Andrew Wiebe (he/them) is an Indigi-Queer (Red River Michif) PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. His PhD project, Lii Lozh di Kaastor (The Beaver Lodge), is a co-created archival project that involves the creation of an interactive digital atlas of queer knowledge with Two-Spirit Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Scholars on Turtle Island. The corresponding thesis is a guide and example of how to build Indigenous and Queer stories into traditional archival practice through a methodology inspired by our relationship with beavers—tearing down trees and rebuilding the environment. This metaphor of the beaver is used to think through how to build relationally, taking into account the environmental requirements while imagining a future that is enriched with environmental regeneration, even in this online environment. This envisioned future is one that weaves together Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Western archival practice.

Michael Lines, University of Victoria

Tara Mawhinney, McGill University

Aeron HacHattie, Concordia University Library

Climate Action is a pressing need in all sectors, but it isn’t always clear how we as individuals, communities, or institutions can contribute. We need more library-specific conversations that enable action for library workers at all levels, particularly in academic libraries where varied institutional commitments and support can make it more difficult to find direction. Library workers bring different levels of autonomy, enthusiasm, burnout, and renewal to climate action, as well as different knowledge, personal priorities, and professional experience. The CAPAL climate action community of practice was created to make space for academic library workers to share ideas, projects, and experiences of climate action in their workplaces and communities.

This panel presentation will bring together CAPAL climate action community of practice members to discuss the life paths, ethical and family commitments, and working backgrounds that led them to climate action. Panelists will share what they do to stay engaged, productive, and positive as they engage with pressing questions such as:

• How does climate action fit into your workplace?

• What actions can you and your colleagues take that are effective and manageable?

• What training and networks exist to develop your knowledge and skills?

• Is there any good news to share?

Sarah Adams, University of Calgary

Are you exploring ways to support educators at your postsecondary institution with finding and adopting Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Have you wondered what skills or experiences can be helpful when supporting Open Education initiatives in your library?

Course materials have seen a shift in recent years within academic libraries as publisher and student behavior has changed. At the same time, there has been growth of advocacy, awareness, and institutional support for the use and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) within higher education. The use of OER can help to address textbook affordability issues experienced by students, support initiatives around equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA), and be an alternative freely accessible and adaptable course material option for educators interested in developing their own curricular content.

This presentation will highlight an OER finding service model, Open Course Material Matching Service (OCoMMS), based in Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) at the University of Calgary that reduces barriers and supports their teaching faculty and instructors discover potential OER for use in their courses or as the foundation for a new OER adaptation. Attendees will learn about what the Open Course Material Matching Service is, the workflows or steps taken following a request, and the staffing model used to support the service.

Tied throughout will be strategies and connections to past experiences and knowledge that has been helpful in navigating the workflows of the OCoMMS service model and consideration of curricular needs and content. Attendees will come away with resources and strategies they may incorporate into their own OER finding service or adapt for library resource adoption services. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share their own practices and experiences that they have utilized for similar purposes in supporting educators with discovering library resources or OER to support learners.

Melissa Moreau, McGill University Library

With the ever-present pressures of the publish-or-perish mentality, academic researchers are increasingly engaged with scholarly publishers, and research institutions are increasingly reliant on academic libraries to support them. Scholarly communications librarians have stepped into this role, providing support throughout the research lifecycle and fostering the development of publishing literacies across open access, author rights, publication processes, self-archiving, and copyright. The explosion of online content creation has made foundational knowledge of this latter concept increasingly vital for navigating not just the scholarly sphere but the world at large. While focus on services of this kind is growing, libraries have limited visibility into the areas where creators need the greatest support. Once a manuscript is submitted, authors are more reliant on communication with editorial staff on the publisher’s end to guide them from submission through to final publication, and librarians are rarely, if ever, looped into those conversations. Having spent over a decade working in scholarly publishing, most recently in editorial and production roles within a university press’s sizeable journals division, I have been on the publisher’s end of those conversations. As both a student reference librarian delivering information literacy instruction and a student researcher, I now sit at the intersection of three very distinct perspectives. This presentation aims to pull back the curtain on scholarly publishing, drawing on anecdotes from my time working directly with authors to highlight publication literacies that require further attention and to recommend ways that academic libraries can improve information literacy provision to better support scholars and content creators.

Madelaine Vanderwerff, Mount Royal University

Sara Sharun, Mount Royal University

Our work as academic librarians has been shaped by experiences in a number of different academic “worlds,” but one of the most challenging landscapes we are currently navigating is the rapidly changing academic and educational publishing world. As the educational publishing market becomes increasingly consolidated, and as technology enables new ways to package, distribute, and control access to information, libraries face challenges in building, sustaining, and providing access to collections as we face constantly rising subscription costs, changes in format and access models, licensing restrictions, and availability constraints (Cuillier, 2018; Scott et. al., 2022). The impacts of these challenges extend to faculty and students who experience changes in the variety, availability, and cost of learning materials.

With our professional knowledge and expertise, librarians can act as a bridge between the academic publishing environment and faculty teaching practice, raising awareness of learning material access and affordability issues. Indeed, our ability to support teaching and learning on campus depends on our ability to communicate with faculty and understand their teaching needs and preferences (Butterfield et al., 2024; Smith Jaggars et el., 2022). Librarians need to know what faculty do, feel and think about course materials: what they use, how they select and use them, and their general awareness of their institutional context (e.g. policies, resources, and options). More specifically, do faculty see libraries as part of their course materials selection practices?

