yoURArcher

Your weekly links to interesting stories from the world of libraries and archives, books and publishing, and information science.

Got a hot tip? Please send it to Kate.Cushon@uregina.ca (tipsters will be credited!).

Library Help for Research Essays From an Instructor’s Perspective

Designing and 3D-Printing a Library-Themed Business Card Holder

Conference Report and Ideas — Libraries in a Post-Truth World: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Reconciliation and Universities: Actionable Deeds, Not Just Talk

Your weekly links to interesting stories from the world of libraries and archives, books and publishing, and information science.

Got a hot tip? Please send it to Kate.Cushon@uregina.ca (tipsters will be credited!).

ALA on the State of Libraries in 2017.

How A Bookmobile Saved A Life.

Librarians Take Up Arms Against Fake News.

There is a New Creative Commons image search (hat-tip to Cara Bradley).

Your weekly links to interesting stories from the world of libraries and archives, books and publishing, and information science.

Got a hot tip? Please send it to Kate.Cushon@uregina.ca (tipsters will be credited!).

ALA’s 2017 Notable Books List announced.

The opening lines of famous novels’ first sentences, visualized as star charts.

“The physical book will surely endure: But will it endure for the right reason?”

Maya Angelou on How a Library Saved Her Life.

Ever wonder whether really big libraries still have card catalogs? The Library of Congress does.

Your weekly links to interesting stories from the world of libraries and archives, books and publishing, and information science.

Got a hot tip? Please send it to Kate.Cushon@uregina.ca (tipsters will be credited!).

Gender in the world of publishing:
Emily Gould on the compulsory niceness of women in publishing.

US Politics and publishing:
The literary trends of the Obama years include autofiction, fables of meritocracy, novels set in the recent past, and trauma narratives.
The future of conservative publishing imprints under Trump.

Librarian funnies:
Librarians on the strangest things they’ve found in library books.

Academic librarianship:
Why Librarians and Not Professors Make The Decisions.

The Archway Gallery is a brand new exhibition space located on the main floor of the University of Regina Library. Displayed is artwork in 2D and 3D from UofR students from a variety of backgrounds and artistic styles. The Gallery runs three exhibitions per year (Fall, Winter, Spring/Summer) and displays artwork from students and recent alumni.

The Archway Gallery welcomes you to view our Winter 2017 exhibition

Jingyu (David) Zhang

Regina Highway

2016
Digital painting

Saskatchewan Legislative Building
2016
Digital painting

University Bus
2014
Digital painting

Dreamland
2016
Oil on wood panel

Untitled
2016
Oil on wood panel

Downtown Regina
2016
Oil on wood panel

Artist Biography: Jingyu (David) Zhang, from Guangdong, China, is currently studying in the Department of Visual Arts BFA program majoring drawing and painting. His favourite mediums are ink, acrylic, oil, and digital imaging. Jingyu enjoys painting still life, landscape and portrait in an expressive style, and trying to explore the essence of each subject and capture the beauty and meaning within.

Stephanie Hasiak

2004-2014

2015
Porcelain, Staples

About this work: In August of 2014, my older brother Justin Hawke sudd
enly passed away at 29. Ten years earlier, in the summer of 2004, he was involved in a skateboarding accident that caused his brain to swell, and he was in a coma for 3 weeks. Following his accident, a piece of his skull was removed and later reinserted. His wound was stapled shut, and left a very distinct scar. The main break in this plate replicates the shape of this scar. During my brother’s wake, my father expressed the idea that my brother had been destined to die the day of his skateboarding accident, and that we had been gifted those 10 extra years with him; There is one staple for every year.

Artist Biography: Stephanie Hasiak is currently enrolled in the BFA program, majoring in Ceramics. She works primarily with themes of working through the grief of her brother’s passing and dealing with her mental illness through creative expression.

Sheila Stoffel

Kenwood Infinity
Oil on canvas
2016

Mom and Dad’s Wedding Gift

Acrylic paint on canvas
2014

Planet Earth is Blue
Acrylic paint on canvas
2014

Farm Series: Good Earth
2016
Intaglio printing, somerset paper

Domestic Meditation I
Soft pastels, mi-teinte paper
2015

Domestic Meditation II
Soft pastels, mi-teinte paper
2015

Domestic Meditation III
Soft pastels, mi-teinte paper
2015

About these works: Pastel drawings of females in traditional roles, busy cleaning, preparing food, etc being the stable presence in the domestic space. Females depicted in these set roles, a moment captured, a meditation, where they are lost in thought, knowing that there has got to be more to their life but not sure how to create a new role for themselves in a male dominated financial-historical world. Drawings have been highly influenced by artist Chardin – my personal version of his domestic scenes.

