Students and staff use the library on the daily, in person and online. This is how...

Shannon Stunden Bower is a historian and geographer employed at the University of Alberta.




What is your "go to" resource for research in the UAlberta collection? and what do you like about it?
I like accessing the NEOS catalogue for how it limits the search to items held in Alberta libraries. I study the state’s role in environmental change, so through NEOS often I find government documents that make great primary sources.

How are you using maps in your life and research?
In my role as an environmental historian, I study maps as part of my effort to track human and environmental change over time. I also study maps for clues about what aspects of the environment were seen as important in the past – often, decisions about what to map and what not to map are very revealing.

What kind of information does a map tell you that you can't get from other resources?
Maps are geographically specific in ways that facilitate efforts to incorporate environmental information from a variety of sources. This can be useful in efforts to assemble a more complete understanding of environmental history.

Could you do your research without maps? and if so, why aren't you?
Not without making silly mistakes! And not without abandoning any effort to understand how people tried to catalogue and manage non-human nature in the mid-20th century – maps and new mapping technologies were essential to these efforts.

Any fall reading suggestions?
I enjoyed From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way, a powerful personal memoir by Métis-Cree historian Jesse Thistle.

Last question. Out of curiosity, do you gravitate towards books or ebooks?
Either for leisure, book for work.

The French version of this article is available here: http://uabsj.blogspot.com/2019/09/shannon-stunden-bower_24.html

Here at the library we have a stellar team of library folks working on indigenous projects to further our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.

The team consists of:
Kathleen De Long, Associate University Librarian
Kim Bates, Learning Manager
Kayla Lar-Son, Academic Librarian Resident
Gabrielle Lamontagne, Indigenous Intern
Leigha Rind, Indigenous Intern
Geordie Cardinal, Public Service Assistant
Larry Laliberte, GIS Librarian
Debbie Feisst, Interim Head, HT Coutts Library
Sharon Farnel, Metadata Coordinator
Anne Carr-Wiggin, Coordinator, Indigenous Initiatives
Paul Gareau, Assistant Professor, Native Studies.

Here’s a quick overview of what they have been working on lately. Stay tuned for more updates on these projects in the future.

On May 8, 2019 Paul Gareau and Tanya Ball from the Faculty of Native Studies provided some insights into Indigenous Research Data Management (RDM) from the perspectives of a faculty member and a PhD student. Kayla Lar-Son (UAL Digital Initiatives) moderated the session while discussing the concept of Indigenous data sovereignty.

View this post on Instagram

One of the best parts of my job is being an embedded librarian for the Transition Year Program, First People's House, and the Faculty of Native Studies! . . . [Image descriptions: 1. Kayla does a superstar pose in front of First People's House 2. Kayla dances in front of the Transition Year Program office 3. Making visual art journals with Native Studies 362 4. Kayla and Dr. Paul Gareau pose next to a photo of Gabriel Dumont 5. Kayla sits on a chair in the Strynadka/Brady Reading Room, pointing up at a poster that says "We are all Treaty People"] #TakeOver #UAlberta #IndigenousLibrarians #NativeStudies #FirstPeoplesHouseUofA #LibrariesOfInstagram

A post shared by University of Alberta Library (@uofalibraries) on Feb 20, 2019 at 11:12am PST

As part of a recent Instagram takeover, Indigenous Academic Resident Kayla Lar-Son highlighted some of the work that she is doing in Digital Initiatives (DI) including spotlighting some of UAL’s unique Indigenous collections. Currently, issues of Alberta Native News are in the process of being digitized in a project lead by DI Librarian Michelle Brailey.