To learn more about how faculty are navigating the changing world of course materials, we conducted a survey of course instructors at 22 mid-sized universities across Canada. Our survey gathered information on course material selection practices, preferences, and opinions and explored faculty’s level of literacy relating to publishing trends broadly as well as awareness of policies, practices, and support structures at their institutions. We found varying levels of awareness of OER and textbook alternatives; a variety of thoughts about libraries’ role in supporting course material selection and access provision; and strong beliefs in academic freedom that offer both challenges and opportunities to work with faculty to raise awareness of course materials and access models that are accessible and affordable for students.

In this session we will share findings from our study and invite participants to critically reflect on the impacts of the changing textbook publishing landscape for their campuses and libraries’ role in supporting access to course materials.

Joanne Oud, Wilfrid Laurier University Library

People with disabilities are highly underrepresented in library leadership roles. This presentation looks at why, and what it takes to be a leader with a disability in libraries based on the leadership experiences of the presenter, an Ontario academic librarian with disabilities. The presentation will set out the ableist and neoliberal underpinnings of our concepts of both workplace success and leadership. It will show how these underpinnings influence our assumptions about workplace performance, about who is considered ‘leadership material’, and about what a leader is and does. These assumptions contain systematic biases that create and perpetuate substantial barriers to leadership positions for disabled librarians. A discussion of the presenter’s leadership experiences will show how these biases and barriers work in practice. It will also show that leadership success for librarians with disabilities often requires passing as able-bodied and ‘overcoming’ disability to conform to mainstream norms, which has personal and health impacts and costs. Finally, the presentation will suggest strategies for moving towards a more inclusive practice of library leadership that considers the structural disadvantage built into our current leadership concepts.

Ben Mitchell, Thompson Rivers University

In 2019, the video essayist and noted gamer Hbomberguy raised almost $350,000 for Mermaids, a UK-based charity for trans youth, while playing Donkey Kong 64 for almost 60 hours straight, forever proving how weird obsessions and niche interests can be a force for good in the world. Autistic and ADHD people do not pick our special interests, and being free to follow our passions has been proven to be an important aspect of autistic and ADHD quality of life. We can’t just leave these parts of ourselves at the door when we come to work in libraries, nor should we. We relate to people through our special interests, we learn in relation to our special interests, and, yes, we even work in relation to our special interests, or we do not work well at all. Yet pursuing special interests is often seen to be at odds with traditionally legible forms of research, outreach, and “professional development,” especially in the context of tenure and promotion and ideologies of the library as a site of “customer service” metrics. Exploring the literature on the relationship between special interests, quality of life, and employment, as well as using examples from the speaker’s special interests in Magic: The Gathering, video games, and video essays, this talk will explore the role of special interests in library research, outreach, and liaison work, as well as some of the challenges faced by autistic and ADHD librarians when space is not given to us to be who we are.

Marina Mikhail, MI student at the University of Toronto

Krystal Esau, MLIS student at the University of Toronto

As library workers our practices are informed by our values, lived experience, and communities. This includes our responsibility to the land we live on, the consequences of climate change on the environment, and how this impacts our communities. Climate change has direct and indirect impacts on our local and international communities from forest fires, floods, toxic water, air pollution, food insecurity, housing, and preventable deaths. Climate justice is deeply connected to work in anti-racism, anti-colonialism, and disability justice. In recent years, there has been a growing focus in academic and public libraries to address climate issues, but many approaches place the responsibility on individual workers and community members to recycle, conserve electricity, and reduce paper use. These approaches fail to address larger systems that contribute to climate injustice, such as the environmental impacts of technology adoption and investments/relationships with fossil fuels or weapons companies. In the same vein, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are often used as a shortcut to sustainability planning, creating a list of boxes to be checked. These checked boxes are then used as tokens of progress that allow us to feel like we are contributing to positive change without critically examining the way our neoliberal institutions are complicit and benefit from climate injustice.

Our presentation aims to critically reflect on neoliberalism within academic library sustainability plans and highlight the need for a multifaceted approach to addressing climate issues, which may include working with local and international communities, engaging in political action, and resisting neoliberal and colonial agendas within our institutions. Our research is informed by our community connections, past work with community services and public libraries, community outreach, and our personal values and commitments. This includes previous experiences with how environmental sustainability policies have created barriers for community members who are disabled, unhoused, and/or do not have access to technology. Our methodology is based on critically analyzing systems of power within libraries and academic institutions using a disability justice and anti-colonial lens. We will discuss the impact of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on environment sustainability programs in academic libraries.

We invite attendees to critically reflect on how the institutions we work in are actively involved in harming our communities and the environment, while simultaneously placing responsibility on workers and community members to address the very issues they have created. Our presentation will consider how we can attempt to move beyond plans that just “check a box” and towards political actions that can be taken within and outside library institutions in support climate justice.

Esther Atkinson, York University Libraries

Jennifer Dekker, University of Ottawa

James Forrester

Harriet Sonne de Torrens, University of Toronto Mississauga

Meaghan Valant, University of Toronto Mississauga

This panel presentation will present the main themes discussed in the edited collection of seven critical essays, Academic Librarianship in Canada: Post-COVID Perspectives in a Neoliberal Era (Litwin Press & Library Juice, 2024). The panelists will discuss the changing dynamics of academic librarianship through the lens of Canadian professionals responding to the corporatization of their scholarly workplaces and the erosion of their communities of practice. The underlying concern is the transformation of academic libraries from sites of collegial scholarly activity into hierarchically led operations driven by values and priorities alien to the academia. Panelists will reflect on the various aspects of this neoliberal turn shaping the political economy of knowledge production and dissemination of information, as well as changes in academic teaching, funding, institutional relationships, and the publishing industry. The unifying theme is the fundamental role of professional academic librarianship in an increasingly techno-global, post-pandemic environment.

