2024-2025 Impact Report
McMaster University Libraries

Message from the Associate Vice-President and University Librarian

McMaster libraries spaces

New program brings big community impact to Ontario

McMaster University Libraries are looking to support communities across Ontario as a partner in an exciting program that is making a difference.

The Community Scholars Program assists non-profit and charitable organizations by granting their staff free access to 20,000 academic journals and ebooks. The initiative originated at Simon Fraser University in 2017 and successfully expanded to other institutions. McMaster is the first university outside of British Columbia to join the program. 

Anna Flak, teaching and learning librarian with McMaster University Libraries, says these resources would typically be challenging for non-profit community partners to access.

“The Community Scholars Program is about stepping outside of that ivory tower, so to speak, and recognizing the difficulty of conducting research upon leaving or losing your connection to an academic institution,” said Flak. “We recognize the value of the work being done by our charitable and non-profit organizations that can’t be carried out otherwise.”

Participating community partners in Hamilton and the surrounding area can use their access to academic research to strengthen or develop programs, for advocacy and policymaking, to support funding applications or for a variety of other organizational needs.

Lyndon George, executive director of the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre, says his organization decided to get involved with the Community Scholars Program to further provide support to individuals who have experienced racism, discrimination, and hate in the community.

“When you’re developing action plans in response to hate incidents, having literature and research that documents and explains ways you can respond to hate is a valuable resource,” said George.

The Community Scholars Program includes partner libraries of Vancouver Island University, the University of Northern British Columbia, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the University of British Columbia, the University of the Fraser Valley, and now, McMaster University Libraries.

Back “Innis” business

Innis Library will welcome students back this academic year to a state-of-the-art space in the new McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery. The library features bookable study rooms, quiet study space, computers, and resources for business students. Inset photo: Lynne Serviss, left, associate university librarian, User Services and Community Engagement, and Ann Pearce, manager of Innis Library.

Omni fostering collaboration across academic libraries

Patrons of McMaster University Libraries have access to an expansive catalogue of resources at 19 academic libraries thanks to the search tool, Omni.

Since the introduction of Omni at McMaster in 2022, the university libraries have seen a 56 per cent increase in print lending and borrowing with partner libraries. Crystal Mills, head of access services at McMaster University Libraries, says this stems from greatly expanded discoverability of print collections and ease of requesting.

“So many more resources are visible to users as they’re searching,” she said. “They’re finding stuff that they didn’t know they had access to, placing requests and getting items quickly in comparison to the old system.”

Omni is the outcome of the Ontario Council of University Libraries Collaborative Futures project, which aims to support collaboration across partner libraries and create a province-wide collection of content. These partners have access to 25.8 million resources through Omni.

Users can seamlessly request physical materials from any partner library and enjoy a loan period of 120 days with unlimited renewals, no recalls and no fines.

Wade Wyckoff, associate university librarian at McMaster University Libraries, says the search tool has given new life to resources held by the university libraries.

“Materials that have been unused, sometimes for many years, are being checked out for the first time through the fulfilment network,” he said.

“Since we launched Omni, more than 1,400 items that had never been checked out locally found a user at a partner institution.”

Patrons can request an item be sent to any of the partner libraries for pick up as well as return materials to any partner library. This proves helpful to users who may need to access or return resources while away from their own institution and contributes to the increased accessibility of materials.

Queer Study Buddies program making space for 2SLGBTQ+ students

The team at McMaster University Libraries is working to ensure everyone feels welcome with a new program.

Queer Study Buddies is a weekly event that creates a welcoming, recurring meeting space in the library for 2SLGBTQ+ students who can drop in for a group study environment and socialize with fellow members of the queer community. The program started in September 2024 and is back for another year this fall.

“Queer Study Buddies is an open program where any member of queer community can come by and have a space to study or connect alongside other members of their community,” said Katie Compton, digital learning librarian, Access Services. “It’s important to us that queer students have a space where they feel safer, more comfortable and less judged in the libraries and on the campus at large.”

