It’s #ACAHashtagParty time again at the Association of Canadian Archivists. We had fun finding these Science Show promo posters in our holdings to line up with today’s theme, #ArchivesScience. A fixture in the U of R’s events calendar for many years, the Science Shows invited the public to engage with the institution’s science-related departments through a variety of exhibits and experiments.
Image Credits: University of Regina Archives. Oversize Ephemerae (Faculty of Science). Science Show Posters, 1977-1991.
Join the University of Regina Anti-Oppression Book Club, hosted by the Archer Library, for the Winter 2024 semester! The theme for February is “Celebrating Black Voices: A Literary Journey for Black History Month.”
The book selection for February is the poetry collection Earth Skin by Peace Akintade. There are two Zoom meetings available: February 1st and February 15th, both 2:00-3:00 pm and both facilitated by Librarian Mary Chipanshi.
We are also excited that Peace Akintade will visit the Archer Library for a Meet-the-Author event on February 22, 2024. This is a hybrid event (Zoom and in-library) where Akintade will read from Earth Skin and have a conversation with Mary Chipanshi.
The Dr. John Archer Library & Archives invites students, staff and faculty to participate in the 2024 “Blind Date with a Book” contest, which runs from January 22nd to February 21st and aims to pair a reader with their perfect book.
Visit the display in the Archer Library with wrapped books (fiction, novels, poetry, plays and non-fiction) about Black history and by Black authors. Pick your “blind date” and sign it out at the Help Desk. Participants can enter to win one of three prize packs of books generously donated by the University of Regina Press.
On February 22nd, 2024, the author Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye will speak at the Archer Library and during this event the winners of the contest will be announced.
The Dr. George F. Ledingham Herbarium Collection is now live online via the Library’s website. Dr. Ledingham (1911-2006) established a Herbarium at the University of Regina (then Regina College) in 1945. Under his direction, the collection grew to include an incredible 70,000 plant specimens and a rich legacy of other records (including journals, photographic materials and birding records).
The Herbarium Collection currently features two subcollections: Dr. Ledingham’s journals, which were digitized by Mariko Sawa (Archives Honours Student), and Dr. Ledingham’s records of birds, digitized by Mason Hauserman (Archives Arts Intern).
The next meeting of the Archer Book Club will be on January 31st, 2024, from 12:00 – 1:00 pm, with this month’s selection being the classic Gothic novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film of the same name was based on this book and would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Thanks to Veronica Ramshaw, Film Librarian at Archer Libraries and Archives for assisting with the research for this blog!
It’s December. It’s dark and cold, but also many of us will be celebrating secular or religious holidays. What better way to celebrate the holidays than embracing hygge, grabbing a hot chocolate or other delicious, warm beverage, and watching a holiday movie? After all, December is when holiday movies, primarily Christmas movies, take over cable TV, streaming, and theatrical releases. So let’s talk about holiday movies and what is, or isn’t a Christmas movie.
With this in mind, let’s discuss a very important question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
All these surveys featured a variation of the question “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? If you have not seen or do not know the movie answer ‘I don’t know’.”
My heart breaks to see this data, so let’s dive into what is or isn’t a Christmas movie.
There’s no clear-cut definition of a Christmas movie, and a lot of the debate is focused on opinion, but I was able to find some core themes of Christmas movies from articles from The Hollywood Reporter, CBC, the Unspooled podcast, and an interview with critic Craig Outhier. I also asked our Film Librarian to do a quick search for scholarly articles, but most of what we found focused on the sub-genre of Hallmark style Christmas movies. It’s important to realize that despite the Hallmark style Holiday movie machine producing highly formulaic stories focusing on love, romance, nostalgia, and good fuzzy feelings, traditional or classic Christmas movies do not fall into those themes. After all, A Christmas Carol is a ghost story.
So, an unofficial, almost entirely opinion-based list of common themes in Christmas movies:
Must include a Christmas setting at some point during the film
Meaningful use of Christmas in the film – often described as “Could the plot be described without Christmas and still make sense?”
Characters going through a transformation
Reunion with family
Opinions will vary, but to me, Die Hard is my go-to holiday movie. It’s got action, humour, romance, family drama, and of course Alan Rickman. However, does it fit into our Christmas movie themes list?
Christmas Movie Theme
Die Hard
Christmas Setting
Yes, takes place at the Christmas party on Christmas Eve
Meaningful Use of Christmas in the Film
Yes, Christmas enhances the plot and emotional arcs of the characters
Characters go through a transformation
Yes
Reunion with family
Yes
So there you have it. Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
If you haven’t seen Die Hard or want to rewatch this holiday classic, you can access it through the Archer Library and Archives Criterion on Demand Database or borrow a physical copy from Regina Public Library.
Because everyone loves a top ten list at the end of the year, here are our most accessed Research Guides (also sometimes referred to as Lib Guides) by Archer patrons. Not surprised to see the APA guide at number 1 as we get a lot of citation questions at the Help Desk. Citing correctly is tricky business!
Research Guides cover many specific topics & areas of study and are prepared for you by Archer staff. They can be found under “Popular Services” on our homepage: library.uregina.ca/homepage
The library now has live occupancy data available online and on the Waitz app. See where the busiest, and calmest, parts of the library are before you even arrive, or check the status at the door on your way in.
You can access the library occupancy data anytime from the library website:
You can also bookmark https://waitz.io/regina or get the Waitz app available for both iOS and Android.
“Takao Tanabe: Life & Work” by Ian Thom (Art Canada Institute, 2023) is published today! The University of Regina is lucky to have several works by Tanabe in its art collection, including his series of colourful banners, formerly displayed in the Ad Hum building.
Takao Tanabe (b. 1926), Untitled (Banners), 1973, printed nylon banners. University of Regina President’s Art Collection, pc.1973.2. Photograph by the University of Regina.
Today is the first day of Hanukkah, which runs for eight days until December 15th. It is the traditional “festival of lights” of Judaism where Jews across the religious observance spectrum, from Reform to Conservative to Orthodox, focus on the same theme of bringing light into the darkness.