The presenters will discuss the tensions between equity of access and subject representation in electronic and print collections, de-professionalization, the ongoing persistence of gender stereotyping of academic librarianship by librarians’ leading professional associations, the lack of recognition for the professional teaching by academic librarians, and the recent, destructive trends in Canada to re-structure academic libraries including the 2021 destructive reorganization at OCADU.

After a brief presentation by each of the panel members, the floor will be opened up for questions and discussion from the audience.

Michelle Pettis, University of Toronto

Maria Paula Vidal Valespino, University of Toronto

Maryam Manzoor, University of Toronto

This conversation explores the ways art practice gets assigned in LIS syllabi by faculty, or brought-into LIS classrooms by students, and to what impact. How do those “creative assignment” options ready students for the profession? How can art practices continue to have a place once in the profession?

Based on collected experiences and conversations from the perspectives of both students and faculty, we explore how artful assignments can support, sustain, or productively challenge academic librarian studies. Are creative assignments fluff? Or do experiments in quilting, making zines, and painting nail art teach metadata, copyright, and information literacy?

Together, we reflect on art projects and their possibilities to embolden our education while simultaneously championing us to step into our identities, take up space, reflect critically, and practice joy. When does art as professional development work? When does it not?

From the facilitated lens of CAPAL, University of Toronto, Student Chapter, we will also consider the value of art beyond the LIS classroom. We also look at the importance of MI student creativity within organizations and clubs – both professional and social, and formal and informal associations. Taken together, we will question how art assignments add to scholarly communications. And when are we actually just knitting?

Sandra Cowan, University of Lethbridge

As research-creation is increasingly validated as scholarship, academic libraries can contribute to this field by collecting, preserving, and providing access to creative work as a part of the cycle of scholarly communication. MFA students’ text-based works, such as their theses or support papers, are rigorously collected in our research repository at the University of Lethbridge Library. However, these texts are often just a small part of the students’ MFA work. As the Canadian academic world increasingly accepts the idea of research-creation as a legitimate form of scholarship and research, I began to wonder whether the library was or could be collecting the more creative parts of the students’ MFA work—parts that may be more difficult in concept, form and format for the library to deal with. Surveying the collection of all student work since the beginning of the MFA program at the University of Lethbridge, I will report on how their work has been collected, and speculate on how we might expand our collections practices to include a fuller representation of MFA student research-creation, thereby making it available to inform future research and creation.

Vanja Stojanovic, Brock University

User experience surveys are a common tool used in efforts to understand and improve how users engage with and feel about our library services, spaces, and resources. Surveys often result in quantitative data and text-based comments that can provide insights toward informing actionable recommendations. But is it possible to discover new depths to user responses by using other, less common, methods of analysis to enhance the insights afforded by standard approaches? By drawing on methods of Poetic Inquiry, this presentation describes the initial results of an analysis of comments submitted to a survey conducted by Brock University Library. In brief, Poetic Inquiry seeks to “tap into the universality and radical subjectivity” of experience through poetic forms, meter, rhythm, imagery, and other elements of poetry to surface the experiential, emotional, and social dimensions of, in this case, collected data (Faulkner, 2019). The presentation will outline the systematic method used, how the resulting poems enhance the original survey analysis, and the value of integrating a diversity of librarian research skills to expand the scope of how we can listen and respond to the experiences of users. To best demonstrate the Poetic Inquiry approach, the presentation will conclude with a reading of a poem, bringing the experiences of survey respondents to life.

Shelby Thaysen, University of Toronto Libraries

This presentation explores the surprising parallels between pottery and academic librarianship through the lens of creative failure and personal growth. Drawing from my dual experiences as both an emerging ceramicist and academic librarian, I reflect on how the iterative process of throwing clay—where collapsed bowls and warped vessels are seen as part of the journey— mirrors the challenges faced in academic librarianship. Just as potters embrace imperfections as steppingstones to mastery, emerging librarians navigate the pressures of publication, imposter syndrome, and the evolving demands of the field.

By celebrating "flaws" as learning opportunities, we can shift our mindset around failure, fostering personal growth and resilience in the face of professional challenges. This presentation will offer practical strategies and reflections for embracing failure as a generative force in librarianship, turning setbacks and doubts into catalysts for innovation.

Christena McKillop, University of Calgary

How can the diversity of experiences in the academic library be applied for professional growth and contribute to student learning? In this presentation, I will discuss how a common thread of diversity of experience runs through my career, and I will discuss the outcomes that have resulted through a variety of examples. I will share and provide a brief analysis of several different examples that illustrate the successful application of diversity of professional experience. Firstly, I will draw upon the Student2Scholar (S2S) project that I was a team lead for at Western University as an excellent example of a large and diverse team approach that was successful in creating an excellent online learning program. ACRL’s Instruction Section recognized the final product in October 2016 as the Site of the Month. At the University of Calgary, I was invited to participate in a team-teaching opportunity for a mandatory History class. We worked so well together that this then led to co-authoring two book chapters with my colleagues. Most recently, I have been collaborating with a colleague to host a series of informal learning events in the main library. The Literary Café series has resulted in strong positive reviews from attendees including the Dean of Arts. My colleague and I have been able to present on this topic at WILU 2023, and in other venues. We are now currently working on writing an article on this topic. When we identify, and leverage the power of different backgrounds and experiences of other librarians and information professionals, opportunities for professional growth can emerge as well as contribute to student learning. By the end of this session, attendees will be able to reflect upon their own professional practice with a fresh perspective, and begin to consider in what ways they can leverage not only their own unique experiences but also those of their colleagues in positive ways.

