1% daily improvement or, have big dreams, set big goals, and then do a little bit everyday to make these dreams and goals a reality”. Chris Nikic’s approach to athletic training is clearly a good one, for triathletes as well as editorial teams.

With the winter season on the horizon, those of us in academic libraries are well into the “final assignment” season and answering research questions such as, “Can you check my citations?”

Après une longue attente, la nouvelle Université de l’Ontario français (UOF) accueillera enfin sa première cohorte d’étudiant.es en septembre 2021. Malgré tout le travail accompli, il reste encore beaucoup à faire.  

Quand l’hiver arrive enfin, c’est le meilleur moment de s’installer confortablement avec un bon livre et de lire ou même relire des livres dont les récits ont des intrigues mystérieuses! 

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.

Staff at the University of Toronto Music Library have gone “back to blogging” and this form of outreach has proven to be a successful way to keep in touch with patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harneet Kukreja works as a Research Librarian at Goodmans LLP.

While many of us couldn’t join others in a formal university ceremony on Remembrance Day, first-hand accounts of war-time events (e.g., archival letters) can help us all “apprehend the complexities of the human condition” that are central to our collective memory.

After the first, frigid weeks (then months) of the quarantine had passed, Douglas Davey found himself missing his old world. It was in the midst of these doldrums that he exhumed a long-buried idea: converting his sketchy garage (or “car hole”) into a movie theatre.

If your interest in good-bad movies is piqued by the Car Hole Cinema summer season, then here’s Douglas Davey’s “Top 9” list of good-bad movies (but watch with discretion). Check out Troll 2, The Room, Catwoman, and more.

Our experience in designing and delivering a grey lit workshop tells us that grad students are eager to learn these skills and put them to use in either a face-to-face or a virtual classroom.

While Robert Burns laments plans gone wrong, we can celebrate a plan gone right. In late 2019, the Open Shelf editorial board finalized its first-ever strategic plan and, overall, the results in this first year are promising.

These days, library staff in many departments have an interest in related issues, including coding. Pitch us your coding story ideas about HTML, Twine, Python, Jupyter Notebook and more.

Interested writers have the opportunity to co-author articles with an Open Shelf regular contributor, a member of our editorial team, or another volunteer who is looking for a writing partner.