Library Ambassador, Deena Zeplowitz, at the Freedom to Read Week display in the Human- Library Maers @ McGill ities and Social Sciences Library. The display featured examples of banned books and VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 3 | MARCH 2008 showcased eye-catching new print reference www.library.mcgill.ca/library-about/pubs/newletter/ books, including a resource on banned books.

FROM THE TRENHOLME DIRECTOR OF LIBRARIES

S shop for graduate students. The event JANINE SCHMIDT, pring still seems some distance was designed to help students new to TRENHOLME away as we continue to experience teaching, as well as those who want to DIRECTOR OF record-breaking falls of snow. A few prepare for their future as research LIBRARIES birds were heard in early March but and teaching faculty members. The ever-mounting piles of snow beat aim of the sessions was to ensure that down any first green shoots of spring aspiring teachers feel more confident which had the temerity to appear. The about their teaching skills and strate- students have their heads down com- gies. The conference was organized by INSIDE pleting assignments and preparing for McGill’s Teaching & Learning Services examinations. We are busy ensuring (TLS) and Graduate & Postdoctoral WHAT’S NEW: Lorie Kloda is honoured and they have everything they need. Louis Studies (GPS). A general introductory new staff arrive on Page 2 Houle and I began March, if not session was followed by interactive Spring, by representing the Library at sessions focusing on such topics as En- WORKING THE LINES: Chris Lyons recalls an important training session for grad- gaging students through interactive his evening at the Thankathon on Page 3 uate students who want to gain strategies, Preparing and delivering effec- knowledge and skills in teaching. The tive presentations, Facilitating effective GETTING TO KNOW YOU: We put your session on March 8 was the first train- discussions: face to face and on-line and Osler guesses to the test on Page 4 ing program of this kind held at Information searching techniques in the McGill and was entitled Learning to ALERT!: April Colosimo shows us how to stay Teach: a professional development work- CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 on top of the literature on Page 5

1 LIBRARY MATTERS @ MCGILL VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 3

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 proved government support. She talked about the value that universi- Library Maers @ McGill age of Google. ties add to the economy of The Library Matters @ McGill newsletter It was an excellent day and we and and of the worldwide in- seeks to exchange and encourage ideas, in- would all benefit by thinking more fluence of McGill. The Library adds novation and information from McGill Library about our communication strategies value to McGill’s achievements and to staff at all levels. with students and designing effective the teaching, learning, research and The newsletter is published monthly. The course outlines for our information community activities and therefore to latest issue, as well as an archive of past is- skills programs. the globalized economy. We must do sues, can be found at www.mcgill.ca/library- Our Principal, Heather Munroe- our utmost to help McGill, and Que- about/pubs/newsletter/. Blum, spoke on March 10 at Mon- bec, grow and develop. Principal We welcome your contributions. The dead- treal’s Council on Foreign Relations on Munroe-Blum referred to the top six line for submissions is the first day of the issue the role of strong universities in a Quebec “brands” most recognized in- month. Send your input to the you-never- globalized economy, and the depend- ternationally. One of them is of course heard-it-from-us editorial team: ence of Quebec’s success on the suc- McGill—and the others? Bombardier, Louisa Piatti, [email protected] cess of its universities. The Principal SNC Lavalin., Hydro Quebec, Cirque Emma Buckley, [email protected] spoke convincingly of the need for a du Soleil—and of course Celine Dion. April Colosimo, [email protected] passion for education, excellence and McGill represents Quebec— and Rebecca Nicholson, rebecca.nicholson@ innovation and of the need for im- Canada—to the world. mcgill.ca

