In the Globe & Mail Canadian University Report 2012 (available in today’s paper and online at www.globeandmail.com/education), undergraduates have given Queen’s Library an A grade — the only library in the large, medium and small categories to receive such a high mark. University Librarian Martha Whitehead attributes this undergraduate student satisfaction to the people engaged in library services. “Librarians and staff work very closely with faculty and students to ensure we’re enhancing learning and research and supporting a spirit of inquiry,” says Whitehead, “Libraries are often referred to as the soul of the university, and we’re fortunate that ours is highly valued by students, faculty and administrators across Queen’s.”  With its strong role in the Queen’s community, the library has ranked top in its category in the Globe & Mail Canadian University Report survey for several years.

The Library views the Globe & Mail survey as one important measure of its services and resources. A variety of assessment methodologies have been used in past years, and the library administration is in the process of reviewing those and building upon them.”Academic programs and the information realm are continually evolving, so we’re continually checking and evolving as well,” says Whitehead.

Queen’s received the most A grades, and the only one for most satisfied students, in the large, medium or small universities, and an A+ for reputation with employers. For further information, see the the Queen’s News Centre.

On behalf of the Principal’s Advisory Committee for the selection of the University Librarian, Queen’s Provost has recommended to the Principal that Martha Whitehead be appointed as University Librarian.  The Principal has agreed with the recommendation and Martha has accepted the appointment.

Martha has been engaged in academic research libraries for over twenty-five years.  Over the past year she served as Interim University Librarian during a time of significant transition and restructuring.  “Martha’s focused, energetic and inclusive leadership style has helped to prepare the Queen’s Library for these important changes and put the Library on a strong foundation for future achievements,” says Provost Bob Silverman.

Previously, Martha served for six years as Associate University Librarian at Queen’s. Her work included steering the development of the Queen’s Learning Commons and enabling significant advancement of the Library’s digital environment and services.  Prior to joining the Queen’s community, Martha held positions at the University of British Columbia Library in the areas of information services and information technologies, and was engaged in several university planning exercises.  In 2003 Martha was a visiting scholar at the University of Melbourne, where she worked with the Director of Teaching, Learning and Research Support on an assessment of the Information Division’s organizational model for teaching information skills.  While at UBC Martha was also invited to contribute to several international collaborations relating to information literacy and learning technologies.

“I’m thrilled to be in this leadership position at Queen’s,” says Martha. “This is one of Canada’s leading universities, known for its scholarship and spirit, and the Library plays a major role. We have a great library with great people and I’m honoured to be working with them.”

Martha’s professional activities extend well beyond Queen’s.  She has held several key roles with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, a partnership of seventy-four Canadian universities dedicated to expanding digital content for the academic research enterprise in Canada, including Chair of the Negotiations Resource Team and member of the Executive Committee and the Board. In Ontario, she has been actively involved with Scholars Portal, a project of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) that provides a shared information research system for all twenty-one university libraries in the province, and she currently serves on the OCUL Executive Committee.  As well, she is the Canadian Association of Research Libraries representative on the Steering Committee of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system.  In 2007, Martha was accepted into the Research Library Leadership Fellows program with the Association of Research Libraries, a two-year executive program designed to explore critical issues and current trends with senior administrators of research institutions such as Harvard.  Martha has published many articles in the professional literature and is a frequent invited speaker and facilitator at professional events.

Martha’s five-year term is effective July 1, 2011.

Queen’s Library has long been proud of the high quality of services offered by Library Services for Students with Disabilities (http://library.queensu.ca/websrs/). Offered in collaboration with Health, Counselling and Disability Services, LSSD provides a range of services, specialized software and assistive devices that enable students with disabilities to read, write, research and study and thus reach their full academic potential.

Now, we are very pleased to congratulate the Coordinator of these services, Michele Chittenden, on receiving CNIB’s Dr. Dayton M.Forman Award, announced by CNIB as follows:

On Thursday, October 28, Michele Chittenden, Coordinator for Library Services for Students with Disabilities at Queens University, was awarded the 2010 Dr. Dayton M. Forman Memorial Award at the CNIB 2010 Conference at the CNIB Centre in Toronto.

