Andrea Baer, Rowan University

Climate change is a prime example of a “wicked problem”: it is characterized by complexity and unboundedness and has no complete or simple solutions, though communities can develop constructive interventions that address particular aspects of the problem (for example, in cities increasing green spaces that have a cooling effect). Because the problem of climate change is so expansive and the answers to it remain limited in scope and impact, engaging with the topic inevitably evokes difficult emotions like uncertainty, overwhelm, despair, and grief. So it is understandable that a common response to the realities of climate change has been denial and disengagement. But an increasing number of people are looking honestly at the difficult realities of climate change and (re)imagining ways to build futures centered on community and care, including in the realm of education.

Of particular relevance to librarians, wicked problems like climate change make evident the incredible complexity of information behaviors and the need to explore new approaches to information literacy in the face of messy challenges. As librarian Alex Hewitt convincingly argues, climate change and the related experience of ecological grief reflect the importance of attending more fully to the affective dimensions of information behaviors and information literacy (see their 2022 article “What role can affect and emotion play in academic and research information literacy practices?”). Beyond librarianship, many teachers and scholars engaged with climate change education also stress the importance of recognizing and normalizing the affective dimensions of learning about it and developing responses to it. Many of these individuals explore constructive ways within learning environments to build community and to allow space for complex and sometimes conflicting emotions like grief and hope. Much of this pedagogical work draws on areas of inquiry such as: 1) transformative learning, according to which learners who face “disorienting dilemmas” undergo a process of perspective transformation; 2) “radical futurity,” which explores how different imaginings of the future can affect the present (see Barrineau et al., 2022. "Emergentist education and the opportunities of radical futurity"); and 3) an ethics of care that centers community and interrelatedness.

This presentation will introduce scholarship on the intersections of wicked problems, climate change education, and affect, and will explore potential implications of such work for information literacy education. The presenter will give particular attention to different forms and experiences of grief and hope and their relationship to (dis)engagement with information about wicked problems like climate change.

Joel Blechinger, Mount Royal University

After the (now hackneyed) example of the calculator (Hillier, 2023), Wikipedia is an example often invoked to allay academic librarians’ present sense of anxiety around generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Consider, for example, James and Filgo (2023), who write, “[i]n the early 2000s many librarians were skeptical of students using Wikipedia. Now we realize that we need to be instructing students about the proper use of Wikipedia, rather than banning it” (p. 336). Similarly, Coffey (2023) states, “[l]ibrarians have often stood at the precipice of massive changes in information technology: the dawn of the fax machine, the internet, Wikipedia and now the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, which has been creeping its way into classrooms” (para. 5). In sentiments like these, one can detect a strong current of technological determinism (Winner, 1983)—common to librarianship and Library and Information Studies (LIS)—where technology develops according to its own logic and librarians simply have to pragmatically overcome any attendant anxieties and, ultimately, adapt to altered instructional contexts that are assumed to be fundamentally comparable. This disregards the fact that Wikipedia was inherently more “teachable” by design due to its transparency (Jennings, 2008; Calhoun, 2014; Oliver, 2015; Dawe & Robinson, 2017; Thomas et al., 2021; McDowell & Vetter, 2022) and it also elides profound differences between GenAI output and discrete information sources like books, articles, webpages, and social media posts familiar to library instruction (Blechinger, 2023). Delving into the specifics of these contexts, they may not be as comparable as commentators like James and Filgo and Coffey suggest.

An answer to what reimagined academic librarian roles should be with the increasing use of ChatGPT on campuses should take seriously the very real differences between LLMs and everything that has come before them instead of glossing over those differences in a shallow technologically deterministic narrative. Using as an example Wikipedia—the last major source of anxiety in library teaching circles—I take up the question of how librarians can adapt to changing technologies by exploring the fundamental ways that Wikipedia and LLMs differ. These include Wikipedia’s human authorship versus LLMs’ non-human text generation, and Wikipedia’s verifiability policy versus LLMs’ obfuscation of sources. My contention is that paying specific attention to these differences will demonstrate the limits of applying traditional information literacy practices to the GenAI context and that it may even challenge the possibility of developing what some are calling algorithmic literacy (Ridley & Pawlick-Potts, 2021) itself.

