by Omar Elsharkawy, CFICE Admin RA
In the 21st century, we’re getting most of our information online, but libraries are still ever present in our societies. To stay relevant in the information age, libraries have changed in many ways. For example, many libraries now have extensive digital collections and some, academic libraries in particular, have diversified in the type of knowledge they’re mobilizing into communities.
Libraries also offer physical spaces that support learning culture and community collaboration.
George Duimovich, Head, Technology Support and Digital Initiatives at Carleton University, says the MacOdrum library invests in making its physical spaces more oriented towards collaborative learning. It offers spaces for community-campus partnership meetings, workshops, and general community events connected to Carleton’s mission. It even boasts a Discovery Centre complete with learning pods, 3D printers, and multi-media labs.
There are many different types of libraries. One type of libraries that’s increasingly becoming important are grassroots community libraries, which incorporate knowledge and data generated by community members and are typically run by community members.
OPIRG-Carleton office and library at the Carleton University campus.
OPIRG-Carleton, a social and environmental justice organization located on Carleton University’s campus, runs a community library that differs from other libraries in many ways.
Samiha Rayeda, OPIRG Carleton’s previous administrative coordinator, says, “Our library was created to house books and research journals that we found were not readily available in other libraries, especially books and materials that were of a radical social justice context.”
The library runs on an honor system and allows anyone to sign out books. This means community members, who might not have access to the Carleton University library, can sign out scholarly journals not offered at public libraries. She also says There is a noticeable hierarchy in academic libraries in many ways. The CFICE project works to improve community-campus engagement, and one of the important areas in which this happens is ensuring that all knowledge created, whether by academics or community practitioners and activists, is valued and shared.
Rayeda says, “While community-generated knowledge is usually not accepted into academic libraries, this issue speaks to a larger hierarchy society holds in terms of determining the worth of knowledge.”
But some academic libraries are beginning to incorporate community knowledge into their collections.
Of Carleton’s MacOdrum library, Duimovich says, “Community-generated knowledge is immensely important to building the strength of our collections.” He says that their collection includes equally well recognized works and source materials from professionals, practitioner researchers, and active and engaged citizens, which are critical to understanding the world around us.
Earlier this year, the MacOdrum Library also launched the Ottawa Resource Room. The goal of this space is to enhance the library’s collection and archiving of high quality, cross-disciplinary research by bringing together print and digital resources from the community in a dedicated research space. Materials that can be found in this space include everything from maps and architectural history, to neighborhood profiles and statistical data.
Libraries are also moving towards a more accessible open access platform which means that research outputs are free of restrictions on access.
According to Duimovich, “Open Access (OA) is a very desirable and highly strategic direction for us. We strongly support the principles underpinning the move to OA, but it’s also helping us address a very practical problem; namely, the high costs of building and maintaining research collections.”