Orillia Campus Libraries

Enrolment at Heritage Place

In 2014/15, we had between 275 to 300 students at the Heritage Place campus, all enrolled in the 1 year “professional year” of the B.Ed degree. In 2015-16, due to the well-publicized changes from the Ministry of Education, our numbers decreased: "old" 1 year program = 95; first year of the "new" two year program = 67, for a total of 162 students at Heritage Place. In 2016-17, Heritage Place increased to approximately 250 students, spread across the “old” 1 year program, and the two years of the new two year program.

As could be expected, the increase in enrollment led to an increase in circulation and reference statistics at Heritage Place. The circulation of Orillia owned books went from 2927 items in 2015-16, to 3581 items in 2016-17. Strategy-based reference questions at HP went from 286 in 2015-16, to 448 in 2016-17.

Lakehead-Georgian Partnership

A series of meetings has taken place, regarding the provision of library service to students enrolled in the two LU-Georgian programs which begin in September 2017. The first two programs are Electrical Engineering, and Environmental Sustainability.

Chris Tomasini and Jason Lambert, in Orillia, and numerous Thunder Bay library staff, have been involved in the discussions, which have ranged from the provision of online (ASK) reference service, to the training of Georgian library staff on Lakehead library databases, to the physical movement of books to students at Georgian in Barrie, when interlibrary loan requests are placed.

Two new programs have been announced for September 2018 starts:

• Honours Bachelor of Science in Applied Life Science Degree with Biotechnology – Health Diploma
• Honours Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with Computer Programmer Diploma

Online Booking System for Study Rooms

In summer 2016, we switched from the WCOnline study room booking system, to a Springshare product: LibCal. The switch was seamless, and students continued to use it heavily.

Staffing Notes

In 2016/17 the two Orillia libraries were staffed by one librarian, two library technicians, two library clerks (35 hrs/week), and various student assistants.

Library Hours

The hours of operation at the University Avenue location are fairly standard, dropping from later hours during the school year, to daytime hours in the summer. The Heritage Place library experiences three “seasons” with three different sets of operational hours: a) “in-class” time when the professional year students are on campus attending classes; b) “placement” time when students are away on their placements, and we reduce our hours. However, we still staff the library in order to allow staff to respond to research requests, and to assist patrons who visit the library to pick up materials to use in their teaching; c) summer, when there are no classes or placements and we shut the library down entirely.

During the busiest times of the year the Downtown Library is open 49 hours a week and the University Avenue location is open 58 hours per week. Both Orillia libraries are able to be closed while the two different commons remain open and still provide student study and computing space, as long as security staff are present.

Information Literacy

In 2016/17, Chris Tomasini did several multi-session classes. Prof. Linda Rodenburg and Prof. Larry Fiddick both invited Chris in to different classes, over both terms, to do three part library sessions. These sessions resemble an embedded librarian model, where the students in these classes receive three different, full-class, information literacy sessions per course, and through hands-on work, and contact with the librarian, get to know library resources quite well.

In 2015-16, the Orillia section of the Liaison Instruction Statistics form shows 33 entries for classes, though more accurately counting multi-class sessions, this would be 41 class visits for 2015-16.

In 2016-17, not counting a few sessions such as Zotero Drop-In workshops, Fast-Pass orientation talks, 45 in-class information literacy sessions were provided to students, across both Orillia campuses. Approximately 1200 students received information literacy instruction in 2016-17.

Collection Development, Cataloguing & Alternate Format Requests

In 2016-17 the Orillia collection budget was used in a nearly identical fashion to previous years. This budget (in 2016-17) was $42,000 , with $12,000 going towards e-resources, $2122.37 going towards a Tumblebooks (education) package, and the rest being used on print materials for the Orillia library.

535 items were catalogued for Orillia in 2016-17, with 200 of those items catalogued locally in Orillia by Jason Lambert and Kim Vallee.

In the area of alternate format book requests, Jason Lambert assisted with 42 requests in 2016-17, down from 57 request in 2015-16, and 87 requests in 14/15. We suspect that the drop in requests is due to the growing collection of electronic copies, from previous years, that are being held by Accessibility staff.

Contributions by Library Staff

Library Staff continue take on roles that benefit the University, the campus and the community. Chris Tomasini continued as Lakehead’s representative on the City of Orillia Transit Advisory Committee, was a member of the Orillia Campus Coordinating Committee, and was a campus representative on the Student Technology Fund Committee. He was also a member of the Marketing Committee, with library colleagues in Thunder Bay. Chris Tomasini and Jason Lambert were involved with the task force looking into the library’s fines structure in 2016-17.

Kim Vallee represented the library on the Orientation Steering Committee, the Student Appreciation Committee, and the Orillia Campus Programming committee.

Library Outreach, Promotional Activities, High School Visits

Library staff continued to increase the profile of the library by participating in various social events around the Orillia campus.

In summer and fall 2016, four classes of high school students received an academic research session from Orillia library staff. The high schools involved were Bear Creek, Patrick Fogarty (x2), and Twin Lakes.

In 2016/17 the library regularly acted as a participant and a “location” for various scavenger hunts run for campus visitors and tours.

During the early September orientation period, library staff participated in different activities, such as having a table at the Residence Move-In day event, and Kim Vallee spoke to education students about library services at Faculty of Education orientation events.

During the week of October 31, University Avenue ran Zotero Week, which was a week of Zotero workshops held in the U.Ave Commons.

During the week of Nov. 14, University Avenue ran Visit the Library week, where we awarded $5.00 coffee cards for students who borrowed items from the library.

Nov. 17, 2016, Chris Tomasini facilitated a book club as part of an Orillia & Area Seniors Center / Literacy Module.

On Nov. 30, Joshua Lawlor-MacDonald (library clerk) helped run the trivia activity at the Festivus celebration.

During the week of Jan 9, Chris and Josh participated in Frost Week activities.

On Feb. 14, 2017, Josh helped with Student Appreciation Day.

Feb 23, 2017, Chris Tomasini offered a second book-club for the Orillia & Area Seniors Center.

On March 10, 2017, Chris organized a teleconference listening to an Atlantic Magazine interview with David Frum, regarding the Trump presidency.

In October, and February, staff ran food for fines events for the Trick or Eat and Spread the Love weeks. We forgave $375 in fines and recovered 3 lost items, donating 150lbs of food to the Sharing Place food bank.

MyCourseLink (Brightspace / D2L)

In 2016-17, library staff provided 27 hours of D2L support, up from 20 hours in 2015-16.

Research for Faculty

In spring/summer 2013, Orillia library staff launched a pilot project offering research assistance to Lakehead-Orillia faculty as a way to make connections with faculty members who might not be aware of all the library services available.

In summer 2016, we assisted the following faculty members with their research projects: Sree Kurissery (Sustainability Sciences); Michael Hoechsmann (Education); Meredith Lovell (Education).

Technology Services Centre

After Christmas 2016, due to staffing changes within TSC, the University Avenue campus no longer had a front-desk “helpdesk” staff person.

In the future, library staff will provide as much frontline wifi / printing help as possible, and will receive training on doing this. Patrons requiring greater help will be forwarded on to TSC staff.