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SUMMARY: iSchool Research Day 2026
DESCRIPTION: Join us for a variety of short talks\, posters\, and demonstra
 tions from UBC iSchool faculty and students. Please register by March 1\, 2
 026\; lunch spots are limited and require registration. Registration Regist
 ration is now closed\, but walk-in spots may be available on the day of the
  event. Please check-in at the sign-in table in the […]
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: <p>Join us for a variety of short talks\, pos
 ters\, and demonstrations from UBC iSchool faculty and students.</p><p><str
 ong>Please register by March 1\, 2026\; lunch spots are limited and require
  registration.</strong></p><hr /><h2>Registration</h2><p>Registration is no
 w closed\, but walk-in spots may be available on the day of the event. Plea
 se check-in at the sign-in table in the Dodson Room on March 6th if you hav
 e not registered but would like to attend.</p><p>[gravityform id="90" title
 ="false" description="false"]</p><hr /><h2>Program Schedule</h2><h3>Welcome
  to Research Day</h3><p><strong>8:30am to 10:30am (Dodson Room)</strong></p
 ><ul><li><strong>8:30am to 9am</strong>: Event sign-in and reception</li><l
 i><strong>9am to 9:15am</strong>: Director's welcome address\; Opening rema
 rks from Dr. Cameron Pierson</li><li><strong>9:15am to 10:15am</strong>: Ke
 ynote by Dr. Julia Bullard</li><li><strong>10:15am to 10:30am</strong>: Mor
 ning tea</li></ul><h3>Session 1A: Innovative Methods</h3><p><strong>10:30am
  to 12pm (Dodson Room)</strong></p><ul><li aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext
 ="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="3" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":
 1\,"335559685":720\,"335559991":360\,"469769226":"Symbol"\,"469769242":[822
 6]\,"469777803":"left"\,"469777804":""\,"469777815":"multilevel"}" data-ar
 ia-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto"><strong>Meli
 ssa Nelson and Kim Correa</strong>\, " 'Bucky Barnes shows love through sur
 veillance:' Sensemaking surveillance through fan-generated tags on Archive 
 of Our Own”</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true\,"134233118":true
 \,"201341983":0\,"335559740":240}"> </span></li><li aria-setsize="-1" data-
 leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="3" data-list-defn-props="{"33
 5552541":1\,"335559685":720\,"335559991":360\,"469769226":"Symbol"\,"469769
 242":[8226]\,"469777803":"left"\,"469777804":""\,"469777815":"multilevel"}
 " data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto"><st
 rong>Dan Hackborn</strong>\, " 'I guess we're just going to have to become 
 firemen': collective reflections on a year of library work in the aftermath
  of the 2024 Jasper wildfire"</span></li><li aria-setsize="-1" data-levelte
 xt="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="3" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541
 ":1\,"335559685":720\,"335559991":360\,"469769226":"Symbol"\,"469769242":[8
 226]\,"469777803":"left"\,"469777804":""\,"469777815":"multilevel"}" data-
 aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto"><strong>Br
 yn Shaffer</strong>\, “Gameboy libraries: a play-based method for designing
  information spaces with GB Studio”</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117
 ":true\,"134233118":true\,"201341983":0\,"335559740":240}"> </span></li><li
  aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="3" da
 ta-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1\,"335559685":720\,"335559991":360\,"4697
 69226":"Symbol"\,"469769242":[8226]\,"469777803":"left"\,"469777804":""\,"
 469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span 
 data-contrast="auto"><strong>Andrea Kampen</strong>\, “Time and space and s
 hitty lighting: The use of polaroid photographs in qualitative research”</s
 pan><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true\,"134233118":true\,"201341983":
 0\,"335559740":240}"> </span></li></ul><p>[accordions collapsible=true acti
 ve=false][accordion title="Presentation abstracts"]</p><p><span data-contra
 st="auto"><strong>Melissa Nelson and Kim Correa</strong>\, " 'Bucky Barnes 
 shows love through surveillance:' Sensemaking surveillance through fan-gene
 rated tags on Archive of Our Own”</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":
 true\,"134233118":true\,"201341983":0\,"335559740":240}"> </span></p><ul><l
 i>We explore fans’ conceptualizations of surveillance through an analysis o
 f tags applied to works on Archive of Our Own (AO3). Extant scholarship dem
 onstrates that fandoms offer rich grounds to explore social and political i
 ssues (e.g.\, Allen & Moon\, 2023\; Dannar\, 2024\; Dean\, 2017\; Jurg et a
 l.\, 2024\; Leitzi & Norman\, 2024\; Nelson\, 2025\; Reinhard et al.\, 2022
 ) and that analyzing fanworks—especially fanfiction—is a generative avenue 
 to explore how fans navigate sensitive topics (e.g.\, Breyfogle\, 2022\; Ku
 stritz\, 2024\; Popova\, 2018a\, 2018b). Similarly\, scholarship spanning t
 he boundaries of fan and information studies demonstrates that fan-tagging 
 practices are a mechanism through which fans negotiate the boundaries of se
 nsitive topics in their works (Gursoy et al.\, 2018\; Hill\, 2021\, 2024\; 
 Nelson and Bullard\, 2025\; Price\, 2017\; Price and Robinson\, 2021).To br
 ing these fields into conversation with surveillance studies\, we examine a
  set of tags related to the term “surveillance” and situate them within an 
 established taxonomy (Price\, 2017\; Price and Robinson\, 2021\; Nelson and
  Bullard\, 2025). We discuss a subset of these tags using newer surveillanc
 e frameworks such as pleasurable (Chan and McKnight\, 2024)\, playful (Lee 
 and Ahn\, 2024)\, and squeeveillance (Benjamin\, 2024)\, introducing fandom
  to broader discussions of surveillance culture (Lyon\, 2017).</li></ul><p>
 <span data-contrast="auto"><strong>Dan Hackborn</strong>\, " 'I guess we're
  just going to have to become firemen': collective reflections on a year of
  library work in the aftermath of the 2024 Jasper wildfire"</span></p><ul><
 li>Industrialized colonialism has entangled with climate on a planetary sca