Monica Rettig, Brock University

“A [library] gives you the opportunity to create something bigger than yourself. Feminist [librarianship] isn’t just concerned with personal growth or creating an isolated utopia within your [university] It’s about social change. It’s about identifying the larger impact you can make through your [library], the legacy you will leave in your community and the world” (Armbrust 52).

In her 2018 book/ presentation/ art project ‘Proposals for a Feminine Economy’, Jennifer Armbrust imagines a new way forward for feminist entrepreneurs, in which ‘a business’ is treated as art, as a site of experimentation. What would it look like to take up this challenge in our academic libraries? In this presentation, I will call on attendees to critically reflect on Power in our workplaces, employing feminist philosophy and approaches.

Academic librarians: How do you understand your own power, formal or informal? How do you understand the power dynamic in your workplace, in your department, at different groups and tables?

In Living a Feminist Life, Sara Ahmed explains, “Living a feminist life does not mean adopting a set of ideals or norms of conduct, although it might mean asking ethical questions about how to live better in an unjust and unequal world” (1).

In order to consider these questions, we must be clear-eyed and historicize our context. The ‘water we swim in’ has several layered conceptions of power: the public sector, the neoliberal university, managerialism – never mind the dominant culture of patriarchy, colonialism, and white supremacy. Simultaneously, many of us operate in environments where organized labour and collegial governance are major players in the power dynamic. Within the library itself, internal hierarchies are firmly entrenched and often linked to notions of professionalism.

When understanding contrasting definitions of Power, a core division among thinkers is whether we are speaking of Power-Over (domination or compelling another to act) or Power-To (the ability or capacity to act). There is much variation within feminist perspectives, historical and contemporary (Allen 2022). I will highlight key ideas.

Do our internal workplace practices also reflect contrasting philosophies of power? Where might these underlying worldviews be revealed, and what would a rethinking look like? What is at risk when we operate uncritically?

I propose that the explorations and interrogations prompted by a critical feminist analysis are among the first steps towards creative and transformative possibilities. My thinking is informed by discussions of vocational awe (Ettarh 2018), feminist leadership in libraries (especially as highlighted in Lew & Yousefi 2017), but also by more recent discussions of post-pandemic power shifts (ex. McLay Paterson 2022). By shining a light on dominant narratives and alternative options, I intend to create more space for acts of refusal, ‘wilfullness,’ imagination, dismantling, and rebuilding.

Select Bibliography

Ahmed, Sara. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

Allen, Amy. “Feminist Perspectives on Power.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman, Fall 2022. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2022. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/feminist-power/.

Armbrust, Jennifer. Proposals for the Feminine Economy. Topanga, CA: The Fourth Wave, 2018.

Ettarh, Fobazi. “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves – In the Library with the Lead Pipe,” January 10, 2018. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/.

Lew, Shirley, and Baharak Yousefi, eds. Feminists among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership. Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies. Sacramento, California: Library Juice Press, 2017.

McLay Paterson, Amy. “‘Just The Way We’ve Always Done It’: Who Shapes The New Normal for Academi Libraries?” Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship / Revue Canadienne de Bibliothéconomie Universitaire 8 (2022): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.33137/cjal-rcbu.v8.38476.

Katya Pereyaslavska, COPPULSPAN & North/Nord

North: the Canadian Shared Print Network/ Nord: Réseau canadien de conservation partagée des documents imprimés mission is to protect, preserve, and provide fair access to Canada’s scholarly and cultural records while ensuring responsible and sustainable collection management. This session will spotlight this new Canadian national shared print network highlighting recent successes around cooperation and shared stewardship to safeguard critical academic and historical materials with the aim of long-term preservation. This initiative ensures that Canadian institutions remain resilient, forward-thinking, and committed to preserving our nation’s intellectual and cultural legacy for future generations.

Jessica Ye, University of Saskatchewan

In 2023, I graduated with my Master of Information. In 2024, I moved from Toronto to Saskatoon for a tenure-track librarian position at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to this, I had never been a librarian. This lighting talk reflects on my journey to my current role through an intersectional lens – how did I get here as someone who is a young, queer, racialized, nonbinary person? And what prompted me to pack up my life and leave a diverse metropolis like Toronto? This lighting talk highlights key experiences from my early career journey to answer those questions. It also speculates about future trends and priorities when it comes to the diversification of our profession.

Cheng Yin Zhu, University of Alberta

Effective support for academic departments depends on strong, reliable partnerships between librarians and faculty. However, sessional librarians often encounter particular challenges in building these crucial relationships and meeting the specific needs of their assigned departments. This is particularly true when departmental needs are complex and require specialized knowledge that may be lacking within the library, as is the case with the East Asian Studies (EASIA) Department at the University of Alberta. This presentation draws upon my experience as their sessional EASIA Subject Librarian and emphasizes the importance of community building for sessional librarians, within and beyond the library. These include actively participating in departmental activities and professional associations as well as leveraging the value of networking and shared experiences.

I will begin by discussing the history of the EASIA Librarian appointment and Department as these insights contextualize their ongoing challenges. Key areas of focus include insufficient collection development support due to a lack of language expertise and difficulties in searching for East Asian language materials in the library catalogue. These challenges underscore the value of a user-centered approach, a design philosophy that prioritizes understanding and identifying patrons' needs and goals to create positive experiences. Weaving this perspective with my Asian-Canadian heritage has informed my work as the EASIA Subject Librarian, providing a blended understanding of cultural and linguistic nuances to academic librarianship. I will share how a user-centered approach has helped me collaborate with the EASIA Department to identify, prioritize, and address their specific concerns, both in relation to my appointment and for the library's long-term partnership with faculty.

