Program

Undergraduate biology research in Edmonton’s city center: A tale of invasive plants, soil mites, and most importantly, people – Dr. Melissa Hills, Department of Biological Sciences, MacEwan University

Presentation slides

In 2012 MacEwan University celebrated its first Bachelor of Science graduates. The transition from university-transfer college to degree-granting undergraduate University created many opportunities and challenges for faculty. This included developing research programs to provide senior undergraduate students with meaningful mentored research projects. These research experiences build on the skills and knowledge students develop in the first part of their degree, allowing them to achieve proficiency in research and professional skills that support their academic and career goals. Dr. Melissa Hills will discuss the origins and development of a research program initiated in 2013 that included seven undergraduate projects over the following five years, bringing together community collaborators from the City of Edmonton, City of St. Albert, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, and Royal Alberta Museum. This is a story of urban ecology, invasive plants, soil mites, and, most importantly, people.

About the speaker

Dr. Melissa Hills has been a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at MacEwan University for fifteen years. She prioritizes scholarship that enriches her teaching and provides meaningful research experiences for undergraduates. Her research interests include molecular biology, plant biology, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is passionate about building inclusive learning communities that empower all learners to succeed.

Lightning Talk Discussion 

Lightning talks are available to be watched throughout the conference. This session will be a discussion and a Q & A with the lightning talk presenters.

Pre-recorded Lightning Talks

Going with the flow: How lessons from Wu Wei and the Subtle Art of Not Giving a <censored> helped expand liaison relationships with engineering departments – Tracy Zahradnik, University of Toronto

Watch Lightning Talk

Our world is becoming a place where the loudest voice gets heard and instant gratification is sought with a vengeance. In recent years, it seems some library marketing has adapted to these phenomena by becoming more in-your-face, knee jerk reactions driven by metrics that can instantly indicate success. But do libraries need to do this? Is this a sustainable method for long term growth? What would happen if libraries went against current marketing practices and returned to being a constant calm force that moved successfully forward by going with the flow and concentrating effort strategically to make the most impact? This lightning talk will discuss how non-aggressive marketing of liaison support to engineering departments was used over a number of years to successfully grow relationships and student instruction opportunities.

Podcasts as a medium for teaching information literacy in academia – Lauren Stieglitz, Jessica Thorlakson, Virginia Pow, and Eric Graves, University of Alberta

Watch Lightning Talk

As podcasts continue to grow in popularity, and are now firmly established as a favourite media source among young adults, we have created a podcast aimed at University of Alberta STEM students, to help familiarize them with library services. This presentation highlights the research behind podcasts as information literacy resources, and explains our goals for this project, our production process, and things we’ve learned along the way.

Leveraging STEM library workshop recordings for efficiency and as an outreach tool – James Murphy, University of Calgary

Watch Lightning Talk

This presentation will describe a project using library workshop recordings as both an outreach tool and as a way of managing increased workload liaising with multiple departments. The presenter recently shifted roles to become the liaison librarian for a number of STEM departments, and was seeking ways to make inroads with faculty and students, promote the Sciences and Engineering library, and maximize efficiency and impact of instructional workshops.

Break

Documentation & Dis(STEM)ination: Black history & knowledge equity in science libraries – Gabrielle Crowley, Usman Malik, Jennifer Robertson, and Maria Zych, University of Toronto

How can science libraries contribute to knowledge equity? In this 20-minute presentation, two Librarians and two Information Science students from UofT’s Science Libraries will explore this question by describing the science library team’s experiences, challenges, and takeaways from participating in the 2021 and 2022 Toronto Black History Wikipedia Edit-A-Thons.

About the speakers

Gabrielle Crowley is a Master of Information student with the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, studying Library & Information Science and Archives & Records Management. She works as a Graduate Student Library Assistant with the Earth Sciences Library at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include participatory archiving, metadata, and infrastructures of information dissemination.

Usman Malik is a second-year Master of Information at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. He is completing an academic libraries internship at the University of Toronto Dentistry Library. He counts knowledge equity as a research interest, specifically in terms of how everyday users can be empowered to engage with the necessary tools to flatten information-based hierarchies.

Jen Robertson is the Liaison & Education Librarian at the Mathematical Sciences and Earth Sciences Libraries and the liaison librarian for the Department of Cell & Systems Biology at the University of Toronto. She handles library instruction, research consultations, and collection development for subjects including biology, botany, natural history, and microbiology.

Maria Zych is Acting Head of the Dentistry Library at the University of Toronto Libraries. In this role she oversees the management of library operations, in addition to her usual role of instruction, liaison and reference support for the Faculty of Dentistry. Her research interests include open science in clinical research and knowledge translation in healthcare. ORCID: Maria Zych (0000-0002-9510-3875) (orcid.org)

Northern Alberta geoarchaeology: A community research perspective – Dr Robin Woywitka, Department of Physical Sciences, MacEwan University

Geoarchaeology uses methods and concepts from the Earth sciences to inform archaeological analysis. As such, it is a discipline that draws equally from social sciences (archaeology, anthropology) and physical sciences (geography, geology) to examine how people used landscapes in the past. This requires the geoarchaeologist to collaborate with many different communities; from the Indigenous and settler communities whose past is being studied, to the museum professionals that curate artifacts, and the professional consulting community that collects the bulk of archaeological information in Alberta. In this talk I will summarize geoarchaeological case studies from northern Alberta that have engaged local communities, museum staff and industry. We will visit the pasts of Fort McMurray, Bischto Lake, and the central foothills of Alberta.

About the speaker

Dr. Robin Woywitka studies the Quaternary Period, the most recent division of the Geological Timescale (ca. 2.6 million years ago to today). He specializes in geomorphology, geospatial science and geoarchaeology. His research focuses on how processes associated with present day industrialization and climate change affect the preservation of geoheritage and cultural landscapes in northwestern Canada. Dr. Woywitka teaches a variety of courses in Earth science, including introductions to geomorphology and soil science and senior level courses in Quaternary environments and geological methods.

Wrap up