In honour of Alberta Métis Week, we’ve put together a selection from our collection that highlights the histories, experiences, knowledge, and stories of Métis peoples.  

Hoping for an eBook? Here’s a cross-disciplinary sampling. 

• Day/break (Gwen Benaway, 2020) 

• From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way (Jesse Thistle, 2019) 

• The Audacity of his Enterprise: Louis Riel and the Métis Nation that Canada Never Was, 1840-1875 (M. Max Hamon, 2019) 

• Métis: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood (Chris Andersen, 2014) 

• Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine (Kim Andersen, 2011) 

Prefer watching over reading?  

• How the Fiddle Flows (NFB & Streaming Fiddles Media, 2017)  

• A Living History of Métis Families (Judy Isekes-Barnes & Voices in the Wind Productions, 2008) 

• Foster Child (Gil Cardinal, 1987)  

Unable to resist print? Books & otherwise. 

• This Place: 150 Years Retold (Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm et al., 2018) 

• Let Me See Your Fancy Steps: Story of a Métis Dance Caller (Jeanne Pelletier et al., 2018) 

• The Métis: A Visual History (Sherry Farrell Racette & Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2010) 

• Medicines to Help Us: Traditional Métis Plant Use(Christi Belcourt et al., 2007)      

For more print and digital items, check out the full reading list. A green checkmark next to an item in our list means it’s available to borrow. A blue checkmark means you can read/watch online. 

Take a trip down memory lane with us! The following is an update from the Learning Resources Centre, dated March 1978.  

Computer-based searches for materials are on the rise and efforts are being made to increase our access to these through cooperative agreements with the Edmonton Public Library.   

Services on Jasper Place have upgraded to include a record collection for faculty, a record player, a sound duplication module, and better quality tape recorders.   

Cromdale Campus is now receiving a wide selection of national newspapers, and some international ones thanks to a new agreement with Mike’s News Stand. This campus is also handling the lending system for off-campus materials associated with a Continuing Education pilot project.   

Assumption Campus received their new video-tape players to augment a growing use of modularized learning programs. Available from this campus are a new collection of videotapes on metrication which should be of interest to many. (Source: 2017-12-13/61, box 3, folder 13)

For other stories from our past, visit the University Archives. 

For our first November book display we’ve collected a few books, films, and other sources from our collections to highlight the stories of our veterans for Remembrance Day.

Looking for an eBook for learning on the go? 

• Why We Fight: The Origins, Nature, and Management of Human Conflict by David Churchman 

• Canada at War: A Graphic History of World War Two by Paul Keery and Mike Wyatt 

• Mental Health of Canadian Veterans: A Family Purpose by the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs 

Prefer watching over reading? 

• Children of Soldiers (2010) 

• Forgotten Warriors (2010) 

• Hyena Road (2015) 

Looking for titles to share with children? 

• A Bear in War by Stephanie Innes, Brian Deines, and Harry Endrulat 

• Remembrance Day by Meguido Zola and Angela Dereume 

• Remembrance Day: Lest We Forget by Jill Foran 

For more print and digital items, check out our Movies and Documentaries list or our Books and eBooks list.   

A green checkmark next to an item in our lists means it’s available to borrow. A blue checkmark means you can read/watch online. 

Lest we forget. 

We’re going virtual for this term’s Late Night at the Library event! Join us online on Thursday, November 19th for some productivity time and make some progress on those big assignments. 

What to expect: 

Research Essentials workshop 8:00-8:50 p.m. 

• Bring your research paper topic and leave with sources! 

• Joan, our English Librarian, will share expert tips to search for scholarly articles 

Drop-In Writing Tutor 5:00-8:00 p.m.

• An opportunity to ask our Tutors about your grammar, developing a thesis statement, and more! 

Online Games 5:00-8:00 p.m.

• Destress and play some games with our Writing Tutors 

• Games will include Pictionary and Trivia 

Live Chat with a Librarian 5:00-10:00 p.m.

