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Arlysse Quiring (Archer Library):  What about the stickers?

March 16^th of 2020 I anxiously texted my music student families to let them know lessons were now online.  I’m a musician (bassoon, voice, piano) that works in libraries.  It was the same day I’d had a seventh cancelled gig, and I was raw, but so was everyone else.  I started my first video lesson with a practiced Cheerful Teacher Face smile.  The moment my six-year-old student’s face came on the screen I almost burst in to tears.  She looked very small and confused.  Mom said everyone was ok there.  The next half hour was controlled panic as we figured out camera angles and sound for optimum learning.  At the end of the lesson, I asked my student if she had any worries, any questions, anything she wanted to tell me.  She told me she had one question:  “If we’re playing piano like this now… what about the stickers?” she started. “How will you give me stickers when I’ve finished a song?” I grinned as I promised we would figure something out, hung up the phone, and cried into my piano.  In June when her mom came by to drop a thank you gift on my porch, I made sure to leave a goody bag of small toys, a thank you card, and several sheets of sparkly stickers.

Favourite Pandemic Read:  All Together Now by Allan Doyle

If you are interested in sharing your Humans of UofR Libraries story, please contact us at arlysse.quiring@uregina.ca

The OER Program and the Dr. John Archer Library will be launching a new resource listing available OER by discipline. This resource lists a wide range of available open educational resources organized by discipline and will be updated regularly as new resources are identified and completed.

All instructional faculty and staff are invited to attend the launch of this resource designed specifically to help identify open resources that could potentially be used in courses across the University of Regina this fall and beyond. The session will be delivered on Thursday, May 6, at 12:00 pm.

For more information and the Zoom link please contact arlysse.quiring@uregina.ca

We know exam time is really stressful, so we’ve put together some resources for those moments when you need to take a break. Starting last week and continuing this week we’ll be posting featured pages from our Library Leisure Guide to help ease some of the stress. Here is day five!

Exercise another part of your hard-working brain with quizzes, puzzles, games, and our very own virtual escape room.

Check out our Games and Quizzes tab here: https://uregina.libguides.com/c.php?g=719908&p=5145053

Check out our Escape Room tab here: https://uregina.libguides.com/libraryleisure/escaperoom

We know exam time is really stressful, so we’ve put together some resources for those moments when you need to take a break. Starting last week and continuing this week we’ll be posting featured pages from our Library Leisure Guide to help ease some of the stress. Here is day four!

A no-brainer for a library, right? But did you know that we offer fiction as well as publications for academic research? And some great music databases too.

Check out the Reading tab here: https://uregina.libguides.com/c.php?g=719908&p=5145055

Check out the Music tab here: https://uregina.libguides.com/c.php?g=719908&p=5145054

We know exam time is really stressful, so we’ve put together some resources for those moments when you need to take a break. Starting last week and continuing this week we’ll be posting featured pages from our Library Leisure Guide to help ease some of the stress. Here is day three!

We’re always adding to our guides to holidays and festivities celebrated all over the world. Learn about them here: https://uregina.libguides.com/c.php?g=719908&p=5145056

The Archer Book Club team is delighted to offer three reading selections and meetings over the spring/summer semester:

May 19, 2021: 12:00pm-1:00pm, Title: All Together Now by Alan Doyle

June 23, 2021: 12:00pm-1:00pm, Title: Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family by Amanda Jetté Knox. The author will be joining us for the discussion.

July 24, 2021: 12:00pm-1:00pm, Title: #Notyourprincess by Lisa Charleyboy (Editor); Mary Beth Leatherdale (Editor)

Students, Faculty and Staff are all welcome!

For more information: https://uregina.libguides.com/archerbookclub

Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/book-teacup-nature-summer-reading-2388213/

We know exam time is really stressful, so we’ve put together some resources for those moments when you need to take a break. Over the next two weeks we’ll be posting featured pages from our Library Leisure Guide to help ease some of the stress. Here is day two!

Colouring can induce a meditative state, mindfulness and creative, quiet time. Perfect for a stressful day.

Check out the guide here: https://uregina.libguides.com/c.php?g=719908&p=5145056

Mary Chipanshi (Nursing, KHS, Psychology – Archer Library): Discovering Saskatchewan

“All the vacation plans, conferences and weddings were either cancelled or postponed. It was March 2020, and the lockdown had begun. It was going to be a long summer!

With the children gone and only my husband and I in the pandemic “bubble”, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to discover what Saskatchewan had to offer. Armed with sandwiches, a cooler, wipes and masks we ventured on the road!

 A couple of days in each of two parks, Cypress Hills and Prince Albert were what we needed to get out of the city and connect with nature. A trip to the mystic-looking Castle Butte in Big Muddy Bandlands was so captivating. My feeble attempt to climb to the top ended with me sliding down unceremoniously. Some spiked shoes would have helped!

 An invitation to a socially distanced and scaled-down wedding in Saskatoon gave us the opportunity to visit the Crooked Bush near Hafford. The drive was long and many times we questioned ourselves if we were going in the right direction, in spite of having a GPS. Seeing the unexplained phenomenon of eery looking twisted aspens made the drive worthwhile!

As the summer drew to a close, we decided to take a drive to Lebret, situated in the scenic Qu’Appelle Valley. I managed to tackle the hill of crosses and was rewarded with the most spectacular views.  On the way back to Regina we stopped in Wolseley, a town with the one and only swinging bridge in Saskatchewan.  

Looking back now, the summer was not so bad after all.  Maybe we will make this a yearly adventure!”

If you are interested in sharing your Humans of UofR Libraries story, please contact us at arlysse.quiring@uregina.ca

We know exam time is really stressful, so we’ve put together some resources for those moments when you need to take a break. Over the next two weeks we’ll be posting featured pages from our Library Leisure Guide to help ease some of the stress. Here we go!

All you need is your library card to access movies from our databases. Whether you’re into superheroes, old classics, musicals, comedies or arthouse film – you’ll definitely find something to relax to.

Check out the guide here: https://uregina.libguides.com/c.php?g=719908&p=5145052

Alex King (President’s Advisory Committee on Art, Archer Library):

“When it began to dawn on me that Covid would affect us in significant ways, I felt strangely calm. I consider myself pretty resilient, and I can approach a crisis with calm and rationale. I’ve happily lived alone for many years and moved internationally (twice) with minimal support. I’m fortunate to have robust mental health and my favourite place to be is on the couch or experimenting in the kitchen. I have fantastic neighbours. A few months at home? I could do this.

And at the beginning, I could. My apartment was spotless, I was catching up on my reading list. Hell, I could go to work in sweatpants because the office was… my kitchen table. And then as the restrictions tightened and Covid crept closer to home, I realized this was for the long haul. I missed socializing, worried about older relatives, and felt lonely and bored. I ordered coffee deliveries just to see a friendly face.

One day I received a text asking if I could foster two cats in need of temporary housing. They’d been rescued from a hoarding situation and being a timid pair were proving hard to adopt. I agreed immediately. It surprised none of my friends and family that this became a “foster fail”, and I realized Kiki and Kirby had become family.

Living with these two sweethearts has made the pandemic experience infinitely more bearable. Being an anxious new cat mum has been a welcome distraction, and they amuse and delight me every day. Moreover, the slow bonding process has been incredibly rewarding. It took months for these shy babies to emerge from hiding to trust me enough to seek out cuddles and playtime. I’m so grateful for my cute little family!”

Favourite pandemic read: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein


If you are interested in sharing your Humans of UofR Libraries story, please contact us at arlysse.quiring@uregina.ca