library.wlu.ca

LIBRARY

Annual Report, 2014-15

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITYWaterloo | Brantford | Kitchener | Toronto

BUILDING THE 21ST CENTURY

Enhancing student successAdvancing researchEqualizing servicesBuilding communityDeveloping our team

For much of the 20th century, the role of academic libraries was relatively stable and secure, but in recent years, that role has been evolving, as digital technology has transformed research and scholarship.

In the 2014-15 academic year, we made important steps towards articulating our vision of a Learning and Culture commons at the Library while at the same time continuing to progress on our 2020 Strategic Plan for building the library of the 21st century at Laurier.

A major piece of news this year was the integration of WLU Press and the Robert Langen Art Gallery into the Library’s organizational structure. These additions to our family are designed in part to support the Library’s enhanced role as a hub of culture and the arts for Laurier and the surrounding community – supporting the holistic development of our students and bringing to the fore Laurier’s unique spirit of inte-grated and engaged learning.

Other highlights this year included the completion of a new entrance and sunken garden area at the front of the Waterloo campus Library and the launch of a bi-

annual Community Author program, which in its inaugural edition celebrated recent books by 57 Laurier faculty, alumni, staff and student authors.

We have worked hard this year to enhance the student experience, advance research and scholarly communication, equalize library services across campuses, engage with our commu-nities, and develop our team. We believe these efforts are starting to bear fruit, and are proud of the many milestones outlined in this and our previous two annual reports.

I am enormously grateful to everyone who has contributed to our success: librarians, staff, faculty members, students, donors and other members of our community. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Gohar Ashoughian, University Librarian

University librarian’s message

[blouw podium photo?]

“[The Library’s new exhibit space] is a wonderful example of integrated and engaged learning at Laurier, our signa-ture, holisitic approach that recognizes the importance of outside-the-classroom learning in building the whole student.”

–David McMurrayVice-President: Student Affairs

Pictured: McMurray addresses the crowd at the opening of the Waterloo campus exhibit space in Fall 2014.

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“From their involvement in the initial development of the courses to their regular classroom visits and their on-going support for students, our librar-ians ensure that Laurier students have a good understanding of our library resources and a solid grounding in re-search strategies.”

– Judy EatonAssociate professor, PsychologyFA

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Sept. 19: The grand opening of our new main floor exhibit space, featuring a show by grad student Bharati Sethi, via a new collabora-tion with the GSA.

Oct. 6: Gordon Bertrand appointed as

Laurier’s new Associate University Librarian.

Nov. 25: Our first bi-annual Community Author event cele-brates 57 Laurier faculty, alumni, student and staff authors.

Nov. 5: Local Chilean-Canadian painter Maca Suazo’s Library Love: Mixed Media art exhibit opens in the Library ex-hibit space. Oct. 3: Music in the Library kicks off

another season with mellow sounds from the WLU Songwriters’ Club.

IT WAS ANOTHER BUSY YEAR FOR OUR COLLECTIONS, STUDENT SPACES, AND MORE. HERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS.

Community Author program launches

Annual report library.wlu.ca

Fall 2014 >HIGHLIGHT

September: Working with Physi-cal Resources and architects Cannon Design, we put the finishing touches on a new Li-brary entrance ramp that greatly enhances accessibility.

“The Library was a retreat, a place where I could clear my head and re-charge on poetry, philosophy, fiction, and biographies, creating for myself the feeling of a slow day or a quiet corner in my otherwise fast-paced stu-dent life.”

– Alexis Castrogiovanni B.Mus (2015)

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Feb. 3: For the second year run-ning, we host Laurier Interna-tional’s annual Living Library event, featuring “human” books that visitors “check out” for a free-flowing conversation on international issues.

March 2: Laurier Librarian Carol Stephenson’s ongoing

research on faculty attitudes to Open Access publishing

was recently featured in Open Shelf magazine.

April 10: The university announces that it will integrate the Robert Langen Art Gallery, led by gallery cu-rator Suzanne Luke, into the Library as part of the Learning and Culture Commons initiative.

Jan. 12: The Library announces its participation in the Accessible Content E-Portal (ACE), a new repository of accessible format texts for users with print disabilities.

