Expanding Digital Access to Literature by Black Canadians (2021 - present)

After receiving a Chief Librarian's Innovation Grant in 2021, I joined a team of humanities librarians to test our holdings against an important bibliography of Black writing in Canada published in the poet and scholar George Elliott Clarke’s 2002 Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Since 2021, we have worked to strengthen our collection including through digitization partnerships with Black-owned presses. This work is ongoing.

Gamified Library Orientation (2017 - 2020)

After receiving a Chief Librarian's Innovation Grant early in 2017, I have developed a series of library orientation programs based on the popular escape room model. Grounded in first-year curriculum and reference services statistics, this program has introduced more than 1000 students to information in our collection, library spaces across campus, and the research  services on offer at the University of Toronto Libraries.

Guelph Reads! (2003 - present)

Now celebrating its 21st year, I launched and organized the first four seasons of what began as a community development project called Guelph Reads for Social Change!.  Each season we invited community leaders (artists, activists, educators) to make their pitch for a book they thought could change the world and each season Guelph readers embraced what has now become a staple of Guelph Public Library programming.  

Guelph Speaks! Re-storying the City (2006)

Following on the success of the first season of Guelph Reads!, I joined the founding editorial board of an annual community anthology celebrating the untold and everyday stories of local residents. Original non-fiction work was collected, published and distributed for free, first at a night of music and storytelling and then through community organizations and local businesses. In 2017, the work of Guelph Speaks! was given a chapter-length examination in Classroom Action: Human Rights, Critical Activism, and Community-Based Education.

Books Abroad (2008 - 2012)

In 2008, I launched my first public reading series Reading India. Six monthly meetings later, I led 15 Toronto readers on a month-long adventure across the great Indian subcontinent visiting the beautiful scenes and fascinating settings of six great books.

Following the successful launch of that first series, I worked to create new clubs with a diversity of participants in mind and became known as a thoughtful and engaging host to the hundreds of readers who took part in the following programs.

Books Abroad
Reading India
Reading Northern India
Reading Southern India
7 Nights in Havana
Reading Nepal
Reading Ireland

After Hours
After Hours: The Man Booker Club
After Hours: Iran
After Hours: Southern India

Taste
(Co-hosted with Stephanie Dickison)
A Taste of the Mediterranean
A Taste of the China Seas

Saturday Matinée
(Co-hosted with Peter Merriman)
Saturday Matinée: Pakistan
Saturday Matinée: Iran
Saturday Matinée: L.A.