Monthly Archives: February 2012

Upcoming Meeting

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The next ALA Student Chapter meeting will be held tomorrow, February 29 at noon in the trail room. We will be discussing the quickly approaching marathon reading event, t-shirt orders and more future projects. Please come and share your ideas!

If you have any questions, send them over. Hope to see you there!

Marathon Reading Event

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We are VERY excited to invite you to participate in a Marathon Reading Event!

A what?
The Marathon Reading Event, a joint effort of ALA@UBC, the SLAIS community, and Creative Writing students at UBC, is an opportunity to come together in celebration of our professions, our community, and our love for books. During the event, participants will take turns reading aloud from their favorite works. Everyone is invited to stop by to listen, enjoy treats, and contribute a loonie or two to our by-donation fundraiser. All proceeds will go to program development at the Carnegie Branch of the VPL in the Carnegie Centre.

Awesome! So when and where is this happening?
Wednesday, March 7 from 8 am to 8 pm in the Lillooet Room of IKBLC
Friday, March 9 from 1 pm to 3 pm in the auditorium at the Carnegie Centre

How can I participate?
There are many ways!

– Stop by the Dodson Room anytime on March 7 to listen to readings, relax with friends, eat snacks, and donate to our fundraiser
– Sign up to read aloud from your favorite book at the Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ni7m1KrHn_DA1Pa9YD1V2P0vqf-psbKjD5Q7-cSLHo0/edit
– Bake something tasty for people to nibble on at the Dodson Room portion of the event, just bring it at anytime on March 7
– Come to the Carnegie Centre between 1 and 3 on March 9 to listen to readings by Carnegie patrons (or to read yourself if there are gaps in the action!)


Some incentives!
Everyone who reads and/or donates to the bake sale will be entered to win a gift card!

We’re pumped about this, and hope you are too. Please feel free to share this with friends, everyone is invited!

Any questions, just send them over!

Surrey City Centre Library Tour Recap

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Check out this lovely piece and photos by Brigid Winter on the Surrey City Centre Library tour co-hosted by the BCLA-CLA and ALA student groups.

A Library, Monumental by Brigid Winter

A monumental library is a very large library but it is more, it is a grand, impressive, meaningful monument with distinctive architecture that inspires wonder.  A building that evokes exclamations like, ‘tremendous’ or ‘magnificent.’  It is a monumental structure that just happens to house a library.  (Shoham & Yablonka, 2008)

I don’t know about anyone else but I certainly felt the magnificence of the Surrey City Central Library at first look.  My initial thought on catching a glimpse of the library from the train was ‘Wow, that is a monumental library.’  Without knowing that it was the library, I recognized that it was the library (does that make sense to anyone else?).  In my unlearned and untrained, non-architectural mind it certainly seemed like a building worthy of a place in any architectural digest.  I was impressed by the use of the space and how everything felt and looked like parts of a natural flow; with natural light streaming through the expanse of glass walls.

Although, there was massive construction taking place directly in front of the library, it did not take away from its WOW factor but made me anxious to see what the entire area would look like after the planned developments were complete. One thing’s for sure – with the library on one side and the city hall the other, the area is bound to be teeming with people; an information exchange zone of sorts.

Our grand tour, led by the able David Kerr, took us from the ground floor (which featured a small café) all the way up to the seventh floor; each floor with its own personality and style and type of people.  There was a lot to see so I’ll just point out some of the features/things that made an impression on me:

  1. The public spaces – we were told that that was part of the plan, to create a lot of open/communal spaces.  However, if you’re the peace and quiet type, there are also loads of quiet study areas you could hang out in.
  2. Self-serve check out and return options available.
  3. Teen lounge and gaming room with huge flat screen TV!  How cool is that?  I sure would have loved to have that kind of library around when I was a teenager.
  4. The visually impaired have been catered for by way of the Read-Ability Center.
  5. The different and unique collection of seating options.
  6. The senior’s lounge.
  7. Computer room and training center.
  8. The ‘sound’ chairs!  Insert a CD or even dock your own iPod/iPhone and just let the music flow over you.  Oh, to own one of those myself…
  9. And let’s not forget the various collections of information  – books, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, journals, etc.

What I appreciated the most was that every age group was catered for in the planning of this library; from preschooler all the way to the senior citizen.  The library has an excellent ‘vibe;” so much so that it didn’t feel like a library at all but a recreation club.  This is definitely a library of the future, keeping pace with the rapid changes in technology and responding to these changes in order to meet the needs of its users.  Here’s to monumental!