• Ask our Librarians about finding sources for assignments, using our databases, and more!

Study Tips 

• The Writing Centre has collected some excellent resources and tools to help you prepare for your exams. We recommend trying the Pomodoro technique! 

Destress and Concentration Videos 

• Check out some movies and short films we recommend for a much-needed mental break 

• Watch some “Study with Me” videos to get you in a productive mood! 

Virtual PAWSS Dogs Event 

• Who doesn’t like seeing 13/10 good doggos?!

Join us online live during the event, or check out our productivity and destress resources early: https://libguides.macewan.ca/latenight  [Our Late Night page is now closed, but stay tuned for another Late Night event next term!]

Questions? 

Library@macewan.ca  

Did you know we create themed book displays in the library? We’re starting them up again and going digital! Our first display is here just in time for the spookiest season of them all...Halloween! 

Like titles with a historical perspective? Try some of these: 

• Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Looking for a story to keep you up at night? Why not try one of these: 

• Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
• Monsters by David Robertson

Prefer watching over reading? Here’s some films we recommend: 

•  Halloween (1978)
•  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 
•  Misery (1990)

For more Halloween themed book and films, check out our digital reading list. A green checkmark next to an item in our reading list means it’s available to borrow. A blue checkmark means you can read/watch online. 

Happy reading! 

Access ended: October 1, 2020

Estimated savings: $7,000

Reason for cancellation:

• The library has other encyclopedia resources including many that are discipline-specific

Alternative resources:

• Credo Reference
• Oxford Reference Online Premium
• Britannica.com - a free version including selected content
• Britannica School edition - available to students and faculty in select programs* via the LearnAlberta Online Reference Centre

*Students and faculty in the Special Needs Educational Assistant, Bachelor of Early Childhood Curriculum Studies, Library and Information Technology and University Preparation programs can contact the library for login and password

This cancellation decision has been made based on usage data, cost, uniqueness of content, overlap of content with other databases and impact on disciplines.

Please contact Sandy Stift, Associate Dean, Library, stifts@macewan.ca if you have questions or concerns about this resource.

Have you ever received messages offering tutoring services, exam, or assignment help? While some of these services are legitimate, others may offer to write your essays or exam questions for you – and for a hefty price. Outsourcing any work -- whether it’s an essay, an exam question, or assignments – is a form of academic dishonesty, since you are attempting to pass off someone else’s work as your own.  

On Wednesday, October 21st MacEwan University is taking part in the International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating. Some events happening throughout the day include: 

• Academic Integrity Student Webinar presented by Dr. Paul Sopcak (Academic Integrity Office) and Alycia Stewart (VP Academic of SAMU). Registration required. 

• Faculty Workshops hosted by MacEwan’s Academic Integrity Office, Teaching and Learning Services, and eLearning: Registration Required. 

MacEwan Library and the Writing Centre are here to help you through every stage of the research and writing process…for FREE!  

Here’s a few things you can do to get free help with your assignments: 

• Use the library’s live chat to get help finding sources for assignments 

• Make an appointment with your subject librarian for those tougher research questions 

• Make an appointment or attend a drop-in session with a Writing Centre Tutor to help with your essay outline, thesis statement, or citation formatting. You can also submit your essay online to get feedback before you hand it in. 

With all these free supports in place to help you through the research and writing process, there’s no need to pay a for-profit tutoring or essay-writing service. 

The Library and Writing Centre provide FREE services that comply with academic integrity! 

Questions? 

library@macewan.ca 

Open access journals and repositories make research conducted at MacEwan more available to those who need it, and expand the real world impact that it can have. This Open Access Week (Oct. 19-25), please join us in recognizing all the ways that members of MacEwan University make research and scholarship freely available to others online:

• Several faculty members have chosen to publish research articles in open access journals. Copies of many of these works are available in MacEwan’s research repository, RO@M. 
• RO@M also contains over 500 exceptional student works, including undergraduate theses, conference presentations, and creative works.   
• Dozens of articles by MacEwan students appear in open access journals hosted by the Library including the MacEwan University Student eJournal (MUSe) and Earth Common Journal. 
• The Library provides financial support to open access initiatives including:
  • Directory of Open Access Books
  • Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Érudit
  • Open Citations
  • Open Library of Humanities
  • Public Knowledge Project
  • Sherpa Romeo
  • SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics)

To learn more about open access, visit our page on open access publishing or talk to your subject librarian.

