In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning, the OCAD University Library has teamed up with various authors, professors, and creators to build it's first online Library Book Club.
The Library Book Club aims to highlight not only texts and materials of interest, but to promote social connectivity and encourage further discussion on contemporary social issues. In short, we want to create a sense of the digital library as a place for the OCAD University community and beyond.
Each session has been dedicated to a specific theme, including but not limited to, anti-racism, social justice, decolonization, LGBTQS issues, and Indigenous knowledge systems.
"Places are defined by functions and communities, just as are libraries. Places stimulate and can represent states of mind: it is easy to understand that when someone says 'I feel out of place,' they are not only referring to the physical space they occupy. Place is more than physical space - just as a home is more than a house.
Thus, places are as much about ideas and states of being as they are about physical space. This parallels what we mean by libraries: places that combine physical space with intellectual space, to link people to ideas and to each other."
Pomerantz, Jeffrey, and Gary Marchionini. ”The Digital Library as Place,” Journal of Documentation 63.4 (2007): 505-533.
