This annual fair showcases the services and programs the McMaster libraries offer. Here are some you might not know about!
Library Crawl is an annual event that showcases the resources and tools offered by McMaster Libraries to all students. Taking place on Sep. 24, 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., both new and returning students are encouraged to attend and take advantage of the services available at the libraries on campus. At this event, students can learn about the libraries while playing games, winning prizes, enjoying complimentary refreshments and more!
Lynne Serviss, associate university librarian for user services and community engagement, explained what the libraries offer in an interview with the Silhouette. “It is a place to support student success, whether that be through research, through study, through collaboration, through accessing tools, through experimenting with different technology pieces,” said Serviss.
It is a place to support student success, whether that be through research, through study, through collaboration, through accessing tools, through experimenting with different technology pieces.
Lynne Serviss, Associate University Librarian
McMaster University
Serviss then highlighted a few of the many services and spaces that will be showcased at the Library Crawl.
Firstly, Serviss mentioned prayer spaces operated in collaboration with the Muslim Students Association and the Spiritual Care and Learning Centre. There are prayer spaces on the third floor of Mills Memorial Library and in the basement of H.G Thode Library of Science and Engineering. These spaces offer a quiet and respectful environment for students observing religious practices.
Next, the Lyons New Media Centre is an accessible creative space on the fourth floor of Mills library where technology is provided for learning and research purposes. Students can book amazing media creation spaces, including an audio and podcast recording studio, a video and photo studio and a virtual reality studio. The centre also offers 3D printing services and media lab computers with media creation software such as the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. In order to show students how to make optimal use of the space, this centre also hosts classes, like their upcoming workshop on digital design with Canva.
The Campus Accessible Tech Space, located in Mills L212, provides quiet study areas for students registered with Student Accessibility Services (SAS). The space is designed with comfortable seating, has free coffee and tea and has dividers to block out sound and create an ideal study environment. While in this space, students are also allowed to borrow equipment that include but are not limited to a MAC laptop, a PC laptop and more for optimal learning accessibility. Students can register online for a keycard to access CATS.
Also to be featured at the crawl, The Hamilton Public Library’s Bookmobile visits campus every Tuesday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and parks across from University Hall. The Bookmobile is a service that allows students to browse a selection of books not available at the McMaster Libraries, including fiction and cookbooks. Students with an HPL library card can also place holds on books to be picked up at the Bookmobile.
And finally, the Thode Makerspace. Situated in the basement of Thode library, the Makerspace offers equipment such as sewing machines and woodworking tools for students to work on various hands-on projects. Each month, Makerspace hosts a repair café, allowing students to bring in items needing repair and learn how to fix them. This year's first repair café will be held on September 25, 2024 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., as detailed on their website.
Library Crawl is not just about exploring these features; it’s also an opportunity for students to provide feedback on library services. “We're here for students to help student research and to help students be successful. So often times the request will be directly from a need or from a student group who can reach out to us or we will be hearing feedback or comments from individuals in the community about a gap," said Serviss. The library values input from its users and encourages students to share their suggestions via the suggestion box.
We're here for students to help student research and to help students be successful. So often times the request will be directly from a need or from a student group who can reach out to us or we will be hearing feedback or comments from individuals in the community about a gap.
Lynne Serviss, Associate University Librarian
McMaster University
Library Crawl will take place rain or shine, and will ideally be located outside the main entrance of Mills Memorial Library. However, if it rains the event will be located in MUSC on the first floor. Library Crawl will feature both the Hamilton Public Library and the Art Gallery of Hamilton as guests.
Mark your calendars for Sep. 24 and join us for Library Crawl. It’s the perfect chance to discover all that McMaster libraries have to offer and connect with resources that can support your academic journey.
By: Sam Marchetti
If you have ever studied in the H.G. Thode Library of Science and Engineering, you have probably visited the third floor at some point. For many students, it strikes them as unfair that most of this floor is only accessible to students in the integrated science program. However, what most students don't realize is that the third floor of Thode is not a full floor.
The third floor covers only about 50 per cent of the ground space covered by the building itself. Of this, about a third is devoted to faculty office space for the school of interdisciplinary sciences and another third is inaccessible storage space used by facility services. The final third is actually split between two wings.
One of these wings is the ThInk Space, an active learning classroom available for use by anyone in the faculty of science, and the other is the iStudy, a dedicated study space for integrated science students. Thus, not only does this study space account for a very small amount of the total finished space on the third floor of Thode, but the third floor itself is largely unfinished.
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A large portion of the space above the second floor, over 30 per cent of the ground area covered by the library, is actually an open rooftop. Windows along the curved portion of the roof look down into the second and first floors around the perimeter, leaving an open area of almost 10,000 square feet surrounded by story-high walls.
Inspecting an aerial view of Thode, you’ll find that there is almost nothing up there. While it is easy to understand students’ frustration given that they are restricted access from what is the most noticeable part of the third floor, what should be more frustrating is this massive area, apparently left unused for no discernible reason. With so much unused space, I think it's fair to consider transforming it into something all students can enjoy.
In November, I wrote an article about the lack of natural elements integrated into McMaster University’s study spaces. This unused space provides a unique opportunity to change that. For example, a rooftop garden could be created, complete with heating elements to keep it useable year-round. The rooftop space already has walls on all sides, protecting it from most wind damage.
A garden in the library could have serious benefits for the mental health of its users, especially during exam season when students spend endless hours there. Imagine, instead of taking a break by walking around the jam-packed Thode study spaces, you could take a walk in a garden, without even leaving the building.
Another possibility for this space could be something that's been attempted at McMaster before: an outdoor classroom. Recently, this was accomplished in the form of the Indigenous circle. This outdoor amphitheater is ideal for the kind of learning that the Indigenous studies program promotes, and has received positive feedback from its students and faculty.
The unused space on the third floor of Thode is large enough to create a small outdoor lecture theatre, and the integration of a canvas roof and heating lamps could easily ensure year-round use of the space. Based on the feedback from the Indigenous circle, it’s easy to see the potential benefits of having a similar space that is adapted to science lectures.
Not only would an outdoor lecture theatre be an interesting addition to our teaching spaces, but it could serve as a point of attraction for future students and guest speakers. McMaster already has a reputation for being innovative thinking, so why not add a teaching space that reflects our progressive focus?
Although Thode’s seemingly ‘private’ third floor is irksome to many students, what should cause greater outrage is the existence of a very unique, inaccessible space to all students. Whether we decide to integrate nature into our study spaces, or choose another avenue to benefit the student population, this empty space should be transformed into something more than just an empty rooftop.
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