Who is the Canadian academic librarian? Results from the first CAPAL census
Canada’s academic librarians are relatively young, enjoy stable employment and are not racially diverse: these findings are among the highlights of the first census…
Leigh Turina
Leigh Turina has been working at Toronto Public Library for over 25 years as a children’s librarian in a variety of branches, including 2…
Applying theory to pratice: hands-on experience for library students
As a student of the Master of Information (MI) program at the University of Toronto, I have the opportunity to take practicum courses, which…
Alvin M. Schrader
Dr Alvin M. Schrader is emeritus professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, where he taught research…
Amy Kaufman
Amy Kaufman is the head law librarian at Queen’s University. She has co-authored Out of Practice: Exploring Legal Career Paths in Canada (Carswell, 2015)…
Equity & Social Justice in the Library Learning Commons
I read an interesting tweet recently about transforming the perception of school libraries from a warehouse for books to houses of student learning. The…
Lightning Talks at the OCULA Spring Conference
Every year at the end of April, OCULA organises a one-day Spring Conference. This event has traditionally been held in Jordan, but in order…
Begin as You Mean to Go On
My mother, a teacher-librarian at the end of her career, left a great legacy: Pithy principles by which to live. And “begin as you…
Farewell … and Welcome
With this release of Open Shelf I'm stepping down as Editor-in-Chief. When introducing Open Shelf in August 2014 (Welcome to Open Shelf) I noted…
That Feeling When
Amanda Etches is an Associate Chief Librarian at the University of Guelph Library. You can find more of her writings and doodles at e.tches.ca. Incidentally is…
A grateful goodbye from 2016 OCULA president
It’s time for me to pass the torch to OCULA’s incoming President, Sarah Shujah. As my term as President ends, I would like to…