Vancouver Island Library Staff Conference

Expand your innovation toolkit and spark new insights for your team with this handson session that focuses on creative destruction - a fun and innovative method of problem-solving. Through a facilitated discussion and your contributed experience, you'll have an opportunity to practice a different approach to brainstorming. Together, we'll tackle a broad challenge related to library services, and explore a process that can be used to think creatively about library spaces, systems, collections, programming, or instruction.

In order to build and maintain a healthy community, members need to understand their past. The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria Libraries is home to the world's largest collection of trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse history. In December 2019, we proudly launched an online discovery tool to search our collection of publications, which include articles written by trailblazing community members, and historical events that shaped trans activism and history. In this presentation, Michael Radmacher (MLIS, MA) and Shahira Khair (M.Sc, MIS) will tell the story of this project, and will offer a demonstration of the new discovery tool.

Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL) implemented a Community-Inspired Library Service Model in 2016 in order to redefine the role of librarians in public services. Influenced by changing trends in public libraries and organizational changes that included the removal of traditional reference desks, GVPL‘s new model focuses on librarians as leaders within and outside the library. Join us for an introduction to the model and hear from public services librarians about how the community-inspired model has influenced their work. There will be time for questions.

Have you ever wondered how academic libraries support distance education students and programs? Join several distance librarians to find out more about their services and how they keep their patrons happy, even in different time zones!  Come away with a brief history of serving this distinct population, an overview of current services and challenges, and a few funny stories in betweeen.  The session will conclude with a Q & A session.

Libraries depend on the successful collaboration of workers across employee groups to ensure high-quality and patroncentred services. Using the development of a digital library of British Columbia's Historical Textbooks as a case study, this presentation will hear from co-op student, CUPE, and librarian team members as they reflect upon how each contributes unique skills and strengths towards the management of a large-scale project. Library workflows of selection, acquisition, digitization, cataloguing, and exhibition development all rely upon the specialized skills of each team member. When such collaborations are productive, library work thrives. Presenters will outline lessons learned throughout the project and discuss the key elements of successful collaborations across library employee groups. This presentation will be relevant to those wanting to know more about the development of a digital library and those interested in multi-employee group team success.

VIU Library has been working on a project to create meaningful ways for users to interact with a unique collection of audio interviews about Nanaimo’s coal mining past. To map the spoken word of coal miners and their families, tech services staff searched through interview transcripts for references to mines and then took steps to represent these mentions of historic sites on an interactive map. Not only did the project provide opportunities for us to venture “into the darkness” of increasingly technical new work, but it also helped to bring light to the stories of generations of local coal miners.
At VILSC in 2016, Dalys and Sarah were part of a crack team of VIU Library wizards presenting a "6-pack" of emerging work projects that developed new skills in our department. The coal mines map, then in its early days, was one of the projects featured. Three years later, we’re still adding the finishing touches, but we’ve learned a lot, and we’d like to share our experience.

n the past five years, UVic Libraries has engaged children, families, and youth in an increasing variety of ways, as part of our strategic plan to be Open, Engaged, and Enduring.
We offer:

• A community borrower's card and temporary netlink ID to provide access to our materials
• high school class visits to the Libraries as part of our High School Outreach program
• librarian visits to schools for engagements arranged through the Speakers' Bureau
• librarian support for middle and high school Heritage Fair Projects
• family-friendly events such as our "Book Arts Interactive" event at Ideafest 2018
• collaboration with faculty members on public speakers' series such as "Treasures and Tea"
• Youth Summer Camps oriented to university study, such as TextBytes
• opportunity for community contributions to our collection decisions, as has been the case with our Transgender Archives
• Direct engagement with community groups such as the Canadian Book Artists' and Bookbinders' Guild 

This panel will draw together a number of UVic librarians to describe these efforts and get into the why and how of what has made this work successful.

The Open Air Library: A Community Program The Open Air Library, the Saanich Peninsula Literacy task group’s signature program, takes reading outside and is a fun summer community event that celebrates literacy. Behind the scenes is a growing exchange of collaboration and communication across multiple literacy organizations. Reflecting on five years of collaboration points to the continuous need for literacy organizations to work alongside one another.
Two Libraries, One Peninsula Public Libraries share a common goal of promoting literacy and lifelong learning. The Saanich Peninsula is served by two public libraries that find fun and exciting ways to work together and best serve their communities. Reflecting on five years of collaboration points to how libraries have moved outside of their spaces to build community.
Growing Readers Together Supporting literacy, growing minds, providing resources and tools to flourish and learn – public libraries and schools share similar goals but often work in isolation. Reflecting on past collaboration shows us that one good thing leads to another and points to where we will be five years from now.
Presented by Saanich Peninsula Literacy Task Group, Greater Victoria Public Library and South Island Distance Edcuation School

In this presentation, Kehoe and Boudinot will share the findings of their research on “double dipping” occurring in the ebook marketplace. A number of well known and fringe publishers with Open Access (OA) ebook publishing models are offering these titles freely on their own publisher platforms, as well as for sale on third party aggregator platforms. This publisher practice has implications for library budgets, approval plan ordering, authors, and vendor relations. Strategies will be shared on how to identify “double dipping” publishers, how to block OA titles from approval, and questions to ask when you are reviewing publishers’ OA publication agreements.

Three topics were the focus of my study leave activities: 3D modelling of specimen collections, citizen science in the sciences, and science data visualization by artists. All three topics are interconnected by the overarching framework of science data. My first goal was to experience the research data life cycle by creating a 3D data set of botanical specimens and thus explore issues around data creation, metadata, data description, data deposit, data sharing & access. A second goal was to explore the role citizen scientists play in collecting and working with scientific data. A third goal was to explore how artists are engaged in artistic visualizations of science data and knowledge mobilization.