helping other groups upgrade to DSpace 7 or undertake a similar repository upgrade or migration project.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, post-secondary libraries across Alberta have seen a significant decline in reference interactions, and the University of Lethbridge Library is no exception. Changing and limited library services during the pandemic played a role in this precipitous decline, which exceeded the downward trend in reference services that had already begun prior to the pandemic and lockdown period. With a post-secondary student population whose experience with libraries and library services was disrupted, could moving beyond the library walls and taking library services to the students bridge that gap? Following a review of various Librarian-on-Location initiatives, including roving reference, embedded librarianship, and pop-up libraries, this article outlines the development and implementation of a pop-up reference service at the University of Lethbridge Library as an innovative response to declining reference interactions. This initiative was designed to connect with students who were unaware of the resources available at the library. The first three iterations of the pop-up are discussed, including outcomes, early feedback, and challenges encountered. Findings suggest that pop-up reference services play an important role in library outreach, providing individualized experiences that students desire while eliciting reference questions that otherwise would not have been asked.
This study investigates the perceptions and behaviours of novice academic researchers in their first year of post-secondary education when conducting online research. Because this study was undertaken immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020-2022 it provides a unique window into how this experience impacted our youth, their choices and behaviours when conducting online research at the point of entering university and then further along in the first year. Conducting online research in this context describes what students anticipate they will do during an information search process and the strategies and tools they use in practice to locate information. Using data from semi-structured interviews and cognitive maps, thematic analysis was used to identify themes of the students’ perceptions and behaviours. This exploratory research can serve to inform and provide insights into improving our science and health sciences libraries’ user experience, instruction, marketing, and e-resource collections, as well as students’ preparation for academic research in their secondary school years, particularly in the Canadian context. Findings indicate that the experience of secondary students conducting research for school is one of frustration. Credible information is highly valued but difficult to obtain without the proper resources and skills. The early perceptions of students were ones of hope that these frustrations would be appeased when having access to superior quality tools and learning the proper techniques of academic research. In today’s changing online world, library workers must continue the work of understanding how our students perceive and behave when conducting research.
Accessibility in collection development policies (CDPs) and practice in Canada is understudied. Two studies focusing on academic libraries in provinces with accessibility legislation were done to investigate both policy and practice. The first study employed a content analysis of publicly available CDPs of academic libraries in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Ontario to determine if accessibility was explicitly mentioned in them. The study aimed to explore possible legislative influence in the wording of CDPs. Since CDPs show only part of the picture as to how selectors make their acquisition decisions, in the second study, a multiple-choice and short answer survey was administered to selectors at academic libraries in these three provinces, in order to discover the factors that influence selectors in deciding if and how they use accessibility as a selection criterion. This article presents the research undertaken and sheds new light on how accessibility functions in collection development in the Canadian academic library context.
Community-based research often involves communities working in partnership with academic researchers to address issues and problems that the community has raised. Much of this work results in diverse publicly available materials that strive to inform public policy, strengthen funding proposals, empower community members, and advance social change. This article reports on a recent qualitative study exploring the role of institutional repositories in disseminating and preserving these community-based research products, informed by the perspectives, experiences, and motivations of academics involved in this work. Interviews with faculty members and university administrators at Canadian post-secondary institutions suggest that there is a widespread lack of awareness about ways that institutional repository services can leverage the impact and reach of public-facing work generated through these collaborations. Furthermore, a survey of Canadian scholarly communications librarians indicates that libraries do limited outreach to faculty members and administrators engaged in community-based research to promote these services. This article suggests ways that academic libraries can extend outreach strategies to bridge this observed gap between repository services and the dissemination and preservation of community-based research products directly informed by input from research participants. Doing so can advance widespread institutional commitments to community engagement and open science practices to benefit the public good.
