Toronto Info Session a Great Success!

On January 28th the Toronto Regional Office of SIRC held an information session for SIRC members who were interested in learning how to better work with the SIRC Collection and SIRC Services to help them and their organization. We had a full house with representatives from a variety of organizations including the Ontario Badminton Association, Ontario Basketball Association, ParaSport Ontario, Cricket Canada, the Ontario Association of Triathletes, ROWONTARIO , the Sport Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Ringette Association.
Attendees learned how to post jobs on the SIRC Career Page , advertise conferences and events on the Conference Calendar and submit a press release to the Press Release service.
Following this Amanda Street-Bishop and Brandie Adams, SIRC’s Information Specialists, led the group through the members’ area including a tutorial on the SportDiscus™ Database. The group was interested in finding articles on topics ranging from Sponsorship to Injury Prevention.

Armed with the knowledge of how to search the SIRC Collection, the session then moved on to the hands on portion. Attendees completed a scavenger hunt through the various SIRC Resources. Congratulations to Stephanie Wade of Triathlon Canada, Rebecca Norton of Coaches of Canada, Lizze McArdle of Sport4Ontario and Matt Kennedy of the Ontario Blind Sports Association who won our scavenger hunt competition.

Thanks to everyone that attended including some new members to SIRC: Christopher Lowcock of the Ontario Disc Sports Association and Chloe Greenhalgh of Dragon Boat Canada.

Durham College Students learn the value of research!

Amanda Street-Bishop (Toronto’s Regional Information Specialist) received an invitation from Durham College’s Professor Kate Houze, to speak to their first year students enrolled in the Sport Administration and Sport Management programs. Students partook in a hands-on workshop which allowed them to learn about SIRC and how they can use us to help them in their second semester Sport Research Course. The purpose of this course is to present each student with a knowledge base and the relevant skills in order to better understand and function in the evolving sport management industry. The students study research and its application to the sport industry. Students examine research in detail – what it is, its purpose, its importance to industry, how to use, when to use it and then apply this knowledge to several research projects. Many sport management positions require one to research, to articulate an idea or concept and to present this information effectively to a board of directors, a client, a sponsor or other management groups making research an essential part of the Sport business environment.

The session was conducted in the school’s state of the art computer lab allowing each student to independently explore the SIRC site and the SportDiscus™ Database. The students were interested in scholarly, peer reviewed articles on a variety of topics including: steroid use in professional baseball, violence in amateur hockey and the promotion of mixed martial arts.

Here’s some of what they found:

• Financial Incentives and League Policy: The Example of Major League Baseball's Steroid Policy. Tainsky, Scott; Winfree, Jason A., European Sport Management Quarterly Mar2008, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p67
• Honor, ritual and violence in ice hockey. Colburn Jr., K., Canadian Journal of Sociology 1985: Vol. 10 Issue 2. p. 153-170
• Injury trends in sanctioned mixed martial arts competition: a 5-year from 2002 to 2007. Available Ngai, K. M.; Levy, F.; Hsu, E. B., British Journal of Sports Medicine Aug2008, Vol. 42 Issue 8, p686
• Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge. Bolelli, Daniele, Journal of Asian Martial Arts 2007, Vol. 16 Issue 4, p86
• Public Perceptions of Steroid Use in Sport: Contextualizing Communication Efforts. Becker, Amy B.; Scheufele, Dietram A., International Journal of Sport Communication Dec2008, Vol. 1 Issue 4, p444
• The Relationship Between Spectator Motivations and Media and Merchandise Consumption at a Professional Mixed Martial Arts Event. Sport Marketing Quarterly 2009, Vol. 18 Issue 4, p199
• Sports MDs seek CMA support in bid to make hockey safer. Sullivan, P., Canadian Medical Association Journal Jan 15, 1990: Vol. 142 Issue 2. p. 157-159

Coaches Association of Ontario – The Time is Now

This past weekend SIRC attended the 4th Annual Coaches Association of Ontario Coaches Conference – The Time Is Now. The conference was attended by almost 300 delegates from across Ontario and was held at the University of Guelph. SIRC participated in the trade show portion of the conference and Amanda Street-Bishop, Information Specialist at the SIRC Regional office in Toronto, presented a Professional Development Workshop on Competitive Intelligence for Sport Coaches.

The Workshop covered:

• Where to find the best coaching resources
• How to optimize your searching techniques, and,
• The easiest way to access Canada’s National Sport Library

The presentation was very well received with some participants following along on their own laptops. The session was interactive and included some great questions from the audience for the SportDiscus™ database on Lawn Bowling, Volleyball drills and how to motivate a team before a game.

Other sessions at the conference included:

• Understanding Your Coaching Style
• Developing Athleticism – The Foundation of Long-Term Sport Success
• Hot Topics in Sport Psychology
• Increasing Leadership Roles For Women

Click here for a link to these sessions and others from the conference.

Second Open House Another Success

On April 29, 2010, SIRC’s Toronto Regional office held its second Open House, with over 150 books on display from both the SIRC Ottawa office and the SIRC@Sport4Ontario collection. Many people from the Provincial Sport Organizations (PSO) in the Sport Alliance building came down to peruse the collection and partake in the free lunch.

What was different about this open house is that there were computer stations set up around the room in order to hold one on one training sessions with individuals wanting to learn how to properly search the Sport Discus Database and also set up saved searches and alerts. Many of the PSOs participated including lacrosse, golf, basketball, ringette, Coaches Association of Ontario and triathlon. Linda Kirk, the Executive Director of the Ontario Association of Triathletes was looking for the latest information on Long Term Athlete Development from a Canadian perspective. She was able to set up a search and alert so now she will be receiving links to articles directly to her email.

Congratulations to our door prize winners Keeley MacLean from Coaches Association of Ontario, Chris Driscoll of the Ontario Lacrosse Association and Erin Hamilton from the Sport Alliance of Ontario. Look for the next SIRC road show to take place in the fall. Till then, sign out a book or two,” ask a librarian” or better yet visit one of SIRCs two libraries, you won’t be disappointed with the information available.