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Archives for March 2025

The BCIT Unlearning Club month three: Talking about racism

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The work of unlearning racism continues. This month we had three teachers:

  • Dr. Stephanie Nixon, BA, BHSC, MSC, PHD is a white settler and a physiotherapist. She is the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Director of the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University.
  • Dr. Amy Tan, MD MSc (Palliative Medicine) CCFP(PC) FCFP is an academic family and hospice palliative care physician. Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.
  • Layla Saad is an author, speaker & teacher on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation & social change.

The larger time and energy commitment this month was to read Me and white supremacy: Combat racism, change the world and become a good ancestor by Layla F. Saad. The BCIT Library owns the audio book if you are interested, it’s available here. The title was chosen specifically to disrupt and make people uncomfortable. I read a physical version. Honestly made me feel weird having something with “white supremacy” on the cover in my home. The book opens with an Octavia Butler quote from Parable of the Talents, so, being a huge Butler fan, I was immediately won over.

To shape God
With wisdom and forethought
To benefit your world,
Your people,
Your life,
Consider consequences
Minimize harm
Ask questions,
Seek answers,
Learn,
Teach.
Earthseed: The books of the Living I,
Verse 43: Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents

For anyone not up to the task of reading a whole book (and journaling about it) there are a few shorter resources to check out:

This marks the halfway point of the first BCIT Unlearning club. See you next month.

First Search is changing!

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The BCIT Library recently migrated to a new Library Management System (LMS). This change has impacts on many different aspects of our day-to-day work within the Library, but the most visible one for the BCIT community at large is probably that our catalogue(s) will look a bit different, and will provide new functionality.

From two catalogues to one

Until now, the Library provided access to two different catalogues:

  • First Search, where you could search our collections, as well as other content such as journal articles;
  • The “classic” catalogue, where you could also search our collections, as well as access your Library account.

The “new” First Search (available here) will essentially combine all of the above (collection search, article search and My Account) in a single interface.

A new search box on our home page

You may also have noticed that you now have more options when using the search box on the Library’s website. You can now choose to limit your search to articles or books. You can also specify if you’re looking for a title, an author, etc.

First Search box on the Library's website

When you get to the results list, you’ll have even more options to adjust your search, use various filters, etc.

Search results an filtering options

You will also be able to save your results in your Library account, set up alerts for preferred searches, and more.

View of the Library account, showing an alert for the search "global warming".

We hope you’ll enjoy using the new First Search!

The BCIT Unlearning Club Month Two: February, Anti-racism

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How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Imagining away the existence of races in a racist world is as harmful as imagining away classes in a capitalistic world – it allows the ruling races & classes to keep on ruling. 

  • Ibram X. Kendi 

For this month our teacher was Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. I read How to be an Anti-racist. Available at the BCIT Library. Actually, Dr. Kendi read it to me, as I borrowed the audio book from the Burnaby Public Library. This was an instance where hearing the author speak was especially powerful as it is a very personal book; he brings the reader along on his own journey of learning and discovering and dismantling his own biases.  

The shorter option, for the BCIT Unlearning Club homework, this month was to watch Dr. Kendi’s TedTalk: Difference between being “not racist” and antiracist. Which is a good starting point for understanding some of the philosophy behind the book. A book club summary was also shared from DePaul University’s President’s Bookclub, with definitions, chapter outlines, and useful discussion questions. For anyone with the capacity for extra homework there was a link to a CBC Documentary, (44m 18s) The Skin We’re In: Pulling back the curtain on racism in Canada.

The BCIT Unlearning Club found lots to talk about without turning to the provided questions. The discussions were both personal and general as well as wide-ranging, everything from systemic racism, and religion, to climate justice. We ended with two things, firstly a sharing of what actions we can and have taken at BCIT to make a difference, including sharing the recent launch of new BCIT Student Wellbeing Action Plan. Secondly, we did a weather check-in with everyone, and most of us, who had been feeling down at the start of the session could see a little sunshine for the rest of the day. 

Thanks again to Tami and Andrea for guiding us on this journey and leading discussions that abide by our commitment to arrive ready to join in the conversation with respect, curiosity, humility, and reciprocity.