 le\, exacerbating severe geophysical phenomena via sociopolitical choices a
 nd actions to disastrous and unequally distributed effect. The infrastructu
 res tasked\, in turn\, with 'managing' these consequences are broadly frame
 d around three stages: preparation\, response\, and recovery. Of these thre
 e stages\, recovery from a disaster is acknowledged to be the least underst
 ood\, especially over longer-term timescales extending beyond news and acad
 emic funding cycles. A public library may seem an unorthodox site to think 
 about disaster resilience. Nevertheless\, these participatory knowledge inf
 rastructures are increasingly orienting themselves towards aiding their com
 munities in adapting to climate impacts whether by providing services to ev
 acuees or serving as public cooling and clean air centres. Moreover\, resea
 rchers and urban planners are increasingly recognizing their potential as '
 post-disaster information' and 'resilience' hubs\, even as scholars like Pa
 ul N. Edwards\, Kim Fortun\, and Jo Guldi speculate on the characteristics 
 required of knowledge infrastructures during climate change. Combining thes
 e perspectives highlights the unique\, liminal position a library occupies 
 post-disaster\, being infrastructure both of the impacted community and\, s
 imultaneously\, positioned by these emerging configurations as recovery-ori
 ented institutions\, organizations of 'last responders'. These lines of inq
 uiry\, long-term recovery and speculative possibilities for knowledge infra
 structures\, converge within this photovoice study\, conducted in collabora
 tion with the staff and volunteers of the Jasper Municipal Library. How mig
 ht a library serve to acknowledge immense loss while preparing to support a
  trajectory of justice for community and culture in the wake of disaster?</
 li></ul><p><span data-contrast="auto"><strong>Bryn Shaffer</strong>\, “Game
 boy libraries: a play-based method for designing information spaces with GB
  Studio”</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true\,"134233118":true\,"
 201341983":0\,"335559740":240}"> </span></p><ul><li>This talk will present 
 a novel GameBoy design method for UX spatial design of information spaces u
 sing the video game engine GB Studio\, and the preliminary results of an on
 going research through design (RtD) (Zimmerman et al\, 2007) study testing 
 this method through participatory workshops with information professionals.
  Drawing on play-based methodologies to design (Sanders and Stapper\, 2012\
 ; Lucero et al\, 2014\; Platt\, 2016)\, the presented method uses the open-
 source and no-code game engine GameBoy Studio and a pre-created asset catal
 ogue to prototype information spaces\, such as libraries. The result is the
  design of information spaces as playable GameBoy levels\, where interactiv
 e elements\, non-player characters\, and game mechanics are introduced to o
 therwise typically static designs (Nissinen\, 2015\; Gylje\, 2022)\, making
  the envisioned library a playable space that can be iterated and experienc
 ed prior to being built. This talk will describe how GameBoy design tools a
 nd approaches make UX spatial design an accessible and playful process wher
 e the designer can enter their game worlds and feel what it is like to be a
 nd play in their library. Further\, this talk will demonstrate how introduc
 ing changeable avatars\, interactive level elements\, player quests\, and g
 ameplay loops enables the designer to discover through play the needs of a 
 variety of future patrons including children\, those with disabilities\, an
 d multi-lingual users. This talk will provide an overview of the method\, e
 xamples of completed playable library designs\, and preliminary results of 
 the ongoing RtD study where information professionals are learning to proto
 type future libraries through play.</li></ul><p><span data-contrast="auto">
 <strong>Andrea Kampen</strong>\, “Time and space and shitty lighting: The u
 se of polaroid photographs in qualitative research”</span><span data-ccp-pr
 ops="{"134233117":true\,"134233118":true\,"201341983":0\,"335559740":240}">
  </span></p><ul><li>This presentation offers methodological reflection on t
 he use of Polaroid photography within interview-based study research. In my
  dissertation study\, titled Understanding information-sharing of artist-re
 searchers\, I drew on semi-structured interviews\, and collaboratively sele
 cted and took three Polaroid photographs in the participant’s studio. These
  photographs served multiple functions: they helped counter recall bias by 
 capturing moments of information-sharing in real time\, and they documented
  the physical environments in which artistic research takes place. The pres
 entation will examine why I selected Polaroid photography to foreground tem
 porality and materiality\, as well as intimacy and proximity. These types o
 f photographic process invited both immediacy and patience\, allowing the p
 articipant and researcher to witness the photograph as it developed. Unlike
  digital photography\, which is instantly reproducible and embedded in pers
 onal devices\, the Polaroid existed as a shared\, physical object created t
 ogether within the studio space. The limited frame of the Polaroid introduc
 ed intimacy and proximity\, while also emphasizing exclusion. Cropping drew
  attention to what remained outside the image\, invoking what Metz (1985) d
 escribes as the “off-frame effect\,” marking an irreversible absence. Many 
 photographs contained visual imperfections\, such as blown-out exposures or
  warped edges caused by uneven chemical development. These imperfections pr
 ompted discussion and closer interrogation\, highlighting the uniqueness of
  each image and the material limitations of representation. The expense of 
 Polaroid film further shaped the process\, making selectivity explicit. Dec
 isions about what to photograph were negotiated\, with participants often s
 uggesting or arranging subjects themselves. The images were later labeled\,
  digitized\, and analyzed using visual content analysis (Rose\, 2016)\, exa
 mining themes\, patterns\, and their broader social and cultural contexts. 
