Helen McDonnell
Meet one of OLA’s 5,000 members. An interview with random OLA member #34: Helen McDonnell, CEO, Callander Public Library. Helen and I both have the prospect…
Formal Training Isn’t Enough
On October 21, 2016 the Ontario Public Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory (RA) committee hosted the eleventh annual RA in a Day symposium at the…
Kelli Van Buskirk
Meet one of OLA’s 5,000 members. An interview with random OLA member #33: Kelli Van Buskirk, Acquisitions, Adult Department, North Bay Public Library. Kelli and I…
The Case for Free Flow Book Exchange
In education we often use IF, THEN statements to guide changes to our programming and practice. IF I change this, THEN my students will……
New Librarians Symposium: Special Issue
The New Librarians Symposium (NLS) happened on Friday, June 24th at Ryerson University. In this special issue of Open Shelf, we (the event’s co-organizers)…
Notes from the Field: Examining Issues in the Profession
As part of NLS’s registration process we invited attendees to choose a few topics that they would be interested in discussing during the Birds…
What’s the Deal With NLS Anyway?
The genesis of the New Librarians Symposium happened—as all decisions to hold a brand new, medium-size event do—after a conversation. The two of us—a…
NLS: By the Numbers
This Special Issue of Open Shelf consists of eight articles reflecting on the New Librarians Symposium held in June 2016. The Symposium focused on…
NLS Revealed: Our Top Five Surprises
It was challenging to parse through all of the ideas and conversations from NLS and distill them into bite-sized chunks. Naturally, this difficulty is…
“Honest and Relatable in a Sincere Way”: Reflections from NLS Attendees
We asked three NLS attendees to reflect on their day. Here is some of what they said: What was the biggest surprise of NLS?…
“Nobody Dies”: Some Advice for New Professionals
We asked mid- and late-career information professionals what advice they would give themselves as a new librarian. Here is what they said: “Sometimes you…
Moving Forward: A Reflection on Lessons Learned
As to be expected with organizing an event for the first time, there was much for us to reflect upon and take forward. First,…
Blue Ocean Strategy & Public Libraries
We like to think that public libraries are unique, and in many ways they are. The chances are that if they had never been…