The Dr. Dayton M. Forman Memorial Award, established by the CNIB Library Board of Directors in 1996, recognizes outstanding leadership in the advancement of library and information services for Canadians who are living with vision loss or print disabilities.

Dr. Dayton M. Forman was an exceptional humanitarian and longstanding CNIB volunteer who exemplified the leadership required to make a difference in the lives of Canadians who cannot easily access printed material. The award is a silver medal bearing the likeness of Dr. Forman and an inscription in print and braille.

Michele says this award is particularly meaningful to her. “This is a thrill for me. It truly is an honour to be recognized by the CNIB,” she says. “It’s very special to be recognized in this way.”

Past recipients of the annual award include: The Vancouver Public Library, Hiroshi Kawamura, President of DAISY Consortium, University of Toronto, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC), Frank Clegg, President, Microsoft Canada.

Photo: [Left to right] Ms. Betty Nobel, Chair, CNIB Library Board with guide dog Brady, Ms. Michele Chittenden, Mr. Steve Cutway, Information Access Specialist (Non-Visual Technologies), Queen’s University Information Technology Services (1990-2008 – retired) and retired CNIB Library Board Member (2003-2005)

September 8 – October 6, 2010

W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library
Second Floor, Douglas Library
93 University Avenue (at Union)
Mon-Thu 9am-9pm; Fri 9:00-5:00; Sat-Sun 1:00-5:00

Selected items from the personal collection of Robertson Davies, one of Canada’s most celebrated authors.

In addition to numerous first editions and signed copies, many volumes are richly annotated in Davies’ hand – providing fascinating insight into the personality and thoughts of a truly distinguished “man of letters.”

Open to the public.

Are you interested in working in a campus library during the 2010/11 academic year? We have a variety of positions available for students who qualify for the Queen’s Work Study Program.

For more information:

Visit our Student Employment Opportunities website and contact us soon!

For information on reserving print materials for courses you are teaching, as well as tips for integrating online library resources into your course reading lists, please visit our course reserves page.

• Put Items on Course Reserve

Course Reserves are only one of many services the Library offers for faculty and instructors.

• Library Services for Faculty and Instructors

Queen’s Library congratulates Laurie Scott, Head of Research and Education Services in Bracken Health Sciences Library, the 2010 recipient of the Margaret Ridley Charlton Award for Outstanding Achievement.  Presented annually by the Canadian Health Libraries Association, the award honours significant contribution to the field of health sciences librarianship in Canada.  Bravo Laurie!

Curated by Professor Gwynn Dujardin, Queen’s Department of English Language and Literature

June 1 – August 31, 2010

W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library
Second Floor, Douglas Library
93 University Avenue (at Union)
M-F 8:30-4:30 excluding holidays
 
As computer technology now enables anyone with internet to contribute their insight into the English lexicon, this exhibition traces the history of the English dictionary, from medieval glossaries and Renaissance hard word lists, through the painstaking efforts of Samuel Johnson, James Murray, and Noah Webster, up to English-Arabic dictionaries produced after 9/11 and wiki websites in perpetual production online.

How did the dictionary emerge in England, and evolve over the next four centuries? How do dictionaries both reflect and shape the culture in which they are produced? How do English dictionaries differ in England, Canada, the US and other English-speaking countries, and how do they represent the language of national and transnational subcultures?  Answering these questions and more, the exhibit displays over 50 volumes from Queen’s collections, featuring:

• Rare publications from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
• First editions of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, the New English Dictionary (aka the Oxford English Dictionary), and Noah Webster’s Compendium of American English
• Volumes from Queen’s extensive collection of indigenous language dictionaries
• Specialized dictionaries of slang and regional English
• An interactive computer terminal with online dictionary sites

The exhibition opens to accompany the English Dictionaries in Cultural and Historical Context Conference (June 3-5, 2010), organized by Queen’s Department of English Language and Literature and the Strathy Language Unit.

Professor Dujardin believes the exhibit will appeal to more than local bookworms and armchair lexicographers. “This exhibition tells us what has mattered about English around the globe for the past four centuries,” she says.

