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    The Pandemic, GenAI, & the Return to Handwritten, In-Person, Timed Exams: A Critical Examination and Guidance for Writing Centre Support (Part 2 of 2)
    (Canadian Writing Centre Review/ Revue Canadienne des Centres de Rédaction, 2024-01-20) Marken, Liv
    This article critically examines the resurgence of traditional handwritten, in-person, timed, and invigilated exams as a response to pandemic-era cheating and the rise of artificial intelligence. While some post-secondary instructors may find reassurance in returning to these assessments, the article argues that such a move risks undermining commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion practices. The article reviews the research on the inequities and inefficacies of handwritten, in-person exams, emphasizing their adverse effects on diverse student groups, including Indigenous students, multilingual students, and disabled students. Finally, the article suggests ways in which writing centres can collaborate with academic support services, student groups, faculty, and colleges to support students who are preparing for such exams.
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    The Pandemic, GenAI, & the Return to Handwritten, In-Person, Timed, and Invigilated Exams: Causes, Context, and the Perpetuation of Ableism (Part 1 of 2)
    (Canadian Writing Centre Review/ revue Canadienne des centres de rédaction, 2023) Marken, Liv
    This paper analyzes the resurgence of traditional assessments in post-secondary education due to cheating concerns during the pandemic, now further intensified by GenAI, specifically the regressive return to the handwritten, in-person, timed, invigilated examination. The return to these exams is not only a return to ineffective assessment methods, but, more importantly, it is ableist.
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    Learn to Publish Cost-Free: Tips from a publisher and a discussion on article processing charges
    (2023-12-12) Sciortino, Josephine E. ; Rubin, Joseph E.; Lucky, Shannon; Wilson, Virginia
    Slides from an online presentation to veterinary medicine researchers and students in Sri Lanka. The event was hosted by Drs. Roshan Priyantha and Joseph Rubin under the MoU between the University of Saskatchewan and Sri Lanka. Presentation agenda: December 12, 2023 at 09:00 AM Saskatchewan / 8:30 PM Sri Lanka •8:30 PM - 8:35 PM Roshan - Introduction to the workshop, first event in collaboration between Dr. Rubin and Dr. Priyantha •8:35 PM – 8:40 PM Joe - introduce Josephine, Shannon, and Virginia •8:40 PM - 9:25 PM Josephine - Presentation on tips for publishing (~45 minutes) •9:25 PM - 9:35 PM Shannon - Brief introduction to concepts of open access journals vs. freely available vs. article processing fees •9:35 PM - 9:40 PM Joe/Virginia - Discussion about predatory publishers. Provide a list of veterinary journals (microbiology and pathology) which do not have article processing charges. •9:40 PM - 10:00 PM Questions
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    Piloting a Library-Led Online Academic Skills Orientation Program
    (Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 2023-06-08) McMillan, Jill; Fonstad, Joel; St-Jacques, Amy-Renee
    In August 2021, we piloted an online academic skills orientation program for incoming undergraduate and graduate students. The program featured a range of synchronous online sessions that provided students an opportunity to learn from librarians, learning specialists, peer mentors, professors, academic advisors and other campus partners during presentations, panels and Q&As. The program was attended by 548 unique students with overall workshop attendance totaling 1310 over a four-day period. Due to the success of the 2021 pilot, we ran another iteration of the program in August 2022, which included both online and in-person elements. The three-day online program was attended by 309 unique students with overall workshop attendance totaling 1084 while the one day in-person program was attended by 37 students. Approximately 8% and 20% of program attendees completed program surveys in 2021 and 2022 respectively. While the low response rates make it difficult to generalize about the data, feedback overall was positive, with most respondents indicating that they found the experience to be valuable. We conclude by encouraging other libraries to consider the role that they play in familiarizing students with university supports and services and to take a leading role if such programming is not currently in place at their institution.