The idea for the study hall was inspired by a similar program at Robarts Library at the University of Toronto. The idea resonated with the university libraries team as it works to ensure students see the campus libraries as safe spaces for everyone.   

At its heart, the program is about building community. Creating this space highlights that, at the university libraries, students can find people who support them and they can build a community in a welcoming place.

“One of my goals is to help make the spaces at the libraries a place where all students can feel confident about who they are when they come to school because they can share their whole selves,” said Crystal Aisha Kerr, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility strategist. “I hope that queer students find it a welcoming and inclusive space.”

Campus Classroom Technologies team boosting accessibility on campus

McMaster students who need help hearing their lectures in classrooms now have more options thanks to the Campus Classroom Technologies team at McMaster University Libraries.

Assistive listening devices are available for loan at two McMaster libraries. Meanwhile, Campus Classroom Technologies staff are working methodically to increase the number of classrooms where the technology is available. It is currently in use in 85 registrar-controlled classrooms.

The goal of integrating the technology into classrooms on campus is to create a more accessible environment at McMaster.

“Every person deserves a meaningful experience in our classrooms and every decision that we make about what to put in the classrooms is to help solve that problem,” said Joey Ricottone, associate director of Campus Classroom Technologies and Library Computing. 

An assistive listening device helps anyone who wants to focus their listening by removing background sound. The device can be particularly helpful for individuals who have cochlear implants or hearing aids because it can work with their personal assistive devices through a telecoil neck loop.

Angela Harrison, assistive technology consultant for Student Accessibility Services, says the new borrowing system is helpful to students looking for accommodations. 

“When we design our systems and environments to be flexible and inclusive, we welcome users to come as they are and be active participants,” said Harrison.

Users can tune the device to a radio frequency channel compatible with the classroom they are in and listen to class content through personal headphones or any telecoil-compatible personal device. Signage in classrooms indicates which channel the device should be tuned to.

Kits can be borrowed from the services desks at Mills Memorial Library and H.G. Thode Library of Science and Engineering and kept for the semester, allowing students the opportunity to become familiar with the technology.

Rare book discovered in libraries’ special collections

McMaster University Libraries’ William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections is home to thousands of rare materials, and among them is a rare religious text that had been hiding in the department’s shelves since the 1960s.

Ruth-Ellen St. Onge, McMaster University Libraries’ distinctive collections cataloguing librarian, was checking books this spring for an exhibit when she came across a book titled Officium beatae Mariae virginis, which translates to The Book of Hours of the Virgin Mary.

Upon further investigation, she realized that it was listed as a lost book in resources including the Universal Short Title Catalogue.

“I started freaking out,” said St. Onge. “This is very significant. It means that no copies are known to exist anymore, and that McMaster has the only surviving copy.”

Printed in 1596 in Antwerp, Belgium, the book of hours was a Plantin Press bestseller. With its contents based on traditional prayer and ceremonies, the author is listed as the Catholic Church.

Of the nearly 75,000 copies printed between 1589 and 1610, only 81 surviving copies have been identified. McMaster’s is the only known surviving copy printed in this size and format with copper engraved illustrations.

Although it was listed as lost, the book was catalogued when it arrived at McMaster, but its significance was not emphasized in catalogue descriptions.

The rediscovery of the book fits well into the work St. Onge is doing for the hidden special collections project, which involves creating detailed descriptions of the materials housed in the university libraries’ archives and research collections.

“The hidden special collections project is proving tremendously valuable,” said Wade Wyckoff, associate university librarian at McMaster University Libraries.

“The rediscovery of Officium beatae Mariae virginis emphasizes the importance of preserving, describing, and returning to these rare and unique resources.”

Libraries Sustainability Committee nurturing a livable future

McMaster University Libraries are engaging in environmental action and the Libraries Sustainability Committee is helping to lead the way.

The committee is a volunteer group of employees at the libraries who have a shared commitment to climate action and organize climate action-based activities around the work and initiatives that the libraries are already doing.

