Effective Tuesday, December 14, 2021 and until further notice, food and drink (except water) are prohibited in the Dalhousie Libraries. Library users are permitted to remove their masks only for the few seconds it takes to have a sip of water.
Eating and drinking are still permitted in the Killam Atrium (where Subway and the Second Cup are located). This change is in response to staff and student safety concerns in light of the recent cases of COVID on campus.
Presentations by the candidates for the Research Data Management Librarian position
We invite all members of Dalhousie community to attend public presentations by the five short-listed candidates for the position of Research Data Management Librarian, to be appointed through the W. K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library. The 20-minute presentations will take place on Zoom with time for questions and answers. The times and links are provided below. Please join any of the sessions a few minutes before the start time.
Candidates will be asked to the present on the following topic:
“You have been invited to the monthly faculty meeting at the College of Pharmacy to present on your proposed training program regarding Research Data Management in the Health Sciences. Your contact in the College has asked for you to make the case for how the proposed curriculum (series of workshops or other educational interventions) will help pharmacy research students at various levels (undergrad, graduate, postgraduate) navigate funding requirements and learn best practices for RDM in pharmacy research. You have 20 minutes to make your case and get buy-in from faculty and other Pharmacy researchers so they will support implementation of the training for learners associated with the College.”
All the members of the Search Committee welcome your feedback and comments!
Search committee members are: Robin Parker (Chair), Shelley McKibbon, Jackie Phinney, Erin MacPherson, Julie Marcoux, and Dr. Jennifer Isenor.
Candidate #1
Tuesday December 14, 2021
9–9:45 a.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.
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Candidate #2
Tuesday December 14, 2021
12–12:45 p.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.
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Candidate #3
Wednesday December 15, 2021
9–9:45 a.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.
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Candidate #4
Thursday December 16, 2021
2–2:45 p.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.
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Candidate #5
Tuesday December 21, 2021
10–10:45 a.m. (AST)
Contact robin.parker@dal.ca for link to attend.
Congratulations to the 2022 CAUL-CBUA Collaborative Research Grant Recipients
Nicole Carter
Lindsay McNiff
The Dal Libraries’ own Learning & Instruction Librarian Lindsay McNiff along with her colleague Nicole Carter, the Reference & Research Librarian at Saint Mary’s University, have been awarded $1,000 to help support their project, Investigating the experiences of academic librarians on temporary contracts in Canada before and during COVID-19. Congratulations!
From CAUL/CBUA:
In their proposal, Lindsay and Nicole propose to investigate the demographics of those academic librarians engaged in precarious work in Canada (including age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, years since graduation), in what postsecondary environments they have been employed precariously (college, university, size of institution), the nature of these contracts (reason, duration), and some key questions about their experience in these positions, including those raised in prior literature around training, socialization, and supervision. This is the first Canada-wide survey to investigate these questions with a focus on academic librarians with temporary contracts. The study will also zero in on how COVID-19 has affected the working life of librarians holding temporary contracts in academic libraries.
The CAUL-CBUA Collaborative Research Grant is intended to encourage collaborative research by librarians and staff working in academic libraries in the region through projects which involve structured, evidence-based research. We are pleased to continue offering support to researchers in the region and look forward to the results of Lindsay and Nicole’s study.
RESOLVED: EBSCO eBooks Down
RESOLVED: This issue was has been resolved. Updated November 9 at 3:46.
EBSCO eBooks is currently DOWN (not allowing access to full-text). We have reported the problem to EBSCO and are hoping for a quick resolution.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Three architecture databases to try in November
by Allie Fulford
The Dalhousie Libraries is trialing three exciting architecture databases. Two of the databases contain photos, drawings, plans, sections, and elevations, information crucial to architecture students. The third database is a collection of illustrated talks with the ‘greatest minds in modern architecture’.
