Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies Library

Contents: About the Collection | Tech

About the Collection

Meet Professor John LI. J. Edwards, a Welsh-born criminologist, whose passion for teaching and studying crime in Canadian society inspired the vision for the founding of The Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies and the Centre Library.

Before arriving in Toronto, Professor Edwards was in the process of drafting up a memorandum on the creation of a criminology teaching school, one that could be studied outside the context of Canadian law schools, and yet, incorporate all forms of interdisciplinary backgrounds (Doob & Greenspan, 1985, 1). This would be the first of its kind in Canada, and Professor Edwards was eager to start one at his current institution, Dalhousie University (Doob & Greenspan, 1985, 1). The memorandum, written in 1959 was met with concerns that Dalhousie University would not be able to afford to create a new program (cite 2). While it may have seemed like all hope was lost, a different institution further out west saw the potential for a criminology institute. In 1960, the University of Toronto Law Journal published a copy of Professor Edwards’ memorandum (cite object), gaining the attention of Attorney General Mr. Kelso Roberts who convened a meeting on March 21, 1962 combining representatives from various Ontario universities, deans from the faculties of law, social work and medicine, as well as other legal representatives who would decide where an appropriate institution might be placed (cite p2).

Fortunately for UofT, the University was chosen as the ideal location for the first research and graduate teaching Criminology Institute in Canada. With that decision in mind, who better to appoint for the position of founding director than Professor John Ll. J Edwards? Sixty years later and under the leadership of eleven directors since its founding, the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies is now home to both an undergraduate and graduate program with over – (insert # of students), and houses an impressive library collection of over – (insert # of books). - a program that started with 30 masters students

These achievements would not have been possible without the work of the founding director, Professor John LI. J. Edwards who at the birth of the Centre of Criminology, engaged in lengthy appeal processes for the necessary funding that would kickstart the institute.

However, it would not go without saying that the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies’ success can also be credited to sixty-years worth of dedicated faculty, and students who made Professor Edwards’ vision possible.

About the About Page

We want to make engaging interpretive pages easier to create, so CollectionBuilder gives you tools to write with your collection content!

The template comes with a customizable “About” page layout designed for long form content with rich media embeds. Content is written in Markdown and enhanced using “includes” that pull in collection content, external media, and Bootstrap features like cards and modals. We hope this makes it easier for site builders to develop the collection AND add interesting and engaging contextual information.

Each “include” file has several options, which are documented in the files themselves–copy the examples to see how it works with your content! In the demo below, we’ve given display widths of 25% and 50% to save space, but you can feature the entire image or document.

You can also see a page featuring a bonanza of feature includes options on our CollectionBuilder-GH demo site.

Include Collection Items

The template provides includes to pull your collection objects and metadata into your interpretive page, allowing you to write with your materials directly embedded in the content.

Include an Image

• Image –> {% include feature/image.html objectid="demo_001" width="75" %}

Include a PDF

• PDF – > {% include feature/pdf.html objectid="demo_002" width="50" %}

Include a Video

• Video: {% include feature/video.html objectid="demo_004" %}

Include an Audio File

• Audio: {% include feature/audio.html objectid="demo_003" %}

Include Bootstrap Features

The template also provides includes to make it easier to add Bootstrap components to your Markdown writing. These features allow you to better organize and highlight your content.

Include a Card

• Card – > {% include feature/card.html header="This is a Card" text="The card features an image from the collection as a cap" objectid="demo004" width="25" centered=true %}

Include a Button

• Buttons – > {% include feature/button.html text="Button Link to Somewhere" link="https://collectionbuilder.github.io/" color="success" %}

Include an Alert

• Alerts – > {% include feature/alert.html text="this is an *alert* that 'warns' a user" color="warning" align="center" %}

Include a Modal

• Modals – > {% include feature/modal.html button="This is a modal using a 'primary' colored button to invite clicking" title="when clicked:" text="A Modal will pop out a box with some more information" color="primary" %}