Accessibility in collection development policies (CDPs) and practice in Canada is understudied. Two studies focusing on academic libraries in provinces with accessibility legislation were done to investigate both policy and practice. The first study employed a content analysis of publicly available CDPs of academic libraries in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Ontario to determine if accessibility was explicitly mentioned in them. The study aimed to explore possible legislative influence in the wording of CDPs. Since CDPs show only part of the picture as to how selectors make their acquisition decisions, in the second study, a multiple-choice and short answer survey was administered to selectors at academic libraries in these three provinces, in order to discover the factors that influence selectors in deciding if and how they use accessibility as a selection criterion. This article presents the research undertaken and sheds new light on how accessibility functions in collection development in the Canadian academic library context.

Many academic librarians and archivists (L/As) in Canada have research responsibilities as part of their jobs. For some, those responsibilities include research and scholarship in any disciplinary area, including creative works. This study explored the practices and perspectives of academic L/As in Canada with respect to research in areas outside of librarianship or archival studies (LIAS). An invitation to complete an online questionnaire was sent to over 1,800 email addresses and two listservs. The questionnaire asked about the non-LIAS topics that academic L/As have researched, their perceptions about the importance of research outside of LIAS, and barriers or restrictions they may encounter in doing this research. From the 345 usable responses, 85% of respondents have conducted research on LIAS topics, 32% have done non-LIAS research as part of their job, 29% have done non-LIAS research but not as part of their job, and 38% have not done research outside LIAS. Personal interest was the primary reason for doing non-LIAS research. Nearly half of respondents said that doing non-LIAS research and producing or performing creative works were extremely or very important. At the same time, respondents’ comments revealed a range of perspectives about non-LIAS research, including the sense that it is reasonable to have a connection between research and professional work. More attention is needed to develop a shared understanding about the place and value of non-LIAS research. Data from the study are available in Borealis: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/SAKC2C.

Canadian communities are facing a crisis of inequity, and library service providers must do more to respond to the causal conditions of anti-Black and other forms of systemic racism (Black & Mehra, 2023). Beginning in 2022, the first known Canadian MLIS course, Anti-Racism in Library and Information Science, was piloted at Western University. It aimed to allow students to engage with transformative and collaborative anti-racism frameworks relevant to the Canadian library sector and MLIS curriculum. The one-semester (13-week) course was offered once each summer in 2022 and 2023. The multi-faceted course aimed to equip students with community-based approaches to learning in partnership with local Black communities. As exemplars, the course approach and learnings also allow LIS scholars and practitioners to explore and evaluate their understanding of community-based and anti-racist frameworks. This paper provides evidence-based research and Black-centred resources that can begin to address anti-Black and other forms of systemic racism impacting Canadian library communities. The Canadian-centric and LIS-tailored approach can further benefit both library and community organizations by supporting anti-racism efforts to uncover covert practices of anti-Black racism in personal and professional practices and worldviews.

The importance of sustainable lifestyles is addressed in two of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Public libraries can play a significant role in providing information and resources to lead to positive behavioural actions to help mitigate climate change. The paper examined the resources and programs that thirteen public libraries in Canada offer to people interested in pursuing a zero-waste (ZW) lifestyle. Catalogue and descriptive records for resources and programs related to ZW were extracted from Canadian public libraries that represented each of the provinces and territories. Thematic analysis was conducted on 335 unique subject headings (167 in English, 168 in French) obtained from the bibliographic records of 207 titles, as well as on the titles and descriptions of 34 library programs. This analysis revealed that the library resources covered a span of 14 ZW behaviours or activities, including childcare, food preparation, environmental sustainability, waste reduction, and waste disposal. Through their programs and collections, public libraries can help make sustainable lifestyles more attainable to a greater number of people across different social, cultural, and demographic groups. Given the increasing importance of sustainable lifestyles to mitigate climate change, public libraries could consider how to expand and emphasize their sustainability collections, and particularly programming, to further strengthen and demonstrate their commitment to supporting sustainable lifestyles and practices.

Over the last twenty years knowledge mobilization (KM) is increasingly a priority for researchers, funders, and universities. As KM emphasizes non-traditional forms of mobilization and encourages approaching research differently (e.g. co-production) there is a natural fit with advancements in academic librarianship such as digital scholarship. The goal of KM is to increase the use and positive impact of research beyond academia. Many researchers, required to plan and do KM as part of the funding requirements, need additional supports to learn about and mobilize their research beyond traditional approaches; academic institutions are responding with developing support services or roles in the institution. Approaches to these services are diverse, some centralized, some faculty or department specific, some dedicated roles, others added on to existing roles. In this paper we describe a pilot project to support KM at one Canadian university. Specifically, we share the development, initiation, and program model of a KM support unit within an academic library. We make the case for the importance of physical location of this type of service, the value the library adds to this service, and other lessons learned through this pilot project.