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    CAML Collections Committee BIPOC Canadian Composers Shared Collecting Plan
    (2023-05-19) Deck, Trevor; Doi, Carolyn; Penner, Katherine; Behzadi, Houman
    Building on the BIPOC Canadian Composers project (Doi & Hilts, 2022), the CAML Collections Committee has begun to develop a plan to systematically collect the works of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) Canadian Composers in a collaborative and coordinated approach. This presentation will outline the details of this shared collecting plan, and will present an opportunity for CAML members to share feedback and ask questions. This presentation will outline the work of the committee members including identifying purchasing options, conversations with vendors, and plans for rolling out a national collaborative collecting plan. We will discuss some of the challenges that have arisen, and how this project ties in to wider inclusive collecting objectives at our own institutions. As part of this presentation, the Collection Committee will be seeking input from individuals or institutions that might be interested in volunteering to commit to collecting the works of individual composers from the BIPOC Canadian Composers list. We view systematic collecting work of this kind as one of many tools to ensure diverse representation within Canadian library systems, especially music collections. This project has potential to serve as a stepping stone to testing future possibilities for systematic collecting to achieve broader coverage of Canadian musical works. The long-term goal of collaborating with Canadian music score vendors and universities to develop a formal shared collection plan is one way to ensure comprehensive collecting and preservation of works by BIPOC composers across Canada.
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    Drag Story Time for Adults
    (2023-05-04) Liang, Ann; Stokalko, Lindsay
    The University of Saskatchewan Library hosted their first Drag Story Time for Adults in June of 2022. Building on the concept of Drag Story Hour, where Drag Queens and Kings read books to kids, this event was aimed at an adult audience and featured more mature content pulled from the Neil Richards Collection of Sexual and Gender Diversity. The University Library wanted to create an inclusive and positive environment to celebrate diversity and to destigmatize the art of Drag and to introduce the audience to the amazing Neil Richards collection housed in the University Archives. For anyone interested in running their own Drag Story Time for Adults, come learn how with USask Librarian Ann Liang and USask Archives Specialist Lindsay Stokalko.
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    Affirming Self, Affirming Community: Outreach in the Spirit and Memory of Neil Richards
    (2023-07-01) Liang, Ann; Stokalko, Lindsay
    The Neil Richards Collection of Sexual and Gender Diversity was established in 2010 and contains more than 8,000 unique items. Neil Richards spent his life and career at the University of Saskatchewan preserving LGBT history in Saskatchewan. Sadly, Neil Richards passed away in 2018, and without his enthusiastic and engaging personality, the collection became underutilized, and its growth slowed. This project involved the creation of marketing videos featuring real users and their experiences with the collection to increase the awareness and the use of the archive by the community. Inspired by Apple (2021), our goal was to give this collection back to the community by removing the high academia stigma and exclusivity associated with archives in hopes of inspiring partnerships and to create a more accurate and holistic reflection of LGBTQQIP2SAA history in Saskatchewan. Since the creation and release of the videos, interactions with the collection have markedly increased, including donations, integration into University of Saskatchewan courses, its use in events like Drag Story Time for Adults and partnerships with community organizations like OUTSaskatoon, the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union Pride Centre, Saskatoon Pride, the Western Development Museum and JusticeTrans. This session covers our process for the creation and distribution of the videos, the initiatives that have formed from the renewed interest in the collection and where we hope to take the collection in the future.
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    a campfire story: eResources management as a team
    (2023-03-09) McLean, Jaclyn
    In early 2020, we gathered our eResources documentation together on a secure wiki and committed to updating & standardizing. Since then, these documents have helped train new members, manage work, iterate and improve processes. There was other stuff too, but shared documentation is at the core of our current success.
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    Indigenous Studies Library Collection Development Toolkit
    (University of Saskatchewan, 2023-02-21) Lee, Deborah
    This toolkit is one of the outputs of my 6-month sabbatical in 2022, when I conducted an online survey of librarians' experiences with doing selection for Indigenous Studies materials in academic libraries across Western Canada. This toolkit provides tips and guidelines for doing this type of collection development work, both for those with experience and those who are new to this work, as folks can learn from each other, regardless of their level of experience. This toolkit covers tips for such issues as how to find these materials, the importance of local contexts, whether to select for print or electronic formats, advocacy for funding (if needed), recognizing the interdisciplinarity / multi-disciplinarity of Indigenous Studies, and much more.
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    Local Music Collectors in Cultural Heritage Organizations: Finding Joy through Occupational Devotion
    (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) Doi, Carolyn
    Local music collecting in cultural heritage organizations is a rich practice for the study of joy and information. This article examines the joyful and personally meaningful experiences of local music collectors, as drawn from interviews with twenty-two individuals at eighteen cultural heritage organizations conducted from 2018 to 2020. Collectors describe their work with local music collections to be personally meaningful, positive, and even joyful. For many, the positive affective experiences found through the blending of personal interests and professional projects is a key factor in their workplace well-being, motivation, and personal fulfillment. Collectors apply a community-engaged approach to their professional practice, finding self-fulfillment through their work and connection to the local music community. These findings are discussed within the context of the serious leisure perspective, and the pleasurable and the profound in library and information science research.