This study investigates the perceptions and behaviours of novice academic researchers in their first year of post-secondary education when conducting online research. Because this study was undertaken immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020-2022 it provides a unique window into how this experience impacted our youth, their choices and behaviours when conducting online research at the point of entering university and then further along in the first year. Conducting online research in this context describes what students anticipate they will do during an information search process and the strategies and tools they use in practice to locate information. Using data from semi-structured interviews and cognitive maps, thematic analysis was used to identify themes of the students’ perceptions and behaviours. This exploratory research can serve to inform and provide insights into improving our science and health sciences libraries’ user experience, instruction, marketing, and e-resource collections, as well as students’ preparation for academic research in their secondary school years, particularly in the Canadian context. Findings indicate that the experience of secondary students conducting research for school is one of frustration. Credible information is highly valued but difficult to obtain without the proper resources and skills. The early perceptions of students were ones of hope that these frustrations would be appeased when having access to superior quality tools and learning the proper techniques of academic research. In today’s changing online world, library workers must continue the work of understanding how our students perceive and behave when conducting research.
Canadian communities are facing a crisis of inequity, and library service providers must do more to respond to the causal conditions of anti-Black and other forms of systemic racism (Black & Mehra, 2023). Beginning in 2022, the first known Canadian MLIS course, Anti-Racism in Library and Information Science, was piloted at Western University. It aimed to allow students to engage with transformative and collaborative anti-racism frameworks relevant to the Canadian library sector and MLIS curriculum. The one-semester (13-week) course was offered once each summer in 2022 and 2023. The multi-faceted course aimed to equip students with community-based approaches to learning in partnership with local Black communities. As exemplars, the course approach and learnings also allow LIS scholars and practitioners to explore and evaluate their understanding of community-based and anti-racist frameworks. This paper provides evidence-based research and Black-centred resources that can begin to address anti-Black and other forms of systemic racism impacting Canadian library communities. The Canadian-centric and LIS-tailored approach can further benefit both library and community organizations by supporting anti-racism efforts to uncover covert practices of anti-Black racism in personal and professional practices and worldviews.
Many academic librarians and archivists (L/As) in Canada have research responsibilities as part of their jobs. For some, those responsibilities include research and scholarship in any disciplinary area, including creative works. This study explored the practices and perspectives of academic L/As in Canada with respect to research in areas outside of librarianship or archival studies (LIAS). An invitation to complete an online questionnaire was sent to over 1,800 email addresses and two listservs. The questionnaire asked about the non-LIAS topics that academic L/As have researched, their perceptions about the importance of research outside of LIAS, and barriers or restrictions they may encounter in doing this research. From the 345 usable responses, 85% of respondents have conducted research on LIAS topics, 32% have done non-LIAS research as part of their job, 29% have done non-LIAS research but not as part of their job, and 38% have not done research outside LIAS. Personal interest was the primary reason for doing non-LIAS research. Nearly half of respondents said that doing non-LIAS research and producing or performing creative works were extremely or very important. At the same time, respondents’ comments revealed a range of perspectives about non-LIAS research, including the sense that it is reasonable to have a connection between research and professional work. More attention is needed to develop a shared understanding about the place and value of non-LIAS research. Data from the study are available in Borealis: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/SAKC2C.
The importance of sustainable lifestyles is addressed in two of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Public libraries can play a significant role in providing information and resources to lead to positive behavioural actions to help mitigate climate change. The paper examined the resources and programs that thirteen public libraries in Canada offer to people interested in pursuing a zero-waste (ZW) lifestyle. Catalogue and descriptive records for resources and programs related to ZW were extracted from Canadian public libraries that represented each of the provinces and territories. Thematic analysis was conducted on 335 unique subject headings (167 in English, 168 in French) obtained from the bibliographic records of 207 titles, as well as on the titles and descriptions of 34 library programs. This analysis revealed that the library resources covered a span of 14 ZW behaviours or activities, including childcare, food preparation, environmental sustainability, waste reduction, and waste disposal. Through their programs and collections, public libraries can help make sustainable lifestyles more attainable to a greater number of people across different social, cultural, and demographic groups. Given the increasing importance of sustainable lifestyles to mitigate climate change, public libraries could consider how to expand and emphasize their sustainability collections, and particularly programming, to further strengthen and demonstrate their commitment to supporting sustainable lifestyles and practices.