Helen L. Brown, University of British Columbia

For 200 years, researchers have been publishing on climate change. It is now a research topic in every field and the amount of research published on climate change every year is staggering. Despite the wealth of research and consensus, there is a significant gap between the evidence and translating that evidence into practice, and we can see this gap in academic libraries.

So how do we bridge this gap and what role do academic librarians have in this work?

In developing a climate action statement for the BC Library Association, we tried to answer these questions. The statement is based on climate change research, the ideas and feedback from the BC library community, and the need for all sectors to respond and rapidly scale up efforts to transition and adapt. In particular, this statement aims to help bridge the gap between the evidence-based plans and commitments from governmental and institutional bodies and the actual climate actions we need to implement in our libraries. It is primarily intended as a statement of responsibility and guidance on how we can understand the roles that libraries have to play and the many ways we can contribute positively. The statement lays out 10 clear actions that identify where, within our work, we have opportunities to fulfill our responsibilities to the land, our communities, and future generations.

Join to learn more about the BCLA Climate Action Statement and how it can be used in libraries.

Adam Cohen, Mount Royal University
Jules de Guzman, Mount Royal University

Libraries hold a significant number of materials for and about 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, history, issues and more. However, the current subject vocabulary standards that we use to catalogue these materials are oftentimes insufficient, ineffective, exclusionary and harmful. The terms we use subsequently obscure relevant and valuable information to the community members described or included. At the Mount Royal University Library, we have begun a project to supplement our print bibliographic records with the Homosaurus subject vocabulary. Homosaurus is an international linked data vocabulary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer terms that is meant to supplement other subject vocabularies like Library of Congress Subject Headings. Homosaurus is a living document that updates terms regularly as 2SLGBTQIA+ language and terms evolve with community members. We are currently going through lists of materials for and about 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, history, and issues to apply Homosaurus terms. By doing this, we are increasing accessibility to information and creating a more inclusive library catalogue and space. This presentation will cover how libraries have historically catalogued items about 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, what the Mount Royal University Library with the aid of Homosaurus are doing to remedy those past harms, and how other libraries can approach similar projects in meaningful and respectful ways. Our goal with the Homosaurus project is to sustain a more inclusive, less othering library and catalogue to support research by and about 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and histories.

April Colosimo, McGill University
Kaelan Caspary, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Madeline Gerbig, University of Toronto
Ian D., Gordon Brock University

Have you ever come away from a research consultation or instructional session and felt like an imposter? Do you wait anxiously prior to meeting with researchers wondering if you'll be outed due to your limited subject expertise? Are you filling in for someone on a functional team taking charge for a subject area you have little to no direct knowledge of? Are you the liaison librarian for a particular subject area as a side responsibility, in addition to your primary role?

Amidst the challenging times of functional teams, the devaluation of subject knowledge, smaller institutional libraries attempting to be everything-to-everyone, new librarians facing the imposter syndrome, and new technologies like generative artificial intelligence (AI) infiltrating many aspects of our professional lives, can subject librarians only “do the best we can with what we have”? This panel presentation and Q&A will provide a platform to share the stories of those affected by this dilemma. It will also give us an opportunity to collectively imagine how subject librarians with varying priorities, experiences, and backgrounds can work together to build confidence & capacity and form sustainable networks of support. This panel presentation will be of interest to those that are supporting academic subjects in various models of librarianship, and those that are interested in the use of AI technologies in a disciplinary context.

As a springboard for this discussion, we will give a brief summary (10 min) of the results of a research study that explored experiences of librarians supporting chemistry at academic institutions across Canada through a bilingual survey and series of follow-up focus groups. With a 70% response rate, the survey results provided a snapshot of their years of service, academic degrees, job titles, and responsibilities outside of their role as chemistry librarians, and how these factors impact their confidence in providing library services to support chemistry education and research. Focus groups expanded on how individuals feel that they measure up, and how they provide effective teaching and reference while gaining current chemistry knowledge and expertise. Participants were also asked how they use AI in their instruction and other activities.