Madison Johnstone, McGill University

Debates about repatriation have been a staple in public discourse since at least the 1990s, likely due to a heightened awareness of the impact of historical systems of disenfranchisement and exploitation. Repatriations have been happening in libraries for at least five years now, yet repatriation is rarely framed as a library issue. Using a Western lens, this session discusses a case for repatriation as a library issue, tracing the colonial history of libraries, unpacking three library repatriations (UCLA Library, The British Library, SFU Library), and ending with a discussion of future actions for libraries and library studies programs.

Alexandra (Allie) Landy, MI student at the University of Toronto

As an engineering student, I was taught to see the world as a system of systems and recognize the critical role that diverse, interdisciplinary teams play in creating effective solutions to complex problems. I am now a student working in an academic library and I am constantly surprised at how this same perspective can be applied to the problems and projects I have come across in academic librarianship.

In this presentation, I will first discuss my experience as an engineering student and why I ended up pursuing a degree in library and information science. I was drawn to systems design engineering specifically for its interdisciplinary nature because I have always been curious about a wide range of topics - from math and science to politics and music. Finding a program that saw value in bringing diverse disciplines together allowed me to gain experience in user experience design, accessibility studies, software development, user research, project management, and many other disciplines. Throughout my degree, I learned to understand the iterative design process and consider the complex systems that form our world.

Towards the end of my degree, I developed an interest in the organization of information and discovered a passion for research. I decided to pursue a degree in library and information science and realized that academic librarianship offered a place where my technical background, love of research, and passion for making information accessible all converged. Now, I am a student working with e-resources and carrying out a research project exploring the experiences of librarians who work with comic and graphic novel collections. Through my work and research, I have been able to learn from the experiences of many academic librarians and begin to appreciate the different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives each person brings to the profession while developing my understanding of the field.

This presentation will explore my experiences and introduce participants to the ways that systems thinking, interdisciplinarity, and the iterative engineering design process can be applied to understanding academic librarianship and finding value in the unique experiences and perspectives individuals bring to the profession.

Inaam Charaf, University of the Fraser Valley

As an engineering student, I was taught to see the world as a system of systems and recognize the critical role that diverse, interdisciplinary teams play in creating effective solutions to complex problems. I am now a student working in an academic library and I am constantly surprised at how this same perspective can be applied to the problems and projects I have come across in academic librarianship.

In this presentation, I will first discuss my experience as an engineering student and why I ended up pursuing a degree in library and information science. I was drawn to systems design engineering specifically for its interdisciplinary nature because I have always been curious about a wide range of topics - from math and science to politics and music. Finding a program that saw value in bringing diverse disciplines together allowed me to gain experience in user experience design, accessibility studies, software development, user research, project management, and many other disciplines. Throughout my degree, I learned to understand the iterative design process and consider the complex systems that form our world.

Towards the end of my degree, I developed an interest in the organization of information and discovered a passion for research. I decided to pursue a degree in library and information science and realized that academic librarianship offered a place where my technical background, love of research, and passion for making information accessible all converged. Now, I am a student working with e-resources and carrying out a research project exploring the experiences of librarians who work with comic and graphic novel collections. Through my work and research, I have been able to learn from the experiences of many academic librarians and begin to appreciate the different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives each person brings to the profession while developing my understanding of the field.

This presentation will explore my experiences and introduce participants to the ways that systems thinking, interdisciplinarity, and the iterative engineering design process can be applied to understanding academic librarianship and finding value in the unique experiences and perspectives individuals bring to the profession.

Alexandra Wong (she/her) is a lifelong textile maker and the current Data Visualization and Analytics Librarian at York University. She holds a Master of Information (Library and Information Science concentration) from the University of Toronto, as well as a Bachelor of Mathematics and a Bachelor of Business Administration. Alexandra brings together her formal education and creative, crafty sensibility to offer a distinctive approach to data storytelling in libraries.

Her work explores the intersection of textiles, such as sewing and crochet, and data, including personal metrics and government statistics. Through this fusion, she engages in acts of critical making and creates interactive pieces of data art. Alexandra has further led workshops in libraries and at conferences, teaching data and data visualization literacy through this lens. Across all her projects, Alexandra brings a commitment to democratizing data skills, fostering inclusive experimentation at the intersection of technology and craft, and inviting others to discover the joy of making.

Alison Pitcher, MacEwan University

Calling all neurodivergent academic librarians! Join in for a community conversation about ourselves. We’ll discuss a range of topics focusing on your experiences as a neurodivergent academic librarian – with topics ranging from how visible (or invisible) you find neurodivergent librarians and their strengths to be in your workplace to the structures, people, or tools that help you better navigate your work life. Anyone who identifies as being neurodivergent (or is questioning their neurotypicality), whether self- or professionally diagnosed, is welcome to join. Expect to discuss prompts in smaller groups and come away with a sense of community connectedness as well as learning from (or just commiserating with) the experiences of fellow neurodivergent librarians in academia. A shared note taking document will be available for people that want to share ideas/points back with the larger group.

Ania Dymarz, University of Alberta

Kate MacDonald, John W. Graham Library, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Monica Rettig, Brock University

Early career librarianship is a period fueled by a distinctive optimism for working in an interesting field that makes a difference in users' lives. However, upon reaching a career mid-point, a time often corresponding to mid-life, we may find some of this enthusiasm diminished after encountering the realities of library work while balancing our professional and personal identities. This panel session brings together three academic librarians whose original fabric of connection was library school leading to a lengthy friendship over the course of our careers. Since graduation, we have taken various paths and roles, leading us now in mid-life and mid-career to positions across various levels of hierarchy in our libraries. Building on texts such as ‘Thriving as a Mid-Career Librarian: Identity, Advocacy, and Pathways’, our panel session will consider the opportunities for renewed meaning making in mid-career librarianship following the high-energy early career years. Rather than sinking into a mid-career malaise, we will consider how this time of accumulated perspective, experience, power, and privilege presents a unique opportunity to reframe our perceptions of mid-career librarianship. Some themes that we will consider in this discussion will include reflections on the questions of whether to move up or move on, to relocate or stay put, ‘quiet quitting’, disengagement. We will address the benefits and drawbacks of management roles, alternative leadership opportunities, mentoring and professional associations.

