Please register for the conference using the online registration form.
AASL member until February 1, 2015, midnight PST: $180
AASL member beginning February 2, 2015, 12:01 am PST: $220
Non-member until February 1, 2015, midnight PST: $220
Non-member beginning February 2, 2015: $270
Student Registration: $90
Retired: $140
Guest fee (events only, includes group dinner): $150
Day Rates (limited to one calendar-day maximum)
Tuesday, March 17: $90
Wednesday, March 18: $130
Thursday, March 19: $90
As a reminder, membership fees are typically paid at the time of registration.
AASL 2015 membership fee: $20
Meeting Location
All conference sessions will take place in the City Hall Room on the 2nd floor of the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.
2nd floor plan:
Conference Program
Tuesday, March 17
9am-10am: Conference registration desk open
10am-noon: Brunch at the Sheraton Centre Toronto featuring guest speaker Shawn Micallef. Bio from Coach House Books:
“Shawn Micallef (@shawnmicallef) is the author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto and Full Frontal T.O., a weekly columnist at the Toronto Star, and a senior editor and co-owner of the independent, Jane Jacobs Prize-winning magazine Spacing. Shawn teaches at the University of Toronto and was a 2011-2012 Canadian journalism Fellow at University of Toronto’s Massey College. In 2002, while a resident at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, he co-founded [murmur], the location-based mobile phone documentary project that has spread to over twenty-five cities globally. Shawn was the Toronto Public Library’s Writer in Residence in fall 2013."
Shawn’s most recent book, The Trouble with Brunch: Work, Class and the Pursuit of Leisure, was published in July 2014.
12:30pm-5:30pm: Session 1 + Tours: Celebrating the Life and Work of Canadian Architect Raymond Moriyama and Space Planning
Presenter: Cindy Derrenbacker, Architecture Librarian, Laurentian University School of Architecture, Sudbury, ON Canada
This session will provide a brief introduction to the life and work of Toronto-based architect, Raymond Moriyama. Moriyama’s formative years influenced his lifetime of design work and the firm, Moriyama & Teshima Architects, is known across Canada for significant architectural projects. This session will provide a context for three Toronto landmarks in which Moriyama & Teshima Architects have been involved and that AASL members will have the opportunity to formally tour while in Toronto: the Aga Khan Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum, and the Toronto Reference Library, including the Digital Innovation Hub.
Tour: Bata Shoe Museum
Self-guided + Diarmuid Nash from Moriyama & Teshima Architects
Strategically positioned as the northern gateway into the University of Toronto, The Bata Shoe Museum, designed by Raymond Moriyama on a small parcel of land in mid-town Toronto, houses the exquisite shoe collection of Sonja Bata and tells the story of humankind through indigenous footwear gathered from around the world.
Tour: Toronto Reference Library and Digital Innovation Hub
Guides: Toronto Public Library’s Phyllis Jacklin and Ab Velasco
A landmark building designed by Raymond Moriyama, the Toronto Reference Library opened its doors in 1977 and has been well-loved by Torontonians ever since. The Toronto Reference Library recently completed a five-year $34 million revitalization project. It was designed to better serve patrons and recreate the library as Toronto's centre for the exchange of ideas, lifelong learning, and community engagement. Phyllis Jacklin and Ab Velasco from the Toronto Public Library will take us on a tour of the facilities highlighting the recently completed space renovations in which Moriyma & Teshima Architects played the leading role, discuss some of the renovation decisions and design challenges, and showcase the Digital Innovative Hub.
Wednesday, March 18
8:30am-10am: Business Meeting
10:15am-11:15am: Session 2: Products & Resources Update
11:30am-12:30pm: Session 3: Lightning Round Presentations
Facilitator: Sonny Banerjee, Librarian, Ryerson University Library & Archives, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Divided City: Supporting an Urban Humanities Initiative
Presenter: Jennifer Akins, Subject Librarian for Art & Architecture, Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library, Washington University in St. Louis, MO
In fall 2014, the College and Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design in partnership with the Center for Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis embarked on the Divided City initiative to create a model for the urban humanities that will shape scholarship, teaching and policy initiatives across the globe. This lightning talk will discuss how WUSTL Libraries are supporting the Divided City initiative, including a project by the Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library to identify and preserve access to unique WUSTL student theses relevant to the urban humanities and the new three-year doctorate in Sustainable Urbanism.
