Balancing Print and Electronic Collections in Public Libraries: Perspectives for a Changing World

Public libraries are of vital importance to their communities, providing access to information, shelter, services, and serving as an anchor for economic and social growth. As public libraries adapt to an increasingly digital world, they must address the balance of print and electronic materials to ensure that users have access to what they want and need. While public libraries’ print collections are decreasing at a slower rate than those of their academic counterparts, they are also facing increasing pressure to offer materials electronically. Public libraries must address challenges in tracking usage statistics as well as their users’ attitudes towards ebooks and print materials. Resource issues must be addressed, including costs and staffing. An increased desire for flexible space within library branches may also be a consideration impacting print collections. In addressing issues of accessibility, both print and electronic materials may create barriers in some instances while increasing access in others. The closure of many public library spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has introduced new issues, including limitations to access of print materials, new ease of access to online materials, and additional resource limitations as libraries work with limited budgets and staff. While the shift to online services during the COVID-19 pandemic has likely sped up the transition to increasing availability of online resources in public libraries, an appetite for print materials remains.

Canada’s Integrated Management Approach to Plastic Products: Defining the Problem and the Jurisdiction

Plastic waste is a global environmental problem. However, management solutions must be developed within local, institutional contexts. This paper considers the Government of Canada’s ‘proposed integrated management approach to plastic products’ both as a strategy for management and as an expression of federal jurisdiction. What is the policy problem to which they are responding, and how are they characterizing that problem in order to claim jurisdiction? Most importantly, what are the policy implications of this jurisdictional question?

“Moral Bonfires”: An Exploration of Book Burning in American Society

This article seeks to offer an introduction to book burning in American society. Firstly, it considers the use of fire as a method of destruction and its relation to freedom of speech and the American judicial system. It then seeks to unearth the reasons for book burning through an examination of a number of instances throughout American history. The phenomenon of book burning has been occurring worldwide for thousands of years, and as a longstanding tradition that has always drawn visceral reactions from spectators, it is still happening with alarming frequency. In America, book burning walks the fine line between censorship and free speech. It remains, however, an attack on knowledge and culture and is consequently a threat to the information management field. This paper, therefore, seeks to explore these occurrences from recent American history and discover why Americans have been, and are still burning books, in an attempt to better understand these attacks.

Public Perceptions of the Canadian Government’s Initial Response to Coronavirus: A Canadian Broadcasting Company Content Analysis

It is crucial for the government to maintain the public’s trust during uncertain risk. The Canadian government had approximately three months to develop a risk management strategy before Canada saw its first case of coronavirus. This study aims to show how the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) portrays government decision making during the initial outbreak of Coronavirus in January 2020 through March 2020 exclusive by examining 10 articles per month. Over the course of the last three months, government officials were increasingly cited in the CBC news articles. Results from this study shows that as the condition in Canada worsened, more evidence-based decision making is present in the articles, especially during the month of March.

Spatial Analysis of Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Integration with Wind Farms in Nova Scotia

Renewable energy systems have been implemented globally to help lower carbon emissions; for example, pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is a system that helps mitigate peak loads on electrical grids to reduce dependency on fossil fuel energy generation. As a form of energy storage, PHES involves using two water reservoirs at different elevations to generate electricity at times of peak demand. Integrating PHES near wind farms allows the required water-pumping electricity to be supplied by wind power, rather than fossil fuels. A spatial analysis was done using ArcGIS Pro to determine the most ideal sites for PHES within close proximity to wind farms in Nova Scotia. Five potential sites were identified, and map layouts were produced showing conceptual models of PHES at these locations throughout the province. Due to the topography of Nova Scotia, development of PHES is not feasible at many potential sites. Five suitable sites were ranked based on environmental and technoeconomic costs; the Barrachois Wind PHES hybrid project was ranked the highest, followed by the Digby, Ellershouse, Maryvale, and South Canoe wind energy sites. The study concluded that integrating PHES into wind farms in Nova Scotia would be a useful method for boosting electrical grid stability, and attaining emissions reductions targets throughout the province.

