From pilot to perfect: Improving RA skills by investing in training
Practice makes perfect—or at least staff can benefit from targeted readers’ advisory training, particularly when they have time to practice and reflect on their…
Canada 150: Library work as a profession for women
B. Mabel Dunham (1881-1957) was the president of the Ontario Library Association in 1920. In her presidential address, she spoke bluntly about the opportunities…
Hidden figures: Book or movie?
We love to compare books and their screen adaptations ... plot and people, pace and perspective. Which version is better, the movie or the…
IFLA/UNESCO manifesto & toolkit: Creating multicultural libraries
As the out-going chair of the IFLA Library Services for Multicultural Populations Section, I shared this manifesto with participants at the IFLA 2017 conference, held…
Makerspaces: Take two
Complete surprise and appreciation: this was my first reaction to reading a response to an article I had written for Open Shelf last spring.…
Welcoming LGBTQ+ people
How can we demonstrate, through action, that LGBTQ+ people are welcome in libraries? In the first article in this limited series of conversations, Amanda…
Makerspaces: Service or learning resource?
At the 2017 Computers in Libraries conference, a librarian asked “Do you use your 3D printer, as a service or resource?" This seemed like…
What’s New in Open Shelf: December 7, 2017
Welcome to this, our last issue of 2017. We are featuring makerspaces and making culturally responsive libraries, as well as the final installment in…
John Vincent
John Vincent coordinates “The Network – tackling social exclusion,” a U.K.-based network of cultural and heritage organisations that work towards social justice.
Amanda Wilk
Amanda Wilk is a manager at the Country Hills Community Library, Kitchener Public Library. She can be reached at amanda.wilk@kpl.org.
Jack Leong
Jack Leong is currently the director of the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library at the University of Toronto. He chairs the International and…
Dawna Wark
Dawna Wark is a manager with Hamilton Public Library. She sits on the OPLA Readers’ Advisory Committee and is on the Hamilton Public Library’s…
Alana Skwarok
Alana Skwarok is the Collections Librarian for the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at Carleton University. She holds a Master's of Library and…