The panel will include members of our research team who can speak to the results of the study and their own varied experiences as subject liaisons, as well as other librarians selected in collaboration with CAPAL.

Abbey Colucci, University of Waterloo

The adoption of a new strategic plan in 2020 led the University of Waterloo (UW) to commit to empowering “students to leverage diverse learning experiences by creating more flexible learning pathways and relevant, authentic experiences that prepare (learners) for a complex future” (University of Waterloo, 2020). This includes having a shared vision of digital learning for the entire university community that integrates adaptable and inclusive pedagogies (DLS Working Group, 2023, p. 5).

Even before the strategic plan's adoption, the UW Library began their journey towards better supporting online learning through OER. As long supporters of equitable access to information, Libraries play a crucial role in the support, creation, and dissemination of OER and the UW Library understood they needed to do more to improve both digital learning and OER offerings (Chee et.al, p. 88). The instructional design librarian, hired in 2018, expanded the discussion of OER in the library with an idea to create an open repository intended to house and make discoverable open learning objects related to library instruction.

Launched in June 2020, the UW Library’s Online Learning Object Repository (OLOR), located at lib.uwaterloo.ca/online_learning/, allowed the digital OER collection to grow by over 400% in just 3.5 years. The collection focuses on research, information literacy, and library resources and consists of materials written by subject matter experts and designed by members of the library’s Instructional Design Team.

This talk will focus on the maintenance and sustainability of the University of Waterloo Library’s Online Learning Object Repository (OLOR). First, we will discuss how the OLOR fits in with the Digital Teaching and Learning strategies at the University of Waterloo. Then, we will highlight the 2023 learning object audit, identifying ways that the ID team reviewed and updated all previously published learning objects for accessibility and AODA compliance. We will also discuss the evolution of a Continuous Development plan focused on improving online information literacy instruction. Finally, we will offer up some questions, and possible answers, that rose as our digital collection continues to grow, such as:

• Who writes the content of the learning objects?

• What content needs to be standardized?

• How are timelines managed and documented? How do the teams manage timelines and expectations?

• When are materials updated and who updates them?

• How does the team verify accessibility in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) standards?

Joey da Costa, Thompson Rivers University

Capital is devouring libraries. Mergers and consolidation are forcing us to do business with an increasingly monolithic block of publishers. While we scramble to come to terms with shifting budgets and institutional priorities, publishers try to extract compounding sums of money from library budgets. This is a presentation about the salespeople representing the publishers and the part they’re playing in this process.

I’ll attempt to construct a taxonomy of sales interactions and discuss some of the rhetorical and sales devices that are regularly employed to drive an institution to purchase a new product. But, rather than use language normalized for business, I’ll be communicating for librarians with arts degrees.

I’ll touch on things like the establishment of impromptu guest-host relationships and how accepting a meal subtly changes power dynamics. The language of partnerships rather than customer/business relations, the relatable sales representative, and the unquestioned, “immutable” value of the intellectual property they’re peddling. I’ll cover how sales tactics take advantage of individuals to drive collections decisions at an institutional level. And how the norms that we’ve developed over years of socialization and consuming shared cultural content have been harnessed to turn librarians into a sales appendage for corporate publishing bodies.

