Category: Uncategorized

From Kiosk to Ruth E. Dickinson: Library Loans Across Branches 🏛️

Library borrowing remained fairly steady between 2023 and 2024, with a slight decrease from 1,139 loans to 1,111, a 2.5% drop. While total borrowing changed little, activity across individual branches showed noticeable differences.

( Graph made by; Ana Da Silva)

High-usage branches like Beaverbrook, Ruth E. Dickinson, North Gloucester, and Greenboro consistently had the most loans, while smaller branches such as Kiosk, Homebound, and Fitzroy Harbour had the fewest. Some branches saw significant changes year over year — for example, Vanier more than doubled its loans from 17 in 2023 to 36 in 2024, making it the branch with the largest increase.

( Graph made by Ana Da Silva)

These charts clearly highlight which branches are most active and which have lower engagement, making it easy to see shifts in usage. Branch-level patterns like Vanier’s growth or Fitzroy Harbour’s decline provide a quick view of changing library demand across locations.

Overall, even with small changes in total loans, the variations across branches offer valuable insights for library management. The data shows where demand is growing or declining, which can help guide decisions about staffing, resource allocation, and branch support in the coming year.

This is a small video I produced to go with a story on a food drive organised by the SA Food Cupboard and Algonquin Wolves this fall.

Link to the story here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlQwuu1Jtm0

I wrote this story in April 2025 in the wake of the announced closure of the Perth campus. I thought I would head out to Pembroke to get their reaction and allow the community to express fears about losing their own campus in the future.

Link here https://algonquintimes.com/pembroke-worries-about-impacts-of-algonquin-college-budget-crunch/

The Question:
Bike theft feels way more common when the weather is nice. I want to see if that’s true. I’ll review the Ottawa Police bike theft open data to check whether thefts increase in spring/summer, and decrease in fall/winter, and if certain neighbourhoods experience more thefts than others.

Data Resource Link:
Bike Theft — Ottawa Police Community Safety Data Portal (Open Data) ArcGIS
(Portal home for context: Ottawa Police Community Safety Data Portal) Ottawa Police Data Portal

Data Fix Log

Sorted by date: Easier to read from oldest to newest.

Fixed date format (MM/DD/YYYY): Sorting and filters work properly.

Ward/Sector to numbers: Lets me group and filter without errors.

Cleaned place names: Trimmed spaces and used the same capitalization so one location isn’t split into many.

Removed duplicates: Dropped rows with the same case ID and date, so nothing is counted twice.

Added a Season column: From the date: Winter (Dec–Feb), Spring (Mar–May), Summer (Jun–Aug), Fall (Sep–Nov). Makes comparisons quick.

Kept “geomasked” map points: The dataset shifts locations for privacy. I left them as provided, so maps are approximate.

What’s Next?
I’ll total thefts by season and make a simple bar chart to see if summer really spikes. Then I’ll rank neighbourhoods/wards by count and write a short paragraph on what the pattern looks like for Ottawa.

For this assignment I chose X (Twitter) 

• What surprised you, if anything?

I was surprised by some of the discoverability settings on my profile. Mainly, people who have my email and number can find me on X. Although it’s not a huge deal, I found it weird because it’s a setting I didn’t know existed. Also, the X AI (Grok) settings really surprised me. It was set up so that any public data or interactions I have can be used to train Grok.

• Did you change anything? What was your reasoning — convenience, safety, habit?

Yes, I changed my discoverability settings as well as turned off the Grok AI settings.

• Using Week Six’s lesson as the backdrop, how might your current privacy setup affect your personal safety if you faced harassment?

I didn’t fully grasp the extent of harassment faced by Canadian journalists. But after seeing the numbers, it’s hard to deny.  

So in addition to changing some of my settings, I am also in the process of hardening my accounts by using two-factor authentication and stronger passwords. I am also trying to do social media self-audits and Google searches to see what information is available online. 

• What surprised you, if anything?

What really surprised me was how much Instagram has changed and the type of content it shows now. I used to think of Instagram as a fun place to scroll through photos, watch cute videos, or catch up on what my friends were doing. But now, I’m seeing videos that I would’ve only expected to see on Twitter (X). Some of it is really disturbing, and I don’t understand how it’s allowed on there. What shocks me the most is knowing that kids are using the app every day. If I’m seeing that kind of stuff on my feed, then so are they, and that’s scary. I feel like Instagram’s algorithm doesn’t protect people as much as it should.

• Did you change anything? What was your reasoning — convenience, safety, habit?

I haven’t really changed much, since I don’t normally mess with my settings, but I did manage my content control settings a bit. I decided to do that because I wanted to make my feed a little calmer and more positive. When I open Instagram, I want to see my friends’ posts, cute animal videos, and food recipes, not something that’s going to ruin my mood. I don’t deal well with gore or heavy topics, so I try to avoid it as much as I can. It’s not really about safety for me, more about how I feel when I use the app.

• Using Week Six’s lesson as the backdrop, how might your current privacy setup affect your personal safety if you faced harassment?

Even with my account on private, I know it’s not one hundred per cent safe. People can still find ways to send hurtful or threatening messages through DMs or comments. Privacy settings help, but they don’t block everything. If I ever faced harassment, I’d probably block and report the person, but there’s always a chance they could make another account under a different email or even use someone else’s account to try and get to me. What I’ve learned is that having a private account doesn’t mean you’re completely protected. You still have to be careful.

Jade Louise Greenwood

Questions:

• What surprised you, if anything?

I did not know about location settings. Mine was already turned off, but I did not think about it to begin with. The options are really nice to have if I wanted to share my location. On every post that I do, I typically add a location where the pictures were taken, but I wouldn’t want other people always seeing where I am. I also have it turned off on all my other social media apps.

Secondly, I had no idea about nudity protections. Once again, I did not think about it. It was actually turned off before I saw that it was a setting. I was surprised that this would even be an option for Instagram because I thought it was illegal to post nudity. This was a surprising aspect to see.

• Did you change anything? What was your reasoning — convenience, safety, habit?

I turned off nudity because I have no reason for seeing other people’s bodies. I didn’t know that it was an opinion, as I said above, but it was weird that it was something to even consider.

I also had my account as public because I wanted more people to see my work, although I feel more comfortable when it is just friends and family seeing what I post and where I am.

It is my convenience that I turned off my location because the only people who need to know where I am are family and friends.

• Using Week Six’s lesson as the backdrop, how might your current privacy setup affect your personal safety if you faced harassment?

I feel that I wouldn’t be harassed because all my settings are off. Although if I were I turn my profile public again, I can report them and delete the comments/messages. I would go back and ensure my location settings are off. Overall, I feel that everything I am doing right now is working and will continue to unless I change something. I feel comfortable with my settings and will keep them the same.