View this post on Instagram

Ever wonder what hides behind this door on Cameron second floor? It's Digital Initiatives! Some of the work we do includes Open Educational Resources and evaluating Northern Indigenous photos. . . . [Image descriptions: 1. Kayla pops her head behind the window of the door into digital initiatives. 2. Kayla and Michelle, the Digital Projects Librarian, hold up info on Open Educational Resources. 3. Kayla sits at her desk with two images from the Northern Collection displayed on her screen. One is a man standing in front of a tent and the other is of an Inuit child carrying a toddler in an amauti] #TakeOver #UAlberta #IndigenousLibrarians #LibrariesOfInstagram #OpenEducationalResources

A post shared by University of Alberta Library (@uofalibraries) on Feb 21, 2019 at 8:15am PST

The Decolonizing Description Project team has been actively engaging members of Indigenous communities both on and off the UAlberta campus in a holistic, collaborative, flexible and ongoing process to address problematic terminology in resource descriptions. Knowledge gathering events on North and Augustana campuses, as well as at the Maskekosihk (Enoch) First Nation open house, have been well received, and we have learned a great deal that we can apply to our practices. Further knowledge gathering sessions are being planned.

UAL staff have been working with health sciences students, faculty and clinicians to envision what a Health Sciences Indigenous Information and Learning Commons as part of the Health Sciences Library might be.  Several engagement sessions with stakeholders have been held through March and April.

Kayla Lar-Son, Allison Sivak and Leigha Rind hosted library sessions for Native Studies - Aboriginal Women (NS 362) students before their class every Tuesday evening during the Winter 2019 term. To focus on building relationships, the sessions were casual and there was always time for coffee & visiting. The students were given instructional sessions about library services. They also visited Jessica Thorlakson in Cameron library for a 3D Printing tour, explored hidden gems in the Circumpolar collection, and created work for their class project, the Visual Arts Journal.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by University of Alberta Library (@uofalibraries) on Feb 19, 2019 at 10:24am PST

UAL is happy to announce a new electronic resource 4 Seasons of Reconciliation, a multi-media teaching unit that promotes a renewed relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians. This educational initiative, developed for secondary, post-secondary and the workplace incorporates teacher guides, slideshows, videos and films along with engaging online portals.

Have you used Statista to find visualizations of data and statistics to include in your papers or presentations? The University of Alberta Libraries recently added the premium version of Statista, a portal for marketing and consumer data and statistics, to its list of databases. This means you now have access to the complete data set both on and off-campus.

• Do you want to know about projected job growth by Canadian industry as you consider what discipline to study? 
• Or maybe you need to know which social media platforms are used worldwide for your communications paper? 
• Do you need statistics about backpack sales in a visual format for a business class presentation?

The curriculum materials are inspired by the Reconciliation Certificate at First Nations University of Canada. An Indigenous Advisory Circle, composed of partners ranging from Canada’s long-established Indigenous-controlled post-secondary institutions, Indigenous Elders, knowledge-keepers, and specialized educators, participate in key executive decisions for the teaching materials. Collaborators include Indigenous Education, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and the Legacy of Hope Foundation. 

The University of Alberta community may use these educational materials in these ways:

• Unlimited simultaneous use of the films and media for students and teachers; 
• Free public showings of the films (no ticket sales allowed); and 
• Printing, copying, and displaying unit materials including maps, readings, and presentations.

As we prepare for some well needed vacation time and a break from a hectic session, it might be a good time to have a look at our online resources for music, movies, documentaries and much much more! We have a plethora of options for all genres and in many different languages.

As Canadians work towards Truth and Reconciliation, it is important that we listen to the voices of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. University of Alberta Libraries provides useful tools to foster understanding and build knowledge about Indigenous life with learning resources like the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Playlist.

Videos in the playlist focus on the history and effects of colonization of Canada by the Europeans, including how land treaties impacted the relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers, the legacy of the residential schools established by settlers to educate Indigenous children, and violence against women leading to many missing and murdered Indigenous women.

New additions to the playlist include the eight part Canadian docu-drama series 1491: The Untold Story of the Americas Before Columbus, based on Charles C. Mann's best-selling book.

