A N N U A L R E P O R T2 0 1 3 - 2 0 1 4

Q U E E N ’ S U N I V E R S I T Y L I B R A R Y

CONTENTS

2 Message from the Vice-Provost and University Librarian

4 Facts and Figures

6 Enhancing the Student Learning Experience 8 Envisioning the Library and Archives of the Future

10 Supporting Learning Outcomes

12 Facilitating Access

14 Implementing E-reserves

16 Fostering a Learning Community

18 Research Prominence 20 Developing Collections

22 Finding Information

24 Digging into the Archives

26 Sharing Research Results

28 Expanding the Library Network

30 Showcasing Special Collections and Archives

32 Internationalization 34 Welcoming Chinese Librarians

34 Supporting Health Sciences in Bangladesh

35 Strengthening the Bader International Study Centre Library

35 Engaging in the Matariki Network

36 Financial Sustainability 38 Redeploying Human Resources

38 Developing Human Capital

39 Collaborating

40 Leveraging Donor Generosity

2

An annual report is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our contri-butions to the academic enterprise, and to inform people of recentactivities. In the past we’ve had internal documents, from the annualreports of individuals and units to the annual planning and budgetdocument for the Library and the Archives. This year, we’re pleasedto introduce a new form of report, one that highlights a number ofstories for the interest of the Queen’s community. Although such areport cannot capture every detail of our work, we hope it gives asense of the vitality of the Library and the Archives.

At all times, our plans are guided by Queen’s vision of the Canadian research-intensive universitywith a transformative student learning experience. The year summarized here, 2013-14, shows manyexamples of the Library’s position at the learning and research crossroads. Our greatest strengthsare the close working relationships we have with each faculty and school and the information ex-pertise we bring to their academic programs and research. We also engage in a wide array of externalcollaborations that help us leverage developments in the broader information landscape, for thebenefit of learning and research at Queen’s.

Of the many notable developments of the past year, several stand out. The engagement of studentsand faculty in the development of the Library and Archives Master Plan was truly inspiring, and approval by the Board of Trustees and integration with the Campus Master Plan has positioned uswell for the future. We made great strides in the collaborative development of research data management services, in preparation for upcoming requirements from research granting councils.At the same time, our support for teaching and learning took new strategic directions and integrateseffectively with the university’s Teaching and Learning Action Plan. As well, we can feel very proudof contributing to the success of the university’s new Accessibility Hub, which strives to removebarriers for persons with disabilities.

I would like to thank everyone in the Library and the Archives and all of our partners for their contributions to our accomplishments of 2013-14. It is a privilege to work with such talented peoplewho together inspire learning, spark creativity and build community.

– Martha Whitehead

MESSAGE FROM THE VICE-PROVOST AND UNIVERSITYLIBRARIAN

3

BB

B B

B

B B

BB

4

FACTS ANDFIGURES Top rank (A)

for category in The Globe and MailCanadian UniversityReport

First in holdingsper student inMaclean’s 2014UniversityRankings

122.63 FTE employees (library technicians, staff, librarians, archivists)

11 linear kilometres of archival records,including 3,000,000 images, 300,000architectural drawings and thousands ofsound recordings and moving images

14,000 answersto individualqueries

3,000,000+physical volumes

80,000+ e-journals containingmore than 85,000,000 articles

24 x 7 open hours in Stauffer Libraryduring exams, and 2 am closingmost other days in winter session

14,709 students taught in830 classes across allfaculties and schools

5

Q U E E N ’ S U N I V E R S I T Y L I B R A R Y

Stauffer Library, housing the Queen’sLearning Commons

and Academic Services, as well as humanities

and social sciencesresources and services

Douglas Library,housing the

Engineering andScience Library and the Jordan Special

Collections and Music Library

Bracken HealthSciences Libraryin Botterell Hall

EducationLibrary in

McArthur Hall

UniversityArchives in

Kathleen RyanHall

Lederman Law Library in

MacDonald Hall

6

7

Enhancing the Student Learning Experience

8

ENVISIONING THE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF THE FUTURE

The Library today is in the midst of a digital revolution: a shift inhow knowledge is stored and accessed that is probably more pro-found than any previous change in its history. Learning, too, ischanging from an emphasis on information conveyed throughlectur es to an inquiry-based, experiential approach to buildingknowledge – an approach that takes advantage of opportunities offered by the Library and the Archives.

