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2019/20 Library & Learning Commons Annual Report

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Content & Resources

Curated, Seamless, Dynamic

The Library Collection

Digital collections remain a priority for the library, with the majority of our purchasing power now invested in electronic collections.

While use of the Library’s physical collections remains mostly stable, Library users tend to use our electronic collections at a much higher rate. The reason for this is likely twofold: first, the library’s collection, particularly journal literature, has moved almost exclusively online; second, electronic collections are available to the Langara community at any time from anywhere with an internet connection.

With total expenditures on Library collections now reaching half a million dollars, the library increasingly leverages the scalability of electronic resources, including online databases of journal articles, ebooks and streaming videos, to meet the needs of students where and when they are, be it in the Library on a break from class, or in the middle of the night at home while working to complete an assignment due the following day.

The Library’s collection is developed in consultation with the Langara community, with liaison librarians assigned to each of the college’s departments. Collections staff employ an evidence based approach to determine the needs of specific divisions, departments and courses, seeking to support Langara’s curriculum.

Despite investing heavily in valuable multidisciplinary resources in recent years, the Library cannot provide instant access to the entire world of scholarly information; nevertheless, through reciprocal agreements and a network of libraries working together, the Library is able to source articles and books from larger institutions in British Columbia and beyond in order to provide for even the most esoteric research needs of students and instructors.

Open Langara

The Open Langara Advisory Committee (Open Langara) continues to cultivate in-house expertise, network with the open education community, and steer the College’s participation in the open education movement.

Highlights from the past year include:

  • A doubling of open textbook adoptions across campus compared to 2018/19
  • Co-sponsoring the Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge event at Kwantlen Polytechnic University as part of Open Access Week
  • Partnering with BCcampus to offer Langara instructors a $500 honorarium to review a textbook in the BCcampus Open Textbook Collection. 15 instructors participated in the review with some adopting the textbook they reviewed for their classes.
  • Streamlining access to open resources in the Library collection with Unpaywall 

In spring 2020, Open Langara and the Library launched the Open Student Scholar Prize. The submission period coincided with Open Education Week, a global celebration of the tools, resources, and practices that employ open sharing in teaching and learning. Winning submissions are now featured in The LaIR, the Langara's Open Access repository.

Kaylee Korol, recipient of the 1st place prize, wrote in her submission, “Through open education we can collaborate between cultures and undo the wrongs of history and colonialism though the sharing of knowledge and opening of access to those who have been disempowered by it. Education is our front line against inequality, but if education is limited to those who already share hegemonic perspectives we lose the perspectives of those who need a voice the most.”

Winning Submissions:

1st Place: Kaylee Korol, Gender and Healthcare - Annotated Bibliography

2nd Place: Taeja Liu, Why Is It So Difficult for the UNFCCC to Do Something About Climate Change?

3rd Place: Simeon Faehndrich, Loss, Separation and Struggle: Self-Imposed Exile in The Wanderer & Cheri Pottinger, Breastmilk and Brain: The Effects of Breastfeeding on Cognitive Development

Lindsay TrippThe newest recipient of the BCcampus Award for Excellence in Open Education is Lindsay Tripp, Langara's Copyright Librarian. Lindsay is the chair-elect of the BC Open Education Librarians group and the co-chair of Open Langara. She has been a tireless advocate for open education at Langara and essential in establishing Langara’s open textbook adoption-tracking procedures. Congratulations, Lindsay!

Thank you!

To our generous book donors:

  • Brill, Barrie
  • College Board
  • Computing Science & Information Systems department
  • Curtis, Alison
  • Government of BC
  • Grammatikos, Alexander
  • Grossman, Raoul
  • Jantzen, Carole
  • Jessup, Heather
  • Krause, Alexandria
  • Langara College Foundation
  • Li, Junrui
  • Ma, Ophelia
  • Patel, Ajay
  • Ready, Janet
  • Ross, Ingrid
  • Tremain, Cara
  • Tripp, Lindsay
  • Virdo, Anthony
  • Wing, Carolyn
  • Wong, Joyce

Meet Albert Spinestein

Langara's articulated skeleton

The Library added an articulated skeleton model to its collection in the fall. Featuring muscle origin and insertion points painted and numbered on the left side, and flexible joints with ligaments on the right side, it serves as the perfect tool for studying both skeletal and muscular systems. To raise awareness of the new addition to the collection, the Library held a skeleton naming contest on its Instagram account from October 21 to 25, with the winning entry, Albert Spinestein, announced on Halloween.

Studio 58 Theatre Collection

2019/20 saw the completion of a project where a collection of over 2,000 items were transferred from an informal library within Studio 58 to the Langara Library. This collection was integrated into the Library’s catalogue and incorporates plays that were performed by Studio 58 over the past decades, including many rare copies. This Studio 58 Theatre Collection is housed on the second floor of the library.

2018/19 Major Collection Additions

Langara College Library builds and manages a collection to support teaching, learning, research, innovation and academic success at the College. The goal of collection management is to provide the best possible collection in a fiscally prudent manner. Some of the major collection additions from 2019/20 include:

Read more about the Library's approach to collection management and key collection changes from 2019/20 on the Library's Collections Changes site.