References

Shoham, S., & Yablonka, I. (2008).   Monumental Library Buildings in the Internet Era: the future of public libraries.  IFLA Journal, 34, 266-279.  doi: 10.1177/0340035208097227

Meeting Minutes | 12 January 2012

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1. Meeting called to order

2. Welcome and introductions of new and returning members

3. Approval of meeting minutes

  • November 8 meeting minutes are approved, with correction of “brining” to “bringing” under the second bullet of item three (Marathon Reading) and removal of attendance list before posting to the blog.

4. Announcements

  • The winner of the ALA student-to-staff program essay contest is Sarah Fallik. Sarah will be attending the ALA Annual Conference 2012 in Anaheim, CA, this June and will let us know about her experiences there.

5. Old Business

  • Bake sale results: Last term’s bake sale and white elephant gift swap raised approximately $170, which nearly quadrupled the ALA student group account balance. The amount raised makes this a very successful event. Plans to hold another bake sale in March near the end of this term will be discussed at subsequent meetings.
  • Surrey Public Library tour: The joint ALA / BCLA tour of the Surrey Public Library will be held on Thursday, January 26, at 10 a.m. The tour will last an hour, so those joining the tour should block out about four hours for the trip, including travel time. People should expect to be back in time for afternoon classes. An announcement will be sent out with additional information, travel details, and an opportunity to RSVP.
  • Marathon Reading:
    – Carrie reported on the progress of the “marathon reading” event – a way to raise awareness of the ALA student group, raise money for a cause, and partner with other student groups (Librarians Without Borders).
    – The event will go two days (two 12-hour sessions) and funds will be raised by purchase of baked goods during the event (by donation) and from donations made during readings.
    – Funds will go to the Carnegie Center Library and Carrie has been in touch with acting director Megan Langley about having part of the event at the Carnegie Center to allow the library’s patrons to participate.
    – After a vote, it is decided that the likely dates of the event will be February 14 and 15.
    – Next steps will be to coordinate with Carnegie Center and to book a room.
    – Since the readers and the audience will come and go, it will be possible to have the event work around classes.
    – The hope is to also include other departments at UBC, such as the English and theater departments and various MFA programs.
    – A sign up sheet was passed around to solicit additional members of the marathon reading committee: Sam M., Jason K., Meghan W., Nadia S., Elspeth O. and Sarah F.

6. New Business

  • ALA@UBC t-shirt contest: The chapter will be holding a contest to design the ALA@UBC student chapter t-shirt. One-color designs for one-sided t-shirt are due in paper or electronic format to Layla Naquin by February 6. The design should incorporate ALA@UBC, but otherwise, the design is up to entrants. The winning design will be decided by silent vote at the next meeting. An announcement will be sent out with additional details.
  • New ideas / brainstorming:
    – A question from Sam: How is the ALA@UBC student chapter connected to the larger ALA organization. The ALA student chapter at UBC is one of about 60 recognized student chapters. ALA@UBC is currently trying to organize an exchange with the ALA student chapter at University of Washington. Members of the student ALA chapters can join the ALA parent organization at a reduced rate of $33. The ALA membership gives you access to publications and reduced-rate and free online workshops. Members can also join various roundtables and interest groups within the larger ALA organization. The ALA@UBC chapter is relatively new, so provides a great opportunity for members to shape the direction of the group.
    – Other possible upcoming ALA@UBC events include a lunch speakers series. Feel free to contact any of the members of the executive committee with ideas for the group
    – Cherry blossom / haiku festival: Nick proposes a cherry blossom celebration and haiku writing event in March that would allow collaboration with international students and the Asian Library at UBC. The event could possibly be held at the Nitobe Garden at UBC and could involve writing haiku on pink paper in order to create artistic representations of cherry trees in bloom. A sign up sheet was passed around to solicit members of the cherry blossom / haiku festival committee: Jennifer P., Sam M., and Nick J.
  • The next meeting on February 7 at 12 p.m. in the Trail Room at SLAIS will cover the marathon reading, the t-shirt contest, and possible ALA-themed weeks around which ALA@UBC can plan special events (i.e., Banned Book Week in September, which would need to be planned in the spring).

7. Meeting adjourned