In light of this changing environment, Queen’s University Libraryhas developed a new Library and Archives Master Plan. The plan

seeks to adapt to these new demands while holding on to the best of the old. Says Professor ShelleyKing, a member of the Library and Archives Master Plan Steering Committee and current Chair ofthe Senate Library Committee, “what is being planned is not the bookless library – digital and traditional means of storing knowledge will exist side by side – but it is a reframing of the relation-ship to book culture.”

The plan creates new learning spaces, highlights valuable collections and recognizes the key role theLibrary plays as a centre of campus life. A new “Library Square” will embrace the Stauffer and Douglaslibraries, a public space that will serve as the academic crossroads of Queen’s, drawing in ultimatelynot just students and faculty, but the broader Kingston community as well. A transformed Douglas Library will highlight archives and special collections, and services supporting digital scholarship. In Stauffer Library and the smaller libraries across campus, the plan calls for space to be opened upfor academic support services and technology-enabled study spaces for groups and individuals.Whether students are relying on the Library’s traditional collections or its digital resources, servicesand spaces, they are using the Library. That’s key, says King, who notes that “the Library continues tomatter because it is – and is perceived to be – at the heart of undergraduate and graduate education.”

The planning process involved stakeholders across the university and was closely tied to the devel-opment of the Campus Master Plan. The Library and Archives Master Plan was approved by Queen’s

Board of Trustees in December 2013. Full details, including a video featuring Queen’s students andfaculty, are available at queensu.ca/connect/lamp.

9

Proposed – Douglas Library main level exhibition space with new opening to above

Proposed – Stauffer Libraryview to multi-purpose atriumwith seating

10

SUPPORTINGLEARNINGOUTCOMES

Information today is the currency of the knowledge economy. Rec-ognizing this, many of the university’s academic programs identifyinformation literacy as one of the key outcomes for undergraduateeducation.

Queen’s University Library has long been a leader in information lit-eracy programs, which essentially aim to deepen learning througheffective engagement with the information ecosystem. Studentshave access to more information than ever before, but researchshows that they often struggle with determining a research focus,

conducting effective searches and developing arguments – the elements of inquiry.

Librarians partner with faculty to help ensure that students graduate with the skills required for life-long learning and inquiry, in whatever careers they pursue. In 2013-14, this was evident not only inthe 830 classes taught by librarians, reaching 14,709 students across all faculties and schools, but alsoin work behind the scenes. Librarians partici-pated in strategic program re-envisioning andcurriculum development initiatives, such as theredesign of the Bachelor of Education program.The Library engaged actively in the Queen’s

University Quality Assurance Process, writing reports for 14 cyclical program reviews andr eviewing all academic program proposals fortheir information needs. The Teaching andLearning Working Group facilitated the map-ping of specific learning outcomes for selectedcourses in each faculty and the development ofan information literacy assessment plan.

Experiential learning is a close cousin to inquiry-based learning, and a Queen’s priority. The

11

Library provided 17 individual experiential learning opportunities for students in Arts andScience, Education, and Engineering and AppliedScience in 2013-14. As well, librarians contributedto numerous ‘real life’ learning assignments incourses. “For example,” says Nasser Saleh, Headof the Engineering and Science Library, “eachyear students in applied sciences have problem-based design projects where they work withclients on real engineering problems. And thelibr arians work right with them – they start withwhat do the students know now, and what do they need to know, and then teach them howto search, evaluate and use information from various sources to develop a solution to theassigned engineering pr oblem.”

An expanding aspect of the Library’s course involvement is in developing materials for Queen’s

growing number of blended and online courses – producing online learning modules and lectures,linking to resources, and helping create exercises and quizzes. As part of Queen’s contribution tothe Ontario Online suite of courses, a program that lets students across the province take onlinecourses at other universities for credit towards a degree at their own school, the Library offered aninformation literacy component for the 13 courses developed in 2013-14.

Not to be overlooked in all this learning support – the 14,000 individual inquiries answered overthe year by librarians and staff. This note from a grateful student says it all:

“Just wanted to thank you again for the other day, you helped me both with my assignment and gave me a reason to fall back in love with science. For thisI’m very grateful.”

12

FACILITATINGACCESS

Queen’s University Library was a pioneer in providing library serv-ices for students with disabilities, collaborating with Health, Coun-selling and Disability Services in opening the Adaptive TechnologyCentre in 1991. The first of its kind in Ontario, this award-winningcentre has been a model for universities across the country.

Today, the Library is one of the leaders in providing not only servicesto students with disabilities, but in addressing the information needsof any member of the university community who has a disability.

