Skip to Main Content
Go to the Langara College website. Opens in a new window
Go to the Langara Library website. Opens in a new window

2023/24 Library & Academic Success Centre Annual Report

Building, Promoting, and Enhancing

Accessible Resources and Practices

The Library Collection

The Library collection continued its trend towards digital formats, with physical titles accounting for only 10% of library materials at fiscal year end.

"Having the support of the amazing acquisitions staff has made a huge difference. I really couldn't do my job without you. Thank you!" - Langara instructor

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.

"Thank you so much for all the work done to support our department with these meaningful resources... We really appreciate all of your support for our department. It's inspiring to have more current resources for the faculty and students... It is very exciting for both faculty and our students." - Langara instructor

Library resources were accessed more than 340,000 times this year. Digital usage was slightly down, while physical circulation increased by 33% compared to 2022/23.

Unlike traditional commercial textbooks, open textbooks are free to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. Langara is proudly one of the heaviest adopters of open textbooks among B.C. post-secondary institutions. Open textbooks were used in a record 243 course sections in 2023-24, saving students a combined estimate of $565,282 in textbook costs.

Langara co-sponsored an Open Education Week (OEW) event for the BC Open Education Librarians group on March 4, 2024. 118 people registered for the event, and 54 people attended in real time. 

The Library once again ran the Open Student Scholar Prize contest, which celebrates exemplary work being done by Langara students and offers them the opportunity to share their work in an open access format. 

"The accessibility and flexibility of open source courses online gave me the courage to finally pursue my dreams. These resources provided not just the foundational knowledge I needed, but also the confidence to embrace a new path. The opportunity to learn at my own pace, without the financial burden often associated with traditional education, made a significant difference." - 2024 Open Student Scholar Prize recipient

Film Screenings at the Library

The Library has been promoting its streaming video collections in new and engaging ways this year. Media Librarian Annie Jensen co-founded Langara's employee-focused EDI Film Club, which meets regularly to screen and discuss films related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. The film screenings are supplemented by a pop-up library of related materials. The first installment of the film club looked at the issue of gender in sport and hormone testing via the film Category: Woman. The second installment of the film club focused on the topic of environmental racism, as explored through the film There's Something in the Water, which looks at decades of industrial development at the cost of Indigenous rights, health, and culture. The third meeting investigated accessibility and (dis)ability as experienced within the Deaf community via the film Sound and Fury. 

The student outreach team used the Library Lobby to screen films of interest to the College community over the past year. Coinciding with the Vancouver Film Festival, the Library hosted its first Student Film Fest in September 2023, playing films created by the 2022 Langara Film Department grads.

The Library also hosted a successful Horror Film Festival in the lobby throughout the month of October leading up to Halloween.

Staff showing their horror movie pics

Photo: Library staff members pose with some of their favourite spooky movies for an Instagram campaign to promote the Horror Film Fest.

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 2023/24 include:

  • New York Times Online
  • BioDigital Human
  • Assistive Technology: The Official Journal of RESNA

Read more about the Library's approach to collection management and key collection changes from 2023/24 on the Library's Collections Changes site.