Over the last twenty years knowledge mobilization (KM) is increasingly a priority for researchers, funders, and universities. As KM emphasizes non-traditional forms of mobilization and encourages approaching research differently (e.g. co-production) there is a natural fit with advancements in academic librarianship such as digital scholarship. The goal of KM is to increase the use and positive impact of research beyond academia. Many researchers, required to plan and do KM as part of the funding requirements, need additional supports to learn about and mobilize their research beyond traditional approaches; academic institutions are responding with developing support services or roles in the institution. Approaches to these services are diverse, some centralized, some faculty or department specific, some dedicated roles, others added on to existing roles. In this paper we describe a pilot project to support KM at one Canadian university. Specifically, we share the development, initiation, and program model of a KM support unit within an academic library. We make the case for the importance of physical location of this type of service, the value the library adds to this service, and other lessons learned through this pilot project.
Using métissage as a method of inquiry, this paper is the outcome of reflections of a Canadian academic library hiring committee that consists of both librarians and library technicians that disrupted local hiring practices in the effort to create a more human-centred, inclusive, and thoughtful process when hiring for two library technician vacancies. Through the writing and mixing of texts, three themes emerged that capture the shared experiences of the committee and serve as an example of how reflective practice can take shape among different types of employees in a busy academic library. This process helped to empower members of the hiring committee to question and contribute to the hiring process in new ways. Despite the limits of time, this project reveals that efforts can be made to create a space for a hiring committee, comprised of library employees with different levels of workplace power, to critique and modify practices to improve approaches to hiring. These improvements go beyond creating a welcoming environment for candidates and include changes to the way current employees feel about their contributions and their engagement in the work.
This paper seeks to answer what material quality of life can be expected for someone working in a library in Canada, based on the salaries offered in a data set of three months of job postings on a national job board. The postings were categorized by provincial and municipal location and education level. These data were then compared to census information about the cost of housing in the community where the job was located, to approximate whether the pay was sufficient to provide financial stability, and therefore a good material quality of life. The results of the study show that based on the average of all postings, library workers appear to have a good material quality of life. However, a significant number of individual positions did not provide financial stability. Positions that required an MLIS were more likely to provide a good material quality of life, while positions that required a technician diploma were less likely to do the same. I conducted this analysis with the acknowledgement that library workers exist within communities both in the libraries where we work and in the broader sense of where we live. These contexts have power dynamics, and those who have greater financial stability have a responsibility to advocate for, or stand in solidarity with, other members of the community who have less.
This study investigates the perceptions and behaviours of novice academic researchers in their first year of post-secondary education when conducting online research. Because this study was undertaken immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020-2022 it provides a unique window into how this experience impacted our youth, their choices and behaviours when conducting online research at the point of entering university and then further along in the first year. Conducting online research in this context describes what students anticipate they will do during an information search process and the strategies and tools they use in practice to locate information. Using data from semi-structured interviews and cognitive maps, thematic analysis was used to identify themes of the students’ perceptions and behaviours. This exploratory research can serve to inform and provide insights into improving our science and health sciences libraries’ user experience, instruction, marketing, and e-resource collections, as well as students’ preparation for academic research in their secondary school years, particularly in the Canadian context. Findings indicate that the experience of secondary students conducting research for school is one of frustration. Credible information is highly valued but difficult to obtain without the proper resources and skills. The early perceptions of students were ones of hope that these frustrations would be appeased when having access to superior quality tools and learning the proper techniques of academic research. In today’s changing online world, library workers must continue the work of understanding how our students perceive and behave when conducting research.
Isaac Fellman’s Dead Collections: A Novel (2022) portrays a fictional archivist Sol, who experiences chronic illness in the form of vampirism. While he experiences many symptoms including cold skin and reliance on weekly blood transfusions, it is his life-threatening photophobia (aversion to sunlight) that becomes a serious impairment to commuting to and from work. While Sol and his vampirism are clearly works of fiction, the novel accurately depicts working in libraries with a chronic illness. This article compares and connects the fictional story in Dead Collections to the growing body of literature on library workers with disabilities and chronic illness, particularly articles that give voice to those with relevant lived experiences. Highlights of this discussion include the topics of non-apparent illnesses, disclosure, passing, reactions to disability among coworkers and supervisors, and the promises and disappointments of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Salish Weave Box Sets: Art and Storytelling Project is a project carried out for the Indigenous Curriculum Resource Centre (ICRC) at Simon Fraser University (SFU) Library, with the goal of providing resources to include Indigenous art in the post-secondary classroom. The project looked at the concept of art as literature, using the concept of Indigenous Storywork (Archibald, 2008). In this paper, we provide further context on the ICRC at SFU Library, the Salish Weave Box Sets, and present the approach, project themes, and lessons learned from the Salish Weave Box Sets: Art and Storytelling Project.
Objective: The impetus for this project is to begin to understand open science practices and obstacles at the XXX. This project uses open-ended questions to understand the ways in which university-affiliated individuals learn about, think about, and interact with open science. The goal of this study is to showcase the complexity and diversity of activity and challenges in this domain to help determine how best to move open science forward. Methods: From March to October 2022, 45 semi-structured interviews were conducted with faculty, graduate students, librarians and administrative staff. Interviews were conducted and recorded using Zoom and the audio was transcribed using otter.ai. As part of a commitment to open science practices, a data management plan was created and with participant consent, 26 transcripts were uploaded to Dataverse. Data analysis used structured coding and thematic development to investigate responses. Results: The core finding of this study is that there is no singular status of open science at XXX. The qualitative findings reflect a diversity of opinions, practices and relationships to open science. Conclusion: For open science practices and scholarship to have longevity, there must be systemic changes to adopt more open activities. XXX is well positioned to guide the transition and harness open principles to move into the future.
This exploratory study analyzes the advocacy practices and outputs of three national associations representing libraries and organizations of various types: the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC), and the Canadian Federation of Library Associations-Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA-FCAB). Data was collected from a variety of sources, including the associations’ websites, records of federal government consultations and lobbying activities. A thematic analysis was conducted using open coding and visual theme mapping, and the results analyzed using Schein’s model for understanding organizational culture. The results provide important insights into publicly available advocacy work by these associations since 2016. By providing the first step of quantifying advocacy work by Canadian library associations, this study lays the groundwork for further investigation to explore the impact of library association advocacy and to identify successful patterns and strategies for advocacy initiatives in the future.
Background This study explores a library-led research data management (RDM) training program at a Canadian post-secondary institution that targeted students participating in summer research assistantships as well as their faculty supervisors. This paper describes the program in detail and shares findings from a student reflection assignment about practicing RDM for the first time. Methods The RDM training program included four requirements: attending an introductory RDM session; attending a data management plan (DMP) workshop; submitting a DMP for feedback; and completing a reflection assignment. Where consent was obtained (n=19), reflection assignments were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Results 35 faculty supervisors registered 53 students to participate. 62.2% (n=33) of students completed all components of the program. Perceived benefits of completing a DMP included improved project planning, supporting best practices, potential for data reuse, and team communication. Perceived challenges included the inflexibility of DMPs, difficulty populating DMPs, demands on researchers’ time, and lack of long-term utility. 73.6% of students (n=14/19) reported that building a DMP helped them with their summer projects. Conclusion Through instruction, practical engagement, and reflection within the context of real-world research, the program supported participants in learning about and practicing RDM, and provided insights for academic librarians who wish to refine or develop training in their local contexts as they continue to navigate emerging expectations from funders and publishers.
This study analyzed how Canadian post-secondary libraries have managed and administered their web-scale discovery service and how adopting a discovery service has changed the traditional boundaries of standard library functions. Through a combination of survey responses and semi-structured interviews, the author investigated how Canadian academic libraries organized around their web-scale discovery service. Academic libraries can manage their discovery service from a Technical Services unit, a Library Systems, or a Web Services department, or by a committee. However, there is consensus that a discovery service requires collaboration and cooperation among many functional areas. Discovery service leaders often have organizational awareness to break down the silos between traditional library functions to perform the various duties related to managing and administering their web-scale discovery service. Individuals responsible for their discovery service are flexible and work collaboratively with staff in many different areas and often have a strong user-centred focus.