Using métissage as a method of inquiry, this paper is the outcome of reflections of a Canadian academic library hiring committee that consists of both librarians and library technicians that disrupted local hiring practices in the effort to create a more human-centred, inclusive, and thoughtful process when hiring for two library technician vacancies. Through the writing and mixing of texts, three themes emerged that capture the shared experiences of the committee and serve as an example of how reflective practice can take shape among different types of employees in a busy academic library. This process helped to empower members of the hiring committee to question and contribute to the hiring process in new ways. Despite the limits of time, this project reveals that efforts can be made to create a space for a hiring committee, comprised of library employees with different levels of workplace power, to critique and modify practices to improve approaches to hiring. These improvements go beyond creating a welcoming environment for candidates and include changes to the way current employees feel about their contributions and their engagement in the work.

This paper seeks to answer what material quality of life can be expected for someone working in a library in Canada, based on the salaries offered in a data set of three months of job postings on a national job board. The postings were categorized by provincial and municipal location and education level. These data were then compared to census information about the cost of housing in the community where the job was located, to approximate whether the pay was sufficient to provide financial stability, and therefore a good material quality of life. The results of the study show that based on the average of all postings, library workers appear to have a good material quality of life. However, a significant number of individual positions did not provide financial stability. Positions that required an MLIS were more likely to provide a good material quality of life, while positions that required a technician diploma were less likely to do the same. I conducted this analysis with the acknowledgement that library workers exist within communities both in the libraries where we work and in the broader sense of where we live. These contexts have power dynamics, and those who have greater financial stability have a responsibility to advocate for, or stand in solidarity with, other members of the community who have less.

Community-based research often involves communities working in partnership with academic researchers to address issues and problems that the community has raised. Much of this work results in diverse publicly available materials that strive to inform public policy, strengthen funding proposals, empower community members, and advance social change. This article reports on a recent qualitative study exploring the role of institutional repositories in disseminating and preserving these community-based research products, informed by the perspectives, experiences, and motivations of academics involved in this work. Interviews with faculty members and university administrators at Canadian post-secondary institutions suggest that there is a widespread lack of awareness about ways that institutional repository services can leverage the impact and reach of public-facing work generated through these collaborations. Furthermore, a survey of Canadian scholarly communications librarians indicates that libraries do limited outreach to faculty members and administrators engaged in community-based research to promote these services. This article suggests ways that academic libraries can extend outreach strategies to bridge this observed gap between repository services and the dissemination and preservation of community-based research products directly informed by input from research participants. Doing so can advance widespread institutional commitments to community engagement and open science practices to benefit the public good.

This study investigates the perceptions and behaviours of novice academic researchers in their first year of post-secondary education when conducting online research. Because this study was undertaken immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020-2022 it provides a unique window into how this experience impacted our youth, their choices and behaviours when conducting online research at the point of entering university and then further along in the first year. Conducting online research in this context describes what students anticipate they will do during an information search process and the strategies and tools they use in practice to locate information. Using data from semi-structured interviews and cognitive maps, thematic analysis was used to identify themes of the students’ perceptions and behaviours. This exploratory research can serve to inform and provide insights into improving our science and health sciences libraries’ user experience, instruction, marketing, and e-resource collections, as well as students’ preparation for academic research in their secondary school years, particularly in the Canadian context. Findings indicate that the experience of secondary students conducting research for school is one of frustration. Credible information is highly valued but difficult to obtain without the proper resources and skills. The early perceptions of students were ones of hope that these frustrations would be appeased when having access to superior quality tools and learning the proper techniques of academic research. In today’s changing online world, library workers must continue the work of understanding how our students perceive and behave when conducting research.

The Salish Weave Box Sets: Art and Storytelling Project is a project carried out for the Indigenous Curriculum Resource Centre (ICRC) at Simon Fraser University (SFU) Library, with the goal of providing resources to include Indigenous art in the post-secondary classroom. The project looked at the concept of art as literature, using the concept of Indigenous Storywork (Archibald, 2008). In this paper, we provide further context on the ICRC at SFU Library, the Salish Weave Box Sets, and present the approach, project themes, and lessons learned from the Salish Weave Box Sets: Art and Storytelling Project.