 I’ll conclude the presentation by considering analysis and application to f
 indings.</li></ul><p>[/accordion][/accordions]</p><h3>Session 1B: Praxis</h
 3><p>10:30am to 12pm (Peña Room)</p><ul><li><strong>Georgia Franklin</stron
 g>\, "Evolving BC Summer Reading Club: Investigation into the capacity and 
 requirements for an early years age expansion"</li><li><strong>Inaam Charaf
 </strong>\, "From classroom to workplace: preparing future librarians for c
 ompassionate workplace"</li><li><strong>Nataliya Radke</strong>\, "AI Tools
  for Processing Audiovisual Records"</li><li><strong>Sloane Madden</strong>
 \, "Analyzing policies: UBC's educational integration of AI"</li></ul><p>[a
 ccordions collapsible=true active=false][accordion title="Presentation abst
 racts"]</p><p><strong>Georgia Franklin</strong>\, "Evolving BC Summer Readi
 ng Club: Investigation into the capacity and requirements for an early year
 s age expansion"</p><ul><li>In 2026\, the BC Summer Reading Club (BC SRC) w
 ill pilot an expansion of participant age ranges to include children aged 0
 –5\, broadening a program that has traditionally served school-aged childre
 n. This presentation will outline the methodologies and findings of researc
 h conducted in 2025\, which examined early literacy needs and opportunities
  within public libraries\, current Summer Reading Club practices across Nor
 th America\, and the approaches of participating libraries in British Colum
 bia. The research also explored the potential impacts of this age expansion
  on the existing BC SRC program structure. In addition to presenting resear
 ch findings\, the session will propose a framework for future development o
 f the expanded program. This framework would address the creation of parent
 al and caregiver supports\, the development of targeted resources for child
 ren aged 8–12\, and the design of scalable program scaffolding capable of a
 ccommodating the diverse capacities and community contexts of public librar
 ies across the province. Overall\, the presentation will highlight the tran
 slation of research into practice\, demonstrating how evidence-based approa
 ches can inform program development\, support early literacy\, and strength
 en service delivery within public library systems.</li></ul><p><strong>Inaa
 m Charaf</strong>\, "From classroom to workplace: preparing future libraria
 ns for compassionate workplace"</p><ul><li>Libraries are deeply social inst
 itutions grounded in human relationships\, care\, and community responsiven
 ess. Librarians are increasingly called upon to design services\, spaces\, 
 and interactions that center compassion\, inclusion\, and dignity. While fr
 ameworks such as compassion-in-action highlight the role of care in achievi
 ng broader social goals\, professional education in library and information
  studies (LIS) often remain shaped by Western pedagogical traditions that p
 rioritize content delivery over holistic learning experiences. This short t
 alk draws on my course assignments and classroom lessons to explore how an 
 ethic of care can be intentionally embedded in LIS education and extended b
 eyond the classroom into library workplace practice. Grounded in critical a
 nd care-centered pedagogies\, my approach recognizes students as whole peop
 le whose emotional\, social\, and intellectual experiences are inseparable 
 from learning. I reflect on how this pedagogy is enacted through four inter
 related modes: modeling\, dialogue\, practice\, and confirmation. I argue t
 hat cultivating an ethic of care in the education of future information pro
 fessionals contributes directly to more inclusive and welcoming library spa
 ces\, fostering cultures of care that better serve both workers and communi
 ties.</li></ul><p><strong>Nataliya Radke</strong>\, "AI Tools for Processin
 g Audiovisual Records"</p><ul><li>My research is an educational module in t
 he form of paper as part of the InterPARES Trust AI project with Dr. Richar
 d Arias-Hernández as the principal investigator. This paper explores the ap
 plication of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools t
 o expedite the processing and arrangement and description of audiovisual re
 cords\, a traditionally time-consuming and laborious task. An interdiscipli
 nary review was conducted to outline the history of AI/ML tools such as aut
 omatic speech recognition for audio as well as facial and emotion recogniti
 on for videos\, how these technologies work\, current use cases\, and\, fin
 ally\, the concerns of implementing AI/ML tools into archival processing wo
 rkflows including copyright issues\, privacy concerns\, resource demands\, 
 algorithmic bias\, and copyright issues. The paper finds that AI/ML technol
 ogies present a unique opportunity to assist archival institutions amidst p
 ersistent backlogs and funding restrictions while increasing patron access 
 to collection materials.</li></ul><p><strong>Sloane Madden</strong>\, "Anal
 yzing policies: UBC's educational integration of AI"</p><ul><li>Due to the 
 wide range of tools available\, instructors now face the challenge of devel
 oping learning materials and activities that allow students to engage criti
 cally with course materials\, while also limiting a student’s ability to co
 mpletely outsource their critical thinking. Already at UBC we have seen a w
 ide variety of approaches to this\, with some professors banning AI entirel
 y\, others requiring students cite AI’s contributions as though it were an 
 academic source\, and others still not having a clear policy and leaving th
 e students in the dark regarding what counts as unethical AI\, leading to s
 tudents being unsure how to perceive or implement these tools.<br />This pr
 oject seeks to examine this question of AI policy and ethics more closely\,
  specifically when it comes to how these policies influence student percept
 ion and implementation of Generative AI. By distributing identical surveys 
 to courses with different policies around AI usage\, we can conduct a compa
 rative analysis\, tracking the degree to which educational frameworks impac
 t a student’s perception of Generative AI (for instance\, if a course encou
 rages AI usage\, do students see the tools more positively than if the prof
 essor highly discourages Generative AI). These surveys\, when distributed t
 o students in classes with different AI policies across a term\, would allo
 w us to systematically track evolving perceptions of AI and how it interact
 s with classroom policies\, thereby considering the ethics of AI\, potentia
 l academic frameworks\, and how AI tools have impacted stakeholders within 
 the university.</li></ul><p>[/accordion][/accordions]</p><h3>Lunch\, Poster
 s and Demonstrations</h3><ul><li><strong>12:15pm to 1:15pm (Peña Room)</str
 ong>: Lunch</li><li><strong>12pm to 1:30pm (Peña Room)</strong>: Poster pre
 sentations</li><li><strong>12pm to 1:30pm (Dodson Room)</strong>: Demonstra
 tions</li></ul><p>[accordions collapsible=true active=false][accordion titl
 e="Presentation abstracts"]</p><h4>Posters</h4><p><strong>Bashar Talafha</s
 trong>\, "Zero-shot context-aware ASR for diverse Arabic varieties"</p><ul>
