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Red River College Library’s Sustainability Initiatives

April 16, 2014

we recycleRed 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
  • 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:

National Non-Smoking Week – 19-25 January 2014

January 16, 2014

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.

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

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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

allen-carr's-easyway-to-stop-smoking-msuqmh8tRRC 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

Library Window Display: Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 13, 2013

Library Window Display: Transgender Day of Remembrance: LGBTT*

Library Window Display: Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance.  It is a day that was established to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.  The Transgender Day of Remembrance raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people and also gives a moment when people can stop and memorialize those who have died by anti-transgender violence. (Source: http://www.transgenderdor.org/)

Visit our the Notre Dame Campus Window Display

To increase awareness on this issue, the LGBTT* Initiative and Library Services set up a LGBTT* library window display at Notre Dame Campus where you can find information about Transgender Day of Remembrance, terminology about gender identity, locations of the gender neutral washrooms at the College.

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.

Library Art Contest Winners

November 8, 2013

In October, as a celebration of Canadian Library Month, the Library invited Red River College students to show off their artistic talent by illustrating a 3 X 5 library index card from our old card catalogue.

Now that the contest is complete, we’d like to present the entries of our two winners below:

by Jo Shepherd

by Jo Shepherd

by Jo Shepherd

by Jo Shepherd

By David Pelland

By David Pelland

By David Pelland

By David Pelland

Congratulations to Jo Shepherd and David Pelland! Both winners will receive a Red River College Bookstore gift card.

David Pelland (left) receiving his prize from Norman Beattie, Coordinator of Public Services, Notre Dame Campus Library

David Pelland (left) receiving his prize from Norman Beattie, Coordinator of Public Services, Notre Dame Campus Library

Jolene Shepherd (left) receiving her prize from Phyllis Barich,  Coordinator, Exchange District Campus Library

Jolene Shepherd (left) receiving her prize from Phyllis Barich, Coordinator, Exchange District Campus Library

Library Art Contest

October 15, 2013

card-norman

October is Canadian Library Month. The Library would like to invite you to show off your artistic talent by illustrating a 3 X 5 library index card.

prizesRULES:

  • Open to all RRC students
  • Choose up to 3 cards from any Library location.
  • Illustrate the FRONT of the card incorporating the card’s wording and/or concept. Ideally, keeping the words visible.
  • Use any physical media (i.e. crayon, coloured pencils, macaroni, multi-media, etc.) and style of art.
  • Write your name and contact information clearly on the back.

Entries will be judged on:

  • Quality of the artwork.
  • Artistic interpretation.
  • Creativity.
  • Medium.

Submission

  • Entries must be submitted to either Library location by 4:30 pm on Friday November 1.
  • Winning cards and honourable mentions will be displayed in the Library. (Cards will not be returned.)

Examples

card examples

To view examples go to:  http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/08/library-services/how-to-host-a-card-catalog-contest/

For More Information

Check out our posters throughout the campus.  If you have any further questions you are invited to make inquiries at any of our Library Reference Desks.

October is Canadian Library Month

September 26, 2013

webad_CLA

People!  Ideas!  Communities!  Information!  Canada’s libraries foster connections between people, ideas, communities, and information.

In October, these types of connections will be celebrated during Canadian Library Month. This year’s theme is “Libraries Connect”, highlighting how libraries enable people to connect with others, foster the development of ideas, and promote the growth of strong communities.

At this very moment, from coast to coast to coast, Canadian libraries are connecting people with information, providing endless opportunity to people in our diverse communities. For generations, libraries and librarians have worked at the grass roots level, providing services to communities. Today, in Canada, over 23,000 librarians and library clerks serve in over 22,000 libraries in incredibly diverse communities, from major metropolitan areas to towns and rural hamlets, from research‐intensive universities to colleges of art and design.

As well, academic libraries, school libraries and special libraries add to the creativity and personal, professional and academic growth of many Canadians. These libraries serve everyone from students and faculty to those working in the corporate, government, legal and non‐profit sectors.

For additional information please refer to the Canadian Library Month Website:
http://cla.pwwebhost.com/CLM13/

Are we losing it? Thoughts on “Digital Records Dilemma”

June 17, 2013

In the June 15th 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.

It’s now or Naxos!

June 5, 2013

notesWith the Winnipeg Jazz Festival right around the corner (and down the street) from June 13 -23rd why not get in some early jazz listening.

Check out the Naxos Music Library – Jazz available on the Library’s website.

Thousands of tracks of jazz from over 2,300 albums.  Search by artist, genre and composer. Simply log in to the Naxos Jazz website and search for your favourite jazz artist or jazz track. Create your own playlists.

How to get there:

  1. Go to the Library’s website.
  2. Go to Article and Databases – Alphabetical – Naxos Music Library – Jazz.
  3. Log in with your College username and password.

More music can be found in the Naxos Music Library – the world´s largest online classical music library with over 85,000 discs and 1.2 million tracks.

