What’s New in Open Shelf December 1, 2014

What’s New in Open Shelf? is a Table of Contents of sorts. Open Shelf publishes when we have compelling new material. Every two weeks is our plan.

In this release we discuss reading, schools, leadership, literacy, strategy, and truth and reconciliation. And we meet Marilyn McDermott and Rachelle DesRochers.

For years OLA has hosted the RA for a Day event. RA is “Readers’ Advisory” and it remains a core feature of the engagement of libraries with the reading public. Melanie Kindrachuck reports on three speakers at the event and their research on reading in Transformative: Understanding the Reading Experience.

While the interaction between the public library and the schools in its community has generally been positive, the relationship (and the needs) are changing. Jesse Roberts explains how the Thunder Bay Public Library is taking on this challenge in Linked to Learning: the Public Library and Local Schools.

The second instalment of Red Sea Dispatches is an interview by Chris Graves with the new director of the KUAST Library. What does Molly Tamarkin think about her new role and her new life in Saudi Arabia? Find out in Institutionalizing Smarter, Better, Faster.

Outreach has always been part of the public library mandate but there are both difficulties and rewards when the outreach is digital literacy and the audience is in a homeless shelter; Michael Russell explains in Digital Literacy in Newmarket.

John Pateman’s Open for All? column is a challenge to some of the principles we hold dearly.  Having looked at Power, Politics, and Class, John now turns his attention to Strategy.

After an hiatus, the High5 column returns. In the column Jennifer Dekker selects a number of key projects, databases, or resources that provide insight into a particular issue. This time it’s the Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Archives.

One of the most popular columns in Open Shelf is Robin Bergart’s quirky Random Library Generator which features an interview with one of OLA’s 5,000 members. Marilyn McDermott from Mohawk College is the subject in this release; find out about Dachshunds, mountain climbing, Mary Kay, and health sciences librarianship.

And finally, getting to know the staff and programs of the Ontario Library Association is the purpose of the OLA Staff Room column. In this issue we meet Rachelle DesRochers, OLA’s Administrative Assistant. How could dystopian fiction and helping OLA members possibly go together?

Just a note that we taking a break for the holidays. The next release will be on January 15, 2015.

As always, let us know what you think of Open Shelf.

…Mike Ridley

Editor-in-Chief, Open Shelf