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- ItemOpen AccessShedding light on an important archive: digitizing the Winnifred Eaton Reeve fonds(2024-06-14) McKillop, Christena; Nisenson, Jason; Ruddock, KathrynThe Winnifred Eaton Reeve fonds, a significant collection in the literary archives at the University of Calgary, chronicles the works of Winnifred Eaton Reeve (1875-1954), a pivotal early Chinese North American fiction-writer who assumed the Japanese persona “Onoto Watanna.” This collection became the focal point of a comprehensive digitization project driven by substantial demand from academic researchers. This project was unique as it encompassed digitizing the entire collection. The session will include a brief overview of our first venture in digitizing an entire archival collection during a time of change. Attendees will learn about our approach to this digitization project and its multifaceted aspects that needed to be considered. The inherent fragility of the artifacts mandated extreme caution during every interaction, underscoring the need for digitization to safeguard and enhance accessibility for present and future Winnifred Eaton Reeve enthusiasts. Significant challenges and opportunities encountered during the project will be highlighted, including metadata mapping across disciplines, managing sensitive content, and adapting to unforeseen changes in the Canadian copyright landscape as well as substantially updating the finding aid and creating an online guide to increase access to the collection. With the successful completion of the digitization project, access collection either the physical or digital can be an effective way to raise awareness of this important Canadian author and generate new understandings through researching Winnifred Eaton Reeve’s life and works.
- ItemOpen AccessDigitizing the Winnifred Eaton Reeve Fonds Project: Sometimes it Takes a Village(2024-05-29) McKillop, Christena; Nisenson, Jason; Ruddock, KathrynThe University of Calgary’s Archives and Special Collections houses the Winnifred Eaton Reeve archive, a popular collection for literary researchers investigating Winnifred Eaton Reeve, a pivotal early Chinese North American fiction-writer who assumed the Japanese persona “Onoto Watanna.” Winnifred Eaton Reeve (1875-1954) was a successful novelist in North America as well as a Hollywood editor, story and screenplay writer. This collection stands as the second most frequently consulted fonds in our literary archives. The inherent fragility of the artifacts mandated extreme caution during every interaction, underscoring the need for digitization to safeguard and enhance accessibility for present and future Winnifred Eaton Reeve enthusiasts. The rising demand for digital access from external academic researchers became the catalyst for a full-scale digitization project. This project was unique not only as it encompassed digitizing the entire collection but because a cross-departmental team was created to handle the project. The presenters will discuss how the complexities of a team approach for the digitization project – from retrieval, description, and handling of fragile materials to addressing metadata mapping, sensitive content, and navigating changes in the Canadian copyright act, substantially updating the finding aid and creating an online research guide drew upon a wide-range of information experts from across the library system. Insights from our first endeavor in digitizing an entire archival collection will be shared, offering lessons learned and future directions.
- ItemOpen AccessMap of 19th Century Writers(arcgis.com, 2024) Jacobson, Dan; Falahatkar, Hawjin; Brosz, John; Bourrier, Karen
- ItemOpen AccessReference Chatbots in Canadian Academic Libraries(Information Technology and Libraries, 2023-12-18) Guy, Julia; Pival, Paul R.; Lewis, Carla J.; Groome, KimChatbots are “computer agents that can interact with the user” in a way that feels like human-to- human conversation.1 While the use of chatbots for reference service in academic libraries is a topic of interest for both library professionals and researchers, little is known about how they are used in library reference service, especially in academic libraries in Canada. This article aims to fill this gap by conducting a web-based survey of 106 academic library websites in Canada and analyzing the prevalence and characteristics of chatbot and live chat services offered by these libraries. The authors found that only two libraries were using chatbots for reference service. For live chat services, the authors found that 78 libraries provided this service. The article discusses possible reasons for the low adoption of chatbots in academic libraries, such as accessibility, privacy, cost, and professional identity issues. The article also provides a case study of the authors’ institution, the University of Calgary, which integrated a chatbot service in 2021. The article concludes with suggestions for future research on chatbot use in libraries.
- ItemOpen AccessSupreme Courts, Photocopiers, and Copyright(2024-01-26) Tiessen, RobertOn the 20th anniversary of CCH, compared the CCH Supreme Court Judgment to its two main international comparitors: Moorhouse (Australia); and William & Wilkins (United States). Compared what happened in the past and what might happen next.