Following a reflective conversation, we will invite the audience to discuss and dream possibilities together about what is needed from our workplaces and our profession more broadly to support the challenges and possibilities of mid-career librarianship. While we all grapple with these challenges individually and privately, by coming together to share our journeys in this panel we can make visible some common threads to identify communal solutions to the questions we encounter as mid-career librarians.

Magnus Berg, University of Toronto Mississauga

While much has been written about serving trans and gender diverse patrons in libraries, little scholarship exists on trans and gender diverse library workers. The recently published volume Trans and Gender Diverse Voices in Libraries begins to fill this gap, though is focused specifically on the individual personal experiences of these workers. Using Dean Spade’s concept of administrative violence and the Marxist Autonomist’s definition of immaterial labour, this presentation aims to examine the ways that trans and gender diverse labour in libraries is undervalued and exploited more holistically. Through social reproduction and expectations of “professionalism” that are inherently gendered and classist, trans and gender diverse workers are often expected to assimilate into their workplaces and provide uncompensated, undervalued, and unrecognized emotional labour in order to make their work lives bearable. Further, trans and gender diverse workers are underpaid, overrepresented in lower-level and precarious positions, and report higher instances of adverse workplace experiences. These material conditions have a tangible impact on these workers’ ability to stay employed in the field. By reflecting on my own personal experiences as a trans librarian; synthesizing the lived experiences of other trans and gender diverse library workers; outlining statistics on pay and work experiences; and integrating theory from Marxist and/or trans studies scholars, this session will explicate how libraries use social reproduction to marginalize and enact administrative violence on trans and gender diverse library workers.

Sodiq Onaolapo, PhD candidate in LIS at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western University

Canadian university libraries continuously support their parent institutions by granting access to a vast amount of information resources in support of scholarship, research, digital initiatives, scholarly communication, user experience, online teaching to students and faculties, and community engagement services. In providing these services, Canadian academic libraries rely on collections that have been curated by library professionals guided by collection policies and strategies. However, the representation of equity-deserving groups in Canadian university libraries’ collections remains low (Jennings & Kinzer, 2022; Kandiuk, 2014; Li et al., 2022). The challenge of low representation of equity-deserving groups is compounded by the dominance of whiteness in the collections and the problematic near absence of racial diversity among the staff of Canadian academic libraries. Take together, this means that people from historically underrecognized and unrecognized groups could walk into libraries where the collections do not at all reflect their authentic histories and voices (England, 2023). Additionally, these challenges could impact the extent to which Canadian universities foster intellectual development, mitigate racial prejudice, and facilitate students’ explorations of diverse perspectives through their libraries (Kim & Sin, 2008). My dissertation research uses a qualitative approach to examine different Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID) initiatives geared toward increasing the representation of equity-deserving groups in the collections of Canadian university libraries. I collected data through semi-structured interviews with library staff involved in collection management activities and EDID initiatives, and through the analysis of relevant policy documents of selected Canadian university libraries. I analyzed the data using the qualitative content analysis to identify relevant themes on EDID and collection management practices. Findings from this study highlight the roles of policy documents and EDID initiatives on the collections of Canadian academic libraries. Finally, this study highlights the significance of collection management, an often-invisible aspect of library operations, in ensuring that libraries serve their user communities effectively. The findings from this study demonstrate how the “unrecognized voices” of librarians help in navigating the dynamic scholarly communication landscape in meeting the users’ needs within the confines of limited collection budgets.

Tim Ribaric, Brock University

Carla Graebner, Simon Fraser University

Like traditional faculty, the workload of academic librarians typically contains some obligation of service. Service is represented through different mechanisms including committee work, involvement with professional organizations, and union participation. This last category is important: only through engaged participation by members do unions flourish. Service to one’s union can be demanding--what is asked is a high threshold but is there a commensurate reward? For traditional faculty members there exists an algebra known as release time that usually equates components of work to an equivalent of time in the classroom. When the burden of service work needs to be mitigated, release time is there to provide relief. All well and good, but what about librarians, or archivists, for that matter? Do they have mechanisms like release time to allow them to create the space in their schedules to do this service work? How can unions support librarians when librarians do not deliver classes in the same way as faculty thereby any attempts in establishing a one-to-one comparison of time is not just challenging but near impossible.

This paper will present the results of an investigation that looked at every union contract in English speaking Canada to see how, if at all, release time is articulated for librarians in contrast to what is made available for traditional faculty.

Emily Jaeger-McEnroe, McGill University

New research has shown that a majority of Canadian academic librarians are ambivalent or even negative towards neutrality as a library value. A significant portion of Canadian academic librarians are consciously choosing to embrace non-neutrality in favour of commitments to other values, notably in matters related to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (Jaeger-McEnroe, 2024).

This tendency to move away from neutrality is generally not learned from library science education. Library school, codes of ethics and most LIS literature pose neutrality as a requirement and infrequently question or explore its meaning and implications. If critiques of neutrality are not part of library science curricula, then librarians’ resistance to neutrality must be emerging from alternative sources. Some research suggests that despite it not being a component in library education, many librarians are aware of critical theory, such as feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, and postcolonialism (Schroeder & Hollister, 2014), that could be contributing to their criticality with regards to neutrality.

