December 2017
Volume 15.4
L-R top: Megan Robertson, Jennifer Bancroft, Cristen Polley,
Korinne Hamakawa, Leigh Anne Palmer.

L-R bottom: Sunni Nishimura, Leah Hopton, Anita Cocchia,
Myfanwy Postgate, Brandon Weigel.

In This Issue
BC ELN Office Giving

This holiday season the
BC ELN team made a donation to the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, which provides practical support, basic necessities, and hot nutritious meals to women and children of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.
An Exciting New Partnership for Arca

BC ELN recently announced a new partnership with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC) at the University of British Columbia Library. The novel arrangement allows successful past and future British Columbia History Digitization Program (BCHDP) grant recipients the option of hosting their digitized material on Arca, BC's collaborative digital repository. Read the complete News Release.

"We are delighted to partner with IKBLC to support access to digitized materials funded by BCHDP. This cross-sector partnership marks a new phase for Arca, furthering its development as a foundational piece of the BC Digital Library, envisioned to provide access to the intellectual, historical, and cultural record of the province,"
- Anita Cocchia.
Building a Wall of Team Strengths
by Leah Hopton

How can post-it notes bring co-workers closer together? BC ELN staff recently found out! Building on the StrengthsFinder assessments* that all staff members completed in 2015, this fall we joined together to create a Strengths Art Wall out of post-it notes.
 
To create this colourful display of our team's strengths, we overcame our jitters about drawing and put pen to post-it note. We each depicted our strengths however we visualized them, and afterwards we shared our post-its with one another. In the words of one BC ELN-er:  
 
"This activity helped me get away from words and allowed me to think visually about my strengths. Sharing my strengths with my co-workers and hearing about theirs, whether they overlapped with mine or were different, gave me new insight into how we can support one another and work together as a team."
 
Talking through strengths with one another prompted lots of conversation, some laughter, and a deeper understanding of how we can do our best work together. If you have any questions about using Strengthsfinder as a team building tool, please email me! leahh@eln.bc.ca
 
*The StrengthsFinder assessment reveals your top five abilities. Abilities are grouped into four domains: Strategic Thinking, Executing, Influencing, and Relationship Building.
BC ELN All Partner Meeting 2017
 
Partner library directors from around the province convened at the Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver on December 8 th for the 2017 All Partner Meeting. With a backdrop of holiday décor and cozy fireplaces, the group arrived ready to engage with the day's topics.
 
Melody Burton, Deputy University Librarian of the University of British Columbia, welcomed the group, making a special point of introducing new directors and alternates. A quick round of lightning talks on Arca, AskAway, Resource Sharing, and WriteAway came next, highlighting the many ways BC ELN services support communities. To conclude the lightning talks Andrei Bondoreff from the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills & Training shared an update with the audience.

Next on the agenda was a discussion of the Common Suite modified proposal. Leah Hopton facilitated the conversation using a Liberating Structure called W3.
Meant to foster inclusion and participation, W3 guides decision-making through three "W" questions: What happened? (reviewing the facts), So What? (discussing the meaning), Now What? (selecting the action). Sitting at round tables of similar institution type/size, attendees actively participated in the process, asking lots of clarifying questions and sharing different perspectives along the way. Given the importance and complexity of the common suite, the discussion could not be rushed, and other agenda items were tabled to give space for the work required.
 
After a fortifying lunch break, attendees once again rolled up their sleeves to determine how the Steering Committee should proceed with the Common Suite. The discussion culminated in a vote; in the end the group recommended that the Steering Committee proceed with the modified Common Suite (containing Academic Search Premier and Business Source Premier - with the option of upgrading one to Complete) without CBCA. The decision was brought forward to the Steering Committee Business Meeting that immediately followed the All Partner Meeting. The feedback received throughout the meeting was highlighted for future review by the Steering Committee. There was acknowledgement that the discussion topic was challenging, yet partner libraries succeeded in finding the common ground necessary to move forward.
 
Building on an initiative presented by Linda Epps, College Librarian of Nicola Valley Institute of Technology -- writing a letter to Minister Melanie Mark requesting support so that more First Nations people enter the field of librarianship -- at the close of the meeting Faith Jones, Head Librarian of Columbia College, proposed the letter be circulated so that partner library directors could add their backing. The proposal was met with nods of agreement around the room; BC ELN will assist in facilitating this work.  
  Staff News
Leigh Anne Palmer Participates in LLEAD
 
BC ELN Manager Leigh Anne Palmer is currently participating in the Library Leadership Excellence and Development (LLEAD) Program. The program aims to equip library leaders
with "the approaches, processes and competencies demanded in senior leadership roles". Earlier this month Leigh Anne attended a five-day intensive residential program with eleven public librarians as well as post-secondary librarians Gordon Coleman and Ali de Haan. Motivated by her time with her peers and the six mentors and two facilitators present, Leigh Anne says she is "privileged to be learning from the passionate and inspiring librarians of our province."
Holiday Reading: The BC ELN Staff List

A quick crowd check of what BC ELN staff are planning to read during the holidays reveals a range of interests and tastes! We share our list with you with the hopes it inspires you to fall into an interesting book over the break.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer


The BC ELN Office will be closed, along with all Simon Fraser University departments and services, from Monday, December 25th, 2017 through Monday, January 1st, 2018, reopening on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018.

British Columbia Electronic Library Network |  office@eln.bc.ca |
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Room 7600
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, V5A 1S6
phone: 778.782.7003
fax: 778.782.3023
website: bceln.ca
twitter:  twitter.com/bceln