The Newsstand: News & Happenings @MTA_Libraries

Library Newsletter online: A round-up of research, staffing & events news

Roughly three times yearly the Libraries & Archives submits a report to the Atlantic Provinces Library Association Bulletin outlining library news, librarian & staff activities, and other noteworthy happenings. The Fall 2017 report below outlines some notable things we did over the spring/summer and early part of the autumn.
 

Mount Allison Libraries & Archives News -- Fall 2017 (Published in the APLA Bulletin, Nov. 2017)

Research & conference news:

• Librarian Jeff Lilburn presented the following paper at the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians conference at Ryerson University in May 2017: “Sociopolitical Barriers to Information and Community Well Being: Implications for Librarian Teaching Practice.”
  
  Jeff’s paper deals with information that is missing, modified or suppressed, and how librarians’ teaching practice can help students and communities contend with circumstances in which political or corporate power creates conditions where reliable information is not made available. His paper looks at the 2015 firing of New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and the fate of her investigation into aerial herbicide spraying. It examines the implications that missing information and evidence can have on public knowledge about important health issues, and considers the role librarians can play in contesting sociopolitical barriers to information.
   
• Music Librarian Laura Snyder is a member of the Music Library Association (MLA) Working Group on Information Literacy. This group will be will be discussing a possible Music Library version of the new Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy and working toward a proposal of an information literacy plenary session for the 2019 MLA annual meeting.
   
• Librarian Anita Cannon presented her sabbatical research at the Environmental Studies Association of Canada Conference in Toronto in June 2017. Her presentation, “The State of Access to Government Information on the Environment in New Brunswick,” showed deficiencies in public access to environmental information. Drawing on recent reviews, audits, academic studies, and government reports, Anita’s paper examines key Canadian government information disclosure mechanisms and how well they meet the requirements of the Aarhus Convention in ensuring access to environmental information, with a focus on New Brunswick.
   
• Systems Librarian Elizabeth Stregger had an article published in September in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication. The article, co-written with University of Saskatchewan librarian Crystal Hampson, examines a method and discusses the limitations and implications of using article-level metrics to calculate cost per use for Open Access (OA) article processing charges (APCs).  Citation: Hampson, C., & Stregger, E. (2017). Measuring Cost per Use of Library-Funded Open Access Article Processing Charges: Examination and Implications of One Method. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 5(1). DOI: http://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2182 
   
• Librarians Anita Cannon and Laura Landon launched a survey in October on the use of government information and freedom-of-information (FOI) requests among academics in Atlantic Canada. The survey focuses on New Brunswick, but asks questions related to academics’ use of government information federally and in all provinces. They hope to gain information about how many academics make use of government information and FOI requests, and how effectively they are able to get access to government information. The survey, available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T6JGCL7, is open until Nov. 26.

Staffing news:

• Public Services Librarian Jeff Lilburn began his term as president of the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) in May. Jeff has served for a number of years on the MAFA executive, and on its negotiating teams during the last two rounds of collective bargaining.
   
• Laura Landon will be filling in for Jeff Lilburn as the subject librarian for Sociology in the 2017-18 academic year. Laura served as a Public Services Librarian at Mount Allison for two separate sabbatical replacements in 2013 - 2015, and has been Head of Access Services since July 2015.

Events:

• Music Librarian Laura Snyder was invited to speak in the Mount Allison Interdisciplinary Conversations series in the spring of 2017. The topic of the year was “circles” and Laura’s talk was entitled “Circles of Knowledge.”
   
• Librarian Jeff Lilburn and Sociology professor Erin Steuter gave a presentation titled “Fake News on the Rise: Tips for Savvy Media Engagement” at the University of New Brunswick in September.
   
• Librarians Elizabeth Millar and Elizabeth Stregger launched the library’s Truth & ReconciliACTION Film Series in October. It aims to help students, staff, faculty and community members deepen their understanding about Indigenous issues and the truth & reconciliation process. The library will screen six documentaries in October and November: http://libraryguides.mta.ca/blog/truth-reconciliaction-film-series-begins-oct-4

A round-up of Fall 2017 and early Winter 2018 news will appear in the Winter 2018 Bulletin.