Inspiration from DETAIL Verlag is an online image and reference database for architects. It is a full-text database with photos, drawings, plans, and technical information sourced from DETAIL print magazine. The database, fully optimized for mobile devices, currently contains 3700+ projects that are completely downloadable as PDF files. The database is updated monthly; each year more than 156 new projects/references are added. You can access Inspiration here: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/inspiration
Building Types Online comes from Birkhäuser, a leading publisher for architecture materials based in Switzerland, and from Bauwelt, Germany’s leading architectural journal. The database includes 1,400 case studies and thematic articles, 6,300 floor plans, sections, elevations and other drawings, plus 2,700 photographs. Building types include housing, schools and kindergartens, offices, industrial buildings, research and technology buildings, museums, churches, libraries and hospitals. The database has a strong focus on residential buildings with many international examples. New case studies and building types are added annually. You can access Building Types here: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/btonline
Pidgeon Digital began in 1979 as a series of tape/slide talks created by Monica Pidgeon, the editor of Architectural Design from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. She wanted students of architecture and design to have the opportunity to share the thinking of world leading members of the architectural community, to whom they would not otherwise have access. In 2006 the illustrated talks were digitized. Pidgeon Digital is fully searchable and currently consists of 265+ illustrated talks and 200+ transcripts. New talks are added regularly. Notable speakers include 17 Pritzker Prize Winners and 15 RIBA Royal Gold Medal Winners. You can access Pidgeon Digital here: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/pidgeon
Two Awards for the Dalhousie Archives for Outstanding Archival Work
with content from Creighton Barrett and Sarah Stevenson
The Dalhousie Libraries is delighted to share wonderful news that the Archives was recently the recipient of two awards from the Council of Nova Scotia Archives. The Archives serves as Dalhousie’s corporate memory by identifying, preserving, and making available institutional records of enduring value, including textural, photographic, audiovisual, and electronic materials. The Archives also acquires records of independent student, alumni and employee organizations, private papers from prominent faculty and alumni, and university publications. Together, these records document the work of the university, and tell the story of the Dalhousie community and its people over time.
Doug Kirby Award for outstanding achievement in archival preservation
The Dalhousie Archives won the Doug Kirby Award for their Digital Preservation System Project, which began in 2018. Led by Digital Archivist Creighton Barrett, the Archives’ need for a robust digital preservation solution became increasingly apparent as the Libraries began digitizing historic university records to celebrate Dalhousie’s 200th anniversary in 2018.
With support from the senior leadership team of the Dalhousie Libraries and colleagues in Procurement, Creighton outlined the functional requirements and wrote a request for proposals for a digital preservation system based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and other international digital preservation standards.
After years of testing and development, the Archives created its first standards-compliant Archival Information Packages (AIPs) in April 2021. While this research and development was under way, the Dal Libraries also took other initiatives to support its emerging digital preservation program:
- Established a new Preservation Committee with a mandate to carry out Preservation Planning functions described in the Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
- Implemented new user-friendly “Managed File Transfer” software that will support a new file transfer service to be launched later this year. See our YouTube tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_fU8Ssz4FQ
- Reconfigured the Storage Area Network (SAN) digital storage environment that houses approximately 120 TB of archival data waiting to be ingested into the digital preservation system.
- Developed documentation on Archivematica and the Managed File Transfer software.
The Dal Libraries continues to work with Artefactual Systems to configure and maintain the digital preservation system.
Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for outstanding accomplishment in archival work
The Dalhousie Archives won the Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for the Ronald St. John MacDonald fonds processing project. Paulo Matheus de Sousa Lima, Archives Assistant, was the primary staff person for this project, receiving support from the Digital Archivist, the University Records Manager, and staff Archives Assistants.
The project ran from September 2020–March 2021 and was funded through a grant from the Provincial Archival Development Program (PADP). This funding allowed the Dalhousie University Archives to hire Matheus to focus on the personal archives of Ronald St. John MacDonald, an international law professor and judge. The archival fonds includes 15.64 metres of textual records and other material.
Matheus conducted an archival appraisal and then created and carried out a detailed plan to arrange and describe the fonds. He also rehoused the material in archival quality file folders and boxes. In total, Matheus created 691 file-level descriptions, 25 sub-series level descriptions, four series-level descriptions, and one fonds-level description. He also drafted an archival authority record that describes the life and career of Ronald St. John MacDonald. The archival appraisal and processing project resulted in the deaccessioning of 1.5 metres of textual records.
The finding aid for the Ronald St. John MacDonald fonds is available here: https://findingaids.library.dal.ca/ronald-st-john-macdonalds-fonds
Congratulations to the entire Dalhousie Archives team on the completion of these extensive projects and for winning two well-deserved awards! With thanks to Creighton Barrett and Sarah Stevenson for providing much of the content for this message.
Finding Our History: A Conversation About LGBT Collections and Exhibitions (webinar)
To celebrate LGBT History Month, join our group of panelists for a showcase of 2SLGBTQIA-focused collections, exhibitions, and history projects from across Atlantic Canada. Moderated by Nova Scotia LGBT Seniors’ Archive founder Jacqueline Gahagan, panelists will discuss how these projects enable members of the community to find, access, and interact with information about 2SLGBTQIA history in the region.
- Meredith J. Batt (they/them) is an archivist at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and the President of the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick, an archival initiative which collects the history of 2SLGBTQIA+ people across the province. Their forthcoming co-authored book, Len & Cub: A queer history, explores one of the oldest known photographic records of a same-sex couple in the Maritimes and will be released in April 2022 with Goose Lane Editions.