Whether through community, research, work or lived experiences, librarians are learning to limit neutrality or prioritize other values. This patchwork of experiences from outside of librarianship is adding up to a professional fabric that is more critical of library neutrality than in the past. This community conversation will act as a venue for librarians to share their thoughts and their diverse array of experiences that affect their thinking about library neutrality. What are the competing values we have learned, and what limits does this place on our neutrality? Have our many patchy experiences combined to make a library quilt that is no longer neutral?

Jesse Carliner, University of Toronto

Tys Klumpenhouwer, University of Toronto Archives & Records Management Services (UTARMS)

Since its opening in 1973, the John P. Robarts Research Library, the largest social sciences and humanities library at the University of Toronto, has undergone significant technological and labor transformations. The 1980s and 1990s were particularly notable or technological innovations, such as the transition to an online catalog and the creation of digital collections. However, this period also saw budgetary austerity and labor disruptions as Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government implemented neoliberal policies.

In our current socio-political and technological context of both the disruption of AI and the resurgence of neoliberal policies and budgetary austerity, the examination of the history of Robarts Library during the 1980s and 1990s provides a crucial lens on the relationship between austerity and the adoption and impact of new technologies on the academic library.

Taking the history of Robarts Library as a case study for an academic library during times of austerity and technological upheaval, this research aims to explore past technological shifts, and seeks to understand the social, political, and economic impacts and the factors that influenced these changes. The research methodology includes a comprehensive analysis of interviews from the Robarts Library Oral History Project, materials from the University of Toronto Archives, and extensive historical research. The Robarts Library Oral History Project is a collection of oral history interviews conducted in 2021 with retired librarians, library staff, library administrators and other stakeholders. The interviews offer a range of perspectives and experiences on the forces shaping the library, including

technological developments, demographic changes, and socio-political trends. In addition to the oral history interviews, archival materials offer another rich source of data on the library's evolution. Themes and questions that emerged in the research include the expansion of job portfolios throughout the 1980s and 1990s leading to increased workload, elimination of jobs and roles, reductions and eliminations of services, and centralization of libraries, services and functions. What was the relationship between the democratization of technology in the library and the elimination and reduction of jobs and services?

This research underscores the importance of historical context in understanding the present moment and shaping the future of academic libraries. The findings aim to provide academic librarians with a deeper appreciation of the historical forces at play and offer insights into this current critical moment.

Rebekah Glendinning, George Brown College

It is widely acknowledged that the nature of reference inquiries in academic libraries is evolving, driven by broader shifts in student research behaviours, expectations, and technological changes. The Library Learning Commons at George Brown College is no exception to this trend. Recognizing the importance of adapting to these changes, we sought to hear directly from students to better understand their research needs.

To achieve this, we conducted a student survey and organized focus groups to gain deeper insight into student research processes and support needs. The feedback collected provided valuable perspectives on how students approach research assignments, their experiences with our current reference services, and their preferred methods for seeking research support. Some of the insights gathered were surprising, addressing aspects of our services that we had not originally considered when setting out on this study.

This presentation will share key findings from this research, identifying trends in how students seek help, the barriers they face when accessing reference services, and the implications of these insights for the future of reference services at the George Brown College Library Learning Commons. By centering student voices, we hope to weave together new strategies that ensure reference services remain dynamic, accessible, and responsive to evolving academic needs.

Dr. Jenna Stidwell, York University

How can academic librarians develop library guides that better support the research and information literacy (IL) instruction needs of students engaged in community-based service-learning? This presentation outlines the results of a process used by one librarian to develop a new pedagogical LibGuide, set to launch in fall 2025, aimed at improving the IL and research outcomes of undergraduate students engaged in developing hyperlocal service-learning projects at York University in Toronto.

The rapid expansion and institutionalization of experiential education (EE) in Ontario universities over the past decade has produced emergent IL needs that are challenging the province’s academic librarians to rethink established approaches to IL instruction. Innovative approaches to EE, such as courses that partner student teams with local organizations to work on projects that develop new solutions to the real-world problems that their communities face, pose unique challenges. These projects offer students rich learning experiences but also require them to be capable of rapidly researching complex and interdisciplinary problems and navigating complex and at times unfamiliar local knowledge ecosystems. Existing library discovery tools and IL resources are often inadequate to the task of supporting these rich place-based learning projects in ways that address the acute IL gaps and unique research needs of these students, who often complain that they “just don’t have enough time.”

This presentation explores the extent to which current library guides focused on community engagement and research meet the needs of students engaged in hyperlocal

service-learning projects, with the goal of improving these students’ research and IL outcomes. The presenter will share an overview of the typical features of library guides focused on community engagement and research. This will be followed by the results of a content analysis of student projects that highlights typical project features and challenges faced by students undertaking these projects. Finally, the presentation will conclude with a discussion of how the presenter is using these findings to inform their new LibGuide’s design.

Helen Power, University of Saskatchewan

Academic librarians play many different roles in the workplace. These can include functional experts, subject liaisons, teachers, committee members, researchers, mentors, volunteers, leaders, and innovators. “Creative writer” doesn’t have an obvious place in the role of librarian, but this presentation will argue that this form of expression can bolster all aspects of academic librarianship. Through creative expression, whether it takes the form of literary or genre fiction, poetry, memoir, personal essay, or even songwriting, academic librarians can identify their positionality, advocate for the profession, and strengthen their individual practice.

The terminal degree for academic librarians is a Master of Library Science, for which a thesis is typically not required for graduation. Academic librarians are frequently required to write, from emails to formal reports to conference abstracts to peer-reviewed papers. Studies have found that the practice of creative writing can strengthen skills required of academics, including time management and academic writing (Lindenman & Rosinski, 2020).

