Digital Identity: A New Literacy Challenge for Librarianship
The librarian’s legacy and paramount role is one in the same: connecting diverse members in a multitude of communities with essential resources that are…
Exploring Fandom: Libraries and Other Fanclubs
On the Labour Day weekend of 2014, as they do every year, just over 100,000 people gathered at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to…
Exploring Fandom: Why Star Trek?
When asked about “fandom”, I must respond that, as a lifelong nerd, a techie and a librarian, my SciFi fandom is very specific: I’m…
The Language of Space
The spaces in libraries speak; they speak much louder and more consistently than our policies, signs, or staff can, and they always speak in…
Dumping Ground or Hallowed Ground?
When school library professionals are recognized as vital to student success, why do schools still see them as ‘other’? Reading can provoke some strong reactions…
Graphic Novels for Adults
Think graphic novels are only written for kids and teenagers? Think again! Marvel’s The Avengers, made $1.51 billion worldwide. 16.1 million viewers tuned into…
Librarians Inspire Guatemalan Students to Celebrate a Love of Reading
Where can a love for libraries, a penchant for travel, and a passion for international development work take you? For twelve LIS students and…
Paws for a Study Break
Therapy animal programs (also known as Animal-assisted therapy or AAT) are commonly used in hospital and rehabilitation settings, where they “have a way of…
London and Jinan: A Visiting Professor Compares Jinan in China’s Public Library System With That of Middlesex County
Professor Guodong Zheng was a visiting professor at the University or Western Ontario in 2013. Through a series of fortuitous events, he joined a…
The IdeaMarket: A New Direction in Community Engagement
The Newmarket Public Library’s most recent Strategic Plan was aimed at shifting the Library’s focus to become a centre of community dialogue and discovery.…
The Internet is Insecure
So what is the internet, really? It is not magic, although it tries hard to look like it. We don't talk about the physical…
Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Ho-OPLA Reflects Decades of Changes
This first installation of Open Shelf marks some important changes, as Access, the print magazine becomes Open Shelf online, and its regular OPLA column…
Machine Translation: Can It Help Newcomers Access the Public Library?
In a public library, community outreach efforts aim to develop library programs for non-users, the under-served, and people with special needs within the community.…