2015 BCLA Conference

This year’s conference theme is Creative Communities. The theme focuses us on the power of creativity in both the library and the world around us. It emphasizes how we use creativity to seek new ways to collaborate with and serve both existing and new communities. The theme Creative Communities will bring us together to highlight and reflect on our practices and profession.

We are continuing with program streams in 2015 believing they are vital areas of dialogue to take us forward: access, evidence, activism, place, and work.

Access: Commodification of information, copyright, licensing vs ownership, digitization and preservation, metadata schemas and standards, open access, closed stacks, and institutional repositories – ensuring information remains accessible for everyone is not easy or guaranteed. Are our current tools of access and descrip(on adequate? What are we doing to advocate for free access and is it enough? What are the threats to access in both the physical and digital worlds?

Evidence: Evidence based library practice anyone? With this stream, we hope to make space for librarians and other information professionals to talk about research and how their findings can contribute to decision making in our professional practice. Let’s look beyond reference and circulation stats and ask how are we really doing.

Activism: We are not neutral. We are information activists, creators of information policy, advocates for intellectual freedom and protec(on of privacy. We challenge exclusion and digital divides and support social justice and diversity. How are we upholding the values and missions that protect and support our communities? What are we doing both internally and externally to ensure the library remains an open and inclusive space? What issues should we identify, address, or rally around to continue this important aspect of our profession? 

Place: Learning space, maker/hackerspace, community space, physical and online space– the library as place of cultural and intellectual meaning is in a period of renewal. We are reconfiguring our spaces to be flexible and in many ways undefined. What are we learning about public space, user needs, and libraries as places? 

Work: From collective bargaining and workers’ rights to professional development and identity, to the nuanced politics of communal fridges, we all share experiences and have valuable insight to contribute as workers. In this stream, we propose an exploration of that role within our various contexts. Let’s talk theory, practice, and everything in between.