Lightning Talks

Diplomas and dragons: Board games and technology in the virtual classroom

Rob Makinson, Librarian, Centennial College

Slides |Abstract:

How can we make learning hands-on and more accessible at the same time? This was the challenge facing an instructor in Centennial College’s Event Management program: she wanted to preserve the Special Event Planning simulation assignment — a student favourite — when the course moved online.

Enter the library! Rob Makinson, then a librarian at Centennial’s Progress campus, recommended Roll20, a free platform mainly used for tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, as an ideal virtual home for the assignment. First training the instructor and then helping to build the assignment in the browser-based environment, Rob helped create a version of the simulation that kept all the essential parts of the live version, allowed students to participate from anywhere, and let instructors recreate and adapt the assignment with little time or effort. In short, the simulation became a model of what open, sustainable learning objects can look like, especially when we look outside the box and leave our assumptions about education behind.

Come listen to Rob speak about Roll20 and its usefulness as a teaching tool, the results and student feedback when the simulation went live, where this project might go next — and why he feels that this sort of work is within the wheelhouse of academic libraries.

Building a Sustainable Marketing Research Community: Working with Students and Faculty

Christa Lochead, Librarian, George Brown College

Slides |Abstract:

What do students really think about the library? What would they change? And how to find out, when time and resources are limited? Enter… marketing students!

In 2013, library staff partnered with the School of Marketing, acting as a client for a fourth-semester Applied Marketing Research course. The result was a survey of GBC students’ library use that was ultimately written, conducted, analyzed and presented by marketing students.

Six years later the relationship has expanded to multiple instructors, and several successful surveys have been conducted. Topics have included iPad use, reference services, eBooks, textbooks, and library spaces. Each time, students have had the opportunity to gain real-world research experience while the library has gained valuable student input.

This sustainable approach to gathering marketing research requires minimal library staff time, produces meaningful results, and engages students, faculty and library staff in a community enterprise. Experienced faculty provide quality control and work with library staff to develop new survey topics. Because each new group of students brings a fresh perspective, survey topics can also be reused from term to term, depending on library staff availability. Anecdotally, students report increased engagement with the library and increased use of library services after participating.

The presentation will review the project scope, share a sample of useful survey results gathered over the years, and provide some best practices (and lessons learned) for consideration.

Exploring a Sustainable eLearning Strategy

Ewan Gibson, Business & E-Learning Librarian, Humber College

Slides |Abstract:

Humber Libraries are currently exploring what it means to have a sustainable approach to eLearning. As an institution, Humber College is committed to offering flexible choices for learning and improving the digital fluency of the college community. The library acknowledge a need to refresh and increase their own eLearning offerings both for students and for internal training. However, allotting time, staff, and resources to the creation of learning objects can be challenging. Enhancing the eLearning portfolio also requires capacity-building within the department. Our aim is to create learning objects that meet the needs of our college community but which also keep our jobs and workloads both manageable and meaningful.

In May 2019, Humber Libraries held an eLearning Day for the entire department. This day was designed to give all staff the opportunity to experience the design process and explore what areas of their job could be made easier or simpler by the creation of eLearning objects.

Using the Design Dash approach, attendees worked in groups to select, explore, and define a pain-point they observed or experienced in their day-to-day work. These pain points were framed as design challenges. By pooling their experiences and expertise and by bringing in an outsider perspective, each group created a rapid prototype of a learning object that aimed to address their specific pain point/design challenge.

The plan was to foster a culture of collaboration and to help build the capacity to create learning objects that meet the needs of our students and colleagues.

In this lightning talk I will explore why we planned this eLearning event, describe the activities involved, and share feedback from those who took part in it.

Sustainability of Human Capital in Academic Libraries through Professional Learning and Secondment Opportunities

Najeeb Ahmed, Library Technician - Cataloguing & Technical Services, Humber College

Slides |Abstract:

Encouraging professional learning and allowing secondment opportunities for employees is a sustainable way to develop a library’s human capital. Supporting employee professional development taps into the wealth of human capacity by enriching current job descriptions and expanding the possibilities for successful professional advancements. Strong knowledge of organizational culture, faculty and the student body enable library staff to sustain established service standards while adding their personal contribution to student success in such sustainable internal advancement possibilities.

