Columns – OPEN SHELF

A library tech perspective on job hunting, story time & more

Each of us probably has a system we use to help us prepare for and participate in the interview process. Although there may be an art to doing an interview, having a strategy for preparing for the process can help us practice a bit of science as well.

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Challenge accepted!

It’s a new year and a great time for making reading resolutions. One form this resolution may take is to respond to a Reading Challenge. Taking this type of challenge can not only be fun, but also a great opportunity to change some of our entrenched reading habits.

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Indigenous Canada: A Massive, Open, Online Course (MOOC) worth taking

What do the library at the University of Ottawa and Dan Levy, who played David on Schitt’s Creek, have in common? The Indigenous Canada MOOC! Librarians at the University of Ottawa also provided opportunities for colleagues to complete the MOOC in 2019 – 2020.

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793.73: February double header

To kick off this exciting crossword feature, we present our readers with two puzzles: a “crossward” commemorating Black History Month and celebrating black authors, and a devilishly difficult and cold-themed “cryptic crossword” puzzle.

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Needs-based public libraries

The thinking of Comrade F. Dobler from the early 20th century remains relevant and even prescient: those who need open access to information may be those who are fundamentally excluded from public libraries.

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Open for All?

Four RA strategies to promote new voices and inclusion

We can use Reader’s Advisory to both ensure that our communities feel seen and that they discover new voices and cultures by working on polices, merchandising, book lists, and handselling.

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Readers' Advisory

Not too fine a point: COVID-19 reveals the origins of public libraries as agents of social control

In Library Land, the pandemic has exposed inherent fragilities including discriminatory class and race based practices. In turn, these praxis reveal that public libraries have a history of being agents of social control and exclusion.

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Open for All?

The new model public library

Someone will have to pay for all the government money being used to get us through the COVID-19 crisis. This will usher in a newer, longer and deeper era of austerity and a new understanding of what defines a “model public library.”

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Open for All?

Remote readers’ advisory

Across the country, libraries are closed but library staff are still working hard to provide remote programming and virtual services, including RA.

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Readers' Advisory

Intersectionality

Call-outs, shaming, and other forms of “weaponized” communication shut down conversation and political debate, and more importantly, limit the number of social spaces where differing points of view can be heard and respected.

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Open for All?

Free to read and share (or not): “What are you reading?”

Asking somebody what they are reading is a simple but loaded question, particularly when responding to an adult: We have the right to different tastes and reading choices.

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Readers' Advisory

Free speech and hate speech

Can we open our doors to all points of view and also say that our libraries are safe spaces? I think not.

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Open for All?

Reviewing The public

The public is my kind of movie. The hero is a flawed character who has been given a second chance that he uses to help those who are also in a bad place.

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Open for All?