In the meantime, check out Jazz Festival Headliner, George Benson’s “Breezin’” track: http://redriver.naxosmusiclibrary.com.athena.rrc.mb.ca:2048/jazz/stream.asp?s=152963%2Fredrivernmlj3%2Fsz7323%5F001

guitar

What’s Happening at the CLA?

May 31, 2013

The Canadian Libraries Association annual conference is being held in Winnipeg this week. Red River College is well represented as several staff members are attending, taking advantage of the proximity of this years conference.

The annual CLA conference draws participants from public, college and university, special and school libraries, as well as commercial participants. It is an important and well attended conference.

So, what was discussed?

A DRM “Brave New World”

Cory Doctorow - Opening keynote speaker CLA 2013 Winnipeg

Cory Doctorow – Opening keynote speaker CLA 2013 Winnipeg

On Thursday 30 May 13, the keynote speaker was the well-known science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist Cory Doctorow.

As well as being the the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net) he is also a regular contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and Wired. He is an activist in favour of liberalizing copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization. In fact, he publishes much of his work under a creative-commons licence.

In his keynote address Doctorow spoke about DRM and how it is affecting our privacy and freedoms. For example, he described how DRM software can be used to take over our computers with hidden files and even introduce spyware.

One of his messages to the Librarians in the room was to avoid purchasing materials with DRM, and essentially join him in his advocacy against DRM.

At one point he made reference to the monetizing of smart phone tracking data, something government agencies usually regard as a harmless act, downplaying the tracking data as benign information. Doctorow’s opinion, in contrast, “there is a very fine and philosophical line between data and metadata.”

Doctorow spoke of the fact that our society should be moving towards greater transparency and digital freedom. However, as Doctorow pointed out, we actually seem to be moving closer to a darker age where governments and corporations can reduce our privacy at will, even going as far as turning on our digital cameras for the purpose of spying on us.

It was an wonderful presentation. Doctorow proved to be engaging and his topics were thought-provoking and extremely timely, as he astutely pointed out, our copyright legislations are currently under large scale review.

McLuhan, Books & Libraries: An Old Figure in a New Ground

Dr. Robert K. Logan from the University of Toronto presented several recollections of conversations with McLuhan. As a past colleague of McLuhan his knowledge of the man seemed peerless.

As well, doing his best to channel McLuhan, Dr. Logan described how he is endeavouring to answer several burning questions about the future of libraries in an effort to write a new book about the subject.

FrankenLibraries: The Latest Tech Trends

Presented by Stephen Abram, a veteran library watcher, strategic technologist and library futurist, the topic centred on services libraries should be adopting for present and future relevance.

One of the first slides in Abrams presentation was “It’s simple really, shift happens, gedoverit (sic)”. This terse statement summed up the topic very well.

One of the important points of the presentation was how libraries need to measure impact rather than just circulation statistics. In fact, the number of people passing through the library doors should be a powerful indicator of success, while dwindling circulation statistics should be considered to be less indicative.

As well, libraries need to focus on professional services and strategic alignment. Librarians need to be service professionals and not servants, and educators not supplements. He pointed out that Librarians are powerful agents for successful learning and they should be seen as such.

Lastly, Abrams stressed the power of video resources. He pointed out that humans are visual learners and they will learn better through video rather than print.

Stephen Abram’s Blog: http://Stephenslighthouse.com

Winnipeg Hosts CLA 2013 National Conference and Trade Show

May 29, 2013

A National Library Event

Library staff from Red River College Library are geared up for the CLA 2013 National Conference and Trade Show taking place May 29 – June 1, 2013. Thousands of library professionals from Canada and the U.S. will gather at the Winnipeg Convention Centre to network and to learn about the latest trends and developments in the world of libraries.


Introducing the CLA 2013 Conference Keynote Speakers…

photo by Jonathan Worth (JonathanWorth.com), Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

CORY DOCTOROW
photo by Jonathan Worth (JonathanWorth.com), Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Cory Doctorow 
(http://craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing (http://boingboing.net) and the author of the bestselling Tor Teen/HarperCollins UK novel LITTLE BROTHER. His latest young adult novel is HOMELAND, his latest novel for adults is RAPTURE OF THE NERDS.

Source: http://craphound.com/bio.php

photo by Joi [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

REBECCA MACKINNON
photo by Joi [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Rebecca MacKinnon
is a leading voice on issues of privacy, free expression and governance in the digital networks, platforms and services. She is Senior Research Fellow at the (New America Foundation), is involved with Ranking Digital Rights, and co-founder of Global Voices Online, a global citizen media network. Her book, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom was published in 2012 and received the 2013 Goldsmith Book Prize.

Source:
http://rconversation.blogs.com/
about.html

 

RRC Polytech campuses are located on the lands of Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dené, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis.

We recognize and honour Treaty 3 Territory Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, the source of Winnipeg’s clean drinking water. In addition, we acknowledge Treaty Territories which provide us with access to electricity we use in both our personal and professional lives.

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