Nic Wilson

On the Possibility of the Novel as a Medium in the Visual Arts

2016-17
Photocopy on wood

Advanced Reading Copy: Edits 1
2016
Digital Print

About these works: I like to think that I work between states and that the gestures I make allude to multiple and simultaneous realities. These realities can be expressed as ulterior motives or misdirection, often resulting from an attempt at representation. I would like to present two pieces of work in the archway exhibition space, both related to a project that explores the novel as a medium in the visual arts. The artists’ novel is made possible by a state of flux where the significance of the work is not measured by its formal properties, but in the circumstances of its conception and by the proposition of its possibility. The artists’ novel lives within the context of my studio practice as a representation of the act of novel writing in which the conventions of literature are inverted, exposing a social activity that can be considered as a process rather than a result. The first piece is a series of book replicas that, when taken in relation to one another, constitute the possibility of the novel as a medium in my practice. This piece, titled On the Possibility of the Novel as a Medium in the Visual Arts, will consist of ten replicas of the following books: I Love Dick by Chris Krauss, The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki, Remainder by Tom McCarthy, Alien: The Official Novelization by Alan Dean Foster, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object by Lucy R. Lippard, For a New Novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Orlando: a Biography by Virginia Woolf, Crash by J. G. Ballard, Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan and a: A Novel by Andy Warhol. The second piece is a collaboration with Toronto-based artist Ilse Kramer called Advanced Reading Copy: Edits. This piece is a series of enlarged digital images of copy-edits made in an artist’s novel called The Julep. This novel is an ongoing project that is printed and distributed in small batches as it is written. This collaboration is the result of a printing error in which an unedited version of this portion of the novel was distributed. The book came back to me with these edits written into the margins. This piece is evidence of the way an artist’s novel can constitute a public very directly. The activity of editing becomes an exposure of the shame inherent in the “correctness” of language but also a gesture of support, from one peer to another.

Artist Biography: Nic Wilson was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He earned a BFA from Mount Allison University and is currently in his first year of the MFA program in visual arts at the University of Regina.

Brittany Gillies

The Coyote in the Barn

2016
Charcoal and chalk pastel on paper

The Dogs and the Badger
2016
Charcoal and chalk pastel on paper

The Bull in the Yard
2016
Charcoal and chalk pastel on paper

About these works: “Vague and Vivid” is a collection of charcoal and chalk pastel drawings depicting some of my most vivid memories from my childhood on the farm. Like everyone’s memories, some parts are vague and some are very vivid, which is what I am attempting to depict with this collage layout of each drawing. The different sizes are to show how well I can recall each memory – the largest piece is the most clear and the smallest is the least clear. I created this series for class in the Fall 2016 semester. The idea for my project that I had walking into class was simple and, honestly, not very good. My professor challenged me to make drawings with more depth that were more personal, and I ran with it until I had something I was actually proud of. Each drawn collage piece is done in a way that the viewer may not know what the full story is behind each piece, but they can interpret how the situation came to be. Each collage is laid out in a non-linear fashion so that it’s hard to tell which image is the beginning and which is the end, but still clearly telling a story that can be interpreted. The drawings are mostly in black and white with colour added to the aspects that I can recall the most in each memory. My hope is that the viewers can both interpret and empathize with the emotions that each drawing is portraying. Each drawing in these pieces was either drawn from memory or from references at the farm where I grew up. The drawing series “Vague and Vivid” has become the starting point for the drawings that I will be doing in my upcoming graduation show at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, and possibly a theme (memories) that I will want to explore more in the future.

Artist Biography: Brittany Gillies is from Bengough, Saskatchewan. She is in her final year of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, majoring in visual arts with a focus on drawing. She will be graduating this spring.

As the (relatively) new University Librarian, I want to welcome you to the @Archer blog. There are exciting things happening in your Library, throughout the campus, and across the library and information universe.

This blog will showcase not just the Archer Library, but also explore some of the larger issues facing students, scholars, researchers, librarians, archivists, life-long learners and knowledge/content creators.

Even though every day there seems to be new rules, laws or algorithms trying to restrict the flow of information, all of us are inundated with random data and facts at every turn; social media, news sites, blog posts combined with traditional forms of publishing all contribute to information overload. Librarians, archivists and library staff are an integral part of the scholarly communication process, and through this blog we will explore challenges, opportunities and solutions to the issues facing all of us.

If you have any thoughts or comments about what you see on the blog, or if you have ideas about the University Library, its collections or services you can always email me directly at University.Librarian@uregina.ca.

-Brett Waytuck, University Librarian