(originally delivered verbally at the 2026 BCLA Annual General Meeting on June 16)
I want to start by celebrating that BCLA membership has been steadily increasing for the past 4 years and is now at almost 950 members. Along with increased membership, people are stepping forward to initiate, lead and participate in sections, committees, and interest groups.
All of the activities I’ll be speaking about are only possible because of that membership and participation. BCLA exists for our members and because of our members.
It’s been a busy year for BCLA, and we don’t have time in this meeting to revisit all of the good work we’ve done, but I’ll share a few highlights connected to each of our 6 current priorities, which are:
- Accessibility
- Advocacy
- Anti-racism
- Climate Action
- Intellectual Freedom, and
- Professional Development.
Over the past year, we advocated for BC libraries and a number of issues that impact them:
- We continued to work with the BC Public Library Partnersto request an increase to annual provincial funding for public libraries to $30 million per year with annual inflationary increases in subsequent years.
- To that end, we met with provincial politicians and staff on behalf of the Partners, presented to the Select Standing Committee on Finance, attended the BC Budget Lockup, and participated in the ABCPLD reception at the UBCM Convention.
- We have also spoken up on important issues, including:
- Writing letters to federal and provincial politicians about proposed changes to the Canada Post Corporations Act in Bill C-15, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget. These budget provisions would have had a devastating impact on the ability of libraries to offer interlibrary loans and/or provide library materials to people with print disabilities and were ultimately rejected.
- Writing a letter to the Premier of Alberta and the Minister of Municipal Affairs of Alberta, expressing opposition to Bill 28 and defending intellectual freedom and local library governance.
- Becoming a signatory to the Open Letter: “The Safety Net Is Tearing — Funders Must Act Now” which is calling for changes to the way BC nonprofits are funded.
- Signing the “Open Letter to Protect Prison Libraries & Education” initiated by Book Clubs for Inmates, which was successful in preventing the elimination of librarian positions in federal prisons.
Under the umbrella of accessibility:
- BCLA participate in the Public Library Accessibility Working Group (PLAWG) to advocate for and administer funds related to public libraries’ implementation of the Accessible BC Act.
- This included working with Untapped Accessibility on a number of accessibility supports for libraries, including:
- the creation and launch of the Accessibility Assessment Framework for Library Spaces – a collection of resources designed to support more inclusive and accessible library services. These resources are hosted in the Toolkits sectionof the BCLA website.
- Launch events to introduce the framework, and
- A 6-month accessibility community of practice, led by experts at Untapped Accessibility, to help build capacity in libraries
- We are also excited that this past year saw the revival of the BCLA Accessibility Interest Group. Sections, committees, and interest groups allow library workers to network, share, and learn from one another. Thanks to Rachel Chong for chairing the Interest group, and to everyone who has been participating.
Anti-racism work remains a focus for BCLA, led by the Anti-racism Committee:
- This is the first year that our antiracism work is being led by BC library community members, BCLA staff, and BCLA board members, rather than external consultants.
- Working collaboratively is helping us deepen our understanding and grow. I want to thank the entire committee for their generous and thoughtful contributions to this work, especially the co-chairs, Ignacio Albarracin and Shideh Taleban.
- The Committee has spent the past year learning how to do this work together and has focused on prioritizing the recommendations from The Commons Reportand then beginning to define the desired outcome and signals of success for each recommendation.
- The Committee is helping to identify where work has already been done, and what projects are needed to continue to move us forward.
- The Board also continues to allocate funds to support this work every year, which will allow BCLA to work with experts in future on specific projects.
- Aligned with some of the recommendations in the Report, this year we offered an IBPOC-only Library Workplace Morale Renewals Colloquium with Kaetrena Davis Kendrick. We also supported a volunteer-coordinated IBPOC gathering at the 2026 BC Library Conference and are grateful to those who coordinated the event: Adolfo Tarango, Dan Hackborn, David Gill, Elizabeth Cardoso Fernandes, and Juliana Gomes.