Both recreational reading and writing teach and foster empathy, a trait that is critical of academic librarians, particularly in this time of sociopolitical uncertainty. Communication skills–both verbal and written–are essential for academic librarians to engage with their user groups. Advocacy for LIS values is a core aspect of the profession. Creative writing can help us to develop the skills to shape our narratives into compelling and accessible arguments, advocating for various causes within and outside of our field.

Engagement with the creative writing community also opens doors to collaborations with various groups, from those internal to the university, such as departments or graduate programs, to those off campus, including public libraries and local writing guilds.

There are also individual benefits to creative writing for academic librarians. Creative writing is associated with positive mental health outcomes (Mundy et al., 2022), aiding individuals in preventing burnout, which is a significant concern among academic librarians, particularly those in precarious positions. Developing a narrative and establishing an identity as an academic is essential for librarians who go through an annual review or reporting process, particularly those on the tenure or continuing appointment track.

Throughout this presentation, the presenter will reflect on her own experiences as a fiction author and academic librarian. This session will discuss the ways in which creative writing can support academic librarianship, as well as provide ideas and strategies for those interested in exploring the craft to strengthen their professional practice.

References

Lindenman, H., & Rosinski, P. (2020). Writing outside of class: The untapped potential of students’ non-academic writing. WPA: Writing Program Administration, 44(1), 17–44.

Mundy, S. S., Kudahl, B., Bundesen, B., Hellström, L., Rosenbaum, B., & Eplov, L. F. (2022). Mental health recovery and creative writing groups: A systematic review. Nordic Journal of Arts, Culture and Health, 4(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.18261/njach.4.1.1

Kisun Kim, Okanagan College

Estelle Frank, MacEwan University

Christian Isbister, University of British Columbia Okanagan

Gossiping and visiting are often thought of as trivial, social activities, usually performed by women. Building on Gaudet’s (2019) work on visiting as a decolonial research methodology and Bhat’s (2021) perspective on gossip as a form of protection in white-dominated libraries, we advocate for the importance of gossiping and visiting as tools of resistance and solidarity for Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) library workers. Gossiping and visiting interrupt the existing power dynamics, challenging the Eurocentric work culture and empowering BIPOC librarians. It's important to clarify that gossiping in this context serves a different purpose than speaking negatively about someone behind their back. Gossiping, we argue, is about sharing information, looking out for each other, and demonstrating social support to equity-deserving groups. Similarly, visiting is one way that many communities build and maintain reciprocal relationships. Together, these create networks of information-sharing so that folks can make informed decisions about who to trust, as well as rally together to upset oppressive systems. We believe that the creation of BIPOC affinity groups allows for an important and safe avenue for this sharing of information to take place. Working in predominantly white institutions can be isolating for BIPOC employees, and affinity groups can create a community for gossiping and visiting in ways that may not feel safe amongst white colleagues. However, putting the onus on BIPOC employees to seek out and create their own affinity groups requires additional labor and money. We argue that academic institutions should allocate labour and finances to create BIPOC affinity groups and facilitate gossiping and visiting.

This panel will offer up our own experience developing an affinity group of BIPOC academic librarians in Canada, involving a monthly gathering around a meal and a chance for each member to share frustrations and receive validation from those with similar lived experiences. While this affinity group does not receive any institutional support or funding, we believe it should, as these affinity group meetings have led to tangible changes in our workplaces, fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment. It led to various cross institutional initiatives, such as the joint anti-racism book club and a Community of Practice (CoP), where library workers from each institution can engage in meaningful dialogue and question the status quo. Panelists will discuss these initiatives and share the website they created for the anti-racism book club. Through this panel, audience members will better understand how gossiping and visiting can serve as a bridge to deeper relationships and collective action.

Sandra Stift, MacEwan University

Sarah Adams, University of Calgary

Sonya Betz, University of Alberta

Madelaine Vanderwerff, Mount Royal University

Sara Sharun, Mount Royal University

Textbook affordability and accessibility is a significant issue on post-secondary campuses, affecting learning outcomes and student success (Carbaugh, 2020; Colvard et al., 2018; Jenkins et al, 2020; Todorinova & Wilkinson, 2019). The last several years have seen substantial changes in textbook access and pricing models; these and other changes in the educational publishing landscape are occurring in a postsecondary context of budget challenges and declining institutional revenues. As a result, an increasing number of post-secondary institutions across Canada are implementing automatic textbook billing programs (sometimes marketed as “equitable” or “inclusive” access programs), where mandatory textbook costs are integrated directly into tuition fees. These programs are often tied to institutional agreements with specific publishers or content platforms and are concerning for a number of reasons, including the threat to faculty members' academic freedom, the impact on equitable and affordable access for students, and damage to a healthy and diverse information environment on campuses.

Through their role in supporting teaching and learning, strong professional knowledge of academic and educational publishing trends, expertise in negotiating and licensing publisher products, and experience promoting information literacy, academic librarians are in a strong position to raise awareness of the challenges presented by the increasing commodification and commercialization of information on campuses. Currently, academic libraries are addressing these issues by implementing zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) programs, championing the use of OERs and providing course materials through reserve collections or digital lending platforms. Given the new challenges posed by the pervasiveness of restrictive textbook licensing models, and especially mandated course material billing programs, how can librarians leverage our skills, perspectives and experience to be leaders in campus discussions about learning materials? Panelists from four Alberta universities will discuss their experiences with course material billing programs at their institutions, while also exploring broader questions about libraries' role in conversations about access, equity and diversity of learning materials on their campuses.