 <li>Zero-shot ASR for Arabic remains challenging: while multilingual models
  perform well on Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)\, error rates rise sharply on
  dialectal and accented speech due to linguistic mismatch and scarce labele
 d data. We study \\textit{context-aware decoding} as a lightweight test-tim
 e adaptation paradigm that conditions inference on external side informatio
 n without parameter updates. For promptable encoder–decoder ASR (e.g.\, Whi
 sper)\, we incorporate context through (i) decoder prompting with first-pas
 s hypotheses and (ii) encoder/decoder prefixing with retrieved speech-text 
 exemplars\, complemented by simple prompt reordering and optional speaker-m
 atched synthetic exemplars to improve robustness in informal and multi-spea
 ker settings. To extend contextual adaptation beyond promptable architectur
 es\, we introduce proxy-guided n-best selection for CTC ASR: given one or m
 ore external proxy hypotheses\, we select from a model's n-best list by min
 imizing text-level distance to the proxies\, enabling contextual inference 
 without direct prompting. Across ten Arabic conditions spanning MSA\, accen
 ted MSA\, and multiple dialects\, context-aware decoding yields average rel
 ative WER reductions of 22.29% on MSA\, 20.54 on accented MSA\, and 9.15% o
 n dialectal Arabic. For CTC models\, proxy-guided selection reduces WER by 
 15.6% relative on MSA and recovers a substantial fraction of oracle n-best 
 gains\, demonstrating that context-aware inference generalizes beyond encod
 er-decoder ASR.</li></ul><p><strong>Eric Meyers\, Rica Quebral\, Emily Will
 cox\, Piper Foster</strong>\, "Analyzing Canadian historical fiction: the G
 eoffrey Billson Award"</p><ul><li>Historical fiction is one of the keystone
  genres of children’s writing (Cart\, 2022)\, but it is also a way that you
 ng Canadians come to understand who they are\, and how they are situated am
 ong the cultures and nation states of the world. Historical Fiction\, then\
 , is not just an entertainment nor simply a window to learning about the pa
 st\, it also plays a large role in supporting the development of Canadian c
 ultural ethos (Brown\, 1998).We are working to expand and query a database 
 of nominees and winners of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction
 \, 2004-2024\, a prize administered by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
  We will analyze the nominated literature on a micro and macro basis\; that
  is\, we intend to do close reading of select titles to understand the natu
 re of Historical Fiction in Canada as it is present in these nominated text
 s\, and well as uncover themes and trends across 20 years of Canadian publi
 shing. Such a project in the area of young people’s literature in Canada is
  unprecedented\, and represents a unique methodological approach.</li></ul>
 <p><strong>Linnea Thorson\, Curtis Ho\, Dhanya Indraganti\, Rachel Lau\, Be
 tte Smith</strong>\, "Woodland watch: A mobile-first website for Woodland C
 ree First Nation"</p><ul><li>As part of the iSchool’s “LIBR 506 — Human-Inf
 ormation Interaction” course this fall\, students were asked to design an i
 nformation resource and related services for a specific user community in t
 he context of the course-wide theme of Information Access\, Rights and Cens
 orship. Using the interface design tool “Figma\,” our group built a mobile-
 first design resource website prototype entitled “Woodland Watch” (WW)\, cr
 eated with the Woodland Cree First Nation (WCFN) as the intended primary us
 er group. Through the creation of an evidence-based profile of the informat
 ion needs and behaviours of WCFN\, the use of information behaviour models 
 and theories of Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) and Social media e
 ngagement theory (SME)\, and research conducted regarding the need for this
  information service within our user group\, our prototype aims to address 
 the user needs of WCFN as it relates to information access\, environmental 
 protection\, and economic wealth and livelihood. Key features of WW include
  a “Projects and Reports” function (wherein incident reports and resource e
 xtraction projects are presented on an interactive map and in list form)\, 
 an Incident Report Form (for WCFN members and individuals in the area to do
 cument and report environmental emergencies or incidents of pollution relat
 ing to resource extraction)\, and resources intended to address everyday li
 fe information needs related to life in proximity to resource extraction an
 d its effects (e.g. resources on emergency preparedness). Questions of rese
 archer positionality were crucial within this assignment and remain at the 
 forefront of any future work that may develop regarding this project.</li><
 /ul><p><strong>Luanne Sinnamon\, Ben Mertick\, Lisa Nathan\, Dan Hackborn\,
  Belinda Suen</strong>\, "Making Space for Climate Sensemaking in Libraries
 "</p><ul><li>As individuals around the world face uncertainties and threats
  arising out of climate change\, how might libraries leverage collaborative
  sensemaking activities/processes to support local agency and resilience? O
 ver the past year\, our research group has partnered with libraries in BC a
 nd Alberta to design and facilitate programs exploring this question while 
 reflecting the unique goals\, conditions\, and contexts of these communitie
 s and libraries. The resulting programs included two “Climate Conversation”
  events co-hosted with the Nelson Public Library\, three “Future Framing” w
 orkshops with the Fraser Valley Regional Library\, and a PhotoVoice project
  with the Jasper Municipal Library. In each case\, we conducted follow-up i
 nterviews and focus groups to gain insight into participants’ experiences. 
 The notion of climate sensemaking was the common thread woven through each\
 , which we framed through a set of sensemaking axioms distilled from prior 
 research. In this poster\, we share and reflect on these sensemaking axioms
 \, their usefulness in informing these programs\, and what we have learned 
 from these experiences that can refine and deepen our understanding of clim
 ate sensemaking through libraries.</li></ul><p><strong>Piper Foster</strong
 >\, "A not so natural disaster: what depictions of disasters in middle grad
 e novels can tell us about addressing climate change"</p><ul><li>This resea
 rch examines the way in which middle-grade natural disaster books approach 
 environmental change and empowerment for action. Given the gradual uptick i
 n natural disasters worldwide and the irrefutable reality that human action
  has worsened these disasters\, it is important to recognize the role of hu
 mans in these novels while offering hope and action for the young readers. 
 Through analyzing two recently published books\, I Survived Hurricane Katri
 na\, 2005: A Graphic Novel (2022) and Claudia in the Storm: A Hurricane Kat
 rina Survival Story (2023)\, for environmental language\, child agency\, an
 d community action\, their approach to recognizing human action can be glea
 ned. From this\, the presentation highlights and critiques the novels’ appr
 oaches to portraying the disaster stories in the new age of climate crisis.