On the Lookout for “Likes”: Expanding Social Media in Architecture and Design Libraries
Presenter: Lucy Campbell, Librarian, NewSchool of Architecture and Design, San Diego, CA
Today students are communicating and experimenting beyond entrenched social media platforms such as Facebook. This presentation offers novel approaches to engaging with architecture students using Instagram, a less formalized tool that unites design aesthetics with many popular features of social media.
Optimizing Library Space for Evolving Users’ Needs
Presenter: Dr. Maya Gervits, Director, Barbara & Leonard Littman Library, College of Architecture & Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ
How to make a library both, an academic hub and a social place, how to reconcile individual and collective needs, and how to achieve more with less? This presentation will share our experience with redesigning the Littman Library at NJIT to meet evolving needs.
Things I Wish I Had Known: Keeping Drift at Bay in a Contract Position
Presenter: Effie Patelos, Architecture Librarian, Musagetes Architecture Library, University of Waterloo
In today's challenging academic job market, accepting a sabbatical, maternity or other type of temporary position offers a great opportunity for a new librarian wishing to enter the specialized, and competitive field of architecture librarianship. This presentation will focus on strategies and advice for new professionals about how to keep conflicting desires and priorities in-check and how to make the most out of a limited-term contract.
Materials Collections: Recent Progress
Presenter: Mark Pompelia, Visual + Material Resource Librarian, Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
This presentation will detail major accomplishments in materials collections—including growth, reporting, and resource and community building—that has occurred since the 2014 AASL conference. Progress includes: launch of new collections, the publication of the IMLS-funded whitepaper and related grant products, further efforts at community building, and next steps.
On-site Reference: Location, Location, Location
Presenter: Rebecca Price, Architecture, Urban Planning & Visual Resources Librarian, Art, Architecture & Engineering Library, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
In this time of abundant and pervasive digital resources, face-to-face interactions between librarians and users are ever more important. I have found that locating oneself in the midst of the action brings the library to the user thus establishing a relationship that circles back to bring the user to the librarian.
Promoting Library Services Using a Targeted Approach
Presenter: Amy Trendler, Architecture Librarian, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
This talk will outline the Ball State University Architecture Library’s “September is for Research” promotional campaign, which is designed to highlight the library’s core services and resources. Timed to coincide with the start of thesis projects and semester assignments, the campaign calls attention to the University Libraries’ subscription databases, subject guides, research tools, and research assistance by means of displays, signs, posters, email, and Facebook posts.
2pm-8pm: Aga Khan Museum Visit and Group Dinner
Transportation via hired coach.
Recently opened in fall 2014, the breathtaking Aga Khan Museum, designed by Fumihiko Maki—with local involvement by Moriyama & Teshima Architects—is home to the permanent collection of His Highness the Aga Khan.The Museum showcases art/objects from Islamic civilizations across the centuries and features travelling exhibitions and innovative programming that reflect the museum’s mission. Enjoy a self-guided tour of the museum and gift shop, followed by dinner with AASL conference attendees at the beautifully appointed Diwan Restaurant.
