The talk of the Library Town Hall: update

On March 25 the Library held an engaging Town Hall discussion on its Strategic Plan 2020-2025. 

This page was updated April 19, 2021.

Nearly 100 participants gathered virtually to get a behind-the-curtain look at how the Library operates and its ever-critical role in teaching, learning, research and the UWaterloo journey. 

Moderated by Beyond the Bulletin Podcast co-host Pamela Smyth, the event featured special guests James Rush, vice president academic & provost, and Bruce Muirhead, associate vice president, research oversight and analysis. University Librarian Beth Namachchivaya followed with an informative presentation and dynamic conversation about the Library, its strategic goals, and the active work currently taking place. Questions from participants touched on a number of areas including the pandemic's effect on library services, infrastructure improvements, and the rising costs of scholarly journals and books.

This event highlighted the unifying force of the Library, often referred to as the heart of the campus, across disciplines and across the University.

If you missed the live event, you can access the recording online. Answers to pre-submitted questions are available below.

Questions and answers

1. What's been the most interesting learning and outcome for the Library since the pandemic began?

Partnerships have been key to the Library's ability to provide information and expertise in support of learning and research. Collaborative work with the teaching and learning team to assist with the transition to online learning is a great example. The Library was part of this University-level team, including the Centre for Extended Learning, the Centre for Teaching Excellence, and Instructional Technologies and Media Services. This team pulled together diverse expertise and has allowed greater coordination and consistency of support for learning and instruction. Another example is the Library's partnership with the Ontario Council on University Libraries to expand digital interlibrary loans and to coordinate the re-start of book interlibrary loans.

Next, we have learned extensively from experience with virtual user interactions. The Library experienced a substantial increase in virtual reference; delivery of anywhere, anytime instruction, and supports that help learners navigate complex information. This increase in virtual user interaction has been sustained throughout 2020 and into 2021.

Our experiences have also re-affirmed that access to collections from anywhere to support learning and research is critically important to the University community.

The pandemic has made clear the incredible resilience and commitment of our library staff to provide excellent services and access to research information and learning supports.

2. I am interested in the Library's position on digitizing old academic resources. Free access of information is important.

Special Collections & Archives has been digitizing unique academic materials for several years. We have over 3,000 items in the Waterloo Digital Library. During the pandemic we added 300 items in eight new collections. We've also been working with the Internet Archive to digitize Grand River Conservation Area materials.

The Library supports open access to new scholarly outputs through UWSpace, including Waterloo theses and dissertations, and by hosting academic journals on our open publishing platform. We make strategic open access investments, supporting such organizations as arXiv, Open Library of the Humanities, and SPARC. We are committed to open access; for more information please visit Open Scholarship at Waterloo and Open Access at Waterloo.

3. Unfortunately I cannot find "Data Liberation Initiative" in the strategic plan. I deal with Sandra Keys and Christine Moffatt. They are great resources for helping my students and for helping me with sources of data. The DLI is an excellent research tool for me, however, I wish we could put more emphasis on getting firm-level data from Statistics Canada. Is there a way you can do that?

We recognize the research need in this area and to continue to advocate for access, however firm-level data in Canada is extremely difficult to access due to privacy legislation. Research Data Canada (RDC) has a pilot project to make microdata more available; please see this webinar for more information.

4. What are the planned actions to improve user-friendly access to digital versions of books and lecture notes for classes?

The Library works with partners on campus, including the bookstore and instructors, to ensure we are providing as much support as possible for students. This news item highlights our efforts and challenges in this area. We digitize lecture notes for Course Reserves when requested by the instructor, however these requests have decreased in recent years.

5. How does your strategic plan fit with infrastructure improvements for Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries? Are there any plans for improvements of sustainability?

The Library is developing a space master plan. The plan will consider library spaces in the context of learning, research, and community spaces and programs on campus. We aim to develop a plan that anticipates space and programmatic uses for up to 25 years. We intend to seek input from students, faculty, instructors, and staff. The Library is working with the University on revitalizing library infrastructure with an eye toward incorporating sustainability programs and University best practices. Infrastructure needs that would be typical for a building the age of Dana Porter Library include: building envelope (the foundation, walls, roof, windows and doors) and updating mechanicals such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

6. How will you support non-digital knowledge transfer and creation?

The Library collects materials in all formats, including print and digital, to support research and learning needs across the disciplines. Because scholarly information in some disciplines may only be available in limited formats, the Library will continue to collect in multiple formats with the focus of supporting learning and research. Further, Special Collections & Archives supports learning and research by acquiring, preserving, and providing access to collections of noteworthy and unique primary source materials in their original formats.

7. Going forward what percentage of the Library's acquisition will be digital?

Like virtually all other North American research libraries, digital is a focus of Waterloo's acquisitions, based on both user demand and availability. The Library will continue to acquire materials in analog formats as appropriate to support critical learning and research needs.

8. How has the pandemic changed the strategic plan?

Although we were still finalizing the strategic plan when the pandemic hit, fortunately our plan was flexible and forward-looking and with only minor tweaks we were able to ensure the plan was representative of our virtual and physical future. Our core commitments to teaching, learning, research and partnerships did not slow in the pandemic, in fact many of these areas were strengthened.

9. We have now been a part of OCUL Collaborative Futures (Omni) for a couple of years. What have been some of the main benefits this collaboration has realized? What are the plans for the future?

Sixteen of the 21 academic libraries in the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) share an online search tool — Omni — that provides search and discovery of information across our collections. The primary benefits are that all 16 libraries can manage their collection resources more effectively than before. Waterloo has been a leader in Ontario in implementing the new systems' print and digital resource-sharing function, which reduces processing and wait times to receive print and digital resources on loan from other institutions. This new system puts OCUL in an excellent position to participate in a national shared print preservation and access initiative.

10. What is the Library doing about the rising costs of scholarly journals and books?

Waterloo participates in national and regional consortia that negotiate with publishers to leverage concerted buying power and to advocate for open access to scholarly information. One such organization is Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). For example, CRKN's recent negotiation with Elsevier resulted in a multi-year, $95.5 USD million contract for 70 institutions that represents reduction in costs, discounts on article processing charges for authors, and transparent license terms.

The Library actively supports open access through other scholarly review and publishing collectives such as arXiv, the open access archive for scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, and computer science. UWSpace, the University's digital repository, provides a free, secure, and long-term home for the presentation, dissemination, and preservation of Waterloo's digital research and scholarship. Our digital repositories librarian works with Waterloo scholars to determine which versions of peer reviewed articles can be housed in the repository to meet open access requirements. Please contact Jordan Hale, digital repositories librarian at jordan.hale@uwaterloo.ca for more information.

11. Does the Library intend to create committees in order to involve even more faculty members and students in the future?

The perspectives of students, instructors, faculty members, and staff are critical to the way the Library develops services, resources, and programs. The Library seeks input on a regular basis, through subject librarians' membership in faculty councils, Senate committees, and group consultations. In 2019 the Library launched the Library Student Advisory Committee (LSAC) to enhance our engagement with undergraduate and graduate students. In addition to LSAC, our student feedback loop also includes library ambassadors and circulation student staff.