- Jacqueline (Jacquie) Gahagan, PhD (they/them) is a medical sociologist working in the areas of mixed methods health promotion and health policy research. Specifically, Dr. Gahagan uses gender-based and intersectional analyses to understand the impacts of health promotion interventions aimed at addressing health inequities faced by marginalized populations, including the LGBTQ populations and populations affected by HIV, HCV, and other STBBIs. Dr. Gahagan is the co-director of the Atlantic Interdisciplinary Research Network: Social Behavioral Aspects of HIV and HCV (AIRN) which is an Atlantic regional network of over 250 researchers, policy makers, and community-based service providers.
- Daze Jefferies (she/her) is a sixth-generation white settler artist, writer, and researcher born and raised in the Bay of Exploits on the northeast coast of rural Newfoundland. Deeply informed by geographies and histories of trans women (and) sex workers in Atlantic Canada, her research-creation and multidisciplinary projects have been exhibited at Eastern Edge, The Rooms, Unscripted Twillingate, Inverness County Centre for the Arts, and Cape Breton University Art Gallery, as well as performed widely at festivals, theatres, and house shows in St. John’s – including HOLD FAST, Lawnya Vawnya, FemFest, and Out of Earshot. Co-author of Autoethnography and Feminist Theory at the Water’s Edge: Unsettled Islands (2018), she has recent publications in Riddle Fence, Understorey, HELD, The Dalhousie Review, Arc, and Feral Feminisms.
- Robin Metcalfe (he/him) is a Canadian writer, critic, and curator. He has been active nationally and internationally as a gay activist, journalist, and community historian since the mid-1970s. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than sixty magazines, including The Body Politic, and many anthologies. His exhibitions include Queer Looking, Queer Acting: Lesbian and Gay Vernacular (MSVU Art Gallery, 1997; remounted 2014) and Camp Fires (Gardiner Museum, 2014, touring to Montréal, Halifax and Bellevue, WA). He won the 2000 Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction and was short-listed for a Canadian National Magazine Award in 2004. Halifax Pride named him honorary Grand Marshall in 2010.
- Rachel Moore (she/her) is a queer archivist residing in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). Through her work as a Research Assistant with the Nova Scotia LGBT Seniors Archive, Rachel is involved in the processing and preservation of Nova Scotia’s LGBT history. She is passionate about protecting this cultural history and providing access for future generations. Rachel received her Master of Library and Information Studies this past May from Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management. During her time at SIM, Rachel served as Programming Co-Chair, and later Conference Co-Chair for the Information Without Borders Conference, where she oversaw the conference’s transition to its online format. She was awarded the 2021 SIM Leadership Award in recognition of this work.
- Denyse Rodrigues (she/they) practices librarianship at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Among her responsibilities are coordinating e-learning and library research services, liaising with departments in the Social Sciences including Women’s Studies, and teaching a credit-bearing online information literacy course. Denyse is keenly interested in using digital media and popular culture to open dialogues and help students engage with research.
This event is presented by the Dalhousie Libraries, home of the NS LGBT Seniors’ Archive.
MLA Online Handbook: Trial
The Dalhousie Libraries is trialing the recently launched online version of the MLA handbook. You can access the trial here: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/mlahandbook
The trial ends on November 14, 2021.
Guidance on how to use the Handbook is available here: https://mlahandbookplus.org/pages/how-to-use
Feedback about the MLA Online Handbook can be sent to Library.Collections@Dal.ca
Open Access Week Round Up
This year’s theme for Open Access Week is It Matters How We Open Knowledge: building structural equity. This theme really highlights that making your research open benefits not only our local community but the world — anywhere researchers, professionals, or decision-makers lack the subscriptions necessary to access the research they need.
To celebrate Open Access Week this year, we put together five tips to engage and introduce the Dalhousie University community to ways we can open our work using Dalhousie tools and resources. See below for more information on Open Access Week and quick links to the OA Week tips we featured all week on social media.
For more information on open access week, visit: http://www.openaccessweek.org/
Tip #1: Author’s Rights
https://dal.ca.libguides.com/open_access/2021_Tip1
Tip #2: Versions of a manuscript and Sherpa Romeo
https://dal.ca.libguides.com/open_access/2021_Tip2
Tip #3: DalSpace
https://dal.ca.libguides.com/open_access/2021_Tip3
Tip #4: Gold OA & APCs
https://dal.ca.libguides.com/open_access/2021_Tip4
Tip #5: Impact of Open Data
https://dal.ca.libguides.com/open_access/2021_Tip5
An evening with Francesca Ekwuyasi (Dal Reads)
Photo by Dario Lozano Thornton.
Join us for a reading and discussion with Francesca Ekwuyasi, the author of this year’s Dal Reads book, Butter Honey Pig Bread. This is event is presented by Dal Reads, Dalhousie’s unity reading program.
The eBook is available to all current students, faculty, and staff of Dalhousie.
This event will be online and is open to members of the public. Please register to receive the link to attend.
Thank you!
