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Fresh looks, new spaces for college libraries
by Tammy Thornton (Algonquin), Pamela McBride (Sheridan), Anna Johnston (Mohawk) and Thomas Guignard (OCLS)
College libraries are constantly evolving to meet the needs of their users. Some changes happen behind the scenes, streamlining workflows and systems as illustrated by some of the projects detailed in this newsletter. Other changes can be quite visible, and this fall some returning college students were pleasantly surprised to walk in to fresh new library spaces, for example at Algonquin, Sheridan and Mohawk!
Algonquin College, Ottawa
The Library at the Ottawa campus of Algonquin College has a brand new space in the College's new DARE District building. The new space on the third floor has over 500 seats of silent, quiet, and collaborative study space, much of which remains open 24/7. It includes a library front desk and a new research support desk. The in-house collection is available in two separate collection rooms and can be borrowed using a new RFID self-check-out system.
On the second floor, the Library space also includes another research support desk and the Student Learning Centre (SLC). The SLC offers a new Digital Literacy Lab, a space dedicated to workshops that help learners develop digital literacy skills. The SLC also includes dedicated space for peer tutoring services and for coaching in core subject areas such as math, English, computers, anatomy, and chemistry. Also included on the second floor are student meeting rooms that can be booked in advance, as well as a presentation studio to rehearse and record presentations.
Sheridan College, Oakville
The existing Library and Learning Commons spaces underwent a full refresh during the summer at Sheridan's Trafalgar Campus. The library now offers a bright and airy environment with new workspaces, plenty of power outlets and a redesigned reference and circulation desk. New furniture offering flexible work configurations, from long tables to individual carrels and insulated pods, offer a variety of study experiences all inside the main library space. The highlight of the library remains its most beloved feature: the large indoor trees that have earned the nickname by which the space is referred to throughout the college: the Jungle.
The adjacent Learning Commons, open 24/7 and by all accounts a central element of student life on campus, was also refreshed with powerful computers and presentation equipment. Here too, flexible furniture allows the commons to serve as an event space, transforming into an expo floor for the annual Industry Days, during which Animation, Arts & Design students have a chance to showcase their work to the region's top employers.
Mohawk College, Hamilton
The Digital Creativity Centre, located in the new Joyce Centre for Partnership & Learning, is a student-focused centre for discovery, creation, collaboration and experiential learning using the latest digital technologies.
Discover... the opportunity to "play" and apply learning using innovative digital
technologies such as 3D printing, laser cutter projects, VR/AR zone and Makerspace zone.
Create... VR/AR and media storytelling using the Visualization wall, tangible products using the 3D printer or laser cutter - bringing ideas to reality.
Experience... the latest technology in workshops and industry events, mentoring opportunities with subject specialists and
industry partners or through peer-to-peer partners.
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Infrastructure migration update
by Alex Eykelhof, Director of Information Technology
Early in 2017, OCLS initiated the migration of its IT infrastructure to a secure and highly reliable offsite hosting provider. The final stage of this migration is scheduled for this December. Earlier this month, an exact clone of the Remote Access (RA) service was set up in the new hosting environment and OCLS is currently conducting extensive testing to ensure this crucial service remains available through the migration. Several colleges are also involved in the testing. Together with the RA service, the final two Sirsi ILS instances will also be migrated just before the holiday break, as will the Colleges Union Catalogue.
The colleges relying on the services that are being migrated have been kept informed extensively throughout this project, and will receive details about the upcoming final migration soon.
We'd like to thank college library staff for their patience during this important step in ensuring a more robust and cost-effective support to their systems.
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Contract Management update
by Coralee Leroux, eResources and Services Coordinator
Under our Contract Management service, OCLS oversees agreements with key vendors for selection and acquisitions of print and ebook titles, and for cataloguing and processing of physical materials. With the expiry of the current contracts coming up on March 31, 2019, OCLS issued two requests for quotations (RFQs) in September:
- Selection and Acquisition of Library Material for Ontario's College Libraries
- Cataloguing and Processing of Library Material for Ontario's College Libraries
Through the RFQ process, vendors are invited to submit bids for the contracts, which provides OCLS with the opportunity to review available options and assess how they align with the college libraries needs.
The development of the RFQs was informed by two web-based focus groups with several college library leaders and a follow-up survey open to all college libraries. The collected feedback provided OCLS with a greater understanding of the college libraries' needs and strategic priorities for these contracts over the next 3-5 years.