The fall of 2013 saw the launch of Queen’s Accessibility Hub, a significant new resource recom-mended by the Information and Communications Working Group of Queen’s Accessibility Frame-work. The working group includes staff from multiple university units, including the AdaptiveTechnology Centre, and is chaired by the Vice-Provost and University Librarian. The Hub is a web-site that provides resources on everything from how students with disabilities can get help andhow professors can create accessible docu-ments, to how visitors can find accessibleroutes through campus. More than that, it is alive resource managed by the Hub Coordinator,Andrew Ashby, who personally helps anyonewho wants to “Ask Andrew!” The Hub has beenwidely praised and is being emulated by otherorganizations.

In 2013 Queen’s was also involved with theocul (Ontario Council of University Libraries)Accessible Content E-portal project. Under thisprogram, library content at universities acrossthe province is scanned and then placed in arepository for use by students with disabilitiesat all the participating schools. Queen’s Library

13

was involved in the pilot project, and Michele Chittenden, Coordinator of Library Services forS tudents for Disabilities, has been working together with other ocul librarians to develop processesthat will enable all universities to share even more material from their collections in future. Michele,one of Ontario’s pioneers in developing library services and resources for students with disabilities,was also a member of the Association of Research Libraries’ Accessibility and Universal Designworking group, helping to create a toolkit, released in March 2014, that looks at the idea of universaldesign as it applies to learning. Rather than creating a course then trying to adapt it to accommodatethose with specific learning needs after the fact, educators should try to think of the needs of everylearner before designing the curriculum as well as the physical or virtual learning environment. For example,” says Chittenden, “when creating your course website, ensure that it is accessible forindividuals who use a screen reader.”

For the Library, accessibility is fundamental to its mission: it’s all about removing barriers toinformation access.

14

IMPLEMENTING E-RESERVES

“I found it very efficient and would use it again; studentsfound it easy to get readings any time they wanted.”Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf on using the e-reserves service for his History 400/803 course, History of Historical Writing

When it comes to time and resources, faculty members today arestretched – not just (perhaps understandably) the Principal, but allof them. One way that the Library helps them – particularly withcourses that depend on a broad selection of readings and other ma-

terials rather than a standard textbook – is through its e-reserves service. Rather than having to scanbooks or photocopy articles, and seek out the necessary permissions themselves, the Library does itall for them. Started as a pilot in 2012-13, implementation of the ongoing service began in 2013-14.

Faculty send in reading lists – they might need a number of journal articles, scanned chapters frombooks, videos or dvds. Library staff make sure each item is available to students in the formatr equested, and also that it can be adapted for those with perceptual disabilities. With books, they’llpull them from the shelves and copy pertinent material using a scanner far more sophisticated thanwhat faculty members might have themselves. With other materials, they might provide the neededlinks through the Library’s digital management system as well as making sure that any materialsare made available in the way that complies with associated licenses. It’s all provided to studentsfree of cost. E-reserves staff also undertakes copyright clearance for any requested material, a considerable savings in time for faculty.

Having these reserve items in the Library’s system allows students to access them whenever theywant – a dramatic change from traditional print reserves. And the service is integrated with learningmanagement systems where students find other course materials.

The Library’s goal is to make information resources visible and available at the point of need, and thisis one good example – digital, accessible, copyright-compliant content embedded in the university’svirtual learning environments.

15

16

FOSTERING A LEARNINGCOMMUNITY

A Queen’s education is not only about what students learn, but howthey learn and will continue to learn in their careers and everydaylives. When they need help learning how to find information, writean essay or organize their time, or help getting course material in anaccessible format, students can turn to the Queen’s Learning Commons. Located on the ground floor of the Stauffer Library, theQueen’s Learning Commons is a joint venture of the Library, StudentAcademic Success Services, ITServices and Health, Counselling andDisability Services.

The learning commons concept focuses on the student learning experience. Part of it is a welcom-ing, attractive learning space where students can work together or on their own, and get helpwhen they need it. Another key aspect is student engagement in developing and deliveringservices, through teams of peer student assistants. As well, there’s the connection between theservices and the academic programs they support. For example, this year the Queen’s Learning

Commons again played a key role in organiz-ing and hosting the two-day Inquiry@Queen’s

Undergraduate Research Conference, a collab-oration involving numerous faculty and morethan 100 undergraduates from first year tofourth. The students presented papers andposters on topics ranging from plant mutationto possible prostitution legislation. In anotherevent, sponsored by University Research Serv-ices, the Queen’s Learning Commons hostedposters showcasing the work of studentsawarded Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowships. Speakers’ Corner in theQueen’s Learning Commons was the site of numerous other community learning oppor-tunities, including Freedom to Read week

17

readings, a Black History Month event and the Shattering the Academic Language Barrier:Clima te Science Explained speaker series.

