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Mita Williams is the Law Librarian for the Don & Gail Rodzik Library.
Bio
After graduating from McMaster University with an Honours B.Sc in Geography and Environmental Science and acquiring a M.L.I.S. from McGill University, Mita was employed in a number of contract positions in public, corporate, non-profit, government, and academic libraries before joining the Leddy Library as Science Librarian in 1999. At the Leddy Library, she took on a number of roles including User Experience Librarian and Scholarly Communications Librarian and had held positions including the Head of the Information Services Department, Acting Head of Access Services, and Acting Head of Systems. From 2015-2018 and 2019-2020, she was a preceptor at the Windsor Campus of the Schulich School of Medicine. From September of 2022 to June 2024, Mita Williams was Acting Law Librarian for the Don & Gail Rodzik Library and in July, 2024 she was appointed as Law Librarian for a five-year term.
A selective portfolio of her community work can be found at AedileWorks.com. She writes about librarianship and technology at Librarian of Things and shares interesting things through her newsletter, the University of Winds. She regularly adds Canadian legal data to Wikidata. She can be found at https://social.coop/@copystar and instagram.
Peer-reviewed
- "Designing a Deck of Timeline Cards for Tabletops and Tabletop Simulator," Programming Historian 13 (2024), https://doi.org/10.46430/
phen0118. - "Play Where You Are: Why Libraries Should Host Location-Based Games". Journal of Play in Adulthood, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.5920/jpa.1016, October 2022.
- "Ending Enclosure by Copying the Commons", Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association (OTESSA) 2020, Congress (canceled), December 2021.
- "Librarian Origin Story" In Schroeder, R., Deitering, AM, Stoddart, R., The Self as Subject: Autoethnographic Research into Identity, Culture, and Academic Librarianship, Association of College and Research Libraries, 2017.
- "Library of Cards: Reconnecting the scholar and the library", Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, Vol 10, No 2 (2015).
- "Ease of Use and Usefulness as Measures of Student Experience in a Multi-Platform E-Textbook Pilot", Dave Johnston, Selinda Berg, Karen Pillon, & Mita Williams, Library Hi Tech, Volume 33, Issue 1, Winter 2015.
- "Grinding the Gears: Academic Librarians and Civic Responsibility" with Lisa Sloniowski (York University) and Patti Ryan (York University), Urban Library Journal. Vol. 19. No.1 (2013). Special Issue: Libraries, Information and the Right to the city: Proceedings of the 2013 LACUNY Institute.
- “The Social Life of Digital Reference: What the Technology Affords" in Digital versus Non-Digital Reference, Edited by Jessamyn West, Haworth Press 2004 -a monograph published simultaneously as The Reference Librarian, Vol. 41, No. 85.
Non-peer reviewed
- With Natalie Delia Deckard, "To solve society’s challenges, universities must engage with alternative ways of knowing", The Conversation, November 8 2022.
- "Public Data Belongs in the Public Library" in Ahmed, N., Claudel, M., Ebrahim, Z., Pandolfi, C, and Bianca Wylie, some thoughts.org, 2019
- Social Justice Librarianship for the 21st Century by Mita Williams and Lisa Sloniowski ; Access: The Magazine of the Ontario Library Association Vol. 18, No.3 ; Summer 2012; p 9-12
- Scholr 2.0 : a white paper by Scholars Portage with Stacy Allison-Cassin, York University, August 2007
- "Blogs: Postcards from the Web" ; Access: The Magazine of the Ontario Library Association; Vol. 9, No. 2 ; Winter 2003 ; p 14-17.
Invited Presentations
- Invited panelist, Artificial Intelligence: Apprehension and Anticipation with Dr. Maura Grossman and Michael Ridley, Scholars Portal Day, May 1st, 2024.
- Invited panelist, Let's Talk About Chat-GPT & Generative AI: Forum Discussion, with Nick Baker, Pascale Chapelaine, and Brandon Beck. Windsor Law, November 22, 2023.