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    Representation matters: Developing a Canadian BIPOC composers dataset for music collection evaluation and development
    (2022-03-04) Doi, Carolyn
    The music profession and industry, especially in traditions of western art music, is marked noticeably by a lack of compositions by Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC). This lack of representation is just one of the many effects of generations of colonization, systematic exclusion, bias, and racism. There are numerous consequences to curating music library collections that continue to exclude BIPOC composers and artists, most notably giving the impression that such individuals do not exist or that their works are not worthy of inclusion. This potentially leads to a ripple effect whereby it becomes harder to program music by BIPOC composers, teach it, and write about it. This presentation describes the process and development of a dataset of BIPOC Composers with a connection to Canada, a project undertaken at the University of Saskatchewan (Treaty Six Territory and Homeland of the Metis, Saskatoon SK, Canada) through the work of the University of British Columbia School of Information Professional Experience Program. This project aimed to identify composers who identify as BIPOC and Canadian, or who identify as BIPOC and are based in what is now known as Canada. The project’s end goal was evaluating BIPOC representation in the University of Saskatchewan Libraries music collections, and ultimately filling collection gaps where needed. The dataset primarily serves as a tool for internal collection assessment but will be published and preserved in an open format for others who may be doing similar work. We will discuss the challenges associated with identifying BIPOC composers, especially in a Canadian context, and explore some of the ethical considerations when attempting to classify professionals using markers such as ethnicity or nationality.
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    Two Case Studies of Open Video Design in the Remote Learning Environment
    (KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, 2022) Lucky, Shannon; Doi, Carolyn; Rubin, Joseph E.
    The COVID-19 pandemic caused many post-secondary institutions to close abruptly in early 2020, and instructors were expected to transition to remote online instruction with little notice. For many instructors, hastily recorded lecture-capture videos alongside digital slides became the default mode of sharing instructional content. This sudden shift to video-based instruction was a significant challenge but also presented an opportunity to develop some instructional videos as open educational resources (OER). This paper outlines two case studies from the University of Saskatchewan in which a mix of OER and class-specific, closed-content videos were designed and integrated into remote learning environments. In designing these videos, we focused on technical design elements and accessibility, ability to reuse and share, and student engagement. Both cases, one in veterinary microbiology and the other in music research methods, followed similar strategies for creating multiple types of video content for the course, focusing on four distinct types (labs and demonstrations, guest interviews, lectures, and course information). Choosing to develop and share some of this video content as OER allowed us to expand the use of these learning objects beyond the online classroom. We discuss our considerations for making some videos open, including novelty of the content, reusability, copyright, privacy, and demands on instructor time. We also provide an introduction to our production process and practical tips, including planning, audiovisual production, editing, accessibility, and sharing platforms. The COVID-19 closures made 2020 an unexpectedly challenging year for students and instructors, but the necessity of moving instruction online prompted us to focus on supporting students in this new environment and helped us contribute to the growing body of OER.
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    What does the community want from their public library?: Getting in touch with non-users
    (2022-04-20) McLean, Jaclyn; Juorio, Alex
    In 2020, the Prince Albert Public Library Board set a new strategic plan that included developing a community research program. The Library Director began working with a researcher from the University of Saskatchewan, a research plan was devised, and plans made for summer 2020. When the pandemic began we had to rethink our original plan to survey the community in person at public events. As the pandemic continued and we were unable to gather in person, we identified alternate options. We decided to focus on an online survey and work with community groups for recruitment. We looked at existing non-user research from a variety of enterprises, and created a survey adapted to a public library environment. We worked with the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research (CHASR) to refine our study and build some maps to visualize our data. Our survey sowed the seeds, and will close in October 2021, so we do not yet know what we will harvest, but we look forward to analyzing and sharing our data. The goal of this research is to help the public library develop services and programs based on community-identified needs. The library strives to continue to grow and build services, programs, and branches, and to expand our outreach in response to this survey. We are excited to see the outcomes from this study as we build a research program that will continue to be responsive to the needs of our community as we build a public library for the future.
