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| Coal Harbour, Vancouver by tdlucas5000, via flickr.com CC BY 2.0 |
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2019-2020 BC ELN Core Funding Received
Did you know... BC ELN receives core funding each year from the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. This funding, in combination with project dollars and staff time contributed by partner libraries, empowers BC ELN to coordinate services and negotiate licenses that ensure equal access and equal opportunity in the post-secondary sector.
In March 2019 BC ELN received confirmation of its budget allocation of $485,417 for 2019/20. Thanks go to the Ministry and partner libraries for their ongoing support in making a real difference for students and researchers across the province!
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Innovation & Success 2018 Available!
From creating safe spaces for students to ask questions about research via AskAway, to alleviating financial pressures on post-secondary libraries, to supporting library materials being shared throughout the province through interlibrary loans, BC ELN makes a big difference in BC!
Read about BC ELN's impact in this year's
Innovation & Success 2018 report. Highlights include: financial savings delivered, service area achievements, and quotes from real people who benefit from BC ELN's collaborative programs. We are always interested in feedback about our reports; email
[email protected] if you have thoughts to share.
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Library Consortia Meet in Vancouver
This April, library consortia staff from around the world came together in beautiful Vancouver for two and a half days of cross-consortial conversations, creative thinking, and strategic discussions. BC ELN was honored to act as the host organization, welcoming over a hundred delegates from 60 library consortia to our fair province.
This meeting has become a tradition for the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) - an informal group of approximately 200 library consortia from around the world. Twice a year ICOLC members meet, every spring in North America and fall in Europe, to discuss strategic and applied topics that advance both the individual and collective practices of consortia.
The unofficial theme of April's meeting was
Collaborating beyond Consortia. Many plenary and breakout sessions focused on discussing opportunities for cross boundary collaboration. Other topics included Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion, RA21, Open Access, and Controlled Digital Lending. Discussions were lively; some topics will no doubt be picked up again for further conversation at the next meeting in Luxembourg this fall.
As part of the registration process, BC ELN asked attendees to share words that identified key values of their consortia. The words contributed were inspiring, and speak to the aspirations consortia have to make deep, meaningful contributions to communities. The six most frequently shared words were made into buttons for attendees to wear, and we're pretty sure we started a trend. Accountable, Innovative, Engaged, Community-focused, Collaborative, and Inclusive... these are the values that unite us!
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Consortia Canada Meeting
After the conclusion of ICOLC Vancouver 2019, BC ELN, along with its sister consortium the Ontario Colleges Library Service, hosted a day-long Consortia
group of Canadian library consortia representing all library types. The group works together to license electronic resources that are useful and relevant to consortia members across the country, share expertise, and build a community of practice.
Attendees of the April Consortia Canada meeting discussed topics such as Open Access, Indigenization, authentication, and e-resources of interest for licensing
across the country.
For BC ELN Office staff both the ICOLC and Consortia Canada meetings were excellent opportunities to demonstrate our strengths and have exposure to new
ideas and approaches. Even more than that, meeting with national and international consortial peers offered us the opportunity to build relationships that we can draw
on to make our services even better in the future!
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Coordinators bring you the latest news about BC ELN service areas and the Electronic Health Library of BC.
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Arca Collaborative Repository
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Arca Partnerships Coordinator Sunni Nishimura presented about Arca at the BC Library Conference alongside two Arca partners: Paige Hohmann from
Digitized Okanagan History
and Heidi Rampfl from the Northern Pacific Cannery
. The panel emphasized the power of Arca as a system-supported, sustainable tool to launch even the smallest galleries, libraries, archives or museums into the future.
- As a follow-up to needs identified at the 2018 Arca Planning Session, a new tool was released that allows sites to catalogue, display, and stream files hosted elsewhere - e.g. videos on YouTube, audio in SoundCloud, and e-books on the Internet Archive.
