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Category: Agriculture

2nd Annual MacRae Library Research Poster Competition

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Showcase Your Research

Attention all students and post-docs from the Truro Campus! The MacRae Library Student Research Poster Competition is returning on March 12, 2025, for its second year, promising another exciting opportunity for students to showcase their innovative research.

This event is a fantastic platform for budding researchers to present their work, engage with the academic community, gain valuable feedback, and possibly win a gift card prize.

Whether you’re a participant or an attendee, the competition is an excellent chance to explore diverse research topics, network with peers, and celebrate the achievements of student researchers.  

Submit Your Application

To register for the competition, complete the online application form by March 5 and prepare a digital or print version of your research poster* to share with other students, faculty, and staff from the Truro campus on March 12 from 6-8pm.

Please note that digital posters will be presented to attendees as QR codes so your poster should be scalable for mobile devices. If you want to showcase a print version of your research poster, it must be submitted to the MacRae Library front desk by 3 pm on March 7.  Posters will be displayed on the Library’s top floor from March 10-14, 2025. This competition is open to all Truro Start, undergraduate, graduate students, and post-docs on the Truro Campus and no previous publishing or presentation experience is required. Research can explore any topic and does not need to be new.  

Vote for the Winners 

On March 12, 2025, from 6-8 pm, researchers will engage with event attendees to discuss their posters in the MacRae Library Program Rooms (218/219). Audience members will vote for their favourite poster using a scoring rubric and the top three posters will receive a gift card. The event is open to everyone, including community members from Truro, Bible Hill, and surrounding areas.

Can’t make the event? Posters will be on display for asynchronous viewing at the MacRae Library from March 10-14, 2025. 

Let’s come together and celebrate the incredible work of our student researchers and their future global impact. We look forward to receiving your submissions and hearing more about your work. 

Important Dates 

  • March 5 – Competition registration deadline
  • March 7 – Deadline to submit print posters (3 pm)
  • March 12 – Competition night (6-8pm) 

If you have any questions, please contact Jaclyn Chambers Page at jchamberspage@dal.ca. 

*Curious about how to prepare a poster presentation? Sign up for Research Camp, an online, asynchronous program created by Dal Libraries with support from the Writing Centre. It covers all the elements of research, from basic to advanced skills, with video lectures, interactive exercises, and more, including a special module on Poster Presentations in the “Presenting and Publishing Research” section.  Self-register in Brightspace by clicking Academic Support > Self registration > Online Community – Research Camp 2024-2025. You can enroll anytime and complete as many modules as you wish. 

 

2024 Dal Libraries Survey Results 

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At Dal Libraries, we hold ourselves accountable to the university and the community we serve and measure our progress regularly. In January, we surveyed Dal students, faculty, and staff to assess our services and measure our impact. In March, we shared a brief note thanking you for your feedback and announcing the prize winners. 

5,125 people responded to our survey – we are delighted and grateful for such an enthusiastic response. After reading and analyzing the feedback, we are happy to share the following results with you.   

Areas Rated Highly Important Where We Are Doing Well 

  • Wireless access
  • Information resources are meeting needs and helping students and faculty to be successful
  • Students feel comfortable asking staff for help
  • Help is available when needed
  • Staff provide accurate answers to questions

Priorities for Improvement 

  • Improving access to quiet study areas
  • Improving access to group study areas

Other Areas for Improvement 

  • Electrical outlet accessibility and maintenance at specific locations
  • Ease of use of printers at specific locations
  • Hours at specific locations
  • Laptop loaning for specific groups of students
  • Students with disabilities & Faculty: Accessing library resources through mobile devices
  • Faculty: The Libraries’ website and search box

Actions We are Taking 

  • After careful review, the silent, quiet, and conversation-friendly study spaces at the Killam Library, the Kellogg Library Learning Commons at the CHEB, and the Law Library have been rezoned. We are monitoring these areas to ensure they meet users’ needs.
  • We are conducting usability and accessibility studies in preparation for a reimagined Libraries website in 2025. We will seek input and feedback from both students and faculty.
  • While our current budget does not enable us to extend our current building hours, we regularly consult our usage and foot traffic data to optimize our hours of operation.
  • We will be reviewing our laptop loan program in the near future.

We will provide updates on these items as we make progress. 

We were bolstered by messages of support and enthusiasm for our libraries and our staff. One user said, “I am extremely happy with the library system. The staff are helpful, and a lot of thought and effort has clearly gone into setting things up to make it easy for students.”  

Again, we are grateful to all who took the time to respond to our survey and we look forward to making improvements and adjustments to serve you better. If you have questions about the survey and results, please contact Assessment Coordinator Linda Bedwell.

Michael Vandenburg
Dean of Libraries 

Planned DalSpace Repository Updates & Outages

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The DalSpace theses repository will undergo updates during October 15-22. These updates will address issues and ensure ongoing functionality. 

From October 15-22 users will experience outages. Please avoid uploads and deposits until the update is completed after October 22. 

If you have any questions about the update, please contact dalspace@dal.ca.

 New! Sign in to DMP Assistant with your Dal Credentials 

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On September 12, DMP Assistant, the national bilingual data management planning tool, enabled institutional and social ID logins. This means you can log in with your Dalhousie credentials – and you have one less password to remember!