Our climate action work advanced this year, thanks to the work of the Climate Action Committee:
- 2025 saw continued growth in Climate Action Weekparticipation – the Committee has created an annual event that is growing in BC and spreading to other provinces
- This year, BCLA was pleased to announce the Inaugural release of the Biennial BCLA Climate Benchmark Report. We are grateful to everyone involved, from the Climate Action Committee who initiated and led this effort, to the libraries and library workers who responded to the survey. A special thanks to Diana Marshall and Dan Hackborn who did much of the hard work to get us to this point and establish a foundation for moving forward.
- This level of provincial coordination is unique and speaks to the passion of the people on the Committee and to the interest in the larger BC library community.
- The call has gone out for the next round of data collection, and we hope you’ll all contribute.
This year we achieved a significant milestone in our Intellectual Freedom work:
- After a 2-year process we approved a revised BCLA Intellectual Freedom Statement. The new statement is based on what we heard through our consultation:
- It includes all aspects of libraries, not just collections
- It affirms that children and teens have a right to intellectual freedom
- It affirms BCLA’s commitment to intellectual freedom while also acknowledging the complexities and challenges of practicing intellectual freedom.
- It explicitly defends libraries and library workers when practicing intellectual freedom
- It uses plain language to be clearer and more accessible
- This work was only possible with the support of our Intellectual Freedom Committee and skilled facilitators, as well as feedback and input from BCLA members and the BC library community. Thanks to everyone on the Committee, particularly my co-chair, Christina Freire.
- With the Statement as our foundation, we look forward to building resources and supports to help you as you strengthen your knowledge of and practice intellectual freedom.
Our professional development offerings continue to grow:
- This year we returned to the lower mainland for our 2026 conference. We had 576 attendees, representing 58 communities throughout BC, plus many other provinces and territories.
- We also continued our Pilot Provincial Professional Development Program, offering professional development events and toolkits that reflect current and evolving issues and trends in libraries, with a British Columbia focus. Our AI Exploration Series has been particularly popular, with 9 sessions in the past year on topics including Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Open Data, and Library AI Policy Development.
- We have been working with Prince George Public Library leadership to coordinate a digital reboot of the Beyond Hope conference that takes place in Prince George every 2 years. This extends the reach of their conference and helps us to provide more professional development sessions featuring northern BC and smaller library perspectives and presenters.
- This year we also launched our second round of mentoring with Pollinate; we know mentorship can be a powerful tool for development and connection, and we are continuing to evolve this program based on participant feedback.
- We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Housing & Municipal Affairs, which has allowed us to increase both the scope and number of professional development opportunities we offer.
None of this would be possible without you. We know there are many demands on all of you, and we’re so grateful to everyone who chooses to put their time, energy, resources, and commitment into BCLA.
We have seen in the US and in other Canadian provinces, that strong associations are important not only as places to make connections, continue your professional learning, and contribute to the evolution of our profession. They are also essential organizing forces that play a unique and important role in defending core library values.
We have also seen that the existence of associations is not guaranteed, as in recent years some of the associations in Canada have struggled or even ceased to exist. Thank you for continuing to support and participate in BCLA, ensuring that we remain a sustainable and evolving association.
BCLA is made up of individuals, working together — our volunteers, members, and staff. I’m grateful to all of you:
To our members: thank you for staying engaged and showing up for this organization. BCLA exists because you choose to be part of it, and your dedication to this profession is the driving force behind everything we do.
To everyone who steps up to lead or get involved in our interest groups, sections, and committees: your willingness to share your knowledge and time with your peers is essential to the work that we do.
To the BCLA staff: you bring heart, ingenuity, and effort to this work every day. For such a small team, what you pull off continues to amaze me.
And to my fellow board members: your dedication to this Association and to our field is something I deeply admire. BCLA board meetings are always a bright spot in my calendar. I learn from the ideas you bring and the questions you ask; thank you for your service.
I look forward to working with all of you over the next year to continue to strengthen BCLA and the BC library community.
Kind Regards,
Suzanne Rackover, BCLA President (2025-2027)