 </li></ul><p><strong>Rica Quebral</strong>\, "Sneaky scanlations: the not s
 o secret tensions over illegal fandom media"</p><ul><li>Scanlations\, based
  on the portmanteau of “scanned translations\,” are critical to the global 
 dissemination of manga outside of Japan\, and this illegal practice has dem
 onstrated the power of mobilized fandom in the shadows long before the New 
 World Era of scanlations. While a part of the larger umbrella term of multi
 modal translations (Vazquez-Calvo et al.\, 2019)\, scanlations are unoffici
 al translations created by scanning comics and translating them into a desi
 red language without permission from the publishers. As a public network\, 
 this expression of fandom through publishing has captivated manga readers f
 or over five decades. As relevant to the library community\, it provides an
  insight to another medium consumers engage with and consume translated lit
 erature. This analysis aims to provide an overview of what scanlations are 
 and how its internal culture impacts a young global audience.</li></ul><h4>
 Demonstrations</h4><p><strong>Alexander Ross</strong>\, "Introduction to Pl
 ayful Engagements: Catalyzing Game-Based Approaches to Teaching and Researc
 h"</p><ul><li>When we engage with games and play\, what do we learn? This s
 eemingly simple question has revealed itself to be startlingly complex. Alt
 hough games and play have been construed as a “fundamental” part of human e
 xperience (Salen & Zimmerman\, 2004)\, it has been difficult to gauge the k
 inds of teaching and learning that occur through games as they invoke highl
 y varied social and cultural modalities. Furthering this complexity are the
  ways digital games and play have become an increasingly ubiquitous and int
 egrated part of life\, work and leisure (Deterding\, 2019). Only by embraci
 ng the lateral\, creative\, and expressive possibilities of games as tools 
 for teaching and research can these latent gamified processes be made visib
 le. The demo will serve as an introduction to the larger project Playful En
 gagements: Catalyzing Digital Game-Based Approaches to Teaching and Researc
 h\, a workshop series designed to facilitate collaborative and interdiscipl
 inary approaches to incorporating game-based learning and research. The dem
 onstration will combine a game-based walkthrough methodology with two short
  10-minute talks\, structured like a game walkthrough\, focusing on the int
 ersection of games\, labour\, and digital platform economics. Demo attendee
 s will then participate the playing of a small selection of independent dig
 ital games that highlight the issues of work\, habituation\, and “precariou
 s playbour” (Kuklich\, 2005) raised in the talks. Our goal is to pedagogica
 lly demonstrate how games can be used as holistic teaching and research too
 ls that can encourage a deeper and more playful engagement with crucial que
 stions in information studies.</li></ul><p><strong>Kendra Oudyk</strong>\, 
 "Interactive visualization of the Canadian Library Challenges Database: A p
 rototype"</p><ul><li>Book and material challenges in libraries directly aff
 ect intellectual freedom and access to information. The Canadian Library Ch
 allenges Database tracks these incidents by recording where challenges happ
 en\, what materials are targeted\, and how libraries respond. While this in
 formation is valuable\, it currently lives in a spreadsheet-style format th
 at makes it hard to see overall patterns\, trends over time\, or regional d
 ifferences at a glance. This project demonstrates an interactive visualizat
 ion approach to making the Canadian Library Challenges Database easier to e
 xplore and use for advocacy and public communication. So far\, I have creat
 ed several interactive\, static\, and dynamic (video) visualizations that s
 how how challenges vary across place and time. These include an interactive
  map of where challenges have occurred across Canada\, stacked bar charts s
 howing common types of complaints and how libraries respond\, and a bar cha
 rt 'race' video that illustrates how complaint categories change over time.
  The longer-term goal is to bring these visuals together into an online das
 hboard that can be updated as new data are added. This presentation is a li
 ve demonstration rather than a traditional research talk. It focuses on how
  visualizations can help tell clearer stories about book challenges\, suppo
 rt conversations about intellectual freedom\, and make existing data more a
 ccessible to librarians\, advocates\, and the public. I will walk through t
 he current visuals\, explain key design decisions and data limitations\, an
 d invite discussion about how dashboards like this could be used in library
  practice\, advocacy work\, and professional communication.</li></ul><p>[/a
 ccordion][/accordions]</p><h3>Panel</h3><p><strong>1:30pm to 2pm (Dodson Ro
 om)</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Kaykaiktw Hall\, Hailey Eli\, Carolina Roch
 a\, Dr. Cameron Pierson\, Dr. Elizabeth Shaffer\, Dr. Julia Bullard\, Dr. L
 uanne Sinnamon\, </strong>"Innovating the iSchool classroom: piloting a hyb
 rid model for Indigenizing graduate pedagogy"</li></ul><p>[accordions colla
 psible=true active=false][accordion title="Panel abstract"]</p><p>Graduate 
 education in information science and archival studies continues to reproduc
 e colonial pedagogical structures that constrain how Indigenous knowledge s
 ystems\, methodologies\, and responsibilities are taken up in the classroom
 . This project responds to these limitations by piloting a hybrid teaching 
 model that explicitly centres the 4Rs\, respect\, relevance\, reciprocity\,
  and responsibility\, within the MLIS core curriculum at UBC’s iSchool. Dev
 eloped in direct response to requests from Indigenous graduate students\, i
 ncluding Indigenous parents who must currently leave their communities to a
 ttend in-person classes in Vancouver\, the project seeks to reimagine where
  and how graduate learning can take place. Beginning in the 2025–26 academi
 c year\, three MLIS core courses were reconfigured to combine in-person ins
 truction with synchronous and asynchronous online participation\, enabling 
