During the month of March, Red River College IT Solutions will be moving into the next phase of enhancements to the Student Email system, moving Student Mailboxes to Office 365 in the Cloud.

Students will access the Student Email service in the same manner that they have in the past, by using HUB, and will have the additional benefit of mobile access on their phones or tablets using Microsoft’s Apps.  Student Email using Office 365 will have a similar look and feel to the existing Student Email system, with slight changes in colours and enhanced features.  The email addresses for all students will continue to use the “username@academic.rrc.ca” format, allowing for a smooth transition into the new system and ensuring that communication from Faculty and Staff will continue to flow without issue.

Students will be notified by email of the upcoming change through an All Student email.  Additionally, students will receive an email from ITS on the day prior to their mailbox moving to make them aware of the imminent change.  No action is required by the students for this change to occur.

For further information and help please refer to:
http://blogs.rrc.ca/its/help-resources/

On May 16, Red River College is rolling out a new Student Email system (powered by Office 365), which will enable you to access your email, contacts, and calendar from virtually anywhere. Stay in sync and on schedule with Outlook, and coordinate more effectively with classmates and Instructors. The new Student Email will not change how you send email from Learn, but it will provide additional communication enhancements to you. You’ll be sent further information regarding this change to your current student email.

Student Email will not be available from 4pm on Friday, May 13 until 10pm on Sunday, May 15 while the upgrade is completed.

Once the change is complete, students will see a different look and feel, but the general email experience will remain the same. The email addresses for all students will remain as “username@academic.rrc.ca” and all of their mail from the current Student Email system will be transferred into the new system.

Important: If students have set their student email to automatically forward to another email address, they will likely find they have to reset their forwarding in the new email system.

Support documentation for the new mail system will be located at the IT Solutions Blog (https://blogs.rrc.ca/its/help-resources/).

A project management assignment planted a seed that bloomed at the Roblin Centre’s John and Bonnie Buhler Library. Library Technician Rosemary Woodby with the support of a Program Innovation Fund (PIF)  was able to procure two six foot tall, self-watering planters. A partnership with the Greenspace Horticultural students and their instructor, Ruth Rob, supplied the plants. Using the knowledge they have acquired as part of the Horticulture Practice course, the students planned the design and layout; chose and grew the plants and on a bright sunny Apr 13^th installed them in the planters. The Reading Room’s trademark sunlight takes care of the rest.

Living Walls, sometimes called Green Walls, have sprung up in a variety of settings, both inside and out. Some of the larger interior walls are physically connected to the HVAC system to actively pull air in for better circulation. Our wall isn’t quite so complicated however, using a ‘passive system’ as illustrated by the Florafelt system (Pictured right). While the project is not without risks ranging from plant to pump failure, but the gains far outweigh them and we can expect:

• Noise reduction
• Optimizing humidity
• Improved indoor air quality
• And the Horticulture students gaining an opportunity to work in a vertical format that is gaining popularity with both interior and exterior landscaping.

Last but not least, the greenery provides some welcome relief for staff and students from the stressful periods during the academic year. Woodby and Rob hope to apply what they have learned from installing this wall and add a second next year.

Before

Image: Rosemary Woodby

After

Image: Rosemary Woodby

Image: Fatima DeMelo

With contributions by Rosemary Woodby

With a well-deserved break fast approaching, we at RRC Library want to wish you all of the best in the holiday season and in the new year to come. Below are some highlights of the beautiful Christmas decorations put up by the Library staff this year. Enjoy!

Holiday Wreath at EDC Library

 

Christmas Tree at EDC Library Entrance

 

Christmas Display Behind Circulation Desk at NDC Library

 

Christmas Tree in NDC Library Sitting Area

Polar Bears at NDC Library

Christmas Light Display at EDC Library

 

Book Tree at NDC Library

The Library would like to extend a thank you to Peter Denton on the occasion of his recent book signing at the Red River College, Notre Dame Campus Library.

We’d also like to say congratulations for his appearance in the Winnipeg Free Press on Saturday 5 December 2014: Gauging the health of Earth – Writer helping UN take planet’s pulse.

Check it out!

Ally Week is a national youth-led effort empowering students to be allies against anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) bullying, harassment and name-calling.