Reflections on the Public Library System in Canada: Inclusivity, Race and Power

Public libraries as an institution are of the upmost importance to Canadian society as individuals from a variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds rely upon these spaces to gain access to information, education, and recreational activities. For this reason, these institutions strive to be inclusive and welcoming spaces. However, they are not always successful in these endeavours. The following paper highlights the ways in which Canadian libraries promote a homogenous culture of whiteness. Although this subject has been discussed in the American context, this paper situates Canada within this scholarship through investigating the makeup of Canadian libraries, the treatment of library patrons, and the documented experiences of racially marginalized staff. Based on these findings, this paper highlights scholarly and practitioner recommendations while also advocating for further research on this topic within the Canadian field of Library and Information Sciences (LIS).

Dutcher's Impact: Wolastioqiyik Lintuwakonawa as a Case Study for the role of Music in Preserving Traditional Knowledge

Knowledge Management is a diverse field of study, dealing in the facilitation of knowledge sharing, the creation of knowledge systems, knowledge transfer, and knowledge preservation. Information professionals play an important role in helping these processes happen. Equally important is the preservation of Traditional Knowledge. Recognized as the knowledge Indigenous people have accrued over millennia, and formed through their interactions with their environment, Traditional Knowledge and its preservation also fall into the world of Knowledge Management. The performance of a piece of music is the manifestation of knowledge and, in the case of Jeremy Dutcher, is a form of knowledge preservation. Traditional Knowledge’s more fluid and dynamic nature is preserved in Dutcher’s 2018 album Wolastioqiyik Lintuwakonawa, where the artist creates a conversation between technical skill and the knowledge and language of the album. In the case of this paper, Dutcher’s album serves as an example of the way Traditional Knowledge can impact and provide new tools to the information profession and world of Knowledge Management.

The Right to be Forgotten: The Potential Effects on Canadian

Since the introduction of the right to be forgotten to European law in 2014, many Western countries have contemplated whether the right could be applied to their citizens. In October 2018, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner asked the Federal Court of Canada to decide if the right is a Canadian fundamental right. However, the right to be forgotten has caused a lot of issues in Europe due to its vagueness and if Canada’s Federal Court rules in favour of making the right a Canadian right, changes will need to be made to it to protect Canadian archives. This paper explores the right to be forgotten and discuss the potential effects the right may have on Canadian archives by exploring the origins of the right, how third-party search engines are currently handling the right, Canadian laws and policies surrounding privacy and the right to know and Canadian archival practices.

No Filter: Social Media in Public-sector Hiring

This essay analyzes how SM is used in hiring processes through a review of research in the private sector and the relevant policy in the public sector. This analysis presents three key findings: 1) there is a lack of policy related to SM screening in the public sector, 2) there is a lack of research on the use of SM in public sector hiring processes, and 3) there are potential areas of conflict between public sector values and the use of SM in hiring processes. Based on these findings, this essay advocates for further research and the development of a federal SM screening policy.

Digital Distrust: Assuring Security and Trust in Egovernment

As we enter the Anthropocene for digital information, governments are constantly seeking new ways to ‘plug-in’ populations and promote ease of access of government services. Dubbed ‘e-governance’, this concept uses Information and Communicative Technologies (ICT) to create and expand e-channels of service access to populations through the transformation and improvement of technology (Bannister & Connolly 2012). In doing so, however, the ability for government to connect with populations poses both technical and normative challenges surrounding assurance, security, and trust. Although the Government of Canada, for example, states explicitly that encryption and secure-sending of data should provide citizens with an adequate assurance of protection, this relationship is dependent upon the trust of the citizenship it serves (Immigration and Citizenship Canada 2018). What should happen, however, if the government is seeking to provide this service to a group with which it is not perceived to have a fully-established trust relationship with? Can the government ‘create’ trust through e-governance by highlighting access and transparency? This paper explores the theoretical frameworks of mutual trust and assurance which currently dictate the terms of Canadian e-government. Specifically, we explore both the normative elements of trust between marginalized groups and the government, as well as how policymakers use e-governance not only as a means of efficacy, but for explicit trust-building as well.