This was the third and final day of the CLA 2012 conference in Ottawa.
As a someone who has spent almost all of her life on the west coast, it was a really amazing opportunity to see a national library association in action- in the Nation’s capital. The conference was an incredible experience, but also a very political experience. From the conference events themselves, such as Wednesday’s Advocacy Afternoon – which apparently led to a question being asked during Question Period yesterday about the CAP funding being cut- to the responses of my fellow conference goers, on twitter and elsewhere. The conference opened with a discussion of funding cuts to LAC, and closed with a panel of political experts who taught me more about political ideology in an hour than I have learned since highschool. It has been great for me to learn more about the political divisions and beliefs within my profession, and I have taken the time to think more about own beliefs, and what causes I want to champion going forward.
Today was another early start- an 8:30 session on “Evaluating the Community-Led approaches in Public Libraries”. This was the second session that I attended on the Community-Led model, and I chose to attend because of my interest in evaluation. The panel featured Amanda Bird, a fabulous Community Librarian from the Edmonton Public Library, the admirable Anne Olsen of the Vancouver Public Library, CLA President-Elect Pilar Martinez, and Laura Lukasik of Hamilton Public Library. All four gave great presentations, and I took away several great messages. Including how to decide which organizations are appropriate to partner with, what a time audit involves, and again that collecting stories is very important.
I had to miss Christina Neigel’s session “Inclusiveness and Hypocrisy: How to Libraries Really Measure Up?” to attend my article session on i-Canada. The i-Canada session was really interesting- some quick notes on it: it is an organization looking to create a connected Canada via (ultra-fast) broadband and is committed to net neutrality and country wide access. This was another session where issues of advocacy came into play. We need to work closely with our communities and our MPs to reach these goals. Learn more about the project here: http://www.icanadanetwork.ca/
The last session of the conference for me was on Bill C-11 and what it means for Educational use. From my own research, I understood a fair bit about what was being discussed. What I took away from the session is that: Bill C-11 will pass into law. Educational Institutions no longer have to worry about the Public Performance Right, and that Access Copyright is still a huge concern.
And finally, there was the awards and final panel. The TD Summer Reading Club Awards were really neat. I admit, I did not know about them before today, despite having worked in public libraries for several years. The CLA awards were very touching, and each award was well deserved, there were some very admirable people up on the stage. Then the panelists (Rob Russo, Lawrence Martin, and Evan Soloman) took the stage, and my education on national politics began.
I learned that we (the library and archive community) need to identify what we care about and then mobilize- giving our community battles to fight. We need to have concrete goals. I learned that the current Federal Leadership does not believe that the centre (Federal Gov?) is responsible for information. That it isn’t personal, but that they are interested in creating a less centralized governing structure. There is more, but two paragraphs on politics is the most that I can handle in one post. It was fun, the speakers were very interesting, engaging, and well-spoken, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend.
I am staying tonight in Ottawa and taking the train back to London tomorrow, giving myself plenty of time to continue to reflect on this experience, and my future goals.
Thank you to all who attended CLA with me, to my fellow Students-to-CLA, to Wendy & Sarah, to the presenters and moderators, and to the CLA executive and members who made it possible for me to attend.
Travels to a MLIS 