Written by Adiki Puplampu, Writing Centre Peer Tutor, Bachelor of Communication Studies Class of 2021 

Numerous women have defined the course of literary history. From Sappho to Margaret Atwood, ancient and modern literature has been affected by the contributions of female writers. This women’s history month the Writing Centre and the Library would like to profile just three of the many writers who have paved the way for women in literature.  

Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu is credited as the author of the first modern full-length novel, The Tale of Genji (Encyclopedia Britannica; Ahlin, 2017). Shikibu (likely not her real name) was born around 978 and was a lady-in-waiting in the Japanese Imperial Court. Her novel chronicles the romantic exploits of her title character, Prince Genji, and offers a unique insight into the aristocratic culture of the time. Originally written around 1005, the book was first translated into English in 1935 by Arthur Waley. If you’re interested in reading her novel, the library has a copies of The Tale of Genji available to borrow.   

Sappho  

An acclaimed 6th century BCE poet, Sappho is often referred to as the first female writer (Trobetta, 2017). While little is known about the details of her life, she is considered both a feminist and LGBTQ+ icon (Trobetta, 2017; Mendelsohn, 2017). The Library has ebook collections of her poetry available to read! 

Octavia Butler  

A science-fiction legend, Butler is lauded for her exploration of the Black female experience in America (Trobetta, 2017). She is considered the “godmother of Afro-futurism” an aesthetic that has influenced shows like Black Mirror and the art of celebrities like Beyoncé (“The Relevant Genius”, 2018, para. 2). She was the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, better known as the “Genius Grant,” which was just one of many literary awards she would receive throughout her career (Trobetta, 2017). Electronic copies of her novels Parable of the Sower and Kindred are available through the library.  

This article is just a glimpse into the history of women in literature. For information on more female literary icons, check out the sources cited below.  

 
 
 
References  

Ahlin, C. (2017, March 7). 14 female authors who were ahead of their time. Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/p/14-female-authors-who-were-ahead-of-their-time-42522  

Trombetta, S. (2017, March 14). 13 female authors who have made history. Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/p/13-female-authors-who-have-broken-barriers-in-honor-of-womens-history-month-43724 

Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d). Murasaki Shikibu. In Britannica. com. Retrieved October 8, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shikibu-Murasaki  

The relevant genius of Octavia Butler. (2018, January 27). https://library.sva.edu/kaleidoscope/shelf-life/the-relevant-genius-of-octavia-butler-1  

Writing a research paper this term? Online workshops and other supports are available to help you meet your deadlines. 

Access time management and writing help: You’ve probably heard a few times by now that time management is important for online learning. The Writing Centre has some great resources to help you get started, you can submit your assignment at any stage for tutor feedback or you can book an online appointment with a tutor! Your appointment does not need to be assignment specific; the Writing Centre will work on time management strategies or give advice on overcoming writers' block. 

Set aside time to search for sources: When you’re planning to write your research papers, make sure you set aside enough time to research your topic too. It takes time to find and read high quality books and articles but we’re here to help! Librarians can help you streamline your searching and recommend places to find required sources. When you start your research early, you have lots of time to read the content, process the information, pick your quotes and paraphrase and begin your first draft. 

Get hands-on help finding sources: Come to one of our Research Essentials drop-in workshops! We have a variety of dates and times available so, pick one that works for you. We recommend attending a couple weeks before the due date of your assignment. Joan, the English Librarian, will be working through strategies and tips to take your research topic and turn it into a search strategy you can use to get high quality articles. 

Questions? 

library@macewan.ca