 students to remain in community while engaging fully in graduate study. Imp
 ortantly\, this work understands hybridity as a relational and ethical prac
 tice\, not simply a technical solution. The talk will trace the project’s c
 ollaborative design process with Indigenous students and advisors\, outline
  the pedagogical commitments shaping the pilot\, and share early reflection
 s on implementation. By focusing on the core curriculum as an initial site 
 of intervention\, the project aims to investigate potential shifts in teach
 ing practice\, student experience\, and institutional capacity\, that is ac
 countable to Indigenous students\, communities\, and lands\, while strength
 ening teaching and learning across the iSchool.</p><p>[/accordion][/accordi
 ons]</p><h3>Session 2A: Fandom & Youth Media</h3><p><strong>2pm to 3:30pm (
 Dodson Room)</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Cath Ayres</strong>\, "Projects of
  Possibility: Identity and Intelligibility in Nonbinary Middle Grade Fictio
 n"</li><li><strong>Eric Meyers\, Neil Aitken and volunteer readers</strong>
 \, "Diegetic prototypes: telling stories about the future of children's med
 ia"</li><li><strong>Samuel Hinds</strong>\, "Wings at what cost? Depictions
  of martyrdom in Winx club"</li><li><strong>Shannon Hunt</strong>\, " 'Magi
 c' eraser: an intertextual analysis of disability representation in <em>The
  Secret Garden</em> and <em>Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star"</em></li></ul
 ><p>[accordions collapsible=true active=false][accordion title="Presentatio
 n abstracts"]</p><p><strong>Cath Ayres</strong>\, "Projects of Possibility:
  Identity and Intelligibility in Nonbinary Middle Grade Fiction"</p><ul><li
 >In the introduction to Undoing Gender\, Judith Butler asks: “What maximise
 s the possibilities for a liveable life?” (2004\, p. 8). They pose this que
 stion in relation to the intelligibility of one’s gender\, or the potential
  of being recognisably human while subverting normative ideals of gender an
 d personhood. For a life to be possible\, it must be intelligible\; to be i
 ntelligible to others\, one must first be intelligible to the self. My rese
 arch considers the intelligibility of nonbinary identities in middle grade 
 fiction. Drawing on theories of trans identity\, intelligibility and phenom
 enology\, I have developed a unique lens through which to interpret the ess
 ential\, embodied and constructed elements of nonbinary identities\, and th
 e intersections therewithin (Baldino\, 2015\; Nagoshi et al.\, 2014\; Rubin
 \, 1998). I apply this lens to a narratological analysis of three recent mi
 ddle grade novels to identify if\, when\, and to whom the nonbinary protago
 nists are rendered intelligible. According to Butler\, intelligibility invi
 tes possibility\, as “the thought of a possible life is only an indulgence 
 for those who already know themselves to be possible” (2004\, p. 31). This 
 paper seeks to illustrate if\, and how\, nonbinary middle grade fiction pre
 sents readers with examples of possible\, liveable nonbinary lives.</li></u
 l><p><strong>Eric Meyers\, Neil Aitken and volunteer readers</strong>\, "Di
 egetic prototypes: telling stories about the future of children's media"</p
 ><ul><li>Fictional narratives\, in print\, television and cinema\, have bee
 n a source of inspiration to the technology industries for more than a cent
 ury (Kirby\, 2010). These narratives also serve as a way of surfacing and i
 nterrogating our hopes and anxieties about how technology is incorporated i
 n social practices. We suggest that short stories have the potential to cre
 ate diegetic prototypes—prototypes of technologies and practices that are e
 mbedded in narrative fiction\, allowing us to envision future scenarios bot
 h exciting and disconcerting (Dourish & Bell\, 2014).For four years (2020-2
 024)\, the PI tasked graduate students with creating short stories to illus
 trate their learning about the possibilities and pitfalls of new media and 
 children. We analyzed a corpus 84 2000-word stories of varying levels of so
 phistication\, both in terms of the writing and thinking. We employed conte
 nt analysis and close reading techniques (quant+qual) with the goal of unde
 rstanding trends in student thinking about technology as it relates to chil
 dren: what are their aspirations and anxieties? How do they frame the futur
 e? What literary devices and tropes are present in these stories? How do th
 ey support or constrain hope in the future of children’s media? Our present
 ation will have two components: a presentation of our findings from the con
 tent analysis\, and readings of select short stories (by current iSchool st
 udents) to illustrate technique.</li></ul><p><strong>Samuel Hinds</strong>\
 , "Wings at what cost? Depictions of martyrdom in Winx club"</p><ul><li>Dra
 wing on the tradition and tropes of “magical girl” anime\, Winx Club (2004-
 19) depicts the lives of six teenaged fairies as they confront evils and hi
 gh school social dynamics. As the series progresses\, the members of the ti
 tular club gain new powers called “transformations” that aid in their endle
 ss struggle to save the world. But at what cost? During season 3\, each mem
 ber of the Winx Club must perform a self-sacrificial act\, rescuing somebod
 y from their homeworld to obtain the “Enchantix” transformation. In doing s
 o\, the Winx girls become “full-fledged” fairies and graduate from high sch
 ool. This paper problematizes the undue burden placed on teenage characters
  and examines Enchantix to understand the intercommunal relations of Winx C
 lub. Using an intersectional feminist theoretical lens\, I closely read how
  the Winx Club fairies’ attainment of Encantix demonstrates the demands fro
 m their community. This paper uses Nicoletta Marini-Maio and Ellen Nerenber
 g’s analysis of the Winx’s transformations as saint-like (30-31) and expand
 s on this Christian reading by understanding Enchantix as depictions of exp
 ected martyrdom of young girls (Nelson 25-26). I ask the question: how much
  are we willing to let young women give up for their communities and homes?