To move your existing account to a single sign-on account:

  1. Sign in to your old account.
  2. Navigate to your name in the upper right corner and click “Edit Profile.”
  3. Select “Link your institutional credentials” in the edit profile area.
  4. Follow the sign-in process.

To make a new account with single sign-on:

  1. Click “sign in with institutional or social ID” on the landing page.
  2. Select Dalhousie University or a social sign-on provider (Google, ORCiD) you would like to use.
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions and a new DMP Assistant account will be created for you.

If you need support, contact the DMP Assistant Team or Dalhousie Libraries’ Research Data Management Team.

May 5 is Red Dress Day

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Seven red dresses hang on a line.

The Red Dress Day exhibit in the Ko’jua Okuom in the Killam Memorial Library.

May 5 is Red Dress Day,  a day of honouring missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Learn more about Red Dress Day.

Learn more about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) by reading the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

MacRae Library Research Poster Competition 

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By Alison Brierley

Attention all students! You are invited to take part in the first-ever MacRae Library Research Poster Competition. This is an opportunity to share your work with others, learn more about research, and win one of three gift card prizes. 

Submit Your Research 

To register for the competition, complete the online application form by March 15 and prepare a digital or print version of your research poster* to present at a lightning talk event on March 27.

Your digital posters will be presented to lightning talk attendees as QR codes so be sure to create your poster so that it is scalable for mobile devices. If you would like to showcase a print version of your research poster, it must be submitted to the MacRae Library front desk by 12 pm on March 22.

This competition is open to all undergraduate, graduate students, and post-docs on the Truro Campus including Truro Start students. No previous publishing or presentation experience is required and your research can explore any topic.  

Vote for the Winners 

On March 27, from 6:00-8:00 p.m., researchers will present their posters at a lightning talk event in the MacRae Library program rooms (218/219). Audience members will vote for their favourite presentations using a scoring rubric and the top three posters will receive a gift card! A celebratory reception with food and refreshments will follow. 

Can’t make the event? Posters will be on display at the MacRae Library from March 22 – April 5. 

We want to bring together students and postdocs from across the Truro campus to share their knowledge and help to build community. We look forward to your submissions and hearing more about your work! 

Important Dates 

  • March 15 – Competition registration deadline
  • March 22 – Deadline to submit print posters (12 p.m.)
  • March 27 – Lightning talks and reception (6-8 p.m.) 

If you have any questions, please reach out to Jaclyn Chambers Page at jchamberspage@dal.ca. 

*Curious about how to prepare a poster presentation?

Sign up for Research Camp, an online, asynchronous program created by Dal Libraries with support from the Writing Centre. Research Camp covers all the elements of research, from basic to advanced skills with video lectures, interactive exercises, and more. Included is a special module on Poster Presentations in the “Presenting and Publishing Research” section. 

Self-register in Brightspace by clicking Academic Support > Self-registration> Online Community – Research Camp 2023-2024. You can enroll anytime and complete as many modules as you wish. 

Contest Terms and Conditions: 

The competition submission form opens on March 1, 2024, at 8 a.m. and closes on March 15, 2024, at 11:59pm. A digital or print copy of the entrant’s poster must be received by the MacRae Library by March 22, 2024, at 4 pm. The lightning talk is from 6 – 8 pm. Entrants must have reached the age of majority in their province of residence and must be an active full- or part-time Dalhousie University students at the Truro Campus.

Three (3) Prizes are available to be won. All entries must be submitted before 11:59 pm March 15, 2024, via submission form ( https://forms.office.com/r/VL3TUGmqLn). Three (3) winners will be selected from all entries based on the scoring rubric attached to the full Competition Rules in Appendix A by 8 p.m. March 27, 2024. The winners will be contacted in person at the event, or via their provided contact information if they are no longer present. Odds of winning are dependent on the number of eligible entries received and the quality of an entrant’s poster based on their score as determined using the scoring rubric. No purchase is required. First prize is a $100 Amazon gift card. Second prize is a $50 Amazon gift card. Third prize is a $25 Amazon gift card.  Winners must claim their prize between the time of notification and April 5 or will forfeit their prize.

View full contest terms and conditions (login required). 

 

Find love in the libraries with Blind Date with a Book!

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Blind date with a book is happening now in the libraries!

We want to set you up with the book of your dreams – find love in a library near you.

Find our book displays at the Killam, Kellogg, Sexton, and Dunn libraries.

A Glimpse into Canadian Soldiers’ Educational Journey During WWII

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A Canadian Legion Educational Services publication series was identified while processing historical government documents at the MacRae Library. They appear to be unique, with very few copies found elsewhere in Canada.

The University of Fraser Valley’s online resource, The Encyclopedia of Canadian Adult Education, indicates that these items were under the care of the Canadian Legion Educational Services from 1939 to 1946. The series at the MacRae aligns with the Encyclopedia’s records, with imprints of 1945 and 1946.

The text on the back of the series instructs students enrolled in courses to carry their textbooks with them while traveling overseas. Upon arrival at their new stations, they were encouraged to promptly connect with the Education Officer or Naval Schoolmaster.

These agricultural textbooks were not just academic resources; they were intended to travel with soldiers during the peak of World War II. They provide powerful insight into the hopes and dreams these students had for their futures.

Visit the MacRae Library to view this publication series.

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