“We work with phenomenal students,” says Nathalie Soini, Learning Commons Coordinator, “Whatcould be better than that?”

Emily Newman, ArtsSci ‘14

I am a student peer assistant in the Queen’s Learning Commons. Working at the information desk, we get avery broad spectrum of questions. Many are complicated. We get people who say, “I am struggling with re-searching a paper” or, “I’m having a hard time reading my course work. Is there somewhere I can get help?”Depending on the question, we refer them to the librarians, the Writing Centre or the Adaptive TechnologyCentre, or any other of what we call the Learning Commons’ partners. Some questions are simple: “How canI print?” “Where do I photocopy?” even “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?”

We also run workshops. We did one this year forBiology 350 on ho w to make poster boards usingPowerPoint. We gave seminars on how to use thenew microfilm readers. We have a lot of onlinevideo tutorials, too. That was one of the major proj-ects this summer. For example, we helped make acouple for Student Academic Success Services –one on avoiding plagiarism and one about learningstrategies. We did some of the voice-overs, and I didtranscripts and PDFs to make everything accessible.

I think it’s easy for students to come up and talk toone of us. It’s just natural for people to interact witha peer.

ResearchProminence

20

DEVELOPINGCOLLECTIONS

Research and innovation depend on information – information thatis acquired, managed and preserved by libraries. At Queen’s, eachacademic department is supported by a librarian who selects and or-ganizes information tools and resources for use in research, teachingand learning.

The Library’s world-class collection is built with the assistance ofthese librarians, who keep abreast of the latest databases, books,journals, reference tools, primary sources, government documents,data and statistics, and image, videostreaming and music collections.

These resources are acquired and managed through agreements with vendors, collaborations withconsortia, and the work of a cadre of experienced Library staff. In 2013-14, the Library wrapped upits Restructuring Action Plan, begun in 2010 predominantly to streamline policies and procedures relating to acquisitions and collection management workflows. The final report noted that thisprocess of change is ongoing, and identified further actions for subsequent years.

In comparison with peer institutions, Queen’s has fared well in developing its collections, but acquisitions budgets are facing challenges at all institutions. Cost savings are achieved through con-sortial purchases wherever possible. In 2013-14, Queen’s continued to benefit from participation inthe Canadian Research Knowledge Network, spending approximately $3.6 million on 41 licensesnegotiated through its content licensing program. The Canadian Research Knowledge Networkconsists of 72 univ ersities across the country, enabling all to license extensive electronic collectionsfrom publishers such as Elsevier or Sage for far less than it would cost to do so independently.

Costs continued to rise and the spending power of the acquisitions budget declined significantlyin 2013-14. Taking one major publisher as an example, the negotiated price increase for the collec-tion licensed for Queen’s was 3.76%, but with the change in the value of the Canadian dollar in2013-14 the real cost increased by a total of 9.96%. With no increase to the acquisitions budget,these kinds of cost increases meant reductions in spending on other areas of the collection. Librar-ians engaged in careful assessment, considering factors such as alignment of particular resourceswith the priorities of the Strategic Research Plan, and implemented new tools for reporting statisticsand supporting decision-making.

21

22

FINDINGINFORMATION

It’s not uncommon to hear researchers in some fields say “I haven’tused the library in years,” and to hear a librarian respond, “But youhave, all the time, online.” In the sciences, and to a large extent thesocial sciences, digital is the predominant format of current informa-tion resources.

The Queen’s School of Business is a nice example of an academic unitthat doesn’t have a ‘library’ in its building but makes great use of awide variety of collections and services. For Constance Adamson, theliaison librarian for business, working with the School is like dealing

with “a university within a university.” Because business involves so much – from economics to soci-ology and psychology – serving the needs of the school demands an ever-evolving range of books,journals and databases. Not just academic material but also trade literature and the informationsources about companies and industries.

Perhaps most challenging, from her perspective, is meeting the disparate needs of the school’s largeand diverse student body.

At the PhD level, in addition to their dissertations, says Adamson, the students are often workingon a range of esoteric subjects, often at a very rigorous level. “They have a lot of irons in the fire,”she says, and research needs that match these.

With mba and executive mba students, the challenge becomes providing what she calls ‘point ofuse’ material. They request something just as they need it, and scattered across the country andaround the world many will never set foot in the physical library. “Email queries come in from allover the place. Often they’ll just need a chapter of something – they don’t need to read severalbooks. I’ll give them advice and a plan of attack.”