“Environmental sustainability and the climate crisis impact everyone, so we really need to make changes in all avenues of our lives,” said Nicole Doro, teaching and learning librarian and founding member of the Libraries Sustainability Committee.

One of McMaster University Libraries’ strategic directions is Nurture Sustainability. The initiative reinforces the need to build a livable future by adopting and promoting sustainability as a guiding principle in all aspects of the libraries’ operations.

“Libraries are perceived as sustainable institutions because they reuse a lot, but there is still energy being used on things like computers and providing access to ebooks,” said Paige Roman, collection strategy librarian and chair of the Libraries Sustainability Committee. “It’s good to be mindful that small improvements can have a big impact.”

The committee’s recent initiatives include digital and physical collections and displays, speaker events, symposiums, art displays, a library guide to sustainability, and a newsletter that helps educate employees on ways that they can be more sustainable.

Community members are welcome to take part in any of the committee’s programs or events.

This year, McMaster University Libraries are inviting the community to take part in the Year of Environmental Action, bringing attention to the libraries’ ongoing priority of sustainability, and the Libraries Sustainability Committee has been a vital partner in helping bring this initiative to life. 

This themed year is about encouraging everyone to support environmental sustainability however they can within their personal and professional scope of influence.

Libraries collections teams collaborate to support access to resources

The two collections teams at McMaster University Libraries have been working together for years, collaborating on projects related to acquiring and maintaining resources within the university libraries.

Content, Access and Open Licensing oversees the collections held in Mills Memorial Library, H.G. Thode Library of Science and Engineering, and Innis Library. Meanwhile, Collections and Technical Services oversee the campus health collection at the Health Sciences Library. Prior to the coming together of these libraries to form McMaster University Libraries, the two groups already had plenty of connectedness in their work.

Sarah Walker, technical services support specialist at Health Sciences Library, says working together has always provided benefits to both teams.

“The collaboration has expanded access to staff knowledge and expertise,” she said. “It’s improved efficiencies by allowing us to share the workload of some tasks such as troubleshooting e-resource access problems.”

The two collections departments work together in a variety of ways, including enhancements of the library catalogue, gathering statistics and evaluations of collections, developing policies, and supporting each other when navigating new systems.

A major point of collaboration is in cost-sharing of databases and large packages of electronic journals, books, and media. By collaborating on transformative agreements, which waive costs normally charged to researchers and authors to make articles open access, the collections departments have saved McMaster researchers more than $2.2 million to make their publications available at no charge to the public.

Casey Hoeve, associate university librarian at McMaster University Libraries, says the two teams share the same goal of supporting the McMaster community.

“Faculty are often cross-appointed in different departments, and students may be taking courses in multiple departments as a part of their requirements,” he said.

“By working together, we’re able to effectively serve the changing needs of faculty, staff, and students throughout their academic journey at McMaster.”

New toolkit helps community groups take leading role in data management

A new toolkit is empowering community organizations to manage the data they collect through research projects and partnerships with other researchers and data professionals.

The Community Research Data Toolkit, launching in fall 2025, lives online in open-access formats available and adaptable for use by everyone.

While data management practices are often associated with numbers-based research, the toolkit is for research data collected from community research participants, such as through surveys, oral histories, and interviews. 

“We hope this toolkit can help groups that currently don’t have research data management capacity so they can use it to support their work, including advocating for funding,” said Subhanya Sivajothy, data analysis and visualization librarian.

The tools reframe data management for community research work, covering topics such as collaborative conversational data management plans, establishing roles and responsibilities, and ways for communities to be involved in controlling access to data once the project is complete.

Launching with a workshop last year with contributions from the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre, and Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton, the toolkit was developed by the research data management team at the Lewis and Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship in collaboration with the Office of Community Engagement and research data management professionals from across Canada.

Danica Evering, research data management specialist, says the timing of the toolkit is important.

“When we look at this in the context of what is happening in the United States right now, I think at one point it might have felt safer for folks from a racialized background or folks who are queer or trans to share data openly,” said Evering.

