Greetings AAAL members,

Library staff from all member institutions are invited to join us virtually on Thursday, December 3rd for the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries’ Fall 2020 Meeting, hosted online by Red Deer College Library. 

We’re excited to announce Chevi Rabbit as our keynote speaker. Chevi Rabbit is a young mover and a shaker from Rural Alberta. Listed by the premier of Alberta as one of the Top 25 Human Rights Advocates, Rabbit is an award winning advocate, accredited makeup fashion makeup artist, educator, fashion coordinator and public speaker. Rabbit is a Two Spirit Advocate, a First Nations concept for someone, like Rabbit, who identifies as both a man and a woman. Ze’s currently a board member of the Aboriginal Women’s Professional Association, member of the Board of Directors at the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre, committee member on Alberta Sexual Minorities Liaison Committee, Founder of Maskwacis Two Spirit Society, recipient of Top 40 Under 40 by Avenue Magazine, founder of Hate to Hope, and a collaborator with many organizations in Alberta. After being assaulted in a parking lot in 2012, ze became a passionate advocate for the LGBTQ community. Rabbit realized that being open – and empowering others to do the same – could be a revolutionary act. From that moment Hate to Hope was born and became an idea that not only changed Rabbit’s life but many others without a voice. This movement was Canada’s largest LGBTQ march at the time.

Following Chevi’s keynote there is an exciting lineup of professional development sessions and a tour/talk with our hosts from Red Deer College. The full meeting package with agenda and session descriptions is available on the AAAL website.

Since we are meeting online through Blackboard Collaborate, there is no need to register to attend and no need to download anything. You can simply join the meeting via this link: AAAL Fall Meeting (Main Room). If you have never used Blackboard Collaborate before, you can view a quick tutorial about how it works here.

We hope to see you there!

Your AAAL Executive + Committee Members  
Questions? Please contact the incoming AAAL Chair, Madelaine Vanderwerff, at mvanderwerff@mtroyal.ca

AAAL is reconvening for its Fall 2020 Meeting! We invite you to submit proposals for our Virtual Fall 2020 meeting happening on December 3, 2020.

AAAL, in its latest incarnation, is now 10 years old. We know our AAAL member libraries have been changing right along with us and we want to hear about your work along the theme of Transitions: A Decade of Development. What transitions have you seen in your library within the last decade? What great accomplishments, transformations, or developments would you like to share that will inspire your colleagues? This could include work about your library adapting to the pandemic environment, navigating organizational restructuring, or managing decreasing budgets.  

Staff from AAAL member libraries are invited to submit a proposal to share personal experiences, research, and lessons learned in keeping with the conference theme. We also invite members to highlight any other work they would like to showcase at this professional learning and sharing event. What new program, service, or space is your library providing to its users? What technologies or tools are you using to improve how you, your library, or your users are getting things done?

Proposals can be for either a: 

• 5 minute lightning talk that is a quick overview of your ideas, experience, and programs/services,

OR

• 20 to 30 minute presentations that can include ideas, experiences, original research, engaging discussion questions or activities.

Please note that the final timing and duration of the day is still to be determined.

Submit your proposal by Sunday, November 15th. Successful presenters will be contacted within the following week.

Do you require financial support to attend or present at the meeting? We encourage you to apply for an AAAL Professional Development Award. AAAL has extended the application of the award to be inclusive of technological peripheral support.  

Wondering how we’ll select sessions? Take a look at our Rubric for Selecting AAAL Sessions and use it as a guide for your proposal.

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Best,

The AAAL Workshop Committee: 

Carla Lewis, Jessica Leslie, Kelley Wadson, Lucinda Johnston, Sarah Shaughnessy

Greetings AAAL Members,

Mark your calendars. The Alberta Association of Academic Libraries plans to hold the 2020 Fall Meeting on Thursday, December 3rd. This meeting will be held virtually, hosted by Red Deer College.

A call for virtual presentations, RSVP information, and the meeting agenda and package will be sent out in the coming weeks.

AAAL is also hoping to fill the following outstanding vacancies. Please consider joining our amazing group of academic library folk! These opportunities are available to all AAAL members:

Chair-Elect (2-3 year term: first year as Chair-Elect, second year as Chair, third year as Member at Large/Nominations)

Responsibilities include:

• Call for volunteers for executive and standing committee positions as needed and ensure positions are filled and elections carried out as needed;
• Communicate changes to the Executive and Committee roster, including position terms, to the Communications Committee;
• Conduct general meetings in the Chair’s absence;
  Perform other duties as designated by the Chair;
• Submit written bi-annual reports to the Chair for inclusion in meeting packages three weeks prior to Fall and Annual General Meetings
• Assist the Chair in conducting the Annual General Meeting e.g. leading the roundtable discussions.
• Assist the Chair in coordinating Executive and Sub-Committee meetings
• Attend Statistics & Assessments meetings as an ex-Officio member
• Solicit applications for the Professional Development Award and oversee award disbursement.