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    The BIPOC Canadian Composers dataset: A tool for inclusive music collection assessment
    (2022-06-07) Doi, Carolyn
    There is much rhetoric in academic libraries around the need to dismantle systemic oppressive structures while making space for diverse voices. Academic music library collections have traditionally held materials supporting a version of music history that systematically excludes compositions by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), especially when narrowed to the Canadian context. This lack of representation is just one of the many effects of generations of colonization, systematic exclusion, and racism. Today’s users of music libraries are demanding more current and representative music literature, which includes the works of BIPOC composers. Inclusive collection building is an example of a small action to dismantle the lasting impacts of racism and white supremacy within libraries, make collections more useful for a broader and more diverse audience, and build collections that better represent the breadth of music creation happening in the community. This paper presents the outcomes of a collection assessment project at the University of Saskatchewan that sought to identify composers who identify as BIPOC and who also have a connection to Canada. We also identified vendors or publishers where their compositions can be acquired and other resources for learning about composers of diverse backgrounds. This list was used to assess the music collection holdings at the University of Saskatchewan and to identify areas for future collection building. This presentation will outline the findings of this collection assessment, including notable gaps in scores and sound recordings by composers identified in this list. Several challenges presented themselves in this project, including how to go about identifying BIPOC composers, especially in the Canadian context. The dataset is shared openly through Scholars Portal Dataverse, with the intention that other institutions use it for similar purposes. _____________ Il existe beaucoup de rhétorique dans les bibliothèques universitaires autour de la nécessité de démanteler les structures systémiques oppressives tout en faisant de la place pour des voix diverses. Les collections des bibliothèques de musique universitaires contiennent traditionnellement des documents à l'appui d'une version de l'histoire de la musique qui exclut systématiquement les compositions de personnes autochtones, noires et de couleur (PANDC), en particulier lorsqu'elles se limitent au contexte canadien. Ce manque de représentation n'est qu'un des nombreux effets de générations de colonisation, d'exclusion systématique et de racisme. Les utilisateurs actuels des bibliothèques de musique exigent une littérature musicale plus actuelle et représentative, qui comprend les oeuvres des compositeurs PANDC. La création de collections inclusives est un exemple d'une petite action visant à démanteler les impacts durables du racisme et de la suprématie blanche au sein des bibliothèques, à rendre les collections plus utiles pour un public plus large et plus diversifié et à créer des collections qui représentent mieux l'étendue de la création musicale qui se déroule dans la communauté. Cet article présente les résultats d'un projet d'évaluation de collection à l'Université de la Saskatchewan qui visait à identifier les compositeurs qui s'identifient comme PANDC et qui ont également un lien avec le Canada. Nous avons également identifié des fournisseurs ou des éditeurs où leurs compositions peuvent être acquises et d'autres ressources pour en savoir plus sur les compositeurs d'horizons divers. Cette liste a été utilisée pour évaluer la collection de musique de l'Université de la Saskatchewan et pour identifier les domaines pour la constitution future d'une collection. Cette communication décrira les résultats de cette évaluation de la collection, y compris les lacunes notables dans les partitions et les enregistrements sonores des compositeurs identifiés dans cette liste. Plusieurs défis se sont présentés dans ce projet, notamment comment procéder pour identifier les compositeurs PANDC, en particulier dans le contexte canadien. L'ensemble de données est partagé ouvertement via Scholars Portal Dataverse, avec l'intention que d'autres institutions l'utilisent à des fins similaires.
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    Untapped Author’s Rights: Figure Reuse Allowances in Content Licenses
    (2022-04-28) Dawson, Diane (DeDe); Langrell, Kate; McLean, Jaclyn
    Communicating with university communities about the many details in library license agreements can be a challenge, but it is necessary in order for the community to benefit from the rights negotiated. We are undertaking a project to analyze University of Saskatchewan (USask) library license agreements with journal publishers in order to promote figure reuse allowances that are included in some of the agreements. We are first focusing on CRKN agreements, as the model license includes an “Academic Research and Teaching” clause permitting authorized users to make use of portions of licensed materials in “research and publications for personal, scholarly, educational, or professional use”. This session will report on our census of USask library licenses to date and our initial plans to communicate with the USask campus community on these rights afforded to them in the licenses.