With self-awareness of these tactics, the discussion can turn to methods of shutting them down. “Life-hacks” like turning off your voicemail. How to write an email that conveys an unmistakable “no.” The creative writing process involved in chastising a company representative and how outrage can lead to a successful negotiation. Examples will be provided, including the quote that inspired the title of this presentation:

“I’m not sure how much you know about parasitism. Sometimes when I’m out in the wilderness I come across a carcass. The animal wasn’t a victim of predation. It had accumulated too many ticks or the roundworms in their guts were too prolific, draining the animal of its vitality until it succumbed. I think nature has a lesson for us to consider. This rate of increase is unsustainable. The cost of this product is impacting the database budgets for our other programs. We’ll finish out the remainder of our subscription period, as per the terms in our contract, and find alternatives from other vendors.“

Jennifer Dekker, University of Ottawa
Ann Hemingway, University of Ottawa

OER projects have become the most satisfying projects that we engage in as Research Librarians (we are both formerly Subject Specialist Librarians). This presentation will highlight the projects we have accomplished and are in the midst of creating or adapting. They include a full course on information literacy, a French language textbook for basic research, several citation guides, and two writing guides. Attendees will leave the session with practical information that they can use to begin developing their own OER. We propose to speak about the foundations of our work on OER which include various adversities:

1. Professional / practical: when our positions were re-written following an organizational restructuring, we had a gap left because collection development was removed from our responsibilities. We searched for new ways to support research, teaching and learning, and through various efforts, found that developing OER offered challenges and opportunities for us to learn new skills and contribute more to student learning. Among them are project management, collaboration, grant writing, creative commons licensing, technological skills, student supervision, basic graphic design, and marketing.

2. Linguistic equity: In the Spring of 2022, the University of Ottawa released a report on the state of the Francophonie. The results were very disappointing, but led to a renewed drive to fill important educational and resource gaps for French-speaking members of our community. We knew there were no standards for citation for French language writing and sought to make discovery of customized writing guides and basic research information accessible to French-speaking students.

3. Pedagogical: We were seeking lasting ways to support learners beyond the one-shot instructional presentation. We developed educational supports such as citation guides, writing guides, and a full course on basic research to be used beyond the classroom.

4. Lack of resources: We sought and were awarded grants from e-Campus Ontario, the library's internal OER grant, and funding from the Faculty of Arts to develop French language pedagogical materials. Although our first attempt at obtaining funding failed, we learned how to write winning grant applications and have been successful in obtaining additional funding for projects which enable us to work with professional translators and educational technologists.

5. Isolation: In our previous work, much of what we did was individualized but with OER, we learned to work in larger teams, bringing in different experts and partners. We worked with librarians at other universities, students, faculty, and pedagogical experts.

The development of OER is a fulfilling and creative activity that supports students and faculty. We hope to pique your interest in OER by demonstrating what can be accomplished when we partner more broadly, take advantage of tools and funding available (such as PressBooks, H5P, and OER grants), and are open-minded about providing support in new and creative ways.

Nicole Doro, McMaster University

Year over year, we are continuing to observe the impacts of the climate crisis worsen, from floods, fires (lest we forget the persistent air quality advisory from wildfire smoke across Canada summer 2023) and storms, to climate refugees and climate anxiety. As Dr. Kimberly Nicholas (2021) so succinctly frames the climate crisis: “It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. We can fix it.” In order to fix it, we all have a role to play – especially academic libraries. The UN and IFLA have identified libraries as key partners in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“Libraries and Sustainable Development”). All jobs are climate jobs—academic library professionals need to respond to the call for action to reflect on their personal and professional scopes of influence to determine the ways in which we can have an impact and push our institutions towards meaningful change.

The McMaster Libraries Sustainability Committee was founded in 2020 and has been exploring the role academic libraries have in the climate crisis. In the last 4 years, the MLSC has completed projects such as: a waste audit, a staff survey, established an ongoing Repair Café in the Makerspace, purchased mending kits and air quality monitors for borrowing; hosted events like book clubs, documentary screenings, archives talks, and native seed planting information sessions; supported Academic Sustainability Program courses through information literacy, experiential learning projects, and hosting receptions. We’re currently working towards establishing a Seed Library. Our committee works with campus partners such as the broader campus Sustainability Committee, student groups, the academic sustainability program, and community partners to get involved with environmentally sustainable initiatives and needs on campus and in our community and to help support this work with resources unique to academic libraries (spaces, tools, and expertise).