Mentorship Committee – 1 vacancy (2-year term)

Responsibilities include:

• Coordinate annual AAAL mentorship program cycle (Sept-April);
• Ensure currency of the Mentorship Program page on the AAAL website as needed;
• Pair mentors and mentees, and offer program participants support as needed throughout the term of the program;
• Solicit and review feedback from program participants

If you have any questions or would like to express interest in a position vacancy, please reach out (mvanderwerff@mtroyal.ca)

Madelaine Vanderwerff
Chair, Alberta Association of Academic Libraries | AAAL.ca

Hello AAAL members,

We’d like to ask for your thoughts on the Fall 2019 meeting that was held at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus. Similar to the Spring 2019 meeting some changes were made to the format of the day and we’re interested in hearing about what you thought of those modifications. If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, we’re still interested in gathering your ideas for future meetings. Please find the survey here. It will remain open until December 5.

Also, please consider if your institution is interested in hosting the Spring 2020 Meeting. A quick application that includes details on what is needed from a host can be found here. We look forward to your submissions!

Thank you in advance for your time.

Sincerely,

The AAAL Executive + Committee Members

www.aaal.ca

Greetings AAAL members,

 Library staff from all member institutions are invited to join us at the University of Alberta Libraries’ Augustana Campus Library in Camrose on Friday, November 15th for the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries’ Fall 2019 Meeting. We’re excited to announce Feisal Kirumira as our keynote speaker. Feisal is an Associate Lecturer for German at Augustana Campus and a PhD student in Secondary Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. His area of interest is multicultural education with an emphasis on antiracist pedagogy informed by African Wisdom teachings with a slice of philosophical hermeneutics. He has delivered many antiracism and intercultural awareness sessions in Canada and abroad and we’re looking forward to having him join us for the morning keynote address. Following lunch there is an exciting lineup of professional development sessions including:

Buchanan Library: Adapting to Change
This presentation will provide an overview of the summer’s renovations and showcase the new space at Buchanan Library, Lethbridge College. We will also talk about the indigenization that has happened to the space. Further, our presentation will discuss services for international students. The college has seen a large increase in this population over the last two years, and as a result, the library has had to expand services and continue to provide them during renovations.  We will outline how this has looked for the past year, over the summer, and give some projections for the upcoming years.
Presenters: Corene Kozey & Darel Bennedbaek, Lethbridge College

DeciphAR: Utilizing Augmented Reality to Support Place-Making in Academic Libraries
A new app developed by Mount Royal University Library in collaboration with Red Crow College uses augmented reality (AR) to provide audio and visual information about the Blackfoot translations on the wayfinding in the Riddell Library and Learning Centre (RLLC). This information includes pronunciations and descriptions of the translations completed by Elder Leo Fox. DeciphAR continues the work of place-making in the Library by supporting and encouraging the active use of Indigenous language while recognizing the importance of grounding ourselves in the place that we work and live.
Presenters: Francine May, Matt Laidlow and Chase Schrader, Mount Royal University  

Transitioning to Linked Data: an International Effort
For the last few years the University of Alberta Library (UAL) has been working towards transitioning its bibliographic data and cataloguing workflows to a linked data environment. For work on moving from MARC to BIBFRAME, this initiative has included two international projects: Linked Data for Production (LD4P)  and Share-VDE, both of which have member institutions all around the world. This presentation will summarize UAL’s involvement with these two projects and the advantages and disadvantages of being a part of multiple international projects.

Presenter: Adam Cohen, University of Alberta

Preparing international students about life in Canada prior to their arrival and upon arrival in Canada
This session will review how:

• To prepare potential international students for the English language assessment tests
• To share the invisible rules and practices in Canada
• To teach international students about the diversity of indigenous population in Canada

Presenter: Manisha Khetarpal, Maskwacis Cultural College 

Computational Thinking and Robotics: Reflections on a course-embedded Library Robotics Workshop
This lightning strike will give an overview of a course-embedded library workshop for 2nd year Education students on computational thinking and robotics. Lighting strike will give an overview of the workshop and lessons learned from planning this recurring workshop that involves 10-15 staff, new technologies and almost 200 students!

Presenter: Alissa Droog, University of Alberta

University of Alberta Libraries’ Communications and Outreach to International Education
As an Academic Library Resident at the University of Alberta, my assigned residency project, stemming from the research report “Supporting International Students: The University of Alberta Libraries Response to the University Strategic Plan”, centred around the libraries’ communication and outreach to international education. Following the creation of a strategic communications plan, my first project-based task, I participated in numerous outreach initiatives including weekly participation in English Conversation Club meetings and a collaboration with staff from University of Alberta International to deliver training to library staff surrounding intercultural interactions. By sharing my experiences participating in library outreach to international students, I hope to inspire similar work at other academic institutions across Alberta.

Presenter: Victoria Eke, Concordia University of Edmonton

Outreach for International and ESL students
International students are an expanding demographic at many post-secondary institutions.  Many of these institutions may also have ESL programs, however, these two groups of students have different needs.  What are the characteristics of these diverse student groups and how can libraries meet these needs? This session will discuss MRU’s current outreach to these students, its future outreach goals, as well as outreach trends in post-secondary institutions throughout North America. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their own diverse student populations, discuss current outreach at their institutions, and identify possible outreach opportunities. Participants will be able to:

1. Recognize the differences in needs of international and ESL students
2. Identify and discuss outreach efforts at their institution
3. Identify possible outreach opportunities that they can adopt at their institution.

Presenter: Christopher Thomas, Mount Royal University

The full meeting package with agenda and further session information will be on the AAAL website shortly.

Please register by 12 pm on Friday, November 8. We recommend you register early as space is limited and the meetings always reach capacity.

We hope to see you there!

Your AAAL Executive + Committtee Members