Blog on the Side

Ontario Library Association Inspires - Each year at OLA, I'm always blown away the amazing work librarians are doing and the collective force of all that creativity and energy in one place for three days.

One inspiring story was "Be the Change", a free resource developed by The Ontario School Library Association that promotes global citizenship with the intent to empower students to make a postiive change in the world. The teacher librarians were inspired to act after hearing two keynotes (MP3 and Windows Media format files) in 2005 by Craig Kielburger, founder of Free the Children, and Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV and AIDS in Africa. They also set out to raise $40,000 for to build a joint school
library/public library in Kenya and raised $27,297.70. Donations will be accepted until Febraruy 28 if you didn't have time to drop by their booth. Librarians have heart and imagination and helping hands.

There are dozens of examples of great work that librarians are doing. I would meet new people at the exhibit hall or receptions or before sessions and be blown away at what the remarkable things that they are doing. I talked to one librarian who has just finished a needs assessment and is laying the groundwork to add 2 to 3 clinical librarians to medical team and they're already looking towards adding many more clinical librarians if this venture works out. Talk about adding value. The idea of clinical librarians isn't new, but it hasn't taken root and flourished. Making it happen at this scale would remarkable.

I was fascinated by the wonderful work Edmonton Public Library is doing with teens. I met Wendy Grønnestad-Damur, EPL's Teen Services Librarian, who talked about Flicks and Tunes to go (teenage advisory boards recommended the titles) and their "Survivor" teen summer reading program with online reviews and comments by teens and voting to determine which books are "off the island". Unfortunately I had to miss her talk (we presented at the same time) and she had the better title: "Ephebephobia, n., an abnormal and persistent fear of teenagers".

OLA2006