All the same, I confess a nerdy delight in sites like the Theses Canada, especially since it’s easy to identify which items come with downloadable files.  Reading the first chapter or two of a thesis can quickly give me a sense of the major arguments in a field and a list of  key texts I should work through.

My most recent IR find is from Simon Fraser where I was able to read a recent MA thesis by Anne Toews on Annie Buller and Beckie Buhay’s friendship (pdf).

Beckie Buhay (l) and Annie Buller (r) in the mid 1920s

Buller and Buhay were key figures in the early- to mid-twentieth century Canadian Communist Party (seen here sometime before 1929 in an image cropped from a Buller biography once downloadable from Progress Books).  References to their organization, writing, and management work are scattered throughout most accounts of the period. Detailed information that both places them and their friendship in context and adds  accurate information grounded in the historical record is much harder to find.

The combination of Google and Simon Fraser’s IR made it extraordinarily easy for me to find Toews’ work. And since Toews’ has done significant archival work, someday, if I find myself shaping a curiosity into a larger project, I’ll be able to find key records. That’s no a small thing when you’re interested in rather obscure topics.

There’s more work to be done of course—I still have lots of questions about Buhay—much I’m happy and grateful to have found and read Toews work.

My guess is that the VPL memo is a fairly ordinary piece of internal communications.  And VANOC’s intervention, whether direct or indirect, and its attempt to control the flow of money is equally ordinary. A quick Google search will turn up dozens of examples of VANOC’s vigorous objections to non-official (ie, non-paid for) linkages between the games and commercial or charitable organizations.

The thing that puzzles me though is the idea that libraries would solicit food donations for in-house programs.  As well it’s not clear to me whether the Olympic-inspired guidelines are tightly connected to the VPL’s publicly posted sponsorship policy. Supporting Coca Cola over Pepsi or McDonald’s over Wendy’s: does this “undermine the integrity of the non-commercial public space”?

Suggested Reading:  No Logo.