“Where will data live? Who controls access to it long term? These are just two of the critically important questions we’re hoping to build capacity around so community organizations and researchers can continue their important work.”

Golden years: Health Sciences Archives celebrates 50th anniversary

The Health Sciences Archives marked its 50th anniversary in 2024 and there are big plans for its future.

What started as the McMaster Health Sciences Archives Project in 1974 has evolved over the decades into formal archives with employees and dedicated physical space in the Health Sciences Library. 

Today, the team continues its work preserving and making available records documenting McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as the broader development of health and medicine in Hamilton. 

“Our mission is to become the preeminent research centre for the history of health sciences in the Hamilton area,” said Melissa Caza, who joined as archivist in 2018.

The Health Sciences Archives contains a vast collection of materials, among which includes textual records, photographs, oral histories, architectural drawings, audio-visual materials, and more. The materials document the past two centuries of Hamilton’s health science history, with the bulk of the collection dating from the late 1800s to the present.

The topics covered by the archives are as vast as the decades it spans, with the history of public health and medicine in Canada, health care during wartime, the evolution of medical education and problem-based learning, the treatment of disease, and the development of midwifery and nursing education, among others.

The Health Sciences Archives recently announced the availability of the Hamilton Academy of Medicine fonds. The academy, a branch of the Ontario Medical Association, was founded in 1899 as a local voluntary professional association that fostered collaboration within the medical community while addressing the educational, social, and political needs of its members.

The archives span from 1899 to 2004. The Health Sciences Archives team spent more than a year processing the donation.

“These materials showcase the tremendous lives and work of individuals and groups who are the heart of health care and health education in Hamilton,” said Caza. “This collection enhances our understanding of how the past has shaped Hamilton’s current health-care landscape.”

The archives are completely reliant on in-kind donations of unpublished original material from McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Hamilton Health Sciences, as well as from individuals connected to these institutions.

One recent acquisition is the records of Murray Enkin, former chief of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Joseph’s Hospital and the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Another new addition is the bound Hamilton City Hospital (now Hamilton General Hospital) record book containing detailed descriptions of cases treated between 1894-1896. The book is a study in capturing medical cases of the city’s working class.

There’s also the Chudyk-Houghton Collection, which features photographs and textual records. Blanche Chudyk and Jeanette Joyce Houghton were graduates of the Hamilton General Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1946B.

Also new is the Dr. Mary K. Tremblay fonds. Dr. Tremblay was an occupational therapist, educator, scholar of disability and rehabilitation, and an advocate for disabled people. Her fonds includes multiple media records documenting her research, teaching, and scholarly activities from 1990 to 2008.

“While honouring its past, the archives team is looking to the future,” says Jennifer McKinnell, director of Health Sciences Library.

Work is underway modernizing the archives, continuing reconciliation efforts, and migrating electronic finding aids to a new archival database.

“Over the past 50 years, the Health Sciences Archives has preserved and made available records documenting the history, life, and people of McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and affiliated hospitals,” said McKinnell. “I am excited about the opportunities ahead of us.”

Meet our new colleagues

McMaster University Libraries welcomed more than a half dozen full-time colleagues between May 2024 and April 2025. Here, four recent additions to the team write about their work and why it matters to the McMaster community and beyond.

Bensen family’s mission to safeguard Canadian history

It was a sunny spring morning when three generations of the Bensen family arrived at Mills Memorial Library.

Hailing from Hamilton and the surrounding area, the group came to the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections to view materials in the collection made possible by Wynn Bensen and her late husband, Dr. William (Bill) Bensen.

Beloved by many, Dr. Bensen was a rheumatologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and a McMaster faculty member who was renowned for his compassionate patient-centred care. He and Wynn were fervent collectors of Canadian art and history, as well as supporters of McMaster’s libraries.

“Sharing is a big part of being a collector, and something both Bill and I valued,” Wynn said. “The idea we always had is that we wanted to share our collection with young people, especially here in Hamilton where our families grew up.”