Winter 2015> >Feb. 11: Laurier Librarian Pauline Dewan wins the 2015 RUSA Refer-ence Service Press Award for an article on academic libraries as physical spaces for reading.

WLU Press integrates with the Laurier Library

HIGHLIGHT

March 11: Laurier announces the integration of WLU Press, Canada’s fourth largest scholarly press, into the administrative structure of the Library. The integration will preserve the Press while supporting the development of a new Learning and Culture Commons at the University.

June 4: WLU Press author Neal McLeod wins the 2014 Gabrielle Roy Prize (English section) for his edited collection Indigenous Poetics in Canada.

July: During his visit, Elliot Worsfold unearths a letter from Nils Willison, Laurier’s first-ever graduate, to then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, in 1958. The subject: Canada’s national anthem, and the phrase “home and native land,” which Willison worried ex-cluded new Canadians: wouldn’t “home and favourite land” be more inclusive?

August: We complete the first phase of a new Study,

Gathering Space and Garden at the front of the Waterloo Campus Library, made pos-sible by generous donations from Laurier’s Student Life

Levy and the Audrey and Donald Campbell Foundation.

April: Demonstrating the best talent the Laurier student body has to offer, the Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts becomes a permanent part of Scholars Commons, the Library’s global online repository of Laurier-original research and content.

June: For a second year running, over 1,000 middle-school students are exposed to the his-torical wonderments of the Archives as part of Laurier’s now-annual JUMP program of campus visits.

Joan Mitchell Travel Award winner visits the Archives

HIGHLIGHT

Spring 2015>

HIGHLIGHT

Laurier Undergraduate Journal for the Arts Launches on Scholars Commons

– Eden Hennessey PhD candidate, Social Psychology

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T“The Laurier Library is a world unto itself - one which supported me as an academic and an artist. In this world, my interests and research combined to cre-ate impactful and interdisplinary work that continues to propel my career.”

August: We finish up work on a new group study room, at Laurier’s Faculty of Social Work in Kitchener.

Annual report library.wlu.ca

EXCEPTIONAL DONORS Fall 2014–Summer 2015

GSA exhibits collaborationThe Graduate Students’ Association generously agreed to fund an annual exhibit of graduate student research in the Library, making an initial five-year commitment.

Once per year, a Laurier graduate student will present an exhibit that creatively depicts their research findings: in 2014-15, PhD student Bharati Sethi mounted a photo exhibition of her work on the challenges facing new Canadians.

We would like to thank the GSA for their partner-ship in this exciting project.

By the numbers

612,000in-person visits

4,900items now in our institutional repository

550,000 website visits

65,000 physical items checked out

LIBRARY FACTS AND FIGURES

SpacesLocations: Waterloo, Kitchener, BrantfordSeating capacity (Waterloo campus): 1,000Group study rooms: 8 open-access group study roomsIndividual study rooms: 14Number of public-use computers (Waterloo campus): 90

CollectionNumber of databases/electronic resources: 280Number of printed volumes in Laurier collection: 1 millionPrint journals: 500Electronic journals currently received: 68,000Ebooks: 312,000

120,000Primo catalogue searches

16,000in-person questions answered

2,500librarian office consultations

8,000students taught in our instructional sessions

2013-14 MILESTONESAlumna Joan Kammerer (Sociology, 1971), has donated to our Library for the past 21 straight years.

Joan retired from Western University in the fall of 2014, after spending a large part of her career there working in the library in a variety of roles, including Head – Resource Support Services Joan’s daughter Shannon, who graduated from Laurier in 2000 with a degree in English, is fol-lowing in her mother’s footsteps as a ibrarian for the Huron County Library.

We are enormously grateful to Joan for her generous support.

Joan Kammerer

Library Fundraising Quick Facts: Number of library donors in 2014-15: 113

Dollars raised for the Library: $21,914

Value of book donations: $91,355

Value of in-kind donations received for the Archives: $11,280

The Library is delighted to announce a new series of four awards available to undergraduates, made possible by a generous anonymous donation.

The awards are given to recognize Laurier un-dergraduates who demonstrate exceptional use of any library’s resources as part of their regular coursework.

Two awards, first and second place, are available to any first or second year student, and another two to any students in their third or fourth year. First place awards are in the amount of $350, and each second place award is $150.

Undergrad research awards