Last fall, amid news that the OLS-North and SOLS would be amalgamating, I indicated that I would retire at the end of March 2021. It’s hard to believe that day is quickly approaching. Like many before me who’ve reached this milestone, it comes with feelings of excitement and sadness. It is the culmination of 33 […]
In a series of guest blogs library board members Andrew Hallikas and Caroline Goulding will be exploring the question What can you do as a Library Board to improve the relationship between your municipal council and the public library? In this post we will be focusing on the external tools you can use to help […]
Le français suit l’anglais. Over the past few months, we have all been inundated with news, best practices, and evolving information about COVID-19, and how to protect ourselves and others. In the context of library spaces, directives and suggestions for keeping staff and patrons safe come from various sources: the provincial government, local health units, […]
Updated: September 4, 2020 | Mise à jour: 4 septembre 2020 Le français suit l’anglais. This blog is meant to be an overview of the legislation related to Emergency Orders and Declared Emergency Leave. Given the complexity of the legislation, for further clarification, please consult with your own legal advisors. I think that we […]
Like every other organization in the world, public libraries are frantically trying to plan for a future that is still very uncertain. Not only do we not know when we’ll get the green light from Provincial and local officials to re-open our buildings, we don’t know what it will look like when we do open […]
André Lépine is a Skills Development Advisor, Cataloguing and Collections at Ontario Library Service–North. As Ontario’s Declaration of Emergency remains in effect and libraries remain shuttered across the province, libraries are rapidly adapting their services, programs, and collections to the virtual environment in order to continue to meet community needs. Collections in particular are well-suited […]
As Ontario’s State of Emergency continues, and its list of essential services shrunk, additional workplaces have shut down, leaving countless workers, including those in public libraries, laid off, put on temporary leave, redeployed, or working from home. Obviously, none of these is an ideal situation for those workers whose jobs are designed to provide service […]
Ontario public libraries have been dabbling with virtual programming for several years, balancing in-person and online offerings. With physical library spaces closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, library staff are showing their flexibility and adjusting to the new reality with some very creative digital programming – both passive and active! As you read through these […]
Le français suit l’anglais. Many library systems and library staff members have taken the library closures as time to focus on professional development opportunities. We all know that training can often be difficult to fit in to a schedule full of programming or time spent at the service desk. Given that libraries will remain closed […]
As a result of the Province’s latest emergency order, more and more public library employees – management, administrative and frontline – are now working from home. While libraries closed to the public more than a week ago, some staff continued to report to work, while practicing social distancing in the workplace. The latest measures from […]