UVic Libraries Strategic Directions Impact Fund 2024-2025

The Strategic Directions Impact Fund was designed to support initiatives and projects that advance UVic Libraries' strategic priorities and organizational values. In 2024, 13 projects were funded for a total of $75,730. 

Assessment and Inventory of BC Archives Collections of Surveyors’ Glass Photographic Plates, Prints, Maps and Survey Notes

Daniel Brendle-Moczuk, Eric Higgs, and undergrad Katelyn Fryer | $6,800 | SDG 4, SDG 10, SDG 13, SDG 15, SDG 16

From the 1880s onward, Canada's western mountains were photographed (70,000+) by Canada's Department of the Interior Dominion Land Survey, Geological Survey of Canada, and other government agencies by surveyors such as Morrison P. Bridgland, Richard W. Cautley and Arthur O. Wheeler. Since 1997, the Mountain Legacy Project, currently based at the UVic School of Environmental Studies and led by Eric Higgs, has worked with Library and Archives Canada to digitize portions of combined collections. Thousands (10,000+) of the original images have been repeat photographed in order to document changes over time, and a powerful custom open access database serves the digital assets. This project will conduct a thorough assessment and inventory of BC Archives for surveyors’ glass photographic plates, prints, maps and survey notes in preparation for a large-scale digitation of the collection.

Building an Accessibility-First UX Practice at UVic Libraries

Caitlin Keenan and Artie Goshulak | $4,250 | SDG 4, SDG 10

The goal of this project is to understand the challenges students with disabilities may face when using UVic Libraries' online resources. We will conduct a series of user experience interviews with library patrons who self-identify as having a disability. We will ask participants to reflect on their experiences and challenges conducting secondary research online. We will also observe while they conduct online research in their usual way. Following the interview phase, we will invite one or two participants to provide a demonstration to library staff on how they use technology to navigate information systems.

Creating Engaging Formative Assessments for Workshop Instruction Using the Open Source H5P Toolkit

Rich McCue | $4,230 | SDG 4, SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 10

Formative Assessment helps learners access their own learning to help them better understand their progress and abilities when learning new skills and information. 

The main objective of this project is to enhance Digital Scholarship Commons and other library workshop instruction by using the H5P Open Source toolkit to help create more engaging and effective formative assessments for skills-based workshops. As part of this, we will explore and test the effectiveness of some of the forty different web-based H5P tools (like interactive instructional videos,  drag-and-drop activities, or branching scenarios for example) to assist learners in checking their understanding while working through web-based pre-workshop and workshop instruction. This project will be led by Rich McCue, and supported by the summer YCW Assistant. 

• The first part of the project will be to explore, experiment with and then prioritize the H5P tools to be tested with a small number of workshops at the beginning of the summer. 
• Test activities will be developed to be embedded in workshops, and then feedback will be actively solicited from workshop participants. 
• The most effective tools will be used to create activities in the ten most popular DSC workshops and feedback will continue to be solicited to validate the earlier preliminary findings. 
• Training materials will be developed so that others in the library can take advantage of the H5P tools as well as learn key best practices for web based formative assessment design.
• A summary of recommended uses and hands-on training will be presented in library peer sharing events in the fall of 2024, and at the International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces in September 2024.

The Invisible Companion Digital Exhibition Project

Bill Blair, Ying Liu, and Richard King | $3900 | SDG 4

The Invisible Companion Digital Exhibition Project will showcase a ten-episode TV series adapted from the novel The Invisible Companion (Chinese title  隐形伴侣) by the author Zhang Kangkang and will include relevant materials such as the Culture Revolution Political Posters collection from UVic Special Collections & University Archives with the introduction and contextual information provided by Dr. Richard King, a UVic emeritus professor in Asian Studies and the author herself.  The series was made in the early 1990s, but because of changes in the political climate concerning the movement to send urban youth to live in the countryside beginning in the late 1960s, it was only broadcast once on a provincial station, and never reached a national audience. With the permission of the author and the producer, the aim of this project is to make the unique content available open access online for teaching and research purposes within UVic and beyond. This will include the ten-episode series available online with subtitles in English and Mandarin and selections from an interview with the author for further context.

Linked Data Intern

Lisa Goddard and Dean Seeman | $10,000 | SDG 4, SDG 9

In a digital research ecosystem it is critical that researchers can reliably reference their objects of study, certainly in citations, but also for purposes of annotation, interpretation, and critical analysis. These objects of study are often digital assets -- serials, monographs, maps, images, and documents -- that are held in library and archival collections. It is still all too often the case that these object URIs change during technical upgrades and platform migrations, effectively severing the scholarly chain of evidence. Although there are a variety of means by which GLAM institutions can ensure persistently resolvable identifiers for their digital collections, progress in applying these links has been slow and uneven. The Linked Data Intern will join the national Forward Linking project, working with Lisa Goddard and Dean Seeman to help move PIDs forward at UVic and across Canada.

Pathways into the University of Victoria Art Collections

Caroline Riedel, Lorilee Wastasecoot, Jade Guan, and Anahita Ranjbar| $7,500 | SDG 4, SDG 15, SDG 16

The University of Victoria Art Collections (UAC) is comprised of over 18,000 objects. One of the key drivers that resulted in the new reporting structure of UAC to UVic Libraries is the vast potential of the art collections to contribute to the research and teaching activities at the university in new and innovative ways. This project aims to identify areas of alignment with the UVic Art Collections and the Libraries’ collections-based research and teaching activities. The outcomes include:

• Establishing resources for art collections-based research and teaching that present “pathways into the collection” for faculty and students (this will include digital exhibitions and collections records)
• Improving how we to share research findings and archive past exhibition projects

We plan to examine a specific exhibition and collection of Indigenous baskets as a case study to develop a framework to integrate UAC and Libraries activities around collections-based research and teaching. Identifying resources and developing a framework would help us better mobilize research and promote further collaboration over time.

