Giant cranes start work at dawn. At about 6:30 this morning, the big cranes began hoisting the first truss over EV 2. It would take roughly an hour to arrive in position. And, announces Don Haffner, Waterloo’s Major Projects Construction Coordinator, though erection of the trusses is under way, “due to a computer glitch, unfortunately we have to make a  few extensions regarding closures. Building occupancy closure extended to Tuesday July 20, access after 5 p.m. as before; Ring Road will be closed until first thing Wednesday morning, July 21.” (Photo: Eric Kennedy)

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Waterloo Librarians and the G20

news@yourlibrary, july 8, 2010

University of Waterloo librarians were amidst the G20 action last month, albeit remotely! They joined forces with other academic librarians from across the country to provide an “Ask-a-Librarian” service to delegates and the media within the Canadian Digital Media Network’s social community "G20Net" powered by Open Text software.

Librarians from Waterloo, University of Toronto, University of Alberta, University of Western Ontario, and University of British Columbia staffed the “Ask-a-Librarian” service from 5:30 a.m. to midnight during the G20 Summit, responding to questions such as,

• “Can you tell me what the consensus 2011 GDP growth forecast is for Canada and the EU?
• “We are hearing reports of the Chinese becoming more flexible with their yuan. Can someone provide a layman's version of what this actually means?”
• “Which G20 countries other than Canada, the UK, the US, Germany, France and Italy have had a female head of state or head of government?”

Librarians at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and students currently enrolled in Master of Library and Information Science programs at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Alberta also contributed many hours to the service.

The University of Waterloo organized librarians' involvement in G20Net and was coordinated primarily by Annie Bélanger, Head of Information Services and Resources at the Dana Porter Library.

In addition to the “Ask-a-Librarian” service, Waterloo librarians harvested a large quantity of open source documentation pertaining to the Summit’s primary topics, making it searchable within the network.

While traffic in the “Ask-a-Librarian” room in no way compared to some of the foot traffic that a vacationing library staff member witnessed in downtown Toronto (left), it was a worthwhile venture.

Annie Bélanger remarks, “all involved librarians and Library Sciences students were incredible - they pulled together quickly and enthusiastically to make sure that this information service experiment could be achieved. We were able to offer the first G20 Summit Ask-a-Librarian service.”

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Fundraisers pursue ambitious goals

Waterloo fundraisers have been bringing in $100 every minute, around the clock, for the last ten years — although that’s not actually one of the figures associate vice-president Linda Kieswetter quoted to the university’s board of governors recently when she reported on Campaign Waterloo.

Kieswetter cast her report in larger sums: $518.2 million in “gifts and other revenue” from people, companies and foundations since May 2000. Add another $49.9 million in “pledges outstanding”, not to mention “90 million dollars in outstanding asks”, and it’s clear that the university is on its way to some ambitious goals, even if they aren’t yet being reached.

Meg Beckel, the vice-president (external relations), brought the same ten-year numbers to the university senate on June 21. She compared them to two standards: the often-stated target of raising $100 million a year regularly, and the ambition of president David Johnston to see the total hit $1 billion before the university’s sixth decade ends in 2017.

The $100 million goal has been achieved only once so far — in 2007-08, the year of several very large gifts, including funding from Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis toward construction of the Quantum-Nano Centre. The total that year was $112 million. Four years earlier, in 2003-04, the university had achieved $74 million. Otherwise, giving has at least doubled, from about $25 million a year in the first part of the decade to a little more than $50 million a year lately.

Charts from Kieswetter’s office indicate that more than half the money has come from individuals, including alumni, “honorary alumni”, “friends” of the university, and students (through endowments and building projects) and the Keystone Campaign constituency of faculty, staff and retirees. The rest is credited to “organizations”, including corporations, and foundations.

“Our fund-raising results are affected quite significantly by mega-gifts, and by recessions,” Kieswetter told the board, indicating that things slowed down during the difficult times of 2009.

But the effort goes on, in the context of Sixth Decade priorities that are currently estimated to have a price tag of $619 million. So far, $270 million of that money has been found (and is included in the ten-year campaign results). She said almost half the money for Sixth Decade efforts is wanted for buildings — a much different sell, for most potential donors, from the scholarships and “programs” that were at the heart of campaign efforts.

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Passing of three retired professors

Lynn A. K. Watt (left), a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Waterloo, died on Wednesday, July 7, at the age of 85. He joined the university in 1966, retiring in 1990. In addition to his role as professor, he served as dean of graduate studies 1972-83, acting dean of graduate studies 1969-70 and January-June 1987, and acting dean of research 1988-89. He was considered an influential figure in the university’s developing years: among other achievements, he wrote the 1972 University of Waterloo Act. He was designated an Honorary Member of the University of Waterloo in 1996. The Waterloo Region Record’s obituary is here. A more detailed tribute will follow later this summer.

Marie Sanderson, an adjunct professor of geography at Waterloo for ten years, and a leading expert on climate change in the Great Lakes watershed, died on Monday, July 12, at the age of 88. She was the first female professor of geography in Canada, spending 23 years at the University of Windsor, where she established the Great Lakes Institute. Coming to Waterloo in 1988, she founded the Water Network. She was the author of numerous articles and 11 books, the most recent being High Heels in the Tundra: My Life as a Geographer and Climatologist, published in 2009. When she received an honorary degree from the University of Toronto this year, she was too ill to attend convocation: so the degree was conferred at a private ceremony in her home, and  her daughter read her address at convocation. The Globe and Mail obituary says that “friends may call at the Trull North Toronto Funeral Home and Cremation Centre, 2704 Yonge Street, (five blocks south of Lawrence Ave.) on Thursday, July 15, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.”

“Raymond Beachey (right), a member of Waterloo’s history department and senior professor, died on Saturday, July 10, at the age of 94, in England,” says a note from Prof. Ken McLaughlin, history. “Beachey was the author of numerous books and research papers, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a former visiting professor at Duke University and at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began his career as an African scholar, rising to the position of head of history and dean of arts at Makerere University in Uganda before transferring to the University of London and then joining Waterloo in 1969, retiring in 1980. His research in the history of East Africa received international acclaim.”

CPA staff

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