For the undergraduate commerce students, of which Queen’s admits about 475 a year, the challengeshe says is helping them find, “material that isn’t too daunting – but not dumbed down.”

23

As a librarian, her job is to make them under-stand that, “There is no single clear answer. Noone place to go. You have to look at differentdatabases and articles and then it all adds up. It’snot going to make a lot sense at first but it will.”

The ultimate goal, she says, is “Not do theirwork for them, but get them to the door.”

24

DIGGING INTO THE ARCHIVES

Who appears before a magistrate? And for what reasons? What is itthe courts are trying to do?

Those were the questions that students in Steven Maynard’s Canadian social history seminar were trying to answer.

Maynard wanted them to learn not to take historical accounts forgranted but get used to digging into the historical record itself. Andthanks to a collaboration between the university and the City ofKingston, to have the University Archives manage the City Archives,

they were able to do just that. More than 200 linear meters of city records spanning the period 1838to 1998, and covering everything from city council meetings to bylaws are housed on campus inKathleen Ryan Hall, home of the Archives, and research services are provided by the university’sarchivists. The arrangement has existed for several decades, but 2013-14 saw the signing of a formalagreement between the city and the university.

Working together in teams of four with thearchivists, Maynard’s students combed throughthe City of Kingston Police Court records to tryto gain a first-hand understanding of not justwho ended up in court and why, but what ex-actly the courts were trying to accomplish. Thegoal was to try to pinpoint underlying problems– and whether the city dealt with these at all.

The teams of students presented their findings inposter form to their fellow classmates and thento the City of Kingston at City Hall, before an audience that included the city’s acting chief ofpolice and the deputy chief, Kingston’s chiefadministr ative officer, the city curator and others.

25

This is just one example of the kind of researchcarried out in the Archives. Throughout the year,undergraduate and graduate students, from bothQueen’s and the Royal Military College, receivedinstruction on how to conduct archival research,and were informed about collections that wouldbe germane to their research interests, byarchivists like Heather Home. In consultationwith Heather, Professor Laura Cameron’s Geography 327 students engaged in a class research project that asked them each to choosean image from an Archives’ collection to focuson, and then to undertake critical and analyticalarchival research to contextualize it and answervarious historical/cultural geography questions.

Home specializes in the private manuscript col-lections that document everything from geneal-ogy to scientific collections and includes thehistory and culture of Kingston and the surround-ing region. Researchers from the region and fromaround the world come to explore these papersfrom individuals, businesses and societies. Theprivate records program can be summed up in anumber of thematic areas, including: literary papers, public affairs, business, and fine arts.

Many people love archives because of a fascina-tion with historical documents. It’s clear thatthose documents and records also inform thepresent and help shape the future.

26

SHARINGRESEARCHRESULTS

The ‘balanced academy’ is an everyday reality for Sharon Murphy,Head of Academic Services, and her team. Their services span learn-ing and research, providing expertise in accessibility, data services,geospatial data, government information and scholarly publishing.“It’s a continuum,” says Murphy, “with new undergraduates tacklingproblems and questions as beginning researchers, and seasoned faculty continually learning and building new knowledge throughtheir research.”

Helping with the sharing of that research has been a significantfocus for Academic Services over the past year. Coordinating a working group that includes the Executive Director of University Research Services, Murphy is overseeing the implementation of athree-year Research Data Management Services Plan. In 2013-14, researchers across the disciplinesdrew on the data services team for help in depositing their research data in secure repositories –such as the one the Library uses through its collaborations with the Ontario Council of UniversityLibraries — to enable future access and re-use.For example, Nicholas Bala, Faculty of Law,used the service to store the research behindan influential paper on child relocation deci-sions in family law. Another example involvesdata from the Globalization of Personal DataProject, a major international, multi-discipli-nary research initiative conducted by the uni-versity’s Surveillance Studies Centre. At theother end of the discipline spectrum, ElizabethVanDenKerkhof, Department of Anesthesiol-ogy and Perioperative Medicine and School ofNursing, deposited data relating to a study onthe epidemiology of neuropathic pain.

David Lyon,Queen’s ResearchChair inSurveillanceStudies

Bern

ard

Clar

k

27

The Library is also helping researchers develop data management plans, whether or not they usethe repositories made available through the Library. Several workshops were held for researchersin 2013-14, including ones targeting graduate students through the Expanding Horizons series. JeffMoon, Data Librarian and Academic Director of the Queen’s Research Data Centre, says “Ideally,researchers would think about the life cycle of their research from the outset of a project, and workto collect, document, and ultimately deposit their data for current and future researchers.”

