What does “home” mean to you?

It might be where you live, or where you used to live. It might be where you find a sense of fulfilment or belonging — your community, your workplace, your school or a special spot where you can get away from those things. It might be wherever your family or friends are to be found.

It might not even be a physical space at all.

As the pandemic blurs boundaries between home and life outside it, the word home has never carried more meaning.

From leaving campus and transitioning to virtual learning to navigating their social and family lives in completely different ways to redefining their relationship with the outside world, students have experienced rapid and unprecedented disruptions to their everyday lives.

Now, a group of Science students have captured their experiences in a series of photo essays documenting the unique ways in which they have been impacted by COVID–19.

Normally, at this time of year, the public computers in Mills, Thode and Innis libraries are in high demand, being used by students for research, course assignments, printing, and web searches.

But now, with these spaces closed, the processing power in the Library’s public computers is being used in a very different way – to help in the fight against COVID–19.

We all have them: Old phones, laptops, hard drives, and other small electronics, stuffed in drawers and bins or scattered throughout our homes and offices – just gathering dust.

Now, a new initiative developed by University Technology Services (UTS) and McMaster University Library, in partnership with GreenByte – a local not-for-profit organization – is making it easier for students, faculty and staff to recycle their electronic waste, or e-waste, securely and sustainably, while helping make a difference in the Hamilton community.

From March 2-6, 2020, McMaster University Library is celebrating Open Education Week, a global event to raise awareness about how Open Educational Resources (OER) can help make education more affordable and accessible to learners world-wide.

OER include teaching, learning and research resources such as textbooks, assignments, modules and syllabi that are freely accessible, openly licensed and can be used, shared or modified by anyone.

Learn more about OER at McMaster

Are libraries across campus meeting your informational and research needs? Do you need more quiet study space? Can you find the help you need at Library service desks?

McMaster University Libraries are inviting faculty, research staff and students to provide input on these questions and more as part of a survey aimed at finding ways to improve library services, spaces and collections.

Even as a child, poet and writer Nilofar Shidmehr was always sensitive to the suffering of others.

“When I was in elementary school, a student from a well-off family brought in these really nice cherries to eat at the break,” recalls Shidmehr, who grew up in Iran. “There was another student who just looked at those cherries – her family could not afford them. It was engrained in my mind, the look in that girl’s eyes.”