Program Item Details
TITLE: Rhys Stevens, Librarian, Alberta Gaming Research Institute, Lethbridge
SUBJECT: #186 Alberta Gaming Research Institute Library
SYNOPSIS: The Alberta Gaming Research Institute has one of the world’s most extensive libraries on gambling. Rhys Stevens is the institute’s librarian.
AUDIO: Download Audio (mp3 format)
TRANSCRIPT:
#186 December 20, 2005
Interview starts at 22.22
Intro: The Alberta Gaming Research Institute has developed an extensive library that serves researchers around the world. Rhys Stevens runs the library which is housed at the University of Lethbridge
Rhys Stevens
RS: The Alberta Gamaing Research Institute library had its founding in about 1997 when we acquired the collection from the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, AADAC in Edmonton. At that time their collection came down to the University of Lethbridge and it had a great collection related to gambling included as well. And over the following few years, the Institute in Edmonton has provided funding for our library as well as the libraries at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta to continue updating that collection and to include the most relevant and up to date resources that we can acquire for it.
CC: WHAT TYPES OF MATERIALS DO YOU HAVE?
RS: Well there are a variety of materials available in the library. Of course you’ve got your traditional sources, such as journal titles, and monographs or books. But we also have a really good collections of videos, DVD’s , CD ROMs, conference proceedings. All kinds of different types of material of use to researchers, but also of use to the general public who may be interested in particular aspects of gambling.
CC: WHAT TRENDS HAVE YOU SEEN OVER THE YEARS AS YOU’VE WORKED ON PUTTING THIS LIBRARY TOGETHER?
RS: Well one of the trends I’ve noticed in the past few years is that there really is an increase in the number of sources that are available electronically. Most things are available now in print and electronic, especially what we call the “grey literature”. The grey literature is stuff that’s not controlled by the commercial publishing industry. So, government documents, research reports that are produced by institutes, such as our own gaming institute, all kinds of newsletters and industry publications. So that stuff is increasing over time.
There’s also probably the types of resources, or the nature of books and journal articles themselves have changed over time. There are now more studies on stuff like internet gaming and different aspects of peer to peer betting exchanges. Some of the new technologies have influenced the types of materials that are produced on the topic.
CC: I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS ONE OF THE LARGEST LIBRARIES ON GAMING AND GAMBLING IN THE COUNTRY?
RS: Well that would be correct. It’s probably is among the best collections of materials in North America. The University of Nevada, Reno has an excellent collection as well. But for a small university and a smaller province, we really do access to an incredible amount of resources related to gambling. And we’ve attempted to make this comprehensive. By comprehensive, I mean we’re looking at all aspects of gambling, all types of materials related to gambling, publications that have been produced by academics, publications that have been produced by the industry themselves. So we’re doing our best to make it accessible not only to those academics who use it for research purposes but it’s also intended to be a community resource for people interested in the topic.
CC: HOW AFAR AFIELD IS SOME OF THIS MATERIAL GOING?
RS: Well I get requests pretty much on a daily basis from all over the province of Alberta, all over Canada, and actually, throughout the world. For example, I had a request from Virginia for some statistics on internet gambling. So it really depends on the day and the question.
But it’s an interesting job in the respect that you never know what kind of questions you’re going to be asked on a dayto day basis. And you never know what lengths you’re going to go to find the answer for people. So it really varies.
CC: SO IF PEOPLE HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT GAMING AND GAMBLING, THEY CAN CONTACT YOU?
RS: Yes, of course, they can contact me. The first point of contact they might want to choose is through our Institute’s website. We’ve put together an interesting starting point or gateway to resources related to gambling from the Institute’s website. Also available from the Institute’s website is something I developed called the Gambling Literature Database. So that includes about 1200 electronic publications related to gambling that are all publicly accessible, but won’t include things like journal articles, and obviously, it won’t include print material such as books.
CC: THANK YOU VERY MUCH, RHYS
RS: Thank you very much, Cheryl.
Rhys Stevens is the librarian with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute.
FEATURED LINK: Alberta Gaming Research Institute
FEATURED LINK: Gambling Literature Database