The development of these services involves collaborations not only across the university, but acrossthe province, the country and national boundaries. Indeed, no single institution can do it alone. In 2013-14, individuals at Queen’s played leadership roles in initiatives of the Ontario Council ofUniversity Libraries, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, Research Data Canada andthe international Research Data Alliance, with a goal of building robust networks of research datamanagement services.

Principal Woolf andan UndergraduateStudent SummerResearch Fellowshipparticipant.

28

EXPANDING THE LIBRARYNETWORK

Anyone who wants a feel for the ubiquitous nature of the Libraryat Queen’s should look a little to the north, to the shores of LakeOpinicon.

The 3,200-hectare Queen’s University Biological Station (qubs) isone of the premier scientific field stations in Canada, and, accordingto qubs Director Stephen Lougheed, it has one of the strongest con-nections to its university library. Morag Coyne, Queen’s liaison librarian for biology, environmental sciences, and geological sciences and geological engineering – and a member of the qubs

Advisory Committee – is a big part of that. She wants researchers at qubs to know that they canuse information resources and services on site as easily as they could on campus.

Lately, Coyne has been working on helping them bring their research to the world. Outreach is akey part of the biological station’s mandate – making their research known not only to other aca-demic researchers but the general public aswell. Coyne introduced them to her colleaguesin Academic Services, who are helping to makesure that raw data gathered by researchers infuture will be stored in formats that others cansearch and use. Ultimately the goal will be toplace this data in a secure research data reposi-tory. Others will be able to access it, and asCoyne puts it, “slice it up in different ways,”combining, say, fish counts with gis data togain an idea of a species’ movements or study-ing one small patch of station ground in intensedetail, to gain new insights.

29

The Library presence at qubs is about to be-come stronger, with the opening in spring 2015of a new research and teaching facility that in-cludes a library. qubs was able to construct thebuilding thanks to the $1 million donation it re-ceived from former student Jessie Deslaurier,Artsci’87, Artsci’91, who earned her degrees bytaking one course a year while working full-time at Queen’s. She was also on UniversityCouncil for eight years. The library will benamed in honour of Ms. Deslaurier’s father,noted journalist Jack Hambleton. With a viewof Lake Opinicon, it will be a beautiful calmingspace, where researchers can congregate andstudents will write their papers and theses. Itwill also promote Queen’s Library’s resourcesand services available at their fingertips. Thisdevelopment aligns nicely with the Library andArchives Master Plan, which envisions a net-work of library spaces across the campus – orfar beyond, in the case of the biological station– highlighting information resources for userswhere and when they need them.

30

SHOWCASINGSPECIALCOLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

The fascination people feel for the physical book – even when thepages can be found in digital form – is evident in the eyes of students who encounter the Library’s special collections.

Molly-Claire Gillett (Artsci’14) is one of those students. Her passionfor books and art led her to curate an exhibition in the W.D. JordanSpecial Collections and Music Library in the winter of 2014: A PocketCathedral: The Queen’s Kelmscott Chaucer and the Arts and Crafts Presses.The idea came to her when she was completing an art history intern-ship at the Library, documenting the art books collection. She was

fascinated by the books she was working with, such as a copy of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucerpr oduced by William Morris’ Kelmscott Press and owned by T.E. Lawrence, and was encouraged byProfessor Gauvin Bailey, Department of Art History and Art Conservation, to propose mounting anexhibition. He acted as her academic advisor, and Barbara Teatero, Curator of Special Collections,gave the full support of the Library. As well as the physical exhibition, which ran from March 3 toApril 21, the Library continues to host a virtual exhibit, complete with the notes that Gillett preparedfor each display case.

While the digital versions of rare and special collections will never replace the physical objects, theydo provide the opportunity for researchers to view them remotely and to use them in new digitalways. In 2013-14, the Library completed the digitization of its Canadian Pamphlet Collection and18th Century British Political Pamphlet Collection. The Archives continued with the digitizationof the family files from Dr. H.C. Burleigh Collection, and, in collaboration with a sshrcc digitalhumanit ies project led by Dr. Michael di Santo of Algoma University, the digitization of the personalpapers and sound recordings of George Whalley.

Queen’s has many ‘hidden gems’ in its special collections and archives, and highlighting them forthe benefit of students, faculty and researchers, here and beyond the campus, is a top priority.