WHAT’S NEW

LORIE KLODA HONOURED and Resources team as Finance Ad- was still the Physical Sciences & Engi- Lorie Kloda (Life ministrator. Mohammad has worked neering Library, in a recent interview. Sciences) has been for the Faculty of Medicine and the John is currently awarded the Thom- Accounting Department at McGill and head of the Steacie son Scientific/MLA has experience in customer service, Science & Engineer- Doctoral Fellowship retail and buying. He has a BCom ing Library at York for the year 2008 by from McGill and is working toward University in the Medical Library Association. Lorie completing his Chartered Account- Toronto. is currently on leave from the Life Sci- ancy qualifications at McGill. “So, it was back to school for a Library ences Library, pursuing a PhD in the and Information Science degree at School of Information Studies at A NEW ARRIVAL McGill; while there I worked at the McGill. Congratulations, Lorie! Adia Katherine Byrne was born to McGill Physical Sciences & Engineering Tara Mawhinney (Schulich Library) Library for a practicum placement and STAFF NEWS and Chris Byrne on March 17, weigh- got bien by the science librarian bug,” Stéphanie Simard, began work as ing 7lbs 11 oz. he tells the science blog “A Blog Around Liaison Librarian at Schulich Library Congratula- the Clock” (scienceblogs.com/clock/). of Science and Engineering in March. tions Tara and “It was a great place to work with a She replaces Tara Mawhinney while Chris, and passionate, commited [sic] staff dedi- she is on maternity leave. Stéphanie welcome Adia! cated to helping faculty and students. has an MLIS from McGill, and worked Luckily, when I graduated a job came in IT before studying librarianship. YORK LIBRARIAN RECALLS MCGILL open at York in the science library and She comes to us from the Career and John Dupuis, author of the blog the rest, as they say, is history.” Placement Service at McGill. “Confessions of a Science Librarian,” To read the whole interview, visit Also in March, Mohammad recalled his time as a practicum scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/02/science_li- Amirzad joined the Library’s Planning student at Schulich Library, when it brarian_in_a_confess.php.

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WORKING THE THANKATHON PHONE LINES

BY CHRIS LYONS (OSLER LIBRARY) and sometimes touching stories about why people have chosen to support the For the past few years, several Library Library. One father explained to me staff members have joined together for how he gives annually because of his an evening with other McGill volun- daughter. It seems that she wasn't a teers at Martlet House to do something very motivated high school student and very important for the University: he despaired about what would happen thank those who contribute to McGill’s when she started at McGill, but accord- Alma Mater Fund. ing to him, she ‘lived in the Library” as As you know, higher education in an undergraduate and is now doing a Quebec is a tremendous bargain com- PhD in psychology. As a Library staff pared with elsewhere in North Amer- member it’s nice to find out about how ica, but this comes at the cost of lower we sometimes have such a positive ef- revenues and rising deficits. Each year fect on people without even knowing it. McGill struggles to provide a world There are also the funny moments. I've class education despite this. What always felt that Montreal is really just a makes such a tremendous difference, small town, so I wasn’t surprised when though, is the remarkable generosity of I ended up calling one of my col- alumni and others. The McGill Alma leagues, but I was a bit taken aback Mater Fund is large, and the income when I called a donor who works at helps us to provide the resources that Martlet House and found out I was make a big difference in the quality of using her office. life at McGill. Just think of the joy we all The organizers of the Thankathon also JUST THINK OF THE JOY WE ALL feel at being able to offer comprehen- make a tremendous effort to make it a FEEL AT BEING ABLE TO OFFER COM- sive services, build such great collec- pleasant evening for the volunteers. PREHENSIVE SERVICES, BUILD SUCH tions and renovate our spaces; now First off, they provide a buffet, which in GREAT COLLECTIONS AND RENOVATE imagine trying to do all this without the itself ensures that I come back each OUR SPACES; NOW IMAGINE TRYING TO extra money that our donors provide. year. Throughout the evening there are DO ALL THIS WITHOUT THE EXTRA I like doing the Thankathon because also prizes drawn. I was the big winner MONEY THAT OUR DONORS PROVIDE. I’m grateful, but I also do it because it’s this year—receiving a stainless steel fun. Volunteers are matched to donors, barbecue set that puts my lile hibachi so I get to contact Library ones. It's to shame. Thank goodness it is stainless great to call someone and tell them that steel though, as it doesn’t look like I’m you are only calling to thank them and going to be using it any time soon! not asking for more money. Their initial Everyone also gets a parting gi for shock, mistrust and disbelief is quickly having come out. Given all this, three replaced by appreciation for the ges- hours a year is not too much to give ture. This is oen followed by pleasant considering the wonderful returns.