It is usually held in September or October, often coinciding with National Coming Out Day on October 11, and October also being LGBT History Month. The event started in October 2005 and has grown since. This year Ally Week took place October 13-17, 2014.

The goal of Ally Week is to diminish stereotypes and exclusion while highlighting that peer support for LGBT students is stronger than the students themselves may have thought existed. People across the country can engage in a national dialogue about how everyone in and out of school can work to become better allies to LGBT youth.

Visit our the Notre Dame Campus Window Display

To increase LGBTT* awareness Library Services set up a window display at Notre Dame Campus where you can find additional information about the LGBTT* initiative at RRC.  As well, the RRC Library has many LGBTT* themed items in its collection. Check out some of the items that are currently on display in the Notre Dame Campus window display.

List of Items: http://library.rrc.ca/Search/Window-Display.aspx

Red River College (RRC) has a growing reputation as one of Canada’s greenest employers, thanks especially to its Sustainability Initiatives: http://blogs.rrc.ca/redgreen/

As an integral part of the College, the Library is no exception and practices sustainability in its everyday operations, such as purchasing environmentally friendly products whenever possible for its own supplies. These include paper products with recycled content, refillable pens, Enviro-Stik pencils, and recycled paper clips.

And, the Library also goes beyond what is required.  How does RRC Library uniquely practice sustainability? By:

• “Ever-greening” its collection; i.e. weeding to make room for new materials.  The old materials are not just thrown out to the landfill.  Far from it!  Once removed, they are made freely available for anyone to pick up from our freebie display.  Leftover items are picked up by the College’s Recycling team. 
• Practicing responsible printing – by staff and students with a bias to “keep it green and leave it on the screen”.
• Saving non-confidential photocopier/printer waste sheets that are blank on at least one side, for use as scrap paper by students and staff.
• Responsible recycling or disposal of video tapes, batteries, electronic equipment, etc.
• Inviting users to bring their own (ear)buds.   
• Launching its recreational reading book exchange program.
• Scrolling information on strategically placed screens for all to see instead of printing handouts.
• Featuring green themes in its window display, such as the recent “Prepare for Spring!”
• Creating curriculum-based, sustainability-related research guides, such as
  • Greenspace Management http://library.rrc.ca/subjectguides/greenspace/page_01.htm;
  • Prairie Restoration/Naturalization http://library.rrc.ca/subjectguides/prairie/page_01.htm; and 
  • Solar Car http://library.rrc.ca/SubjectGuides/solarcar/default.htm.
• Refreshing the air and milieu with plants – all provided by Library staff.
• Undertaking a composting pilot project at its Exchange District Campus location that collected 157.5 lbs. by weight and 205 liters by volume, over one calendar year, Jan. 26/12 to Jan. 25/13.

For further information about greening libraries:

• American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/tools/green-libraries
• Canadian Library Association’s Feliciter v. 58 no. 1 (2012) theme on “Greening Libraries”: http://www.cla.ca/Content/NavigationMenu/Resources/Feliciter/PastIssues/2012/Feliciter1_Vol_58_web.pdf
• Toward a Greener Library (University of Notre Dame):
  http://green.nd.edu/sustainability-in-action/toward-a-greener-library/  
• Greening the Library (Queen’s University): http://library.queensu.ca/library/about/vision/projects/green

RRC Library has many smoking-cessation related items in its collection, including many self-help books. Check out some of the items that are currently on display in the Notre Dame Campus Library window display.

Mid-January is the perfect time to revisit your New Year’s resolutions. If you’ve already let them slip, don’t worry too much as it is never too late to begin a life altering change to any bad habit. If one of your resolutions is to quit smoking, this is a good time to start as National Non-Smoking Week (NNSW) is January 19 to January 25.

National Non-Smoking Week is a yearly event in Canada. Since 1977, it continues to be observed on the third full week of January. Canada is a world leader in tobacco control. Smoking is at an all-time low in Canada and the number of Canadians that smoke on occasion has dropped to 17%. As well, the rate of Canadians who smoke on a daily basis is even lower at 14%.

