Posted by: Holly Klein-Swormink, Carleton University
The first floor of Carleton’s MacOdrum Library is now home to a city-focused resource centre — the Ottawa Resource Room.
The official grand opening, on February 4, 2016, was an opportunity for library staff to provide tours of the space and give an understanding of how it operates.
The Ottawa Resource Room, which is an initiative involving Carleton Library’s Archives and Research Collections, is designed to identify existing local resources and provide enhanced use of materials in academic research and teaching.
The Room offers a unique collection of Ottawa maps, government literature and books designed for researchers, faculty, students, and community partners who study the local area. The focus of the collection is on inter-disciplinary research about the city of Ottawa, the neighbourhoods within, and surrounding region.
By assembling materials such as maps, government information, ephemera, books, archival material and photos, the Ottawa Resource Room helps researchers to build a narrative for spaces and places in the city, offering a collaborative environment for those who study the local area.
The Ottawa resource collection is enhanced by a web presence as well as in-house “finding tools” for effective research. Staff are at hand to help connect faculty and students with resources throughout the Library, the university, and the campus beyond.
Photos by Justin Tang.
Read more about the Ottawa Room opening, the collection, and what it means for local historians.
Available online via the Carleton University MacOdrum Library: historical Ottawa Fire Insurance Maps.