31

Internationalization

34

For Queen’s Library, taking an international perspective can mean many things: providing informa-tion for international research, supporting international students studying here, supporting aca-demic programs abroad, and being part of the global information realm.

In the past year, there were several international highlights involving Library staff working directlywith academic librarians from other countries, sharing professional practices.

WELCOMING

CHINESE

LIBRARIANS

In September of 2013, the Library welcomed two visiting librarians, Xia Liu andQin Xu, from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics for a three-monthvisit. Wenyan Wu, a librarian assigned the role of internationalization specialist,oriented them to the Library and was available to help throughout their stay. Theycarried out several projects, learned the workings of the library system, and also

says Wu, “but also for us. People here appreciated learning a bit more about China and its libraries.”visited the University of Toronto Library. “It was a learning experience for them,”

April 2014 saw health sciences librarians Paola Durando and Suzanne Marandatravelling to Bangladesh to support the Bangladesh Health Professionals Institute/ Centre of the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (crp), a remarkableschool/clinic/inclusive school whose academic arm offers allied health baccalaureate and graduate degree programs. The centre provides holistic rehabilitation to children and to adults, e.g victims of the nearby Rana Plaza

garment factory collapse of April 2013 were treated at the crp.

This was Durando’s second trip to Bangladesh and Maranda’s first, in connection with the Interna-tional Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation located at Queen’s. It wasa natural extension of Durando’s work as liaison librarian for the School of Rehabilitation Therapy.Durando collaborates closely with the School’s faculty and has participated as well as an educatorin the School’s program offerings abroad at the Bader International Study Centre.

Durando and Maranda joined faculty members who are staff of the Bangladesh Health ProfessionalsInstitute, and helped teach research skills using their new e-library guide for staff and students to

SUPPORTING

HEALTH

SCIENCES IN

BANGLADESH

35

access health-related databases, ebooks and ejournals. In a little over a week and a half, the two ofthem and their Bangladeshi librarian colleague trained more than 140 people. They’ve also estab-lished an ongoing relationship as Sister Libraries, a designation of the Medical Libraries Association.

STRENGTHENING

THE BADER

INTERNATIONAL

STUDY CENTRE

LIBRARY

Providing strong academic library services is a priority for Queen’s BInt ernational Study Centre (bisc) at Herstmonceux Castle in England. Withplanning for a new first-year program under way, and given its demands librarian support, Martha Whitehead, Vice-Provost and University Librarian, invited to visit the bisc library in the fall of 2013. She met with faculty, studand library staff, and provided a variety of recommendations. One of the

outcomes was the establishment of a partnership with the new bisc summer Field School in DigitalHumanities. The Library offers a paid student assistantship in the W.D. Jordan Special Collectionsand Music Library to a student enrolled in the field school, for the following term at Queen’s.

ader the forwasents

ENGAGING IN

THE MATARIKI

NETWORK

The Matariki Network is an international group of leading universities, eachamongst the most historic in its own country, recognized as being both research-intensive across a broad subject base and focused on providing a high-qualitystudent experience. The Library has ongoing international relationships throughthis network – including, in 2013-14, participation in the inaugural HumanitiesNetwork meeting at Dartmouth College and a library benchmarking project led

by Otago University. The institutions share many similarities, but they are also different enoughthat the librarians find they encounter new ways of looking at common issues. The meeting at Dart-mouth College resulted in plans for a series of annual meetings for scholars and librarians on varioustopics in humanities research.

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (carl) periodically arranges international study toursfor carl Directors, in regions of interest to their universities. In April of 2013, a delegation of eight Directors, including Queen’s representative Martha Whitehead, visited 20 research libraries and related associations in Sao Paolo, Rio de Janerio and Brasilia. Amongst the areas of common interestwas the progress made in Brazil in supporting open access to information.

36

37

FinancialSustainability

38

REDEPLOYING

HUMAN

RESOURCES

The core business of the Library – information – has remained the same overthe years, but as an organization the Library continues to transform. Over thepast decade, maintaining excellent services has meant changes in staff roles.Every year, vacancies are rigorously reviewed and resources are deployed accord-ing to strategic priorities. In 2013-14, positions were filled to support user servicesand the priorities of discovery and technology services, geospatial data, open

government information, scholarly publishing and special collections.

In its commitment to meeting user needs, the Library is always looking for ways to work moreeffectively. Over the years it has evolved into one coordinated team of dedicated people with variousspecializations. In 2013-14, a project was launched to review the model for delivering ‘public services’– the interactions between staff and users at service points across the system and online – inspiredas always by the question of how best to meet the needs of faculty and students across the disciplines.

