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Alberta Library Conference presentation by Harper Collins

Bring your rainbow flags and glitter, and come on out for Pride Month celebrations at the library. Learn how and why your library can participate, what others in the province are already doing, and about some of the resources available to support staff and community members alike. This session will begin with a very brief primer on terminology and etiquette for working with the LGBTQ+ community, context about Pride celebrations, and recent highlights from Alberta communities. Library-specific content will cover ideas for Pride month programs and community participation, and ways to ensure your library is welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community year-round through staff training, policies, facilities and programs. 

Collaboration can be transformative and a key to future success, particularly for smaller libraries/memory organisations. Through collaboration and large-scale systemic design, Arca, BC's collaborative digital repository, creates equity across the province by putting an innovative discovery platform within reach for even the smallest organisations. Attendees of this panel session learnt about the transformative impact of Arca from BC GLAM sector participants who are using Arca to make their digital treasures searchable and accessible to their communities. They heard about the innovative collaboration models for Arca partnerships with the BC History Digitization Program and the Digitized Okanagan History Project.

Stress is becoming a norm and can lead to serious health issues. Library workers are overwhelmed. What role should the library play in ensuring employee wellness? One in five people struggle and mental health is a leading cause of workplace disability in Canada. As a champion for mental health, in 2014 Pickering Public Library (PPL) became early adopters of the voluntary National Standard for Workplace Psychological Health & Safety CSA-Z1003-13. PPL will share their best practices to implement a psychological health and safety system for employees in your library. This session will also share the results of a recent national research case study in which PPL was a participant organization. This session will be of interest to any library employee, especially library leaders, joint health & safety committee members, and staff with human resources or supervisory responsibilities. There will be an audience question period near the end of the session for added interactivity.
Learning objectives:

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Share experiences as it relates to mental health in the workplace.

2. Examine and obtain a tool kit of practical resources that can be utilized to help their library implement a psychologically healthy and safe workplace.

3. Identify and develop strategies that are suited to their individual workplaces.

Speaker: Tanya Sinclair, Pickering Public Library

Biography:

Tanya Sinclair is the CEO at Pickering Public Library. She has over a decade of experience working in libraries, combined with 20 years in the Human Resources field. Tanya is passionate about learning and is always looking for news ways to engage staff. Tanya’s leadership philosophy is: Lead, Learn, Laugh! Tanya collaborated with the Mental Health Commission of Canada for three years positioning Pickering Public Library as an early adopter of the National Standard for Workplace Psychological Health & Safety. Tanya recently served as a workplace mental health guest panelist for the Conference Board of Canada in 2018.

Drawing upon my own experiences with mental illness, my presentation will focus on these key topics: • Mental health “red flags” - how to tell when you’re at risk. • Self-awareness - knowing yourself well enough to recognize warning signs.

• Reaching out - considering your options, including removing personal stressors and seeking out help.
• Facilitating your recovery - how to take care of yourself following a mental health low.
• Talking about it - how to discuss mental health, and the importance of discussion for both mental illness sufferers and their supporters. In the spirit of "talking about it," questions are welcome (and encouraged)!

MOLLY HUTCHINSON is a second-year student in the Library Information Technology program at SAIT in Calgary. She is a passionate mental health awareness advocate and has been fighting the good fight against her own depression and anxiety for over a decade. When she's not focused on her studies, she can usually be found in the garden (weather permitting).

Over the past few years, I have worked on making staff evaluations meaningful, but have fought against the tediousness of them. By incorporating competencies and moving towards a format that can be reused year after year, staff know what to expect and can use the evaluations for goal setting and self evaluation. By creating an atmosphere of joy, staff evaluation sessions have a stronger, more positive impact on staff, supervisors, and the library as a whole.
CAROLINE VANDRIEL has been the Library Director in Sylvan Lake for over five years. Born and raised in Ontario, she travelled the world teaching before getting her MLIS at Western University and moving to Alberta. She has two cats and a dog and enjoys gardening and looking at old houses.

In this session, we will take you through the steps we followed to create a library program for children with autism and other persons with developmental disabilities (PDD). Learn about beneficial partnerships and resources to create your very own Sensory Storytime.
JENNY COFELL is a Children’s Librarian at Lethbridge Public Library, which is no small order! Jenny has reached new heights by developing innovative community partnerships, integrating play into the library, and being an effective library champion for families and children.
LAURIE DARVEAU-WILLMS is a Library Technician at Lethbridge Public Library. Places, parenting, pets, pinball, paddleboard – not necessarily in that order – sum up Laurie in a nutshell. She is also passionate about creating inclusive programming and spaces.

Advocacy is important for the future of libraries. However, some library professionals are too nervous to explain what they do and what amazing impact it has on the community. Do you have an elevator pitch ready? If you were stopped by a member of city council, could you quickly summarize the great things library professionals do each and every day? Public speaking takes time and practice. The great part is, the more you do it, the better you get. If you are too nervous for public speaking, you are missing a great opportunity to advocate for your library and deliver those important messages to the people that need to hear them the most.
ANDREA NEWLAND is a Consultant Librarian with Parkland Regional Library. She has worked in many different types of libraries since completing her MLIS from Western University in 2002. She has a passion for advocacy, change, and seeing libraries move forward.

Southern Alberta libraries are partnering with health and wellness organizations in the province to bring rubber chickens, skating passes, camping equipment, roving gyms, bike repair stations, symphony tickets, walks in the woods, and much more to our communities. Find out how in this inspiring and entertaining session.
LISA WEEKES is Manager of Partnerships and Community Development for Chinook Arch Regional Library System, which consists of 33 member libraries across southwest Alberta. Physical literacy and lifelong active living are personal and professional passions that guide her regional program and project development. Having worked in the public library world for over 10 years, Lisa believes responsive library collections and programming place libraries in a powerful advocacy position for community development and growth. On the personal side, Lisa enjoys planning and undertaking family trips across Canada and beyond with her husband and two teen sons.
BARBARA LONGAIR is Manager of Public Services and Children’s Services at Lethbridge Public Library and is an active community advocate.