OCULA President’s Message – Fall 2024
Matt Rohweder introduces himself as the 2024 OCULA President and outlines his priorities for this year, as well as what OCULA has accomplished, and keeps working towards.
A Path to Knowledge Justice through Indigenous Collections
OCULA Lightning Strikes winner, Sahar Kasiri-Motlagh discusses the responsibilities of academic libraries to support underrepresented communities through knowledge justice and critical race theory through the example of the Indigenous newspaper, The Eastern Door.
On Anti-racism and Indigenous Resurgence
As many parents struggle with how to share an ongoing climate of racist violence with our children and how to change it so that they might live in a different world, I turn to 3 books for librarians to recommend that manage to carve out a landscape of joy for children while not shying away from the urgent need for education on QT/BIPOC issues for young children.
Things are not fine: Fines in the library
In the past, late fees were seen as a method of ensuring that our books were returned and that people were responsible when borrowing materials. It is, however, more complex than that—fines neither raise funds nor align with public libraries’ purpose. In fact, charging late fees for overdue materials is doing more harm than good.
What we talk about when we talk about algorithms*
Words create reality; what we say and write makes ideas concrete. The explosion of research about algorithms has resulted in specific descriptive phrases about their nature and characteristics. Let’s take a brief tour through some of them to see how they reflect our hopes and concerns.
Not too fine a point: COVID-19 reveals the origins of public libraries as agents of social control
In Library Land, the pandemic has exposed inherent fragilities including discriminatory class and race based practices. In turn, these praxis reveal that public libraries have a history of being agents of social control and exclusion.
Amplifying the voices of school libraries: Spotlight on Rabia Khokhar
This month features the work of Rabia Khokhar, a teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board. Rabi's focus is culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy.
Theory in practice: Moving from systemic racism to anti-racism in Ontario public libraries
Acknowledging that colonialism and systemic racism exist and working towards developing more inclusive and welcoming practices doesn’t imply that our work is inherently bad. Public libraries are good places.
Finnish public libraries integrate diverse services to support equity & inclusion
Finnish public libraries are mandated to provide equal access to materials and services for all citizens, and staff are pushing the boundaries of how access is defined, by widening the scope of service offerings.
Building Better Libraries Through Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: 2018 OCULA Spring Conference
by Catherine Fournier and Helen Tang Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core values in librarianship … in theory, at least. But what are libraries…
Gathering with the voices of Canadian school libraries: Treasure Mountain Canada 5
As a teacher librarian in a busy K-to-8 school it would be easy to get lost in the day to day operations of my…
Safe spaces: Library values in the cultural wars
Headlines today scream about highly charged debates in the sociological and cultural sphere: Whose voices need to be heard? How do we create equity?…
Welcoming LGBTQ+ people
How can we demonstrate, through action, that LGBTQ+ people are welcome in libraries? In the first article in this limited series of conversations, Amanda…