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    Investigating Science Researchers’ Presence on Academic Profile Websites: A case study of a Canadian research university
    (2020-09-24) Zhang, Li; Li, Chen
    Researchers are increasingly using academic profile websites to organize and showcase their research outputs. Using the faculty at the science departments of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada as the study object, this research explores how science researchers used four academic profile websites: ResearchGate, Google Scholar Citations, Academia.edu, and ORCID. It was found that 78% of the researchers had established at least one academic profile, with ResearchGate being the most popular platform, Google Scholar Citations the second, followed at some distance by ORCID and Academia.edu. A high percentage of ORCID users did not list any of their publications, meaning their presence on ORCID was merely symbolic. We also found that the social interaction functions provided by ResearchGate were not well adopted. Findings from this study call for the improvement of the workflow of adding publications to ORCID profile.
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    STEM Librarians’ Presence on Academic Profile Websites
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022-03-16) Zhang, Li; Kumaran, Maha
    This study explores STEM librarians’ presence on academic profile websites (APWs) at American and Canadian research universities. It was found that Google Scholar Citations was the most used APW, followed by ResearchGate, ORCiD, and academia.edu. The rate of profile without a publication list in ORCiD of these librarians was significantly lower than other users across this platform, suggesting that it may be necessary for ORCiD to improve the publication addition function in order to help other users to increase their presence. The social networking functions were not well adopted, as such, ResearchGate’s composite metric, RG Score, adds little new information to bibliometric indicators.
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    New SciComm Services for Researchers: Knowledge Translation, Public Relations, or “Predatory” Publishing?
    (2021-07-22) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Like many science librarians I regularly receive concerned emails from faculty asking whether certain publishers or journals are “predatory.” In recent years however a growing number of these inquiries have been regarding what seems to be a new form of publisher seeking to promote the work of scientists… for a fee. They offer the science communication (SciComm) services of professional writers to create high-quality, magazine-style articles on the scientist’s research in accessible language for a general audience. Additional services may include glossy brochures with graphic designing, website production, social media marketing and promotion, and even podcast episodes discussing the research. Faculty encountering these publishers are understandably wary. There has been extensive concern and discussion in academia about so-called “predatory” publishers for the last decade, so much so that any unfamiliar publishing model is treated as suspect - especially those sending unsolicited emails and asking for publishing fees. However, the entities I have investigated appear to be offering a legitimate service with transparent costs. But what needs the service is fulfilling, and what the motivations of their clients are, is debatable. Is it for knowledge translation or mobilization purposes (increasingly required by funding agencies)? Is it for increasing the reach or impact of a researcher’s work? Or is it driven by vanity or ego? In this session I will introduce several examples of these publishers, discuss their business models and the services they offer to clients…and what the potential motivations of their clients may be. My goal is to raise awareness among STEM librarians about this new kind of publishing service so that they are prepared to respond should they receive similar concerned emails from their science faculty!
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    Adapting your research design: When the best laid plans go awry
    (Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), 2020-10) Sarjeant-Jenkins, Rachel
    Structured around a specific research project, this chapter tells the story of learning to be a reflective researcher. It acknowledges the emotions that are often part of the research process, the importance of adapting research design to respond to research realities, and the value of research journaling as a tool for reflection.
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    When tradition meets technology: Curating purposeful digital collections and tools for learning oral traditions
    (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 2019) Tharani, Karim
    An essential prerequisite for ethnocultural and diaspora communities to preserve their oral traditions is the willful acceptance and learning of these traditions by successive generations. Thus transmission of oral traditions is of utmost importance for such communities living in the West. While community elders may feel duty-bound to pass on their knowledge using traditional face-to-face approach, community youth often perceive this approach as old-fashioned and inefficient. The in-person transmission of oral traditions is also constrained by time and geography, thus making it even more challenging for learners to remain motivated and engaged. Today’s digital age presents opportunities for communities with rich oral heritage to teach and learn traditional knowledge, especially oral traditions, in ways not possible in the past. This paper is based on a community-based collaborative research project undertaken at the University of Saskatchewan Library in Canada to develop and implement a framework to digitally curate collections and tools for learning the oral tradition of ginan (gnostic and devotional hymns) of the Ismaili community. Whether in university or community, educators and elders must ensure that they continue to meet the unique and changing needs of learners and keep them motivated and engaged. This paper will showcase how digital curation is purposefully utilized to enhance and support learning of oral traditions.