The climate crisis is dire, but as Mariame Kaba (2023) says: “Let this radicalize you, rather than lead you to despair.” This presentation will showcase the programs and practices of the McMaster Libraries Sustainability Committee with the aim of inspiring and creating community with environmentally sustainable practices and practitioners at other Canadian academic libraries, so that we may move forward together, with the most radical action of all – hope.

Jane Jun, University of British Columbia Okanagan
Christian Isbister, University of British Columbia Okanagan

This presentation speaks to social sustainability and calls to collective action in academic librarianship, and academia more broadly. In collaboration with the Faculty of Health and Social Development and a library colleague (Donna Langille, Community Engagement Librarian) we applied for funding of an Indigenous Data Sovereignty panel in the context of health sciences research. This initiative aims to bring together and collaborate across the university’s two campuses, local Indigenous partners, and is relevant to the variety of health disciplines such as Medicine, Health and Exercise Sciences, Nursing, Social Work, and Psychology.

The primary goals of this panel are to bring forth discussions on health, science, and wellbeing related research and anti-Indigenous racism, as well as to have the opportunity to listen to Indigenous panelists who are experts in supporting ethical and respectful research by, with, and for Indigenous peoples and/or researchers in health disciplines who practice Indigenous data sovereignty. The panel event offers a space for reflection aligning with the ARIE report section 27.1.1, and creates a networking opportunity for health affiliated faculties to collaborate and seek support that is informed, respectful, available, and required. Overall, this aligns with our university’s commitment to anti-racism and with frameworks which should guide the work of university and healthcare systems, such as the Tri-Council ethical conduct and protocols of Indigenous research. In striving to hold collaborative events like this one, we are working to contribute to the integrity of health research involving Indigenous communities to ensure they are benefitting and not burdened, and that the work aligns with OCAP® principles.

In this CAPAL presentation, we will speak to the organizing process and our role as librarians, how we will measure success, and elaborate on our hopes for this panel event and subsequent collaborations.

Bartlomiej Lenart, University of Calgary

As generative artificial intelligence continues to become more accurate and reliable, and machine learning becomes more autonomous, it will become more appropriate to adopt what philosopher Daniel Dennett has dubbed the Intentional Stance toward generative AI and its outputs. Adopting the Intentional Stance entails engagement and interactions with AI as though it were a collaborator in research rather than merely a research aid.

According to the now widely accepted Extended Mind Thesis (EMT), which proposes that cognitive processes often extend beyond the skull, not all human cognition is conscious and many cognitive processes are integrated with the external environment. The use of tools like notepads, calculators, smartphones, and other technological research aids like spell checkers, citation managers, etc., can be understood as being constitutive of a researcher’s cognitive processes, which is why the use of such tools is not considered problematic in the context of academic integrity (as the externalized processes are an integral part of the researcher’s own cognition).

What makes generative AI different from such tools as calculators or grammar checkers is that the types of processes that, according to the EMT, are generally considered to be an extension of human cognition are too autonomous when generated by AI to be considered part of the researcher’s own cognitive processing. This entails that utilizing generative AI in the same manner we use other research aids becomes problematic.

Understanding generative AI in light of the EMT helps to delineate this important distinction between tool utility and AI by viewing AI assistance in research projects more as autonomous artificial collaboration than a traditional research aid. This means, however, that when generative AI is utilized for the purposes of research production without explicit acknowledgment that the technology was an integral part of the research process, such collaborative processes can better be understood as instances of collusion rather than mere tool use.

This philosophical argument entails practical consequences: if generative AI is to be respected (because we adopt the Intentional Stance toward it) as a collaborator rather than a mere tool, the practice of acknowledging the work of human collaborators ought to be adopted for output and assistance generated by at least some AI applications. Additionally, librarians can utilize this approach to understanding AI in communicating to students and researchers why artificially generating research outputs without proper acknowledgments is functionally similar to getting unauthorized or unacknowledged help in writing assignments or producing publications.

