Don’t forget to apply to the AAAL Professional Development Award! With the grant now open to applications for technology-related expenses it’s a great opportunity to increase your ability to attend virtual PD opportunities.

Here’s what our previous award recipients had to say about the award and its positive impact:

At the AAAL Annual General Meeting in spring 2020, our team consisting of James Murphy, Carla Lewis, Christena McKillop and Marc Stoeckle from the University of Calgary Libraries & Cultural Resources received the AAAL Professional Development Award. The expanded award was very exciting news for our learning commons team at the Taylor Family Digital Library. We installed a specified workstation, including the awarded camera and microphone, designated for podcast recordings, screen recordings, online conference presentations, zoom sessions, and more. With the new equipment staff in the learning commons will have greater access to attend and engage with professional development opportunities. The Learning Commons staff is currently working on several virtual exhibits such as music exhibitions, book displays, etc. using the technology made possible through the AAAL award. For example, the De-Stress: Virtual Music Exhibition created by Sylvia Polachuk and Marc Stoeckle can be found via  https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1388350473240576003

Full details about the award and how to apply can be found on the  AAAL Professional Development Award page. The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 16, 2021

Are you considering presenting or attending the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) virtual AGM hosted by MacEwan University on May 6th, 2021? 

In the past, AAAL has offered the Professional Development award to cover travel expenses for those who wish to present at or attend the meeting.  AAAL has extended the criteria to accept applications for technology-related expenses.  This can include technology upgrades (devices, monitors, headsets) or software/subscription fees.

Eligibility

Applicants must be affiliated with a AAAL member institution OR

Applicants must be currently attending an LIT or MLIS program

Priority will be given to applicants presenting a session/workshop at the AAAL meeting, or who have limited funding for professional development through their institution, however this is not a requirement.  Apply!

For additional details about the award and applicable expenses that can be claimed through the award, please visit the AAAL Professional Development Award page on the website. To apply, you can fill out the application form here. 

The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 16, 2021

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact  aaal.executive@gmail.com

You may be faced with very different questions from those that you were asked last year:

I’m going to be in X-city for a week; will I be able to use their college/university library?

Can I request a book from another library?

Or maybe your supervisors and administrators are asking: What is X-college doing about access to the collection? Student study groups? Checking items back in? Face-to-face research consultations? How are we going to address issues surrounding re-opening our libraries once the pandemic is over? 

The AAAL Reintegration (Covid Planning) Basecamp can help you find answers to those questions and more! TAL has posted a chart with the current status of libraries throughout the province, including building status, collection status, and whether TAL cards are being accepted, and many member libraries have contributed to discussions about instruction, safety, staff support, and more. 

If you are interested in being added to this discussion group please contact Brian Lin blin@thealbertalibrary.ab.ca or Kelley Wadson kwadson@bowvalleycollege.ca. 

Feel free to post your own questions to the group; someone out there might be mulling over the same issue and be able to provide insight into your situation. Take a look at what others are asking – you may be the wealth of knowledge that they desperately need right now.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

AAAL Reintegration Committee

Cole Boychuk

Brian Lin

Liz Fulton-Lyne

Patti Sherbaniuk

Madelaine Vanderwerff

Caroline Vandriel

Kelley Wadson

For the past several years UBC Library, the First Nations and Indigenous Studies program, and event sponsors (see below) have organized  the Honouring Indigenous Writers Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. This edit-a-thon event, inspired by Daniel Heath Justice’s twitter campaign of the same name, seeks to bring community editors together to work on editing Wikipedia entries for Indigenous authors in an attempt to tackle the systemic bias of Wikipedia while also trying to raise the profile of Indigenous writers.

Instead of the annual in-person event this year the organizing team has put together a schedule of free events and Wikipedia-related activities designed for virtual participation throughout the month of March 2021. The events include:

• Author readings by Smokii Sumac, Richard Van Camp, Tenille Campbell, Marilyn Dumont and more
• Self-paced Weekly Wikipedia Challenges with prize draws
• Wikipedia training and drop-in Zoom sessions
• A panel discussion from the UBC Vancouver Public Humanities Hub on Wikipedia as public scholarship
• And a social media campaign on Twitter

These events and activities are free and open to anyone to participate. Please join us at our kickoff event and reading with Smokii Sumac on February 24th at 7:00pm PST, and learn more about the other events we have planned! You can also read more at the HIW home page, and at the HIW Wikipedia Meetup Page.

We would also appreciate your support of the event by helping to promote it through your listservs, social media accounts, and other spaces to help raise awareness of Indigenous literature and engage in open community knowledge creation. 

The event team has developed a number of social media assets in a variety of sizes for ease of sharing. The assets can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JjUP3kuTsogRBLXv4HF7c281MXLu0x_y?usp=sharing

Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions and thank you in advance for any support you can give in making this event a success. Thank you to event sponsors, the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, Iron Dog Books, BCcampus, and the UBC Bookstore. 

The National Heritage Digitization Strategy (NHDS) envisions a future in which digital access to Canada’s diverse documentary heritage is comprehensive, ubiquitous, and has a profound impact on Canadian culture, education, research, and innovation. 

The National Heritage Digitization Strategy (NHDS) invites expressions of interest from the GLAM (gallery,  library, archive, and museum) community to join the NHDS Advisory Committee. The NHDS Advisory  Committee is an unincorporated body whose members are aligned in engaging the Canadian library,  archive, and museum community and Canadian creators in sharing expertise, to facilitate the digitization,  preservation, and discovery of Canadian heritage. The NHDS Advisory Committee is accountable to the  broader GLAM community which it endeavours to represent. The Chair of the Advisory Committee reports  on its activities to the NHDS Executive Committee. 

Membership in the NHDS Advisory Committee is limited to Canadian public or not-for-profit GLAM (gallery, library, archives, and museum) organizations, committed to, and with a demonstrated investment in the digitization of, preservation of, and access to Canadian heritage. 

Expressions of interest will be reviewed and considered by the NHDS Executive Committee to ensure  representation and balance of expertise on the committee.  

For more information on the NHDS Advisory Committee, please consult the Terms of Reference and the NHDS website. 

The NHDS Advisory Committee meets on a quarterly basis via teleconference. A rough estimate of the time  commitment required for serving on the group follows:  

4 teleconferences * 2 hours = 8 hours 

1 hour prep-time per meeting = 4 hours 

Individual work outside of meetings (2 hours * 12 months) = 24 hours 

Total Annual Commitment = 36 hours 

NHDS Advisory Committee members may also be called to serve on Working Groups or Task Groups with  an additional time commitment. 

To submit an expression of interest, please complete and send the Expression of Interest form to Georgia Ashworth (gashworth@crkn.ca) by February 23, 2021, which includes: 

• Contact information  

• Brief biographical details and relevant work experience to illustrate expertise in and enthusiasm for the  work of the committee 

• Assurance that this workload and time commitment meets with approval of the candidate’s immediate  supervisor, if applicable