“Reading gives us some- place to go when we have to stay where we are.”

– Mason Cooley, U.S. aphorist.

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GETTING TO KNOW YOU: OSLER LIBRARY OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE

BY THE STAFF OF OSLER LIBRARY

Welcome to the Osler Library, one of McGill’s best kept secrets. Pam Miller, Lily Szczygiel and Chris Lyons have been keeping the Oslerian flame alive and themselves out of trouble for a collective total of almost 40 years. We decided that it might be fun to try and guess who we are, or at least find out what you think of us, by hav- ing you do the following quiz: we each wrote our answers for each of the profile questions, then scrambled them up. The person who is able to correctly attribute the most answers to the right staff member will receive a copy of one of our Pam Miller, Lily Szczygiel and Chris Lyons publications; the first runner up will win two copies. Email your answers to lily.szczygiel@ is the family’s country home at Lac Gagnon. • Long walks, theatre, movies, travelling, drawing. mcgill.ca. The contest will end a week after Li- • There are so many favourite places that it’s brary Matters is published. Good luck! hard to say—most of them are second hand 9. What is your pet peeve? bookstores. • CBC Radio 2’s new programming...too much 1. Where were you born? jazz • Montreal 6. What is your favorite dessert? • No response • Montreal • If I had to name only one, it would be cheese • Delays and wasting time. • Montreal cake. • Anything chocolate. 10. What is/are your favorite quote(s)? Talk about making the beginning easy! • Anything with chocolate. • “The mind is everything, what you think, you become” 2. What part of town do you live in? 7. What are you reading and/or listening to? • “A vision without a task is but a dream, a task • Westmount • I enjoy all kinds of music. Lately it’s been the without a vision is drudgery, a vision and a • Park-Ex Saturday Night Fever track by the Bee Gees. task is the hope of the world.” I’ve seen this • NDG Don’t ask me why. The Five People you Meet attributed to various sources. in Heaven by Mitch Albom. • “Aequanimitas” from Osler’s coat of arms/ or 3. How long have you worked at the library? • The Naming of Names: the Search for Order something like, “It is not important to learn how • 3 years in the World of Plants, by Anna Pavord. I enjoy to swim, what is important is clinging to the • 12 years listening to anything with Daniel Taylor wreckage.” (John Mortimer, Clinging to the • 22 years • I’m reading The Gospel of Germs by Nancy Wreckage, a Part of Life, badly misquoted) Tomes. It’s about the popularization of germ 4. Do you have any pets? theory in the United States in the late nine- 11. What is one thing that people do not • No, but would love to own a dog one day. teenth and early twentieth centuries and how know about you? • We live in a zoo. We have one cat, a canary, it changed behaviours. It’s a social history of • In India I was allowed to drive a railway steam two very noisy budgies, a gecko, two iguanas, medicine work. I’m listening to lots of Grateful engine. People were unbelievably hospitable a turtle and several fish. Oh, and we have a Dead concert recordings thanks to the thou- throughout the country, but this was perhaps squirrel that’s nested on our back balcony. sands available on the Internet Archive going too far, even though I felt incredibly • Only allergies. (www.archive.org). lucky. 5. What is your favorite place in Montreal? 8. What are your other interests? • I once danced with Canadian choreographer • Mount Royal. • Travelling, book collecting, architecture. Brian Macdonald. (He briefly taught ball-room • I can’t think of any place in particular. I love Mon- • Music, gardening, cross country skiing, swim- dancing to children of McGill graduates.) treal. It’s a great walking city. My favourite place ming, grandchildren. • No response.