Thursday, March 19
8:30am-9:45am: Session 4: Measuring the Impact of Research: Altmetrics and the Assessment of Scholarly Documentation
Presenter: Rose Orcutt, Architecture & Planning Librarian, University at Buffalo Architecture & Planning Library, Buffalo, NY
Presenter: Korydon Smith, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, University at Buffalo School of Architecture & Planning, Buffalo, NY
Presenter: Patrick Tomlin, Head, Architecture & Planning Library, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Moderator: Barret Havens, Outreach and Architecture/Urban Studies Subject Specialist Librarian, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA
The relatively recent development of social media platforms designed to support the immediate distribution of discipline-specific information among academic communities has led to a rethinking of the traditional methods of measuring scholarly impact. Platforms such as Academic.edu and ResearchGate facilitate the rapid dissemination of scholarly output, through online tools such as blogs, Twitter, and SlideShare. Services such as Plum Analytics have developed ways of measuring the impact of information shared on social media by tracking and collecting metrics on activities such as website captures, presentations, and blog-mentions. While traditional impact measures, such as bibliometrics and citation analysis, continue to play a role in the assessment of university faculty, social media measures are increasingly included in curriculum vitae. How will these new forms of scholarly communication be documented and assessed? What tools are being used and what types of social media interactions are being tracked? And, what impact, if any, should these new measurements have on the hiring or promotion review process? Panelists will discuss their experiences with and predictions for this aspect of the technologically evolving scholarly ecosystem.
10am-11:30am: Session 5: Voices From the Field: Researching Women in Architecture
Presenter: Dr. Annmarie Adams, Director and William C. Macdonald Professor at the School of Architecture, McGill University. Co-author of Designing Women: Gender and the Architectural Profession (University of Toronto Press, 2000).
Presenter: Lori Brown, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Syracuse University. Author of Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals, (Ashgate, 2013) and Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture (Ashgate, 2011).
Presenter: Dr. Despina Stratigakos, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, University at Buffalo. Author of A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City. In 2011, following her 2007 exhibition on Architect Barbie at the University of Michigan, Professor Stratigakos collaborated with Mattel on the development and launch of their architect doll in the Barbie® I Can Be…™ product line.
Moderator: Janine Henri, Architecture, Design, and Digital Services Librarian, UCLA Arts Library, Los Angeles, CA
This session’s accomplished panelists will focus on their interest in and research of the historic and current challenges facing women who become practicing architects. They will discuss the nature of their initial research inquiries in the field and how their subsequent research developed as they encountered unexpected resources and novel interpretations of their subjects.
11:45am-12:45pm: Session 6: Exploring Common Ground and Key Takeaways
TBA
2pm-3pm: Tour: City Hall--Guided
In 1957, then Mayor Nathan Phillips convinced City Council to hold an international design competition for a new City Hall on the northwest corner of Queen and Bay. A total of 520 designs were received from 42 different countries. The winner of the competition was Finnish architect, Viljo Revell. The tour guide will explain the history of Toronto and the construction of city hall.
3pm-4pm: Ryerson Student Learning Centre
The new Ryerson Student Learning Centre is situated at the corner of Yonge and Gould Streets in Toronto and will give the Ryerson community an environment in which to study, collaborate, and share ideas. The SLC was designed through a partnership between two renowned architectural firms: Snøhetta and Zeidler Partnership Architects. Projects and Facilities Manager Bob Jackson will lead the tour.
4pm-5pm: Ryerson Image Centre
Designed by Diamond Schmitt, Ryerson Image Center is an international centre of excellence at Ryerson University, dedicated to the public exhibition, research, study and teaching of photography and related disciplines, including new media, installation art and film.
Exhibitions on display during the conference:
Burn With Desire: Photography and Glamour
From Edward Steichen’s iconic portrait of silent film star Gloria Swanson (1924) to Annie Leibovitz’s influential gatefold covers for Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood issue (1995-2014), this multimedia exhibition offers a sweeping, yet considered view of photography’s role in defining glamour since the 1920s.
Anti-Glamour: Portraits of Women
Anti-Glamour: Portraits of Women presents photographic and video portraits by artists who address issues of female representation. Works by Marie Le Mounier, Katherine Lannin, Rebecca Belmore, Ange Leccia, Gunilla Josephson, Jo Spence and Leila Zahiri challenge stereotypes while claiming an alternative presence for women in the public sphere.