The University of Alberta Libraries has resources to support your writing. A few examples are:

Thursday, September 27, CAB 341
9:30 am to 10:30 am
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Springer Materials is a new resource available from the University of Alberta Libraries providing curated data and advanced functionalities to support research in Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, and other related fields. Features include:

• A comprehensive databbase covering multiple material classes, property types, and applications
• Enhanced data visualization features display interactive crystal structures, data tables, and phase diagrams with export options for further analysis
• Search functions optimized for materials science like elemental composition or chemical structure searching to quickly find material property data
• A trusted and curated resource with thousands of materials science experts ensuring high  data quality

The Education Library has made a list of all of the must-have social justice resources for students in grades 7 – 12. If you need a story that deals with a difficult topic, your way in is here.

Get real news from five of the most respected daily newspapers in the United States. Updated every morning with the latest issues, and with content going back to the 1980’s, US Major Daily Newspapers is the best place to search for timely news stories.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

In honor of Open Access Week, we are highlighting two open access publishing projects that the University of Alberta supports.

Independent Voices: An Open Access Collection of an Alternative Press provides access to periodicals produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century. It includes titles like:

• 13th Moon
• Amex American Expatriate in Canada
• Off Our Backs
• Vietnam Veterans Against the War
• Freedomways

JoVE Video Journal contains cutting-edge experiments, accompanied by detailed text protocols. Collections include Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Medicine, Cancer Research, Immunology and Infection, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Engineering, Bioengineering, Behaviour, and Environment.

JoVE Science Education videos allow educators and students to better teach and learn key concepts and fundamental techniques at the undergraduate course level. These simple, easy-to-understand video demonstrations cover a wide range of STEM subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Psychology, Clinical Medicine and Engineering.

Visit JoVE today for a new perspective on lab experiments.

Shoah: (noun) a modern Hebrew term used since the 1940s to describe the Holocaust. The mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during 1941–5.

Steven Spielberg presented with the Ambassador for Humanity award by President Obama in 2014 - USC Shoah Foundation

The University of Alberta Libraries now offer access to the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, the world’s largest archive of audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses to genocide. The USC Shoah Foundation was founded by Steven Spielberg in 1994 after he began filming Schindler’s List. Spielberg began interviewing survivors and the interview structure came from his desire to tell a complete life story. Survivors would be asked to start with their background history, then their experiences during the war, and then describe how their lives unfolded in the aftermath.

52,000 interviews were conducted between 1994-1999. The collection was then transferred to USC who will preserve in perpetuity. The collection has grown to capture the testimony of people who have survived mass violence.

The collection, which began as a repository of Holocaust and World War II testimony, has grown to include 52,000 testimonies from the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979, the Guatemalan Genocide of 1978-96, and the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. Testimonies were collected in 62 countries and 41 languages.

This includes experiences such as:

• Jewish Survivor
• Political Prisoner
• Rescuer and Aid Provider
• War Crimes Trial Participant
• Jehovah’s Witness Survivor
• Sinti and Roma Survivor
• Liberator
• WWII Survivor
• Non-Jewish Forced Laborer
• Eugenic Policies Survivor 
• Homosexual Survivor 

Given the diversity and deeply insightful content of the Shoah Foundation’s archive, the testimonies have the potential to support research, teaching and learning in many disciplines. If you wish to learn more about this new collection, please contact your Subject Librarian.

Ok students, staff, faculty.... put down your textbooks, your research or whatever you are working on. Seriously, summer is in full swing and now is the time to enjoy some leisure reading before fall term begins. You know you want to! You've earned it! We even asked library staff to share their favourite summer reads and compiled a list.

There is a little bit for every taste on this list, including thrillers, mysteries, romance, graphic novels, non-fiction and poetry. Most of these books can be found in our collection, and if you decide you want to check it out, just click on the book cover to get a direct link to the book's record in the library catalogue so you can find it in the stacks! We also included the submitting staff members comments, to give you a sense of what they are about.

