by COMM 4331: Management of Organizational Change, supervised by Dr. Judith Holton
To assist with the library’s strategic planning process, Dr. Holton’s class used an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process to discover and explore what students and faculty of MTA value most about the R.P. Bell Library and its services.
Appreciative Inquiry emphasizes a holistic approach to mobilizing energy for change by focusing on what an organization or group already does well in order to amplify and continue these processes into the future.
You can read the students’ report on the project and patrons’ library experiences here:
The fee-based REFWORKS service to which Mount Allison currently subscribes – provided by the Ontario Scholars Portal – will be ending this summer (2015), when the server hosted at the University of Toronto is deactivated. At that time, some Canadian subscriber institutions will migrate their users to REFWORKS servers based in the United States.
For budgetary reasons, we regret that we are unable to continue supporting the REFWORKS service.
At this time we are not planning to replace REFWORKS with another citation management software. Our current contract will expire in the summer 2015.
Over the coming months we in the Libraries will be pleased to assist you in migrating your files from REFWORKS to another platform such as ENDNOTE, MENDELEY or ZOTERO. If you need assistance please send an e-mail to infodesk@mta.ca or call 506-364-2564.
Please see the Citation Management Service Comparison Table for a side-by-side comparison of these three popular citation management systems.
The Libraries and Archives launched a completely redesigned website in late August 2014.
In addition to a new look and overall organization, our new site features a new A-Z list of library databases that is browsable by title, subject and database type, redesigned subject guides with easier access to key resources and research and citation guides, and additional access points to research tips and guides.
One key change on our new site has to do with links to library databases and other licensed resources. In most cases, there is now a single link that enables access from both on and off campus. When off campus, you will be prompted to log in using your Mount Allison user name and password; when on campus, links will simply take you to the database or resource you wish to access.
We're still working on a few things, so stay tuned for more new features to be added soon.
New websites always need a little bit of tweaking. We'd love to hear what you think. Please send us your comments and suggestions for further improvements. You can send an email to infodesk@mta.ca or visit the Contact Us page for other ways you can reach us.
As recently announced on the library’s Twitter feed, we have added new soft seating areas -- new comfy chairs and tables, with more comfy chairs coming soon!
In order to make room for these new seating areas, we have also made changes to the library reference collection. This collection now has two locations: newer and frequently used resources remain located on the main floor of the R.P. Library, while less frequently used titles have been moved to a newly created second Reference location in the basement. Reference material for Music remains located in the Music Library.
We’re not quite done yet -- stay tuned for more changes later this term (including those additional comfy chairs!).
The Library once again has a public-use microwave. It is located next to the Mountie Money machine on the main floor (across from the coffee shop). There is also a public-use kettle in the same location.
Enjoy, and please help us keep these appliances and the surrounding area tidy.