In his lightning talk, Najeeb will look at sustainability from the angle of human capital enrichment. He will highlight how these professional development opportunities benefits both the individual and broader organization, by exploring his own personal experience as a library technician moving into a short-term librarian secondment.

The Evolution of a Ticketing System to a Multi-Channel Communication and Service Platform

Jane Foo, Digital Systems Librarian, Seneca College

Allison Ball, Borrower Services and Reference Technician, Seneca College

Slides |Abstract:

Ticket management systems (also known as help / support desk systems) are often seen as a necessary evil to maintain an efficient way to respond to user inquiries. With a platform upgrade and changes as recent as Spring 2018, our LibAnswers ticketing system is now doing more than just help respond to student and faculty online questions - it has become an essential method to help us sustain our services in the face of staff reductions and rising user expectations.

With a new multi-queue structure, comprehensive workflows and extensive staff training we have been able to address existing online service gaps, identify inquiry patterns and trends, encourage staff engagement and knowledge sharing, and provide a sustainable way to track service activities within the library.

Mobile Library Tours: an Exercise in Sustainability

Amanda Van Mierlo, Library Clerk - Circulation and Student Assistants, Humber College

Slides |Abstract:

Orientations and service fairs are often “swag-grabs” and staff facilitated library tours can take a lot of scheduling with little turn out. It was time to rethink the way we approach library tours and orientation. In September 2018 we launched a mobile, self-guided physical library tour to increase our attendance while allowing students the flexibility to learn about our spaces at their own pace. Our lightning talk will explore the mobile library tour from sustainability point – in its ability to increase student access and awareness of library services, reduce strain on staff time, decrease waste, and allow for more purposeful and meaningful distribution of library promotional material.

“Where is the Library?” Shared Services and Deliberate Degrowth at the Downsview Campus Library

Jessica Haddon, Library Technician, Centennial College

Slides |Abstract:

While not mapping directly onto a traditional ecological definition of sustainability, Centennial College’s new Downsview Campus Library was created with a commitment to decentralization by design and a minimalist spatial and staffing footprint. Under our shared student services model, the Library functions outside of a traditional enclosed space, sharing a front desk area with Enrolment Services directly inside the building’s main entrance, with the usual complement of study rooms and cubicles, computer workstations, and Learning Centre space clustered throughout the building. This economical arrangement supports room for only a very lean collection of print materials, forcing us to meet our users’ needs within an unconventional space that defies assumptions about what, exactly, constitutes a library.

In this Lightning Talk, I will share our nascent efforts to promote our Library’s very existence in a context in which we are often mistaken for receptionists, where basic signage is in no way guaranteed, and ongoing construction is omnipresent. I’ll highlight challenges to our attempts to forge a sustainable community when different service areas with sometimes divergent goals share space, and student behavior in dispersed Library spaces proves difficult to monitor. In the midst of these micro-tensions over potential room poaching, radio blare invading work spaces, gaming in group study rooms, or acting as the poutine police in the largely unsupervised Learning Centre, I’ll also emphasize the many more positive elements that our departmental cross-pollination and unbounded architecture brings both Library staff and our students.

Decolonize the Mind, Decolonize the College: Centennial Libraries and the Indigenous Strategic Framework

Mikayla Redden, Librarian, Centennial College

Slides |Abstract:

In response to a college wide call, the Centennial College Libraries (CCL) teams initiated several decolonization and Indigenization projects. Step one was to decolonize our catalogue by bringing Indigenous materials out of history (Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) E 51-99) and into the contemporary era, by doing away with LCSH "Indians of North America". Step two was for all Library faculty and staff to attend a professional development day, giving them an opportunity to learn about decolonization and Indigenization from college Traditionalists and allies. Steps 3 and onward are ongoing. In January, the college's newly appointed Indigenous Curriculum Developer began working with the library to decolonize the collection by diversifying Indigenous representation and weeding unsuitable materials. Other projects include the development of guidelines for selecting resources with Indigenous content, employee book clubs, and open educational resource development.

Decolonize the Mind, Decolonize the College: Centennial Libraries and the Indigenous Strategic Framework will outline CCL's completed and ongoing efforts to create inclusive, equitable spaces by Indigenizing our thinking, processes, and materials.