From your shelves to ours - SFU Library - Simon Fraser University

More documents

Recommendations

Info

McWhinney continued from p.1Once catalogued, much of the McWhinneycollection will stay intact and be accessiblewithin Special Collections identified by aspecial “In Memory of ” bookplate as well as arecognition line in the bibliographic record.Swanick says researchers will be able tolocate and search the entire bequest. “If it weremy collection, I would like to have the samesort of thing done, to acknowledgethat part of me isnow part of the university andcan be recognized as such,”says Swanick, emphasizing theimportance of acknowledgingdonors. He recalls one donorwho said it was like partingEmily McWhinney with one of your children,a sentiment echoed by Ted McWhinney.“Collecting the books was an important intellectualescape for Emily. As her executor, itwas important to reassure her that her librarywould be well cared for after her death,” hesays. McWhinney was also impressed by howcarefully SFU contractors packed the books fortransport, each according to size and subject.The collection includes many German children’sbooks as well as a set of early Harlequinromances. Emily McWhinney was born inBerlin in 1925, but in 1938 her family had tosuddenly abandon their home and all theirpossessions and flee Germany for Canada. Shechose a career in Economics and Commerce,and was one of the first women to obtain graduatedegrees and professional qualifications topractice before the Montreal, Toronto and NewYork Stock Exchanges. Emily married TedMcWhinney in 1951, and was instrumental inand supportive of his political, academic andliterary endeavors.Swanick points out that donors can achievewhat an academic library cannot. Librariesdo many things, from meticulous cataloguingand digital archiving, to sharing knowledgethrough open access, but they can’t match thepassion of a dedicated collector. “This is sucha rich collection. Bequests like these push usinto areas where financially we cannot affordto go and breathe new life into our collectionsand the university,” says Swanick. •The Peak gets digitizedWhen SFU’s student newspaper, ThePeak, approached the Library to digitizethe dusty pile of tabloid-sized back issuesstored in their subterranean offices, librarystaff jumped at the opportunity.“A student newspaper is such a motherlodeof information, not just about theuniversity but everything else going on,”says Brian Owen, Associate UniversityLibrarian - Library Technology Servicesand Special Collections. “It gives a differentperspective on university life, not justthe official view.”And his opinion is echoed by Peakstaffer, Larry van Kampen. He ranks italongside Hugh Johnson’s book RadicalCampus as a rich resource of studentfocusedhistory.“If you have any interest in the historyof SFU this is a big deal; there’s 45 years’worth here,” says van Kampen, marketingand advertising manager for the paper aswell as a board member.Opening up access to The Peak’s backcatalogue will be a big benefit to researchers,the media and alumni, as well as thenewspaper itself. Student newspapersdon’t often receive the glory of their mainstreamcounterparts, yet according to vanKampen, it’s where many journalists andpoliticians start out. BC Premier ChristyClark’s student life is well documented inthe new digital archive .Digitization of The Peak was firstsuggested to the board by GrahamTempleton, former opinions editor of thenewspaper. Van Kampen says they lookedat several companies to digitize the recordsbut only SFU offered online hosting,an important prerequisite for the project.So the contract went to the library,keeping the resource in the family as partof the Public Knowledge Project searchableopen access database. Future issues will bedigitized to keep the collection current.Mark Jordan, Head of Library Systems,considers this a win/win acquisition forthe library. “It’s unique and it’s availablehere,” he says, noting that Google indexeseverything stored in the library’s contentmanagement system, which makes ThePeak’s content far more widely available.But the story doesn’t end here. Duringthe digitization process, other studentpublications such as Liberté were foundamong the newspaper archives. Althoughincomplete and sporadic, these editionsgive a valuable alternative view of studentlife on campus. •Stories from SFU’s student newspaper, like this one from June 1990, are now available online2 Simon Fraser University LIBRARY UPDATE sept 2012
New head of Fraser LibraryTwo weeks into her new position as headlibrarian at SFU’s Surrey campus, BaharakYousefi considers the view from her officewindow. She looks out at the stunningarchitecture of Surrey’s new City Centrepublic library. Its website advertises a café,teen lounge, community meeting rooms,WiFi and public computers in addition totraditional lending services-–communityinvolvement that Yousefi considers importantfor libraries today. “I am a book person,but to me, libraries are a lot more than books.They are about public space, communaleffort, social consumption--the idea of thecommons,” she says. Books are about ideas,and sharing those ideas is easier with opencommunity access.For Yousefi, returning to SFU is like cominghome. Her interest in books grew whilestudying for her undergraduate and mastersdegrees at SFU. After graduating, she workedin the retail world at Chapters and Duthie’sBooks, where she watched how buyersinteracted with books. “In a very naïve way,I thought libraries were about giving booksaway,” says Yousefi, echoing a favourite quoteby Zadie Smith: ‘A library is a different kindof social reality, which by its very existenceteaches a system of values beyond the fiscal.’Yousefi was inspired to enrol for a masters degreein library science at UBC where she waspleasantly surprised to discover that lendingis only a small part of a library’s mandate.Yousefi feels that libraries are part of aresurgence of caring in neighbourhoodsaround the Lower Mainland, like the carco-op she belongs to, or food sharingprograms and community gardens. “I havea sense of optimism,” she says. A framedArundhati Roy quotation sits in her officeemphasizing this hope: ‘Another world isnot only possible, she’s on the way...’ Soit’s not surprising that Yousefi describescommunity engagement as her most urgentrole at SFU. Her primary objectives aresustainable access to scholarly communicationsand helping students develop criticalBaharak Yousefithinking skills around information andresearch. “We also need to make facultyaware of curriculum and assignment planningresources available to them throughthe library,” she adds.Yousefi looks again out her window, reflectingon the whirlwind of her first monthsas head librarian, and waves towards theSurrey Public library saying, “I love the SFUstory: the promise... the radicalism. It’s greatto be back.” •belzberg library gets new student learning CommonsIn 2007, shortly after he pledged a donationto improve the Belzberg Library atSFU Vancouver, benefactor Dr. YosefWosk said, “I think it would be nice ifthere was a fireplace.” A great believer indialogue and group learning, Wosk felt afireplace would draw people in.After a few delays due to the moveof Contemporary Arts from Burnaby tothe Vancouver campus, renovations inSimon Fraser University LIBRARY UPDATE sept 2012the Belzberg Library are finally completeand the result is a new Student LearningCommons (SLC).A central part of the renovation is anew multi-use area where students cancollaborate on projects and assignmentsand work together to discuss ideas. SLCpeers are there to help students withacademic writing and other study skills.“We had been offering those servicescontinued on p. 4New Student Learning Commons.Karen Marotz is second from the right.3
Page 1: LIBRARY UPDATEAsk. Explore. Discove

From your shelves to ours - SFU Library - Simon Fraser University

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?