Visitors are welcome during library hours.  Guided tours may be arranged by contacting:

Gwynn Dujardin
dujardin@queensu.ca
(613) 533-6000 ext. 74442

Queen’s Library has acquired the personal library of the late Robertson Davies, the celebrated Canadian author, playwright, theatre critic and journalist.

Davies is one of Canada’s best known and most popular authors.  His writings include Murther and Walking Spirits, The Lyre of Orpheus, and the award-winning Deptford Trilogy.

“Robertson Davies had a long association with Queen’s” says Principal Daniel Woolf.  “In addition to the honorary degree conferred upon him in 1962, he studied here in the early 1930’s and cultivated his roots in journalism as an active contributor to The Queen’s Journal.  The University is delighted to provide a new home for his remarkable personal library in its entirety.”

The collection comes to Queen’s through a combined purchase and gift arrangement.  Funds to secure the acquisition were provided by the Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, which serves to enhance scholarly research and teaching across a broad spectrum of Canadian studies at Queen’s.

“The collection reflects Davies’ deep interests in literature, literary criticism, art, music, theatre, theatre criticism, theatre biography and autobiography, film, drama, history and psychology,” says Professor Brian Osborne, Chair of the Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund Committee.  “In addition to numerous first editions and signed copies, many of the volumes are annotated in Davies’ hand.   It is truly a remarkable collection, offering fascinating insights into the mind of one of Canada’s great literary luminaries.”

Housed in the W. D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library, located on the second floor of Douglas library, Davies’ broad organization of the collection has also been maintained.  The items will be shelved according to room order in which they were kept at Windhover, the Davies’ country home in Caledon Hills.

“This collection is quite unlike any other authors’ library I know of” says Paul Wiens, University Librarian.  “We are thrilled to be able to make it available to students and scholars, who will undoubtedly find the items in the collection tremendously fascinating.”

The W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library is open to the public.  Special collections items may be viewed in the Library’s reading room upon request; scholars requiring access to browse the full Davies collection may apply for an appointment.  A public exhibition of items from the collection will take place later this year.

Additional information is available at: library.queensu.ca/robertsondavies.  Please consult the library website for hours and additional information on the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library.

Martha Whitehead.

Queen’s University Library will have new leadership on July 1, 2010.  Paul Wiens, who has served as University Librarian so ably for nearly two decades, will be stepping down to begin an administrative leave followed by retirement. Martha Whitehead, currently Associate University Librarian, will become University Librarian for a three year term.

With Paul’s retirement, the university and the broader academic library community will be losing a valued colleague. “I would like to thank Paul most sincerely for his many years of excellent and devoted service to Queen’s,” says Provost and VP Academic Dr. Bob Silverman.  “Under his leadership, the Library has achieved top rankings as well as the ongoing praise of students and faculty, and its staff are amongst the best in the country.” Paul will be appropriately recognized by Queen’s at an event in the fall.

Martha brings to her new position twenty-five years of experience in academic research libraries, the past six of which have been as Associate University Librarian at Queen’s. Prior to coming to Queen’s, Martha held positions at the University of British Columbia Library in the areas of information services and information technologies. Martha’s professional activities have included a study leave with the University of Melbourne’s Information Division and numerous endeavors closer to home.  She currently has several key roles with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, a partnership of seventy-four Canadian universities dedicated to expanding digital content for the academic research enterprise in Canada, including Chair of the Negotiations Resource Team and member of the Board. In Ontario, she has been actively involved with Scholars Portal, a project of the Ontario Council of University Libraries that provides a shared information research system for all twenty-one university libraries in the province. In 2007, Martha was accepted into the Research Library Leadership Fellows program with the Association of Research Libraries, a two-year executive program designed to explore critical issues and current trends with senior administrators of major research institutions. Martha has published many articles in the professional literature and is a frequent invited speaker and facilitator at professional events.

Martha will be providing leadership for the Library and within the University during a challenging time for post-secondary education. “I like to reflect on why I came to Queen’s in 2004. I was impressed with what I saw: a library that had a clear vision of its role in the academic enterprise and an organizational culture that nurtures both individual responsibility and the teamwork that supports continuing evolution. I see the same library today. We have a great foundation to build upon, thanks to Paul and all of our staff and academic partners. I’m very proud to have a role in shaping our future.”