Despite this achievement, tobacco use continues to be the most important cause of premature death in Canada. It is a leading cause of preventable lung disease, including lung cancer, and is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It has negative effects on nearly every organ of the body and is responsible for more than 37,000 premature deaths every year in Canada.

Not to mention… smoking is a very expensive habit. Are you a millionaire? Maybe not… then why not quit today?

“Weedless Wednesday” is on 22 Jan 2014

The Wednesday of National Non-Smoking Week is termed “Weedless Wednesday”.

Quitting smoking may be easier said than done, right? A great suggestion is to take advantage of “Weedless Wednesday” to kickstart the process of quitting smoking.

Top Tips for Quitting Smoking

According to the Canadian Centre for Tobacco Control (CCTC) some of the top tips for quitting smoking include:

• writing a “break-up letter” to tobacco
• keeping track of when and why you smoke each cigarette
• making it public, by declaring your intentions to your family and friends
• using the 4-D method when you feel a craving for a cigarette:
  1. take deep breaths,
  2. drink water,
  3. distract yourself, and
  4. delaying. (Realize that the craving will pass)
• managing stress in ways other than with cigarettes
• rewarding yourself
• reminding yourself of all the good that you’re doing by quitting

Reference: http://www.alive.com/posts/view/219/let_national_non-smoking_week_help_you_quit_smoking

The Library has Smoking Cessation Resources

RRC Library has many smoking related items in its collection, including many self-help books on the topic of quitting smoking.

Check out some of the items that are currently on display in the Notre Dame Campus window display.

Online Resources

• National Non-Smoking Week
• Let National Non-Smoking Week Help You Quit Smoking
• Quit Smoking—and Improve Your Overall Quality of Life

In the June 15^th Winnipeg Free Press, it was discussed (http://tinyurl.com/n6f3f7r) that some government emails are irreversibly deleted. Keeping digital records is important because they provide evidence of how government conducts its business.

Good recordkeeping requires a lot more effort than just ensuring crucial records are not deleted, whether intentionally or not. Essentially, digital records need to be maintained so that they can be accessible and usable over time. Physical artifacts may exist for thousands of years, and paper records could stay for decades, but digital records do not have such robustness. Digital carriers have short longevity, both media and file format obsolete in fast fashion (see Chamber of Horrors), digital data is vulnerable to damage (see Atlas of Digital Damages), can be altered with great ease, all of which could render digital files unreadable in a few years. Stated simply, digital records won’t survive benign neglect.

One might think about printing out and keeping paper records instead. This is definitely not an ideal solution—the benefit of digital format such as links, searchability, and certain functionalities will be lost. Digital records need to be refreshed and migrated on an on-going base. Till today, migration is the most commonly used digital preservation method followed by emulation. Neither of them is straightforward and can be costly. For example, when files are transferred to a different format, errors could be introduced. When it comes to proprietary software, when the vendor is out of the market, support is likely to be discontinued.

Digital preservation is at its infancy. Strategies and methodologies are yet to be developed! One thing is certain–we need to consciously and actively maintain our digital records to avoid leaving a black hole in our society’s collective memory.

Check out some of the items that are currently on display in the Notre Dame Campus window display

Please join the Red River College Library in a respectful observation of May 17th, the International Day Against Homophobia.

May 17 is symbolic due to its significance in the improvement of the status of gays and lesbians. In removing homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses on a May 17, the World Health Organisation put an end to over a century of homophobia in the medical field.

Homophobia is all the negative attitudes that can lead to rejection and to direct or indirect discrimination towards gay men, lesbians, and bisexual, transsexual or transgender people or toward anyone whose physical appearance or behaviour does not fit masculine or feminine stereotypes.

The theme of the International Day Against Homophobia 2013 campaign is “Fight the Homophobia Web Virus”.  For more information visit http://www.homophobiaday.org

Also, keep in mind that the The Pride Winnipeg Festival is coming up soon.  “Pride Week” is a multi-day celebration with many events for all segments of the LGBTT* community, all leading up to the main PRIDE DAY celebrations which will occur on Sunday June 2, 2013.

Do you want to learn more?  The RRC Library has many LGBTT* themed items in its collection. Check out some of the items that are currently on display in the Notre Dame Campus window display.