Tag: asian heritage month

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• Your position: University Librarian and Dean of Libraries  

• Library mentor: I have had a long career so there are honestly too many to mention in a short response ! I value their sage advice, encouragement, and frank feedback.  Mentoring requires dedication, skill and generosity – I have been so fortunate throughout my career. 

• Your mantra at work: Creating conditions for people to do their best 

• Favourite professional association: I highly value my engagement with the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) as well as the work of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) 

Your favourite…  

• Author, book: I recently had the chance to see Tanya Talaga interviewed at an event at uOttawa by our own Chancellor Claudette Commanda.  Talaga’s book Seven Fallen Feathers continues to leave a deep impression on me. 

• Most underrated dessert: Grass jelly.  Just thinking about it makes me want to go and get some… 

• Your thoughts on recent trends…  I don’t know if this is on trend, as I am admittedly out of the loop, but I no longer am confident in my use of emojis as I have learned that emojis have different meanings for different generational groups.  Sometimes a birthday cake is just a birthday cake, except when another generation has coded it otherwise ? 

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• Your position: User Engagement Technician 

• Favourite library memory: I didn’t know a word of English when I immigrated to Canada as a kid and I don’t think I would’ve been able to pick it (or French) up if not for my local public library! Storytimes, summer reading clubs, free family activities… I spent so much time at the Ottawa Public Library (OPL), learning to read and then carrying home as many books as I could hold. Becoming a library kid really helped ease an otherwise difficult transition.  

• Your Favourite… 

• Author, book: My favourite underrated series I like to plug when I’m asked this (I’ve never met another person who’s read it and I think it’s out of print) is Little Forest by Daisuke Igarashi. I love Yoko Ono’s books, they’re like interactive artworks.  

• Movie: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, or The Teeth of Love.  

• Fashion item: Realistically, I’m always cold at the library and wearing some kind of knitwear (cardigan stereotype holding true…) and my Miffy clips have been in steady rotation. 

• Mandatory prompt: Your thoughts on… dubai chocolate: price tag aside, I like my chocolate very dark and bitter, so this just looks too sweet and gooey to be appetizing to me. 

• Your position: Cataloguing Librarian @ McGill

• What fulfils you at work? Clearing the piles of old books off my desk and my department’s weekly crafting hour.  

• Favourite project: Usually my favourite is whichever project I’m working on at the moment. Of my completed projects, it’s a tie between The Economics of Identity and Shelving Eugenics. 

• Author, book: Iyko Day’s Alien Capital changed my life and my scholarship. Also love (Lu You) and his Song Dynasty cat poetry. 

• Most underrated dessert: (bing fen); it’s hydrating, refreshing, healthy, and delicious. 

• Favourite fashion item: I love a good hairpin. A cute statement piece that’s very practical, handles all my hair, and fits my aesthetic. 

• Your thoughts on… dubai chocolate: Dubai chocolate and the subsequent pistachio cream craze is a result of a 241% American tariff on Iranian pistachios in 1986 (source) which led to California farmers planting more pistachio trees. Now that those pistachio trees are mature, they’re producing a pistachio surplus (source: Pollock, D. (2012). Pistachio records continue falling. Western Farm Press, 34(16), 1–6.) so the pistachio trade association (American Pistachio Growers) and companies have spent the last couple years going on an advertising spree to sell more pistachios and pistachio products (source: Karlovitch, S. (2025). Wonderful Pistachios sows integrated campaign targeting commuters. Marketing Dive, N.PAG.), and that’s why Dubai chocolate is everywhere now. 

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• Your position: Research Librarian (Health & Medical Sciences, STEM) @ University of Ottawa 
• What made you want to become an academic librarian: During COVID, I tried so hard to get my grandpa to become vaccinated and ended up doing my own literature review on PubMed every other week… and then I thought, how great would it be to do this as a career combining my love of libraries and research!  
• Favourite library memory: After volunteering for the first time, (Reading Buddies at the Calgary Public Library), I received an adorable handwritten card from my 6-year-old buddy who enjoyed reading more (although limited to insects & monster trucks)!!  
• Most underrated dish: Kimchi Pork Ribs!! 
• Favourite movie: Art Museum by the Zoo by Lee Jeong Hyang 
• Your thoughts on… dubai chocolate: The Korean dubai chewy ball hype was real!! They’re actually really yummy, price tag aside!!  

• Your position: Research librarian 
• Your mantra at work: Get shit done
• What fulfils you at work? Connecting with my colleagues and having a student tell me how much I helped them.  
• Your best tip on getting “in the zone”: Making a comprehensive to do list 
• Favourite author, book: (currently) The Correspondent by Virgina Evans 
• Your thoughts on… dubai chocolate: I feel like Dubai Chocolate Chewy Balls – is propagating false advertising because its not from Dubai. 

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• Your position: My job is a bit different – along with a traditional liaison librarian role, I also oversee web and communications for my health sciences library (Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto Libraries) 

• What fulfils you at work? Nothing beats that lovely feeling when I open up a student email excitedly telling me about their journal paper acceptance 

• Favourite project: A fun end-of term highlight is running our UnStudy exam destressor activities. For several years now, it’s been our library’s way of giving our stressed students permission to sneak in bite-sized, guilt-free breaks between study sessions.  Our recent Heated Rivalry-inspired crafts, games, and puzzles were a huge hit this year! 

Your favourite…  

• Underrated dessert: Nothing beats a classic bubble waffle, freshly made and eaten straight out of a paper bag (no fancy toppings needed!) 

• Fashion item: Whereas Coco Chanel once said “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off,” I subscribe to the adage of “Before you leave the house, don’t look in the mirror, and have your kids secretly add no less than three random stickers to the back of your outfit.” 

• Your thoughts on… ube: Friendly PSA to all the Starbucks lovers –  it’s pronounced Ooh-Bae! 

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• Your position: Associate University Librarian, Research Services (interim), University of Ottawa 

• Library mentor: I’ve had a few over my 22 years in libraries, including Louisa Piatti, Juanita Jara de Sumar, Sharda Tarachandra, and more recently, Tony Horava. 

• Your mantra at work: “We can do hard things”, inspired by my friend and colleague, Carolyn Caseñas, the Chief Librarian at the New Westminster Public Library. 

• Favourite library memory: Attending the IDEAL 2019 conference in Columbus, Ohio. For the first time in my career, there was a session on being mixed-race and responding to the needs of faculty and students who identify as such, or who are studying the mixed-race experience. 

• Favourite professional association: It’s a toss-up between Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (VimLoC) and We Here. Both have been spaces where I feel included and a strong sense of belonging, as a mixed-race (proudly Filipina-Pakistani) librarian. I try and contribute as much of my time and energy as I have to these spaces. 

• Your thoughts on… dubai chocolate: Okay, I’ve never gotten on the bandwagon for Dubai chocolate. I love pistachios, I love chocolate, and I love most anything wrapped in phyllo pastry, so you’d think I’d get behind this trend. But honestly, I’m passing on it.