Reproducibility for All

Monique Grenier, Shahira Khair, and Sarah Huber | $4,000 | SDG 4, SDG 9

Across academic disciplines, research aims to be reproducible: given the same data and code, and following the same methodology, results should be independently reproducible by fellow researchers. However, in practice, organizing analyses so that they are reproducible is not so simple. It requires skills to learn new computational tools and dedication to diligently organize and document data and analyses. Supporting reproducibility relies on a range of partners providing expertise in research computing, software, and research data management. This series of dedicated workshops will strengthen these partnerships with students and researchers through shared tools and training to advance reproducibility across the research enterprise.

Strengthening Global Research Library Connections in the South Asia Region

Aditi Gupta | $3,500 | SDG 1, SDG 10, SDG 11, SDG 17

This proposal outlines a series of collaborative workshops by the Engineering Librarian from UVic, focusing on library instruction, subject librarianship, collection development, information literacy, and digital fluency skills. The librarian will visit a few academic libraries in India and conduct an asynchronous workshop for a university in Nepal on "Accessing Research Literature." These workshops aim to enhance the professional development of participating librarians, faculty, and library students, fostering international knowledge exchange and strengthening global partnerships. These efforts aim to advance understanding of contemporary library practices, empower international librarians with new skills, and lay the groundwork for future collaborations.

Student Engagement and Communication Ambassadors

Karen Munro, Courtney Lundrigan, Christine Walde, and Lisa Abram | $7,000 | SDG 4

This project aligns with UVic Libraries' core objectives of inclusivity and engagement, alongside supporting SDG 4 on education. Through the employment of student ambassadors, we aim to enhance communication with students, gather feedback on library services, and cultivate relationships with key student groups. Last year a YCW Intern proved how effective it is for someone close to the student experience to do this work and for us to combine engagement, assessment, and communication activities. The 2024-25 student ambassadors will attend student-facing events (e.g., Thunderfest), conduct student surveys, create content for the UVic Libraries' Instagram channel, and provide a student perspective on student engagement materials such as presentations and handouts. This approach is designed to improve engagement, assess student needs, and contribute to long-term service improvements by leveraging student perspectives and feedback.

Supporting Evidence Syntheses Tied to Consensus Statements

Zahra Premji | $3,300 | SDG 3, SDG 10

For librarians, supporting evidence synthesis teams for high impact projects such as consensus guidelines (which directly impact practice) requires additional competencies and skills due to the complex nature of the project scope as well as the distributed environments and teams that collaborate on these large projects. It may require the librarian to provide assistance and guidance on project management and data management, while navigating communication with large international teams, and developing training materials. These would be in addition to the more traditional role of developing and implementing the search methods, while attempting to ensure coverage of global sources. This project seeks to collate knowledge from librarians who have experience with similar projects during an in-person conference workshop at the 2024 European Association of Health Information in Libraries conference. The eventual goal is to develop a useful, open access resource for librarians supporting consensus statements, and in this way contribute to capacity building for librarians, and to encourage their involvement in complex evidence synthesis projects.

Surfacing the Nature and Scope of Residential School Denialism in Canada

Justin Harrison | $7,500 | SDG 16

This project seeks to identify and surface the growing harmful trend and information sources of residential school system denial in Canada that has emerged in recent years and investigate the ways denialism is manifesting in our society. The project activities, led by Learning & Engagement Librarian Justin Harrison, with consulting partner Associate University Librarian – Reconciliation Ry Moran, will harness UVic Libraries’ digital resources and research expertise towards serving as a leader in raising awareness within the broader UVic community and beyond of this developing national concern. The project will develop online learning resources focused on denialism to serve the wider UVic campus community as learning and teaching supports to raise awareness of and access to the findings and serve as ongoing educational resources towards the collective goal of broad public dialogue for reconciliation.

UVic Libraries Vault Historical Maps Metadata Enhancement Project

daniel Brendle-Moczuk | $7,250 | SDG 4, SDG 10, SDG 11, SDG 16

UVic Libraries Vault contains hundreds of historical maps in four (distinct) collections:

• BC Land Title Survey Authority-LTSA Early BC Maps
• BC Land Title Survey Authority-LTSA Indian Reserve Maps
• Hudson’s Bay Maps
• UK Archives Early BC Maps

All of the above maps are (somewhat) findable via Vault but for the most part do not contain the common current spelling of First Nation (Band) names and current geographic place names.

For example, if someone searches for Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout or Tseycum of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation in Vault, no results are returned because these names did not appear on 19th and early 20th century maps and are not in Vault’s metadata.

Likewise, a search for Blenkinsop Lake returns no results because the lake was formerly called Lost Lake.

A yet to be determined student will methodically examine the above map collections in consultation with the following resources: BC Assembly of First Nations, BC First Peoples Cultural Council, BC First Nations Listings, BC Geographical Names Office, Canada Crown-Indigenous Relations, Geographical Names Board of Canada, etc., to systematically compile current First Nation names and current geographic place names.

A yet to be determined student along with the Geospatial Librarian and Metadata team will create a spreadsheet so that current names metadata can be uploaded to Vault.