Pathfinder (Journal)
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Disrupting Literature: Facilitating Indigenous Book Clubs
Get PDFBook clubs are typically spaces in which individuals can discuss their favourite young adult novel or interrogate controversial topics from best-selling non-fiction. At the same time, book clubs, and the literature read within, can also be used as tools of assimilation used to push political and social agendas. But what if the same book clubs that promote assimilation and conformity, privileging some literatures and forms above others, could be used as spaces to create new communities that celebrate other literatures? Book clubs can be a potential space for the discussion of lesser-known and suppressed Indigenous literatures while creating communities. However, facilitating Indigenous book clubs requires conscious planning and preparation to ensure that the book clubs engage with Indigenous literatures in an appropriate way. Additionally, facilitators, depending on the mandate, need to be in partnership with Indigenous communities to ensure that book clubs are the right program to incorporate. As such, this presentation will provide best practices for facilitating Indigenous book clubs, including topics such as determining book club mandates, selecting literatures, interpreting Indigenous texts, and creating respectful environments. 
Welcome to Pathfinder
Get PDFSome opening remarks on the publication of our first regular issue including brief explanation of our name and founding principles and listing of persons to whom thanks are most certainly due
The librarians guide to homelessness: an empathy-driven approach to solving problems, preventing conflict, and serving everyone
Get PDFoai:jrnl_pathfinder:article/2A book review of Ryan Dowd\u27s The librarians guide to homelessness: an empathy-driven approach to solving problems, preventing conflict, and serving everyone. 
Words That Start With E: Why Librarians Should Fight Climate Change and Climate Change Denial
Get PDFEcology, economy, equity. Exemplars, educators, enablers. Librarianship centres around the values ofcommunity-building, access to information, and advocating for the public good, and so librarians arepoised to be leaders when it comes to environmentally-friendly and sustainable practices and policies.Our commitment to intellectual freedom demands that we ensure facts about climate change reach thepublic, while social responsibility asks that we consider the harm that can be done by the spread ofdisinformation like climate change denial—the kind of harm that has led to the devastating, irreversiblecircumstances we’re in today. To ensure there will continue to be a community for libraries to serve,librarians must allow sustainability to underpin all their choices, especially with regard to educating thepublic, devaluing disinformation, and advocating for concrete collective action
The Impact of Knowledge Management on Innovation in Academic Libraries
Get PDFIn an ever-changing environment, innovation is a key concern for nearly every organization, including libraries. Innovation is not necessarily spontaneous; in fact, workplace factors including knowledge preservation and management can have both positive and negative impacts on the innovativeness of organizations. But how can knowledge management translate into innovation? What kind of knowledge do knowledge management systems capture? And most importantly, why should academic libraries care? This paper aims to assess the impact of knowledge management tools on innovation within an academic library context and highlight areas of further research. Based on the literature reviewed, common findings include that an effective KM system supports innovation and learning within organizations, and that there are several variables within the framework of KM which can increase the effectiveness of the KM system. These variables include the use of KM tools for staff and customers alike, cooperative and supportive management attitudes, and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to codify and share knowledge between institutions
Stories Re-Told: Synthesizing the Vocabulary of Adaptation
Get PDFThis paper introduces three umbrella terms (Literal Adaptation, Spirit Adaptation, and Creative Adaptation) that define the broad approaches to creating an adaptation through the consideration of the literature of six different fields and their approaches to the study of adaptation. They are as follows: the study of Classical Mythology (a sub-set of Classics), Cultural Studies, Adaptation Theory (from Film Studies), Fan Fiction Studies (from Fan Studies), Folklore Studies, and Translation Studies. While Library and Information Studies (LIS) does occasionally deal with adaptation, often in the form of Children\u27s Literature and/or Fairy Tales, there is no widely-accepted theory or method to doing so. Therefore it is absent from the six disciplines that were reviewed, though it has substantial cross-over with each. As scholarship becomes more interdisciplinary, juggling the terms of a variety of fields becomes more important and more challenging. This paper aims to provide three accessible terms for those interested in studying adaptions from a broad or cross-disciplinary perspective that can substitute for the lengthy and specialized vocabulary of each individual discipline. It may also provide an example for others looking to similarly synthesize a set of cross-disciplinary vocabularies
When knowledge goes underground: Cultural information poverty, and Canada\u27s Indian Act.
Get PDFThe passing of the Indian Act in 1876 imposed cultural information poverty within Indigenous communities. Through this piece of Canadian legislation, Indigenous communities were forced to send their children to Residential Schools, and all cultural practices such as the potlatch and Sun Dance were banned. These policies disrupted education practices, and the passing down of information, creating a disconnect between younger generations and their communities. However the Indian Act’s goal of assimilation failed with some of these traditions going underground, being practiced in secret. Through strength and resilience communities today are experiencing a cultural revitalization, and what one Indigenous author calls a renaissance. The paper concludes by sharing ideas on how academic libraries can better engage with their local Indigenous communities
An Introduction to Resilience: Library Students and Rocky VI
Get PDFIn this short introductory piece I outline some of the struggles faced by MLIS students, ultimately to highlight their resilience in the face of these issues
Becoming a Librarian Amidst a Professional Identity Crisis
Get PDFAdopted in the late 1930s, the Library Bill of Rights grounded the profession in the core value of intellectual freedom. This core value was challenged in the 1930s, the 1960s, the 1990s, and again in recent years by calls for social responsibility within our ranks. The re-occurrent discomfort with upholding intellectual freedom is particularly evident today in the case of public library third party meeting room bookings by controversial speakers. Both the Toronto Public Library and the Vancouver Public Library (as well as the Edmonton Public Library for lending its support) have come under scrutiny by both specific voices within the field as well as the community more broadly. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that publicly funded libraries are faced with controversy surrounding intellectual freedom.
Using critical information theory, this presentation examines important questions: How is intellectual freedom defined, redefined and confined today? What is the relationship between the core value of intellectual freedom and sister core values such as social responsibility, diversity and democracy? How do we uphold professional ethics (e.g., IFLA Code for Librarians and Other Information Workers) in instances when our personal, professional, institutional and/or association commitments do not align? As a 2019-20 SLIS research assistant, these questions are rooted in my ongoing academic explorations with Dr. Samek of the nature and extent LIS curricula (for both professionals and paraprofessionals) prepares graduates to negotiate the perpetually complicated core value of intellectual freedom from a position of confidence, and not fear, defensiveness or divisiveness
Internet filters in Canadian libraries: Impact on intellectual freedom & social responsibility
Get PDFInternet filters are a method to block access to web content (Lawrence & Fry, 2016). Instantaneously, the word ‘blocks’ causes advocates of intellectual freedom to stand at attention. Intellectual freedom is one of the core values of librarianship which guide the decisions librarians make, as outlined within the American Library Association’s (ALA) Code of Ethics (1939/2008). The ALA’s Library Bill of Rights (1939/2019) states that, “a person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views” (para. IV). More specific to the topic at hand: “the use of Internet filters to block constitutionally protected speech … compromises First Amendment freedoms and the core values of librarianship” (ALA, n.d., para. 1). This paper will investigate and discuss the function of and methodology behind internet filters, with specific attention to their application in Canada. Following a general overview, a discussion follows of what library professionals in public and school libraries should do to uphold and protect intellectual freedom