Many of us are busy making instructional videos so that we can teach or provide needed services online. But how do we battle our need for the perfect performance? And many times do we re-record before we think we’ve got our final product?

During the 2020 OLA Super Conference, the voices of Canadian school libraries came together to share, discuss and celebrate the incredible work in K-12 school library learning commons in Canada. In the upcoming months, It’s elementary will highlight authors and papers from the conference.

Are there hard-and-fast rules for libraries engaged with LGBTQ+ communities? While there are areas where there should be clear guidance, there are others where context is more important.

Remember the TV game show, Cash Cab? Contestants could try to answer questions on their own, but if they got stuck, they could phone a friend. The Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) is like that friend who you can call or turn to for an answer.

Branch managers can feel pulled in all directions, have a need to work at all hours, and yet seem removed from their staff. How can they support staff when not physically working side-by-side and when they have the need to “put their own masks on first?”

The University of Sudbury library closed on March 24, 2020. Now past the three-month mark of the closure, the chief librarian thinks that the “new virtual” reality will help him be anywhere, anytime and thus step into the future.

Someone will have to pay for all the government money being used to get us through the COVID-19 crisis. This will usher in a newer, longer and deeper era of austerity and a new understanding of what defines a “model public library.”

I have been waiting for a statement from my local library on the recent protests aimed at confronting systemic anti-black racism in our North American society and across the Western world. It has been weeks and I am still waiting.

This two-part article unpacks the supposed abrogation of responsibility of the federal government to Indigenous communities. In this first installment, we dive into the question of governance and the tensions between the Indian Act and rights created under both the Constitution of Canada and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It’s hard to believe it was already six months ago, but back at the OLA Superconference in January, I sat down with Chief Lady Bird to talk about Nibi’s water song. This new children’s book is written by Sunshine Tenasco and illustrated by Chief Lady Bird. 

Recently, members of the Ontario School Library Association (OSLA) council had “big questions” when they chatted online about the pandemic and its impact on K-12 school library learning commons.

Your Council stands against anti-Black racism and commits to helping eradicate it from Canadian academic libraries.

The Ontario Library Association is seeking an editor-in-chief for Open Shelf, its online magazine. This two-year term will begin February 1, 2021.

The Ontario Library Association is seeking a deputy editor for Open Shelf, its online magazine. This two-year term will begin October 1, 2020.