Conference Agenda

University orientation can be an overwhelming experience. The near constant barrage of information can make it hard for library orientation to make a meaningful and lasting impression on incoming undergraduate students.

Using library orientation escape rooms created at Rupert Edwards Library (REL) in fall 2024 and University of Toronto Music Library (UTML) in 2025 as case studies, this presentation explores the concept of escape rooms and their application as library orientation activities to introduce students to the library space, underutilized materials, and staff in a memorable manner, while reducing “library anxiety.” It also considers the pedagogical value of an immersive game experience to encourage a flow state of learning, increasing student engagement and retention of library skills, materials, and etiquette.

This presentation then outlines the process of design, testing, and implementation of developing an escape room with special attention given to practical considerations for facilitation and repeatability. Drawing on informal participant feedback and post-game observations, it compares how escape room orientation can be adapted across different spaces, and collection sizes, and audiences, discussing the challenges and opportunities encountered to date.

Our institutional repositories (IR) serve to document an institution’s scholarly and creative output, provide access to knowledge for those inside and outside the institution, and preserve knowledge. Hosting recordings (both audio and video) of student recitals in academic institutional repositories intersects with thorny issues of copyright, including public performance and streaming rights, Open Access, the Public Domain, and Fair Use/Fair Dealing. For example, online access to these recordings through repositories can lead to exorbitant licensing fees and unintended impacts on student repertoire for what is often the culmination project of their studies. Further, IRs are often operating in undefined spaces with little precedent for guidance and some have limited technology capabilities or staff. Based on a survey of United States institutions, this presentation lays out how IR administrators in libraries and archives are managing intersections of copyright, access, and preservation. Major challenges include claims risk management, academic unit engagement, improving accessibility of student-created performance media, and educational efforts about fair use, attribution, and creator’s rights. We hope that sharing these varied practices can inspire institutions to more thoughtfully design their repository programs for multimedia—protecting the institution from liability, making content more accessible, and educating students and faculty about repertoire, library collections, and copyright.

Helmut Kallmann (1922–2012) and John Beckwith (1927–2022) stand as two of the most influential figures in Canadian music scholarship. Kallmann, the inaugural head of the Music Division at the National Library of Canada, authored the landmark A History of Music in Canada 1534–1914 (1960) and co-edited the first music encyclopedia published in Canada, the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (EMC, first edition 1981). Beckwith, founding director of the University of Toronto’s Institute for Canadian Music, published and lectured extensively on Canadian musical culture and was one of the three driving forces behind the creation of the EMC, to which he also contributed numerous entries. These brief sketches offer only a glimpse of the scope and significance of their enduring work in Canadian music research, documentation, and advocacy.

In 2025, the University of Toronto Music Library acquired two significant archival collections that illuminate the decades-long personal and professional exchange between these two scholars: Beckwith’s print and email correspondence with and about Kallmann (1951–2018), and Kallmann’s print correspondence with Beckwith (1956–2004).

This paper will situate each body of correspondence within its respective archival fonds while bringing their letters into conversation with one another. By examining how these documents trace their shared interests, collaborations, and reflections on Canadian music, the paper will highlight the scholarly value of their dialogue and demonstrate how it enriches our understanding of their published works on Canada’s musical heritage.