We highly encourage you to explore many of great reads in our collection. You could also stop by Coutts Library and borrow one of their lawn chairs and enjoy the sun while you read. You will thank yourself when things get busy come fall!

Lab Girl  by Hope Jahren An entertaining memoir of a prominent woman scientist that reads like a good story and expresses a wonderful passion for plant life.	Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake  by  Anna Quindlen Pulitzer prize journalist and novelist reflects on her career, family life and her view life's later years to come.
Alone Against the North: An Expedition into the Unknown  by  Adam Shoalts Allows you to experience the thrills and challenges of modern day exploration, and to appreciate the beauty of the Canadian north.	A Wanted Man  by  Lee Child
The Eyre Affair  by  Jasper Fforde Simultaneously silly and smart!	Wyrd Sisters  by  Pratchett, Terry Funny and good character development... pick any book in the Discworld series.
The Handmaid's Tale  by  Margaret Atwood It is very relevant to today, particularly the extreme evangelical republican party, and the new TV Series.	Memory and Dream  by  Charles de Lint A Canadian author who writes modern mythology fiction very influenced by Native American Coyote myths and European faerie tales.
Big Little Lies  by  Liane Moriarty There's a mystery at the centre of it that makes you want to keep reading	Where'd You Go, Bernadette?  by  Maria Semple It's a quirky read, and I love the way it's written through notes, letters, and emails.
Hostage  by  Guy Delisle Exciting, terrifying, agonizing, incredible art . . . a Delisle masterpiece!	In a Dark, Dark Wood  by  Ruth Ware Summer is wedding season. Friends, Nora and Clare haven't seen each other in  ten years, until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s staggette "hen" arrives. The past & secrets start coming out. Things start going very wrong...
Eileen  by Ottessa Moshfegh	In Fine Style: the Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious  by  Christopher Bateman A fascinating read about Limonious & Jamaica’s 80s/90s dancehall culture, with rich visually appealing artwork.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian  by  Sherman Alexie The honest way it portrays reservation life and the struggle to overcome barriers.	Voyager (Outlander #3)  by  Diana Gabaldon Catch up with the 3rd book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series before it premiers on September 10th.
What is Not Yours Is Not Yours  by  Helen Oyeyemi Beautiful writing with bits of magic and whimsy. It's a book of short stories [though they all connect, in some way], so you get a variety of wonderful stories.	Keeper'n Me  by  Richard Wagamese The best part about this book is how it is told in two voices: one of the elder and one of the city-raised boy.  The dry sense of humour makes it fun to read too.
The Circle  by  Dave Eggers Fans of the show "Black Mirror" will love this. A consipiracy/thriller centred around a Google/Apple-esque company. I also saw some parallels with elements of scientology and the culture of denunciation in communist regimes. A real page-turner and a great summer read.	You are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life  by  Jen Sincero It's self-help for people too punk rock for self help books.
So You've Been Publicly Shamed  by  Jon Ronson Looks at an interesting facet of social media. Also, a fascinating peek into another aspect of Zimbardo's prison study.	Saga  by  Brian K Vaughan The Art! The story!
Paper Girls  by  Vaughan, Brian K. The art work could tell a story on it's own.	Indigenous Writes  by  Chelsea Vowel Chelsea Vowel discusses Indigenous issues in a direct voice with excellent examples. A great introduction to Indigenous issues in Canada, should be required reading!
New American Best Friend  by  Olivia Gatwood A rising star on the American poetry scene. Olivia Gatwood is an amazing talent whose work is raw, enlightening and beautiful. Poetry is also great short reading for summer vacations.	Midnight, Texas  by  Charlaine Harris If you are missing Charlaine Harris' characters from Bon Temps, this is the next best thing.
Cutting for Stone  by  Verghese, A. (Abraham), 1955- Serious but beautifully detailed and written.	Sense and Sensibility  by  Jane Austen Jane's wit, humour, and poignant prose help you to remember the importance of self-reflection and give a window into life in regency England. “Sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves, and very frequently by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge."