The Dalhousie Libraries are here for you during Reading Week. You can book a computer or a space to study, borrow materials through our curbside pick-up service, get assistance through LiveHelp, connect with your subject specialist, borrow a laptop for an extended loan, get IT Help Desk assistance, and more!
Please note the Dal Libraries will be closed on Wednesday, November 11. This includes the LiveHelp service. The IT Help Desk will be OPEN from 1–9 p.m.
Since July 2020, the Dal Libraries has invested over $150,000 in streaming media to support the online curriculum.
If you plan to include streaming video in your winter term courses, please check the film titles in the Libraries’ streaming subscriptions before submitting a request. These subscriptions are listed in the Libraries’ Streaming Video Guide. These collections include thousands of documentaries, feature films, and educational content, all of which are licensed for use on the Brightspace course management platform.
In addition to the video subscriptions available through the Dalhousie Libraries, Dalhousie/King’s students also have access to the contents of Hoopla and Kanopy subscriptions through Halifax Public Libraries using their public library card. Students without a public library card can register for a digital card at this site: https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/membership/card/
Dalhousie University students should indicate Dalhousie University as their address, Halifax as their city, and B3H 4R2 as their postal code. King’s students use University of King’s College as their address, Halifax as their city, and B3H 2A1 as their postal code.
If you cannot meet the requirements of your syllabus with these resources, please place your film request using this form: https://util.library.dal.ca/StreamingVideo/ Please note that it can take as long as a month to locate a single title and obtain a license.
Videos found on the open internet (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
With proper attribution/citation, you may link to legitimately posted works found on the Internet.
If you choose to use a video you find in services such as YouTube or Vimeo in your online course, you should be aware of these potential limitations:
Instructors should refrain from linking to videos if any of the following are evident:
To identify information on permissible uses or for contact information for requesting permission, you may need to explore the website for pages that deal with “Terms of Use” or “Legal Notices” or look for a link to a specific license.
Popular commercial video streaming services
In most cases, videos available on commercial services like Amazon Prime, Crave, HBO, Hulu, and Netflix are not available for use in online educational settings because the providers of these services base their service model on selling subscriptions directly to consumers.
Section 29.5(d) of the Copyright Act allows instructors to show legally obtained videos in class. However, in order to access content on commercial streaming video services such as Netflix, users must accept user agreements which indicate that the services are limited to “personal use” or “household use.” These agreements prohibit the display of these films in classrooms or public screenings and may override copyright exceptions available to users under the Copyright Act. These types of licenses/agreements also prohibit making recordings of the films — short clips or otherwise — since this often involves breaking digital locks or violating terms of use.
Netflix
Netflix does offer some films for online education use through their YouTube channel. Netflix also offers in-person classroom exceptions for educational screenings, but has not made it clear whether or not these exceptions would apply to online classroom settings.
Finally, videos in commercial streaming services are not available in all countries. Content available in Canadian Netflix, for example, may not be available in the United States. Similarly, videos available in other countries may not be available in Canada. Content may also be removed at the discretion of the commercial service without notice or recourse.
We are pleased to welcome Samantha Adema to the Dalhousie Libraries. Sam started with us in this role on September 1.
Sam (L’nu/Mi’kmaw) is a member of Sipekne’katik First Nation. She has a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from Dalhousie (2019) and a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Mary’s, where she majored in history and classics and spent time at the Basentello Valley Archaeological Field School in Italy.
Sam is a familiar face to many of us in the Dalhousie Libraries because she worked as an intern in the Sexton Library while she did her master’s degree. She has also worked at Halifax Public Libraries as both a community assistant and a library assistant. At HPL, Sam’s primary responsibilities included building relationships with community members; building an inclusive, welcoming atmosphere; and providing services to library users such as one-on-one technology instruction and assistance with reference and research questions.
Sam has done research projects about unemployment among Nova Scotia’s Indigenous youth and the potential for the public library to forge additional community partnerships to better serve the urban Indigenous population in North-End Halifax. She worked with community members and staff at the Mi’kmaq Native Friendship Centre and staff at the Museum of Natural History to show how community-led principles had a positive effect in boosting Indigenous attendance and involvement with the museum.
As Dalhousie’s Indigenous Services Librarian, Sam is currently working remotely due to current on-campus restrictions related to COVID-19, but she is available to answer research questions via email and is available for remote consultations via Microsoft Teams for more in-depth research questions. When we return to campus, Sam will be based out of the Killam Memorial Library, but she is available to work with people from all campuses.
Sam works closely with faculty, researchers, staff, and students to support learning and research on Indigenous topics in all disciplines. She will also coordinate reference support, programming, and other services to users of Dalhousie’s National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation Hub in the MacRae Library.
“Indigenous Services is a priority within the Dalhousie Libraries and we are thrilled to have Samantha join our team. These services are for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, staff, and faculty but also for the local Indigenous communities,” said Elaine MacInnis, Associate University Librarian Services and Head, MacRae Library.
Welcome, Sam!
Criterion on Demand website pages are loading slowly and/or occasionally giving a connection error message.
This issue has been reported and their database management team is investigating and will fix the problem as soon as possible. Criterion on Demand will confirm when this issue is resolved.
A message has been placed on their home screen advising users of this issue. Criterion on Demand apologizes for the inconvenience.
UPDATE, Nov 2, 2020: The vendor has advised that this problem has been resolved.
Open Access Week header by Nick Shockey licensed under CC 4.0.
International Open Access Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of open access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to inspire wider participation to make open access the norm in scholarship and research. The Dalhousie Libraries celebrates OA Week annually with a variety of initiatives in support of open access.
Atlantic Canada Research Data Management (RDM) Day
The day will consist of a series of webinars ideal for librarians, decision makers, data managers and researchers. Topics covered will include research data management plans, a general overview of research data management, and local initiatives. Speakers will also provide updates on federal infrastructure initiatives and ethics in research data management. Sponsored by CAUL-CBUA (Council of Atlantic University Libraries/ Conseil des bibliothèques universitaires de l’Atlantique) a collaborative partnership of 18 post-secondary libraries in Atlantic Canada.
Wednesday, October 21, 9 a.m.–4:15 p.m.
Agenda & RSVP
Open Access at Dalhousie
The following stories highlight faculty members, faculties, and departments who are doing open
access work at Dal.
The GIS Centre is offering a pilot service this term to extend the GIS Centre’s online hours for help. Starting this week, we are offering extended hours from 7–10 p.m. Atlantic time, on Mondays and Thursdays, ending on Monday, December 7.
Caitlin Cunningham, an experienced PhD student, will be handling the requests during these extended hours. Caitlin has worked in the GIS Centre and taught students how to use GIS, particularly in the School of Resource Environmental Management, during the past few years. She can be reached through email or Microsoft Teams at GIS@dal.ca.
Caitlin can answer all of your GIS questions, including but not limited to, “I’m having problems with a GIS Tool,” “I need help planning my project,” “I need suggestions on where to find data,” and of course, the ever-favourite, “Can you help me make a map?”
If you are not familiar with Teams (where to chat, have voice conversations, or do screen sharing) then please check out our remote access instructions: https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/library/gis/RemoteAccessToTroubleshootArcGISatDAL_UsingTeams.pdf
We are doing our best to support students learning how to use geospatial data and ArcGIS software. We hope and anticipate that these extended hours will help support online learning activities in current courses, particularly for those students living outside the Atlantic region where time zones have been an issue.
If you have any feedback, please let us know.
Cheers from the GIS Team!
Jen Strang, James Boxall and Gwen MacNairn
On Monday, October 12, the virtual drop-in space for Brightspace support will be closed. This will allow the members of our support team to rest and spend time with their families.
The Help Desk will have limited hours from 1–9 p.m. that day to help with general support. support@dal.ca | 902-494-HELP (4357) | toll free at 1-800-869-3931.
The virtual drop-ins and the Help Desk will be open regular hours on Saturday and Sunday and will return to normal hours on Tuesday, October 13.
Records Manager Courtney Bayne is offering several virtual sessions this fall on the topics of retaining records and email management. If you are overwhelmed with multiple versions and drafts of documents or if your email is bursting at the seams with old messages, these sessions are for you. You have two chances to catch each session.
How long do I keep this stuff? DalCLASS can help with that!
Are you over whelmed with documents and have multiple versions, drafts, or duplicates of stuff? And are not sure what to keep and what can be gotten rid of? Then this session is for you!
Using DalCLASS and other records management tools can help you figure out what information has institutional value and what can be securely shredded or deleted.
This session will help you figure out what information is a record that has to be retained (in accordance with the Records Management Policy), and what can be securely shredded or deleted. You will be shown;
What is DalCLASS?
DalCLASS is the main records management tool that supports the Dalhousie Records Management Policy. It is the authority for organizing, retaining and disposing of Dalhousie University Administrative Records. It describes records series by noting its purpose and the scope and contents of the records generated in the course of the related business activities. The description also notes the primary office(s) responsible for the records. It also contains a retention rule and disposition instructions that have been approved by the University Records Committee
Register for: Thursday, October 8, 10–11:30 a.m.
Register for: Thursday, November 19, 10–11:30 a.m.
Email Management Best Practices
In this session, we will be reviewing email management best practices regarding the creation and management of emails, and how best to manage shared email accounts.
Register for: Thursday, October 15, 10–11:30 a.m.
Register for Tuesday, November 17, 10–11:30 a.m.
What is a Lunchless Learn? It’s a hands-on tutorial, held around lunchtime, but without the food!
A GIS, or Geographic Information System, is “a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data relating to positions on earth’s surface” In other words, it’s an easy and fun way to look at the world differently.
To register, for Cartography – Maps, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on Tuesday, October 13, from 12–1:30 p.m., visit: https://dal.libcal.com/event/3578220
For more information about Lunchless Learns, as well as considerations before you start, tips and tricks watch this video!