  Given the release of Winx Club: The Magic Is Back (2025)\, a reboot of the
  franchise\, now more than ever is a crucial time to think critically about
  what we require of the target demographic of young girls watching this sho
 w.</li></ul><p><strong>Shannon Hunt</strong>\, " 'Magic' eraser: an interte
 xtual analysis of disability representation in <em>The Secret Garden</em> a
 nd <em>Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star"</em></p><ul><li>Despite promising 
 growth in the percentage of disabled main characters between 2019 and 2024 
 (7.1% up from 3.4%)\, disability representation is still lacking in childre
 n's literature (Dickinson). In competition with this progress are the harmf
 ul disability narratives of canonical texts\, which are continually reprise
 d for consumption by generations decades beyond the eras in which they were
  written. One such text is Frances Hodgson Burnett’s "The Secret Garden" (1
 911). This intertextual analysis positions Laura Noake’s "Cosima Unfortunat
 e Steals a Star" (2023) as a “disability counternarrative” (Curwood 21) tha
 t upends the harmful tropes of "The Secret Garden." Both works feature disa
 bled and/or chronically ill protagonists\, explore themes of friendship and
  belonging\, and are set in turn-of-the-century England. This study is an e
 xploration of textual and contextual findings\, using a framework that comb
 ines Critical Disability Theory (Hosking) with Bishop’s “mirrors\, windows\
 , and sliding glass doors” (xi). The analysis of these findings reveals the
  ways in which disability counter/narratives convey messages about and to d
 isabled and nondisabled children alike\, and\, perhaps most importantly\, p
 oints to the implications and enduring nature of such messages.</li></ul><p
 >[/accordion][/accordions]</p><h3>Session 2B: Living Cultures</h3><p><stron
 g>2pm to 3:30pm (Peña Room)</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Anna Kovtunenko</st
 rong>\, "Rerooted on Coast Salish Land: Culturally adaptive design for livi
 ng cultural heritage"</li><li><strong>Carolina Rocha</strong>\, "The ethics
  of piracy as radical preservation"</li><li><strong>Emma Quan</strong>\, "T
 he baby pages: baby record books\, prescriptive design\, and women's matern
 al recordkeeping"</li><li><strong>Jessie Trafton</strong>\, "Shifting and p
 ersisting barriers to information access for the LGBTQ+ community"</li></ul
 ><p>[accordions collapsible=true active=false][accordion title="Presentatio
 n abstracts"]</p><p><strong>Anna Kovtunenko</strong>\, "Rerooted on Coast S
 alish Land: Culturally adaptive design for living cultural heritage"</p><ul
 ><li>While HCI seeks to provide common theoretical and methodological frame
 works for understanding human experiences with technology\, its foundation 
 in Western epistemology can obscure culturally appropriate information and 
 interaction design\, particularly in archival systems. Collections develope
 d to digitize and preserve the living cultural heritage (LCH) of Indigenous
  communities can inadvertently render that knowledge inaccessible or unusab
 le when their design fails to account for culturally specific practices and
  values. Consequently\, digital archives must be informed by the cultural n
 orms\, practices\, and protocols that shape how Indigenous communities unde
 rstand and steward their information. For this project\, I created a specul
 ative redesign of the UBC Botanical Garden’s digital archive “Garden Explor
 er”\, aiming to challenge the Western epistemic lens that excluded xʷməθkʷə
 y̓əm plant names\, stories\, and uses from the collection. Using Figma\, I 
 designed an interactive prototype titled Rerooted on Coast Salish Land that
  reimagines five Garden Explorer records through a more relational\, access
 ible\, and place-based framework. The prototype foregrounds hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ 
 plant names alongside English and scientific nomenclature\, introduces new 
 ways for visitors to browse and engage with records\, and reimagines a more
  dynamic\, robust metadata scheme. Together\, these interventions illustrat
 e how culturally adaptive HCI might begin to question archival authority an
 d unsettle colonial epistemologies\, while highlighting a pressing area of 
 design research that calls for further inquiry into more culturally informe
 d approaches to designing archives for LCH.</li></ul><p><strong>Carolina Ro
 cha</strong>\, "The ethics of piracy as radical preservation"</p><ul><li>Wh
 en operating within a legal system founded on capitalism\, efforts to prese
 rve the moving image must inevitably contend with the paradox of art and in
 dustry\, wherein the archivable artifact straddles the line between commerc
 ial property and cultural heritage. In light of the ongoing consolidation o
 f filmed media cultures under corporate monopolies\, opaque platform govern
 ance and streaming-based distribution models have further complicated the p
 olitics of access in an era of digital upheaval. Piracy therefore emerges a
 s a disruptive manifestation of the archival impulse—a form of radical pres
 ervation that surfaces the limits of authorized archival stewardship. This 
 research considers how archival ethics\, a paradigm largely developed withi
 n Eurocentric and settler colonial traditions\, addresses the contradiction
 s between legality\, preservation mandates\, and public access when preserv
 ation may require operating beyond the limits of legal and policy framework
 s. By engaging intellectual property legislation\, policy instruments\, and
  professional ethical codes as sites of power\, rather than neutral safegua
 rds\, this research undertakes a critical examination of how archival pract
 ice is shaped\, and/or constrained\, by colonial legislative infrastructure
 s and contemporary platform capitalism.</li></ul><p><strong>Emma Quan</stro
 ng>\, "The baby pages: baby record books\, prescriptive design\, and women'
 s maternal recordkeeping"</p><ul><li>This research examines historical baby
  record books as a form of maternal and vernacular archives\, arguing that 
 they offer critical insight into women’s domestic recordkeeping practices a
 nd the social construction of motherhood. While often dismissed as sentimen
 tal ephemera\, baby books are deeply shaped by cultural systems of gendered
  labour\, medical authority\, and documentary norms. Drawing on archival th
 eory\, feminist scholarship\, and material culture studies\, this research 
 treats baby record books as intentional records that both reflect and shape
  historical understandings of maternity\, childhood\, and maternal responsi
 bility. Through close analysis of the structure\, prompts\, and visual desi
 gn of selected baby record books from the early to mid-twentieth century\, 
 this research explores how these artifacts prescribe what kinds of informat
 ion mothers were expected to record\, what forms of maternal labour were re
 ndered visible\, and what experiences were marginalized or silenced. Partic
 ular attention is paid to the interplay between institutional and medical a
 uthority and maternal agency\, as well as to the affective and emotional di