DEVELOPING

HUMAN CAPITAL

Queen’s spirit of initiative is clearly evident in the people of the library. Theirwork is always changing, and they are always learning.

Liz Fox was a librarian who had worked at Queen’s for 35 years. She was knownfor her remarkable dedication and support for others. Following her suddendeath in 2009, an endowment was established in her name, seeded by a donation

she had provided to the Library. Every year, thanks to the generosity of donors, it supports librarytechnicians seeking a professional development opportunity. This year the Liz Fox MemorialEndowment Fund was able to sponsor three individuals for Data Liberation Initiative (dli) trainingand a health libraries and resources course.

Other learning opportunities, funded by the Library, included participation in the Ontario LibraryAssociation conference, the International Association for Social Science Information Services andTechnology, a Reference Processes course, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ ResearchInstitute, an Association of Research Libraries’ management workshop and a facilitation skills workshopthrough the Ontario Council of University Libraries. As well, librarians and archivists engage in multipleopportunities funded by professional development allowances and administrative travel funding.

39

Library staff also enjoyed informal learning, through a variety of events that bring people togetherand help build the library team. This year included workshops for all staff on accessibility and onintercultural aspects of service delivery. There was a tour of the university’s beautiful new IsabelBader Centre for the Performing Arts. This year’s staff meeting speaker series included a visit fromNora Young, host of cbc Radio’s Spark. Her program’s emphasis on technology and its effects onculture strike a chord with today’s libraries, and she spoke on the timely topic of the developingworld of big data and self-generated data.

COLLABORATING

Libraries are very good at collaborating. First and foremost with faculty and stu-dents, to make sure that they have the resources they need. But to serve that pri-mary relationship, to stretch resources and to build services that go beyond asingle institution, the Library has also developed strong external relationships.

The most notable collaborations of 2013-14 were through the Ontario Council ofUniversity Libraries (ocul). Numerous individuals at Queen’s engage actively in ocul. Its benefitsinclude a unique platform to support digital library services, called Scholars Portal. It is Canada’s firstTrusted Digital Repository, meaning that e-journals stored there will be available in perpetuity tomember libraries who subscribed to them. Scholars Portal provides a suite of services that were keyto Queen’s Library’s strategic priorities this year. One example is scholarly publishing services: journalspublished at Queen’s and hosted by the Library were migrated to the Open Journal System at ScholarsPortal, for cost efficiencies. Another is the research data management service in development atQueen’s — the Library currently uses the Dataverse system hosted by Scholars Portal as a repositoryfor research data, and is partnering in the development of the Ontario Library Research Cloud, asystem that will provide petabytes of data storage at a fraction of the cost of other options.

ocul is also looking ahead to how Ontario’s university libraries might do an even better job ofmanaging and accessing information resources – a project dubbed “Collaborative Futures” involvingseveral Queen’s Library people. “Queen’s has benefitted incredibly from our involvement in ocul,”says Vice-Provost and University Librarian Martha Whitehead, who served as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of ocul in 2013-14. “It allows 21 universities to support learning and research in ways thatnone of us could do alone.”

40

Queen’s is fortunate to have many generous donors who choose tosupport the Library and the Archives. Some are passionate aboutcollections, some about digitization, others about facilities. Manyindicate that their donations may be used for any current priorities.With the completion of the Library and Archives Master Plan in2013-14, its recommendations for capital projects became a highpriorit y and they are bound to pique the interest of anyone wantingto support the student learning experience and research.

A wonderful example, amongst many, of donor support for learningand research is Dr. Cheryl S. McWatters, ba(Hons)’77, mba’88, PhD’91 (Management) and her husband, John MacDiarmid, BSc’78 (Chemical Engineering), MSc’87 (Metallurgical Engineering).Their generosity enabled the establishment of the Geraldine Grace and Maurice Alvin McWattersVisiting Fellowship, named for Dr. McWatters’ parents. The fellowship, awarded on an annual basis,is designed to foster, promote, and support original archival research by scholars, authors, or artistsin the collections located at Queen’s UniversityArchives. In 2013-14, it supported the work ofDr. James Beach, from the University of North-hampton, in England, who was researching thelife of Professor James Roy, who later becamea member of the Department of English atQueen’s, following his time in the British Mili-tary Intelligence during World War One.

LEVERAGING DONOR GENEROSITY

Dr. Cheryl S.McWatters

14-0

451

Qu

ee

n’s

Uni

vers

ity M

arke

ting

101 Union Street Kingston, Ontario k7l 2l9