We are currently in the process of reviewing the bids submitted for each of the RFQs. It is anticipated that the successful bids will be announced Friday, November 30, 2018. Contracts negotiation is expected to last from December 2018 to February 2019, with final contracts in place by March 2019. OCLS will continue to provide updates throughout the RFQ and contract renewal process via the Contract Management listserv. If you have any questions, please contact Coralee Leroux.
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Save the date: OCLS College Libraries breakfast at the OLA Super Conference on February 1, 2019
by Brigitte Balle, Administration & Office Manager
It has become a tradition! We welcome all college staff attending the OLA Super Conference this winter to join us on the morning of February 1 for our famous OCLS breakfast. There will be a hot breakfast, coffee and project updates, and we are working hard to make it as fun and entertaining as it will be informative. If you are planning to attend, don't forget to RSVP.
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Library eResources Accessibility Project (LEAP)
by Corinne Abba, AODA Coordinator at George Brown College
and Siobán Linnen, Virtual Reference and Accessibility Services & Support Associate
The AODA Committee for College Libraries is excited to announce that CLO has prioritized LEAP (the Library eResources Accessibility Project) as a strategic project this year, with financial support from OCLS. LEAP's objective is to assist college libraries in meeting the AODA's January 2020 deadline by developing methods, workflows, and tools that enable library staff to undertake and share accessibility assessments of electronic resources.
Under the purview of the AODA Committee and LEAP Steering Committee, the LEAP project team has compiled a list of applicable accessibility criteria and developed a testing process with instructional content. This content will be incorporated into the LEAP tool, which is slated for development in early 2019. The LEAP team envisions a tool containing a series of tests to assess specific accessibility criteria, with detailed instructions for each test to guide library staff through the process. The tool will have the ability to generate a report summarizing the results of each assessment, and should include a shared repository where reports will be archived.
Our next step is to establish a project leadership team to lead the remaining phases of the project, which includes development of recommendations for system-wide collaboration, local implementation and competency building, and assessment and metrics.
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Discovery layer integrations
by Liana Giovando, Principal Consultant at pertinence.ca
OCLS is helping college libraries to integrate more data into library discovery layers and provide a more robust and rewarding search experience for college library users. OCLS teamed up with Pertinence.ca and discovery layer vendors to integrate even more college library content into these services so that more information is available to users through a single interface.
OCLS is also working to enable automatic harvesting of metadata records for collections shared by a majority of the colleges using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). The aim of this initiative is to reduce the need for local management of metadata records for collections that are shared with multiple colleges. This is achieved through the central editing and loading of records into the
Colleges Union Catalogue (CUC), which can then be integrated in college discovery layers without the need for local loading. This approach is currently being piloted using the Colleges eBook Consortium collections, but could be expanded to other shared collections where the central management of records can be beneficial to colleges, such as lynda.com.
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eResources webinar series
by Holly Sarvari, eResources Services & Support Associate
On Monday, October 29, the OCLS eResource team hosted a webinar where college libraries had the opportunity to come together to showcase innovative practices for managing eResources. The topics that were presented were access and authentication with Sarah Gillard, from George Brown College, who discussed switching eResources over to Single-Sign-On
, as well as evaluation and assessment with Linda Crosby and Megan Anderson, from Fanshawe College, who presented the
selection matrix they use to help with the renewal process. There were twenty people in attendance representing eleven different colleges, a great turn out for our first event! Thanks to all who attended.
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Staff profile: Stacey Boileau
Stacey has been with OCLS since 2012, having started shortly after graduating from Algonquin Colleges' LIT program. She worked her way up from doing serials cataloguing and special project work to supporting several services full time across both the Service and IT team at OCLS to being the newly appointed IT Systems and Services Coordinator. With a particular interest in cataloguing she has been nicknamed OCLS's metadata guru. You most likely know Stacey from her responses to your requests via the OCLS Help Desk in support of the Sirsi Consortium and the Remote Access service or her work with the Bibliographic Standards Working Group (BSWG) in regards to RDA implementation and most recently the Colleges Union Catalogue Revitalization Project.
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Staff profile: Holly Sarvari
In April 2018, Holly Sarvari joined OCLS as an eResources, Services and Support Associate shortly after graduating from Western University with a Master of Library and Information Science. While working towards her master's degree, Holly volunteered as an askON student operator where she honed her technical skills, reference interview techniques, as well as strengthened her virtual service knowledge. Coupled with this, Holly has over ten years of customer service experience and is determined to uphold her high standards of service here at OCLS. In her spare time, Holly loves to curl and get lost in a good book.
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Ontario Colleges Library Service 74 Gervais Drive, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 1Z3
1-800-268-5560
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