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InsideOCULA Newsletter: December 2018

by Jennifer Robinson

It’s December, that time of year when we routinely take stock of the year that was, and look forward to the year that will be. Looking back over this year’s InsideOCULA issues, we’ve explored a wide range of challenges and opportunities facing libraries, including future-forward concepts like artificial intelligence, and new library spaces such as the Zen Den and Exploratorium. We’ve celebrated anniversaries (Happy Birthday askON!) and platform improvements (looking good, Scholars Portal Books). We’ve also investigated improving accessibility of web content, and promoting collections using social media savvy.

In this month’s issue we continue to explore challenges and opportunities, starting with a new look at streaming video, a format gaining popularity with our users. In their article Catching the new wave, Aaron Lupton, Ian Gordon and Helen Salmon provide a great overview of how the inclusion of streaming video into academic library collections is requiring librarians to develop new skills and approaches to acquisition, access, use and preservation.

Also appropriate to our ongoing themes of challenge, opportunity and change, this issue includes four articles that share different library experiences with organizational renewal.  While each library experience is slightly unique, the pieces from Carleton, University of Ottawa, Western and Queen’s do have much in common. In particular, the motivation to pursue organizational renewal is grounded in a desire to meet changing user needs and maximize available resources, all while using a process of engagement that gives library staff agency and input into the future of their work. With many libraries across Ontario and across Canada currently engaged in or considering organizational renewal efforts of their own, these glimpses into the process and outcomes of the work of these schools will be sure to inspire and inform.

This theme of organizational renewal connects well with the final President’s Message of the year, where Melanie Parlette-Stewart explores the notion of community, of finding your place while exploring your passion. She opens her piece sharing how she has spent time this past fall “…reflecting on how change challenges us to find new ways of doing and learning.” Organizational renewal is perhaps the ultimate act of reflecting on change and challenge, and finding new ways of doing and learning. With the number of libraries currently engaged in this work, it is a timely opportunity to develop a community of practice around new methods and approaches to meeting user needs.

Speaking of opportunities to collaborate and contribute to community, InsideOCULA is on the lookout for additions to our editorial team.  Keep your eyes peeled for a call for applications in the near future.

Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy 2019!

 

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