The histories of both McMaster and the Bensen family are intertwined. Dr. Bensen, his grandparents Roy Carlyle and Anita (Waters) Bensen, father Dr. Harold Bensen, and sons Rob and Ryan Bensen are McMaster alumni. Ryan’s wife, Justine, also graduated from McMaster.

In the late 2000s, Bill and Wynn Bensen gifted the artwork A View to Our Heritage by Canadian crystal artist Mark Raynes Roberts to the Health Sciences Library. The artwork, which celebrates the tapestry of Canada, features 12 glass panels with images and landscapes of 10 provinces and two territories. It remains on display in the library’s Jan and Mien Heersink Reading Pavilion.

After Dr. Bensen’s passing in 2017, Wynn completed the donation of the Dr. William G. Bensen Fur Trade Collection of Robert D. W. Band. The collection, among the best of its kind in the country, includes more than 100 items related to the fur trade in French and British Canada from the 17th to 19th centuries. Among the items are Hudson’s Bay Company money, legal documents, and commercial agreements. 

In 2019, the Dr. William G. Bensen and Family Library Fund in Support of Canadian History was established. The fund offers travel grants for researchers in Canadian history to travel and access materials in the McMaster libraries’ William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections. It also supports the acquisition of rare materials linked to Canada’s past.

The Bensen family has also donated to McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences and gifted a stained-glass panel to the McMaster Divinity College.

Ryan Bensen says his family’s ongoing support for McMaster’s libraries aligns with his father’s values.

“When we think about the fur trade papers, these people were pioneers as they ventured out into the world,” he said. “My dad, in many ways was a pioneer, too, as he went out into the world to make a significant difference in the medical community. He wanted to share access to these documents, so people could get the same inspiration.”

After spending time with the materials, including seeing some of the fur trade papers being carefully restored by McMaster’s experts, family members concluded their May visit reminiscing about their loved one’s legacy and his indelible impact on their lives and those of so many others.

Rob Bensen said it was a special day for their family.

“I think dad would have expected we would come together to see these materials,” he said. “It was always less about him and more about the information and the people it would bring together to see it. He would have loved this day.”

Librarians helping students navigate generative artificial intelligence

McMaster librarians are offering students a helping hand when it comes to using generative artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly and effectively to bolster their research and studies. 

Members of the Teaching and Learning team and the Health Sciences Library have responded to the need for AI literacy as the McMaster community seeks to understand and leverage the constantly evolving technology.

Whether presenting in classrooms, meeting students one-on-one, or developing online resources, libraries’ employees are supporting students in a myriad of ways.

“Generally speaking, students are curious about generative AI and want to understand if and how they are able to use it,” said Carly McLeod, graduate studies librarian. “We’re also seeing differences in approaches between faculties and levels of students, so we’re working to cater our information as much as possible to these different groups.”

Jo-Anne Petropoulos, postgraduate medicine liaison librarian and Hamilton Health Sciences McMaster site librarian with Health Sciences Library, says there is a healthy appetite for knowledge in generative AI, especially among Faculty of Health Sciences medical residents looking at its application to research.

“We’re seeing our students really work to embrace this technology, especially when you think about how it can assist with aspects like systematic reviews and meta-analysis,” said Petropoulos.

“We want to ensure students know how to use this technology appropriately as they graduate and enter the workforce.”

A major focus for the libraries is making students aware of the AI-enabled tools, such as Copilot, Scite, and Web of Science, available from the university. These offer access to high-quality information and reduce the privacy and security risks associated with free generative AI tools.

Students are encouraged to access a robust online resource created by the libraries in collaboration with the MacPherson Institute, as well as the libraries’ popular AI citation guide.

A noteworthy birthday

McMaster University Libraries, together with the Ancaster Music Society, hosted a 90th birthday concert for world-renowned classical pianist Valerie Tryon in October 2024. The Valerie Tryon archives are housed at the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections and are open to the public. The archives include photographs, programs, clippings, and more that document her remarkable career.

2024-2025 McMaster Libraries Leadership Group