 mensions of domestic documentation. By foregrounding women’s everyday recor
 dkeeping practices\, this research challenges archival paradigms that privi
 lege institutional and predominantly male-authored records. It argues that 
 baby record books function as materially and ideologically structured recor
 dkeeping systems that reveal how social norms of motherhood are produced\, 
 reproduced\, and occasionally resisted through ordinary documentary practic
 es. In doing so\, this research contributes to feminist archival scholarshi
 p and expands understandings of what constitutes significant and meaningful
  archival material.</li></ul><p><strong>Jessie Trafton</strong>\, "Shifting
  and persisting barriers to information access for the LGBTQ+ community"</p
 ><ul><li>To better serve the lesbian\, gay\, bisexual transgender\, queer/q
 uestioning (hereafter LGBTQ+) community\, information professionals need to
  understand what barriers impact the community’s ability to access informat
 ion. Pierson’s (2017) literature review synthesized barriers related to inf
 ormation and access persistent in the LGBTQ+ community. This community cont
 inues to face discrimination\, harassment and legislation intended to strip
  rights despite an increase in LGBTQ+ community acceptance (Stańczykiewicz 
 & Senczyszyn\, 2024). The language used about and by the LGBTQ+ community i
 s ever evolving (Moulaison-Sandy et al.\, 2023\; Thelwall et al.\, 2023) re
 quiring shifts in material and resource description. This study seeks to ex
 pand Pierson's 2017 study by incorporating contemporary literature and new 
 terminology and to surface barriers uniquely experienced by youth or elders
  in this community. This presentation will draw on preliminary findings and
  emerging considerations from the initial phases of the study.</li></ul><p>
 [/accordion][/accordions]</p><h3>Afternoon Tea</h3><p><strong>3:30pm to 3:4
 5pm (Dodson</strong><strong> Room)</strong></p><h3>Session 3: Archival Pers
 pectives</h3><p><strong>3:45pm to 5pm (Dodson Room)</strong></p><ul><li><st
 rong>Alia Hijaab</strong>\, "Seeds of Return: Seeds as Artefacts of Cultura
 l Heritage in the Arab Diaspora"</li><li><strong>Sophie Abbott</strong>\, "
 An Introduction to and Integrations of New Materialist Theory in Archival S
 tudies"</li><li><strong>Stephanie Weber</strong>\, "The craft of archiving/
 the archiving of craft"</li></ul><p>[accordions collapsible=true active=fal
 se][accordion title="Presentation abstracts"]</p><p><strong>Alia Hijaab</st
 rong>\, "Seeds of Return: Seeds as Artefacts of Cultural Heritage in the Ar
 ab Diaspora"</p><ul><li>This talk proposes seeds as archive: living records
  that carry cultural memory\, ancestral knowledge\, and relational belongin
 g across time\, land\, and displacement. Drawing from archival theory\, eth
 nobotany\, diaspora studies\, and decolonial scholarship\, this project ask
 s how seeds function as records of cultural heritage and survival. Using th
 e Arab diaspora as a primary case study - particularly in relation to displ
 acement\, land loss\, and disrupted knowledge transmission - the framework 
 extends beyond this community across to other communities affected by the<b
 r />same colonial and imperial lineages. Situated on the unceded territory 
 of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) People\, this research emerges amid intensif
 ying colonial violence and global displacement of Arab and Muslim peoples c
 ombined with the collapse of our sensitive climates from resource extractio
 n. Our ancestral and traditional epistemologies are increasingly threatened
 \, and our people are calling for a return. The project brings together the
 oretical work on decolonization\, land-based methods\, provenance\, and arc
 hival ethics with story-based and ethnographic accounts of seed keeping\, s
 eed saving\, and community stewardship. It argues that seeds operate as emb
 odied records that hold memory\, encoding relationships to place\, and enab
 le continuity even in displacement. As an emerging project\, this talk outl
 ines a conceptual framework rather than empirical findings\, inviting discu
 ssion around meaningfully questioning traditional archival frameworks and o
 ffering a living\, relational\, and future-oriented conception of archiving
  for and with community. By positing seeds as archive\, we call to attentio
 n the practice of seed keeping/seed saving as a mode of cultural survival.<
 /li></ul><p><strong>Sophie Abbott</strong>\, "An Introduction to and Integr
 ations of New Materialist Theory in Archival Studies"</p><ul><li> This pres
 entation introduces new materialism\, the emerging interdisciplinary applic
 ations of the theory\, and how archival studies could integrate the theory.
  While I have written a thesis that integrated this theory\, I would prefer
  to present the theory from an archival lens instead of a historical one. A
 s we handle objects/materials/records\, we often consider the history of th
 e human/institution\, the creator\, before the history or agency of the ite
 m. New materialism suggests the items themselves have genealogies and asser
 t ‘object will’ on their surroundings. The manner in which an item is maint
 ained and how it functions is therefore simultaneously reflective of a huma
 n process and an inhuman process. New materialism suggests that the concept
  of creatorship (and more broadly history)\, should be understood as a comb
 ination of human and non-human agencies.</li></ul><p><strong>Stephanie Webe
 r</strong>\, "The craft of archiving/the archiving of craft"</p><ul><li>Thi
 s project is concerned with craft and the archive\, and will centre on cons
 iderations\, both practical and intellectual\, that arise when archiving “c
 raft\,” a mode of creative making with feminist\, queer and intersectional 
 significances and whose preservation and art historical value has been unde
 rvalued in archival scholarship. I aim to address a notable dearth of both 
 practical and theoretical works in archival literature devoted to craft arc
 hives. This project aims to investigate what happens to made objects when t
 hey enter the archival repository\, suggesting that as archives increasingl
 y become custodians of craft and object histories\, a consideration of when
  and how they become “archival” is vital. I will consider this archival met
 hodology question in concert with literature that positions the professiona
 l practice of archiving as a “craft\,” asking about the relationship betwee
 n information work and craft practice as twinned examples of feminized and 
 thus devalued labour\, an undervaluing that ignores the creative and intell
 ectual work underpinning both. Also integrated will be a concern with craft
 ing itself as “archiving\,” drawn from works that position\, for example\, 
 fibre art as record-keeping instruments. I propose that an encompassing the
 ory of archiving craft that integrates these conceptual areas will add to b
 odies of literature in archival theory\, non-textual archival methodologies
 \, and craft theory.</li></ul><p>[/accordion][/accordions]</p>
CATEGORIES:Featured Events
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