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STAY CURRENT WITH ALERTS

BY APRIL COLOSIMO (LIFE SCIENCES LIBRARY)

To keep up to date in areas of interest set up alerts in the different products available through McGill Library. Alerts are also a current awareness tool that we can promote to graduate students and faculty who need to stay on top of the literature published in their field. Many may already be receiving table of contents alerts of their favourite jour- nals by email or RSS feed, but are per- haps not aware that this feature is also available for a growing number of data- bases. To use an example, the My Alerts op- tion in Scopus provides both search alerts and document citation alerts. Search alerts are created by selecting Save as Alert on the results page. The search can be run daily, weekly or look for the E-mail Alert link or RSS monthly and will arrive by email as a buon. link to the new Scopus results. If RSS is Have fun exploring the alert options more your thing find the RSS buon in your favourite database and encour- and subscribe to a feed that will show age others to give it a try. you the top 20 results of your Scopus search each day. RELATED BOOK AT THE LIBRARY: Similarly, get notified when a docu- How LIS professionals can use alerting services ment is cited by email or RSS feed. Oxford: Chandos, 2006 Click on the buon Abstract and Refs Humanities and Social Sciences Library Screenshots from Scopus under the title of the document and Z674.4 F68 2006

COMING ATTRACTIONS

The Friends of the Library present English literature at authored A Feminist Guide to the Canadian Con- The Hugh MacLennan Memorial Lecture: McGill University. stitution (1992). Her thoughtful, engaging inter- She has hosted CBC views have been published by Knopf Canada and “The Lives of Writers” radio’s award-win- HarperCollins in three different “conversation col- presented by Eleanor Wachtel ning “Writers & Com- lections”. Thursday, April 17, 2008 pany” since its Wachtel has received wide recognition for her 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. inception in 1990; work, including six honorary degrees—received Moyse Hall, Arts Building, McGill University was host of “The Arts most recently from and 853 Sherbrooke Street West Tonight” between Simon Fraser University. In 2005, she was named Eleanor Wachtel Reception to follow. RSVP to 514-398-4681 or by 1996 and 2007, and a Member of the Order of Canada. email to [email protected] now takes an in-depth look at ideas in the arts in The Hugh MacLennan Memorial Lecture series “Wachtel on the Arts”. was established in 1992 with help of a 5-year grant Eleanor Wachtel Wachtel has contributed to best-selling publica- from the M.E. Hart Foundation, and receives ongo- Renowned arts journalist Eleanor Wachtel was tions, co-edited two books (The Expo Story ing support from the Friends of the Library. born and raised in Montreal, where she studied (1986) and Language in Her Eye (1990)), and co-

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CARING FOR THE COLLECTION

A recent meeting between Liaison Li- ters discussed at the meeting are listed •Duplicate Copies – Please indicate if brarians and Collection Services em- below. you are ordering a duplicate or re- phasized the importance of “care and •Allocations – Funds need to be en- placement copy of something that the management of the Collection,” a cumbered by the end of March to en- Library currently owns in print or as an phrase encompassing all aspects of col- sure materials arrive and are paid for e-book, or the Library will return the lection management, from collection in this budget year. order to the person ordering, assuming policy development to preservation. •Collection Development Policies – they are not aware it is a duplicate. Collection Services outlined its strate- Please create, review, and re-evaluate •Multiple Copies – Multiple copies of gic goals for 2007/2008: to acquire, or- policies. heavily used textbooks are provided. ganize and preserve outstanding print •Course Packs – The Library obtains The general guidelines are one copy and electronic collections of informa- at least one copy of each course pack for up to 50 students, two for 51 to tion resources to support curriculum which is placed on reserve. However, 100, three for 101 to 150 and four for outcomes and research productivity, encourage faculty to use myCourses over 151. paying particular aention to online (WebCT Vista) to link up to electronic •Out of Print – Vendors may keep backfiles and reserves. Plans to improve journal articles instead of Course checking up to 18 months for out of communication between Collection Packs when available. print items and these can not be can- Services and the branches through •De-Selection Policy – Can be found celed by Collection Services. Watch branch visits were also discussed. on the U drive at U:\\Common\Collection out for notes in GOBI that say that re- The main policy and procedural mat- Services\Policies. quests can not be cancelled. •Use the 0 Circ Reports – Found at U:\\Common\AlephReports\0 Circ Reports to review collections. Use the weekly “I can't afford to waste hold alerts to make decisions about my time making money.” purchasing additional copies. •Videos – Public performance rights – Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe are obtained when possible. (1807 - 1873), YBP GOBI new release information Swiss naturalist • – new version released last week; training available in April.

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