- Invited panelist, Crucial Voices: The Importance of Representation in Public Institutional Leadership, University of Windsor, School of Creative Arts (SOCA), February 10, 2023, video
- Invited panelist, "Open access and open access policies on campuses", 2019 Ontario Scholarly Communications Skillshare, Ryerson University Library, November 21, 2019
- Invited panelist, "Space and Place" Panel, DIY Urbanism Symposium, October 5, 2019, University of Windsor, School of Creative Arts (SOCA) Armouries – Gallery
- Invited panelist, "Real talk", New Librarians Symposium, Ryerson University, May 24, 2019
- Invited speaker, "From the Vertical File to Wikipedia: Considering Community Information Services", Toronto Public Library, November 24, 2017, slides
- Featured Speaker, "From the Vertical File to the Local Wiki: Considering Community Information Services", Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, Wisconsin Dells, WI, October 18, 2017, slides
- Panel: Bridging the data divide: Closing the "Open" gap: THINK: Orion Conference, May 24, 2017 - Toronto, Chestnut Conference Centre : panel with Kevin Tuer (ODX Canada's Open Data Exchange), Lewis Wynn-Jones (ThinkData Works), and Andrés L. Dorado (City of Edmonton's Analytics Centre of Excellence)
- Monday Night Seminar: Open Cities, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, Toronto, Ontario, November 14, 2016 : public seminar with Josh Akers, Geography and Urban & Regional Studies; Janine Marchessault, York University, Cinema and Media Studies, Patricio Davila, designer, artist, researcher and educator and moderator: Michael Darroch
- Library Futures Speaking Series, York University Libraries, "The City as Classroom vs. The City as Advertising Platform", Toronto, Ontario, May 2nd, 2016, slides and text
- Keynote : Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, "The City As Classroom: How to embed the library into the community", Middleton, WI, November 3rd, 2015, slides and text
- Keynote : ILEAD USA, "Libraries are for use (and by use, I mean copying), Springfield, IL, October 27, 2015, slides and text
- Keynote : OnlineNW. "Teach for America. Code for America. Librarianing for America." Corvallis, February 13th, 2015, slides and text
- ALA Masters Series, ALA Midwinter 2015. "Mechanic Institutes, Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, TechShops, Incubators, Accelerators, and Centers of Social Enterprise. Where do libraries fit in?", Chicago, IL, Feb 1, 2015, slides and text
- Keynote : "From DIY to Working Together: Using a Hackerspace to build community". Scholars Portal Day,: Building Our Communities, Wednesday December 3, 2014, Snell Hall, St. James Cathedral, Toronto, slides and text
- Keynote : "The Origin of the Future is in the Present", Library Technology Conference, March 19, 2014, slides and text
- panelist, ALA Annual Conference's Top Tech Trends Panel, American Library Association Annual, June 29, 2014, text
- "Organizing is what librarians do". TEDxLIbrariansTO, June 25, 2011 ; text ; video
Research Projects and Grants
- collaborator, SSHRC, Insight Development Grants, 2023 Competition, Interveners at the Supreme Court of Canada, Applicant: Geoffrey Callaghan, $68,051
- member, OpenGenLab: Opensource Genetics Laboratory Simulations, eCampus Ontario VLS 2021
- member, myWATERSHED: A sandbox game for connecting and accelerating sustainability stewards of the future, eCampus Ontario VLS 2021
- member, research team, Ontario School Library Impact Project (OSLIP) 2019
Open Educational Resources
- Build your own library with Zotero *for Law*, February 2023
- Wait, what? Three (or four) Steps to Check What You Just Read, May 2020
- Don’t pay for research! How to add links to the Leddy Library in Google Scholar, May 2020
- Distinguish Yourself with an ORCiD ID, May 2020
Papers, Presentations, Workshops
- "What is Wikidata and Why You Should Do Data Entry for the Greater Good", CALL ACBD 2023, Hamilton, ON, May 31 2023. slides
- "The Metagame: The Libraryland Expansion", Access Library Conference 2022, October 13, 2022, slides
- "Data Cleaning with OpenRefine", Research Skills 101 Series, Leddy Library Collaboratory, November 18, 2019
- "The Life changing magic of cleaning up your research using Zotero", Research Skills 101 Series, Leddy Library Collaboratory, November 4, 2019, slides
- "Why ORCiD is the best frame for your scholarly profile picture", Research Skills 101 Series, Leddy Library Collaboratory, October 21, 2019, slides
- OpenRefine for Librarians, Leddy Library, September 26, 2019
- Data Carpentry R Workshop, Harrow Research and Development Centre, Agriculture Canada, June 27-28, 2019
- w/ Meris James. "The Faculty of Law Digital Repository (Scholarship at UWindsor)", Faculty of Law Research Workshop: Raising Your Profile: Open Access Options at UWindsor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, April 15, 2019
- "Research as Activism: A Wikipedia and Research Primer", University of Windsor SOCA, March 19, 2019.
- "Open Refine for Librarians: How a power tool for Google is now being used by librarians to clean up data and connect it to the world", That Cutting Edge: Technology’s Impact on Scholarly Research Processes in the Library, a NISO Virtual Conference, October 24th, 2018. slides
- A Field Guide to Scholarly Communications Ecosystems, Leddy Lecture Series: Open Access Week 2018, University of Windsor, October 22nd, 2018. slides
- OpenRefine for Librarians, Library Carpentry Workshop, Brock University Digital Scholarship Lab, August 14, 2018
- "The Open world and Academic Libraries: building partnerships to Open Information", with Dave Johnson and Scott Cowan, Open Education Summit 2018, Windsor, Ontario, May 7, 2018, slides
- "Research as Activism: A Wikipedia and Research Primer", SOCA University of Windsor, March 8, 2018, slides
- "Wikipedia Wikimedia Wikidata Wikicite Wikisource #1Lib1Ref", Leddy Library, January 15, 2018, slides
- guest lecturer, "Law and Ethics in the Digital Age", St Clair College, March 28, 2017, slides
- "Will university students borrow a wooden box...", OLITA Tech Talks, OLA Superconference, February 3rd, 2017, slides
- "The City as Classroom vs. The City as Advertising Platform", Leddy Library Research Series, November 18, 2016
- "The life-changing magic of tidying up your research using Zotero", Leddy Library Open Access Week, October 27, 2016
- "Why Libraries Should Maintain the Open Data of Their Communities", Ontario Library Superconference 2016, January 27, 2016, slides
- "Library of Cards", Access YYZ 2015, Toronto Reference Library, September 10th, 2015, slides and text
- "Hackforge and Open Data Windsor Essex (ODWE)", OUCEL Summer Institute, University of Windsor, August 13, 2015, slides
- "Consuming and Transforming Open Data", OLITA Digital Odyssey, George Brown College, Waterfront Campus, Toronto, June 12, 2015, materials
- "Being Open", Windsor-Western Research Day, March 13, 2015, University of Windsor, slides
- "OpenStreetMaps: Trust the map that anyone can change" : part of the ALA LITA Webinar series, The Re-Drawing the Map, Tuesday December 9, 2014
- "Web Mapping: moving from maps on the web to maps of the web" : part of the ALA LITA Webinar series, The Re-Drawing the Map, Tuesday Nov. 18, 2014
- "Intro to Open Data", HackWE 3.0 Science Hackathon (WETech Alliance, Hackforge, University of Windsor, St. Clair College), Friday, October 17, 2014, slides
- Freedom to Read Forum: Science & Public Understanding, Science City (BookFest Windsor) , panelist, March 14, 2014, slides and text
- "A field guide to reading and writing ecosystems", Leddy Library Open Access Week, October 25, 2013, slides
- "Zotero: Your research a click away", University of Windsor GATAcademy, September 4, 2013, slides
- "The Future of the Library (and How to Stop It) : Conference on Teaching and Learning, University of Windsor, May 1-2, 2013, slides and talk
- "Grinding the Gears: Academic Librarians and Civic Responsibility" with Lisa Sloniowski (York University) and Patti Ryan (York University), The 2013 LACUNY Institute: Libraries, Information, and the Right to the City, April 5, 2013, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York.
- "Zotero: Your research a click away", University of Windsor GATAcademy, September 5, 2012, slides
- "Title and Statement of Responsibility", code4lib North, May 25, 2012, slides and text
- "My god! It's filled with
starslists!", code4lib North, May 24, 2012, slides and text - "Scholarly Communications and Digital Technologies", panelist, Campus Technology Day, May 17, 2012, slides and text
- "The Library as Interface between Public Space and Public Self", Leddy Library Research Series, April 13, 2012, slides and text
- "Making eBooks from Wordpress to EPUB". University of Windsor Digital Humanities Summer Series (Leddy Library and the Humanities Research Group), June 15, 2011: slides
- "The popularity of eBook readers and the Implications for Canadian Libraries" (panelist), OLITA Digital Odyssey, June 10, 2011
- "Build your own library with Zotero", University of Windsor's Campus Technology Day 2011, May 25th, 2011 : slides
- "We're Jamun and We Hope You Like Jamun Too", Code4Lib North 2011, McMaster University, May 6, 2011 : slides
- "Not library games. Libraries *in* games", WILU 2010, McMaster University, May 14, 2010 : slides and speakers notes
- "Games Without Frontiers: using games to discover new geographies and generate new futures", University of Windsor's UWin Week, October 14, 2009 : slides
- "OK. Sure. But what does all of this have to do with OLPC?", "One Laptop Per Child: Open Source, Open Access, and Open Library", January 28th, 2008
- "Scholr 2.0" (with Stacy Allison-Cassin), OCUL Scholars Portal @ Five, December 14, 2007 : slides • video stream (37 min)
- "Inside Out Library" (with Peter Zimmerman), University of Windsor's Campus Technology Day, May 22, 2007: ppt
- "Promoting and Positioning RefWorks At Your University", OCUL RefWorks Forum, University of Toronto, August 15, 2005 • ppt
- "The Great Debate: Be it Resolved that we Teach them Nothing - Library Instruction Doesn't Work", Canadian Library Association, Calgary AB, Thursday, June 16, 2005
- "Making Links with SFX"; NAAUG-SMUG 2005 Annual Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, June 10, 2005 • ppt
- "RefWorks and GetIt - Making Links"; OCUL Forum; Guelph-Humber, December 8th, 2004 • ppt
- "Weapons of Mass Instruction" w/Lisa Sloniowski ; Ontario Library Association Superconference ; January 29, 2004
- "Blogging and The Reference Librarian", (panelist) ; Ontario Library Association Superconference ; January 30, 2004 • ppt
- "The use of the Internet to reach beyond mainstream sources and to connect activist communities." w/Lisa Sloniowski ; Zap Your Pram, October 24-26, 2003
- "Blogapalooza" ; Ontario Library Association Superconference ; February 1, 2003 • ppt
- "Classifying Web Resources" w/ Wayne Daniels, Jeanne Enright, and Scott Mackenzie; Ontario Library Association Superconference; February 6, 1997
Professional Leadership
- President OLITA, Ontario Library Association, 2017
- VP OLITA, Ontario Library Association, 2016
- OLITA Councillor, Ontario Library Association, 2010-2012
- member, 2017 ALA Leadership Institute cohort
- member, CLA-RSC response team for The Canadian Library Association’s Response to the Consultation of the Royal Society of Canada’s Expert Panel [pdf]
Conference and Event Organizing
- OLITA Digital Odyssey 2017, OCAD, June 9th 2017, lead of programming team
- Code4Lib North, Leddy Library, University of Windsor, May 24-25, 2012, lead organization team
- Digital Humanities Summer Series, sponsored by the Leddy Library and the University of Windsor Humanities Research Group, May - August, 2011, organizer with Candace Nast
- Windsor-Essex Change Camp, May 8, 2010, organizer with Nicole Noel, Art Rhyno, and Jean Foster:
- "One Laptop Per Child: Open Source, Open Access, and Open Library", January 28th, 2008; organizer
- "Press Coverage of the Iraq War", Panel Discussion at the Leddy Library, organizer with Lisa Sloniowski, March 26, 2003
Web Portfolio
- Leddy Library, Chair of Leddy Library Web Team (2007, 2009-2013)
- Making Links blog (2004-2005)
- Iraq 2003: Sources of News with Lisa Sloniowski (2003)
- OOPS (Ontario Online Product Support) for CNSLP (Canadian National Site Licensing Project) (2001)
- Bata Library, Trent University (1999)
- Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library (1997-1998)
- Expanding Universe: a Classified Search Tool For Amateur Astronomy, Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library (1997)
Community Work
- May 2022: for the 2022 Windsor’s Jane’s Walk Festival, designed, “Filling in the map: a Walkerville puzzle walk", published on itch.io.
- January 27, 2022: panelist, Art Gallery of Windsor Public Program event, Does Surveillance = Safety? A Community Conversation, with Craig Pearson (The Windsor Star), Rino Bortolin (City Councillor, Ward 3) and Dr. Vincent Manzerolle, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Media & Film, University of Windsor
- May 7, 2021: The Electric Slide(show): A Tour of Windsor, Ontario’s Electrical Grid for the 2021 Jane’s Walk Windsor Festival
- February 19, 2021: panelist with Frazier Fathers, Princess Doe, and Anneke Smit for an event called, Covid, Climate, Community: What’s in and What’s Out in the Proposed 2021 Budget organized by The Windsor Law Centre for Cities.
- June 26, 2020: moderator, Windsor Law Centre for Cities' community conversation on “Windsor and the Post-Pandemic Healthy City”
- January 22, 2020: Co-organizer and speaker, Safer Communities in a ‘Smart Tech’ World, SoCA, University of Windsor
- November 1, 2018: panelist, Netizens, Windsor Film Festival
- July 24, 2018: Telling Stories with Maps, for the Museum Tech Users Group / South Western Ontario Heritage Council (SWOHC), Hackforge, slides
- 2012 - 2018: Board member, Hackforge
- 2013 - 2017: lead, Open Data Windsor-Essex, Hackforge
- 2017: lead of "Repair the World" a special interest group of Hackforge dedicated to Climate Change and technology
- June 3, 2017: HTML and CSS Workshop, Camp Bryerswood, Girl Guides Of Canada.
- 2014 - present: lead, Ranked Ballots Windsor
- May 30, 2016: panel presentation w/Sarah Morris, "Using Data to Target Cycling Interventions", Windsor Bike Summit, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor
- May 14, 2014: Windsor-Essex Maptime, organizer : slides
- May 2, 2014: "Putting Food, Art, and Bicycles on the Map", FAB Ignite, City Cyclery : slides
- February 2, 2014: International Open Data Day, Hackforge, organizer and speaker: slides
- March 7, 2013: Hackforge Talk: Libraries Everywhere
- 2011 - 2012: founding Board member, Treasurer of The Olde Walkerville Resident's Association
- 2010 - 2011: game runner and community guide for EVOKE
- April 9, 2011: Ignite Talk: "Re:Wild Windsor: Celebrating Local Distinctiveness" : slides
- May 8, 2010: co-organizer, Windsor-Essex ChangeCamp
- May 2, 2009: host, Jane's Walk of Walkerville, Windsor, Ontario with Chris Holt and Andrew Foot
- February 19, 2009: Pecha Kucha presentation: "The City As Playground", Talk20 Night at ArtCite, Windsor : slides
Creative Work
- "We stayed up all night, my friends and I", a Twine-powered 'playable bibliography / 'choose your own manifesto’ game published on itch.io, January 2022.
- “Learning Objects: Teach Me Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge” collection of objects https://librarian.aedileworks.com/labs/learning-objects/, 2017.
- #Bibliomancy: an oblique strategy, https://github.com/copystar/bibliomancy, 2017
- "Title and Statement of Responsibility" : printed work : SoVa Projects Gallery. SPREAD (exhibition curated by Nadja Pelkey, Victor Romao and Julie Sando), February 2013
Interviews
- "cardiCast 97 – Mita Williams on blogging and Twitter", 14 August 2024, cardiCast with Hugh Rundle
- "Mita & LibrarylandL Episode 21", 31st January 2021, The Grasscast, with Shawn Daichendt and Kwab Fordjou
- "Human Operators: A Critical Oral History on Technology in Libraries and Archives", edited by Melissa Morrone, Library Juice Press, 2018.