The Library and Archives Master Plan (LAMP) Steering Group invites everyone in the Queen’s community to attend an open information session on Friday, April 26 at 11:00 in Robert Sutherland Hall, Room 202. Attendees will learn more about the LAMP project including preliminary options that are being considered. The steering group’s planning partner, CS&P Architects, will give an overview of the work done to date, the feedback the group has received, and present the preliminary planning concepts and drawings for Stauffer and Douglas libraries. Visit the LAMP website to learn more about the project, to view the initial drawings and to share your feedback with the LAMP project team.

The Adaptive Technology Centre in the Queen’s Learning Commons has been featured in an article in the Kingston Whig-Standard. The article, entitled “Challenging, Rewarding, Fascinating,” notes that “The Adaptive Technology Centre is a library within a library that gives students with disabilities or special requirements a chance to learn in a way that meets their own needs.” Michele Chittenden, the Coordinator for Library Services for Students with Disabilities, speaks of the rewards of the work she and the ATC staff do in helping students, not only through converting materials into accessible formats, as library technician Carol Tennant does, and determining the best technologies to meet student needs, as adaptive technologist Andrew Ashby does, but by being a supportive and inviting environment for the students who use their services. The article notes that Queen’s Library was at the forefront of establishing services for students with disabilities and the service led to the Library receiving the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries award for innovation in 1994. Recently, Michele was named as a member of the Association of Research Libraries’ Working Group on Accessibility and Universal Design. ARL is an association of 125 research libraries across North America.

Two Queen’s librarians will lead a workshop at the Learning Outcomes Assessment, Practically Speaking Symposium, co-sponsored by the Council of Ontario Universities and being held in Toronto on April 22 & 23, 2013. Cory Laverty, Head of the Education Library, and Nasser Saleh, Head of the Engineering and Science Library, will provide a workshop entitled “Designing Rubrics for Inquiry-Based Learning: Addressing Process and Product.” The workshop will examine an inquiry-based assignment in the social sciences and work backwards to create an analytic marking rubric that aligns with learning outcomes.

Many Library locations are offering extended opening hours during the exam period. Stauffer Library is open 24 hours a day until April 27. To see the hours and real-time opening status for all Library facilities, check the Hours page.

An accessibility café will take place on April 10 from 11:30 to 12:30 in Speaker’s Corner, Queen’s Learning Commons, Stauffer Library. The event will consider the accessibility barriers Queen’s students might face during their time at the university and feature a panel of students, faculty and representatives from university service departments in a discussion entitled “Creating an inclusive environment for students with disabilities: from application to graduation.” The accessibility café is hosted jointly by the Senate Library Committee and the accessibility framework’s Information & Communications Working Group. Martha Whitehead, University Librarian, sees this partnership as representative of the increased awareness of accessibility issues at Queen’s. She notes that “members of the Senate Library Committee were eager to participate in this café. There is recognition across campus that we all must actively ensure the work we do and the services we provide are accessible for everyone.” Heidi Penning, an Equity Advisor at Queen’s who is working with departments across the university to raise awareness and find solutions to accessibility issues states “We want to engage people in a discussion about how the university can better enable the success of all of its students. Queen’s academic programs, and the many other services the university offers, should be accessible to all students.”

Queen’s University Library is one of 10 early-adopting university libraries in Ontario to acquire a new ebook collection of books published by Canada’s university presses, including McGill-Queen’s University Press. Thanks to a partnership between the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and eBOUND, and in conjunction with the Association of Canadian University Presses, over 3,000 ebooks will be available online through OCUL’s Scholars Portal platform. Jane Philipps, Coordinator of Collection Development, notes that Queen’s Library does not currently own the majority of these books and that “this agreement will give our users much greater access to recent Canadian scholarship.” For more information, see the Queen’s University press release.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the Library Service Quality Survey, LibQUAL+. Your responses will help us to ensure that we are meeting your expectations of library service. Results will be analyzed and shared soon. Congratulations to Kory Sutton, winner of the GoPro Camera!

Explore two drama databases now on trial:

Digital Theatre Plus is on trial until March 7. It provides online access to a digital streaming video collection of unique films of current, leading British theatre productions, using multi-angle HD cameras to capture the excitement of live theatre. It includes behind-the-scenes documentaries as well as teaching and learning resources to facilitate a deeper understanding of the productions and texts.

Drama Online is on trial until March 19. It introduces the most iconic names in playwriting history alongside a growing collection of the latest contemporary writers, providing contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides.

On Tuesday, February 26, join us in Speaker’s Corner, Stauffer Library, to celebrate our Freedom to Read. Public readings drawn from a wide variety of works in a range of disciplines and formats will take place each day between noon and 1pm.

The readings represent material that is inspiring, provocative, sometimes enjoyable and sometimes challenging. Many readings represent challenged and banned works.

Recognizing the nature of academic inquiry and scholarship, please note that the reading selections do not necessarily reflect the views or values of the readers, the Library or the University.

An assistive listening device is available from the Circulation Desk in Stauffer Library for persons who are hard of hearing.

Additional information on intellectual freedom, censorship issues and the Freedom to Read is available from the following websites:

Freedom to Read Week (Book and Periodical Council, Canada Council for the Arts)
PEN Canada
Canadian Library Association Statement on Intellectual Freedom
American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom

The Library now has a subscription to the The Vogue Archive, a complete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included. It is a unique record of American and international popular culture that extends beyond fashion.