- Post-secondary members now have a tool that helps with harvesting theses by Thesis Canada: the Islandora ETDMS Download inserts download links into the metadata to meet Library and Archives Canada requirement.
- The Arca Admin Centre launched a new series of short-form training videos, called Arca Minutes; these 10-minute screencasts are focused on specific tasks and future videos can be created quickly in response to user needs.
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AskAway Chat Reference
- LibraryH3lp was selected as the new platform for AskAway. Thanks to the Software Evaluation Committee for their amazing work!
- AskAway has been busy with LibraryH3lp implementation:
- Library staff at participating libraries have been updating the chat boxes on library websites, in databases, etc.
- Over 170 service providers received training on the new software
- The service has gone live for the summer term with the new software
- Service providers are getting used to the new LibraryH3lp software; from BCIT Librarian Allison Griffin: "I really like a number of the new features. It looks clean and intuitive to use, with some nice customization details."
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Electronic Health Library of BC
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embers shared feedback via survey with the Admin Centre to provide direction on several planned developments such as a member showcase/unconference and a member discussion tool. The Admin Centre will use this information along with an environmental scan of like organizations to continue evolving eHLbc member services.
- Staff at eHLbc member organizations are benefiting from a 45-minute online Orientation to eHLbc being offered by request. Perfect for new and/or ongoing staff who are interested in a refresher, the session provides an overview of eHLbc, explains the benefits of membership, approaches to governance and licensing, outlines billing procedures and answers questions. Let Sunni Nishimura know if you are interested in setting up an orientation!
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Licensing
- Pricing for Academic Search and Business Source Ultimate upgrades, the 2nd highest ranked resource in the last resource forum, are now available.
- Consortia Canada members met in person in Vancouver last month. Among products the group will be investigating for a national license in 2019-2020 is Medici.tv, the leading educational resource in classical music, opera, and dance. With 3,500 musical works filmed from the 1940s through to the present day, 2,500+ videos of concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries and master classes, and 150+ live events streamed every year from the world's most prestigious venues, Medici.tv will be an amazing resource for students in the arts. Stay tuned for more soon!
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WriteAway
- WriteAway successfully transitioned in January to new tutoring software platform LibApps. As part of the transition, the Administrative centre:
- Offered live online orientation sessions for 41 tutors and coordinators;
- Developed streamlined student interface for submissions; and
- Updated tutor, coordinator, and software guides
- WriteAway Coordinator Megan Robinson shared her perspectives at the International Coalition of Library Consortia conference on the topic of Nurturing Relationships Outside Libraries, using WriteAway as an example of cross-departmental collaboration.
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L-R: Sunni, Cristen, Anita, Sophie, Prubjot, Leah, Vaughn, Korinne, Leigh Anne, and Megan
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BC ELN Welcomes Co-op Librarians Sophie and Prubjot!
BC ELN staff recently enjoyed a sunny afternoon coffee break to get to know new Co-op Librarians Sophie Armond and Prubjot Gill. Both are currently completing their MLIS studies at the UBC iSchool, and will be with BC ELN part-time until the end of 2019.
Sophie and Prubjot will be supporting a variety of eHLbc and BC ELN services, including database trials and renewals, Arca, and resource sharing. A little about our new colleagues:
Prubjot has a keen interest in Medical Librarianship, and in addition to her position at BC ELN she works part-time at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute as a student librarian on a research team, and on a casual basis at the New Westminster Public Library as a librarian assistant. Outside of work and school Prubjot enjoys reading (fantasy, historical romance and gothic horror are some of her favorite genres), and trying out new brunch and bubble tea cafes.
Although previously a marketing professional, Sophie has always been a librarian at heart. In pursuit of her dream career she relocated from Sydney to Vancouver in 2018 to complete the MLIS program at UBC. Sophie spends her spare time exploring her new city and as a keen skier, she particularly appreciates being surrounded by mountains.
Welcome Sophie and Prubjot!
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