Ben Mitchell, Thompson Rivers University

As buckaroos know by now, queer and autistic author Chuck Tingle was recently invited to speak, and then abruptly disinvited from the Texas Library Association’s 2024 conference because of his refusal to present without his iconic pink head sack. The association backtracked on its stance, but not before breaking trust with Tingle, and the author will now no longer be speaking at the event. Marginalized communities have historically had to deal with outside “experts” claiming a privileged perspective on their authenticity and legitimacy. As various neurodivergent cultures coalesce, there has been increasing pushback against what is pejoratively described as “fake disorder cringe” and professionally (but still pejoratively) described as “social contagion.” These criticisms are decidedly similar to homophobic and transphobic discourses, a similarity which needs to be addressed when discussing pathologized communities. Looking at some popular and professional examples of the “social contagion” narrative, this talk will examine discourses around autism, ADHD, and dissociative identity disorder (DID). How could the Texas Library Association have done better? Given that our cultures are vital to our survival and self-determination, what role do libraries as workplaces and community spaces have in the intersections where culture meets research, and research meets survival?

Tara Mawhinney, McGill University
Amanda Wheatley, McGill University

Sustainability is an important topic across all types of librarianship, enough so that ALA adopted it as a core value in 2019. For decades, librarians have been trying to address sustainability in their work, but with the growing climate crisis, this has become more and more difficult to pursue as a solo venture. Libraries can play a pivotal role in educating and supporting their communities on the topic of sustainability and climate action and the time is now. This paper presentation explores roles that librarians play in the fight against climate change by examining key ideas already in play and future suggestions to be implemented. Two librarians from [ ] University Library will discuss their experiences incorporating climate issues into instruction for diverse disciplines. The session will also cover how academic librarians can serve as active agents against climate change, as well as promote climate research within our communities. Examples will include climate advocacy in teaching and instruction, as well as how librarians with subject responsibilities can align their topics to the theme of sustainability. Participants will come away from the session with ideas for small actions they can implement right away in their daily work, as well as ideas for larger-scale changes within their library communities. These small actions or wins are essential to encourage the continued fight against climate change. Some examples that will be explored in this session include sustainable collection development, professional development opportunities and the amplification of the work of others.

Sarah Wood-Gagnon, University of Rochester
Arjay Romanowski, University of Rochester

As AI looms over the academic landscape, more and more librarians are stepping up to teach AI literacy. Most workshops and lessons are based on large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT, neglecting generative adversarial networks (GAN), or image generators like Midjourney. How can academic librarians who serve Studio Arts students incorporate this type of AI literacy into their library sessions? This presentation will examine some of the ways in which creative student populations might use GANs in their research process and how they can do so in an ethical and informed manner.

CJ Woodford, University of Victoria

The coordination of data infrastructure on various levels is on the rise. “Open Science Commons” or “Data commons” provide a shared virtual space for data and services, with academic libraries playing critical roles in their creation, development, and support. The Research Data Alliance Global Open Research Commons Interest Group (RDA GORC-IG) is working to support coordination amongst national, pan-national and domain specific organizations such as the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and the International Virtual Observatory Alliance as they work to build interoperable resources necessary to enable researchers to address societal grand challenges. The realized vision of GORC will provide frictionless access to all research artifacts to everyone, everywhere, at all times, with the appropriate infrastructure, protocols, and support.

The RDA GORC International Model Working Group (RDA GORC-WG) has analyzed a range of existing commons and their relationships with stakeholders such as academic libraries to collect and curate a set of considerations for building open research infrastructure, as well as existing key performance indicators and metrics. From this analysis, the WG has created a non-prescriptive Commons model that simultaneously provides a common language to describe all aspects of a commons and a guide to identify areas of priority. In this presentation, I will provide a profiling of the model specifically for academic libraries in Canada, such that it can be used by academic libraries to identify their open research goals and what they need to achieve them. The intention of this profiling is to provide a relevant framework for academic library strategic planning, gap analysis, and benchmarking regarding open knowledge systems. Elements of consideration covered by the model include governance and policy as well as technology and infrastructure, interwoven with the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), CARE (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics), and TRUST (transparency, responsibility, user focus, sustainability, technology) principles.