Issue 2: The Professional Development Issue

Professional development is a broad concept—encompassing anything from formalized courses and certificates, to conference attendance, journal clubs, and involvement in professional associations—but it is specific to your skills, needs, and career goals. It requires...

Like many, I am worried about our environmental crisis and whether we can achieve the transformative change necessary to avoid catastrophic impacts within our lifetimes and those of our children and grandchildren. Often, when we think about transforming how we live we...

We want to acknowledge the Coast Salish First Nations, on whose land we both reside, work, and study. For the Simon Fraser University Burnaby campus, this includes the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Kwikwetlem (Coquitlam), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ...

From the editors: We asked 2019/2020 President Chris Middlemass about how to get involved in the BCLA. She shares her experience, explains the different BCLA divisions, and gives insight to joining the BCLA Board of Directors. My biggest regret?  Not getting involved...

  We span all different levels of professional and paraprofessional library work (some of us working outside of libraries) and are spread across BC. While we aim for three or so meetings a year, they have become admittedly sporadic, as it’s hard to gather such a...

YAACS (Young Adults and Children’s Services) is a section of the British Columbia Library Association. Our purpose is to support library staff in the provision of high-quality library services to children, youth, and families in BC. Are you interested in or involved...

Do you enjoy Readers’ Advisory (RA) or want to know more about it? The BCLA Readers’ Advisory Interest Group (RAIG) is a community of library professionals and students in BC who are passionate about RA. We work to promote key library services and skills to connect...

  The importance of archives and the value of records has found a resurgence in pop culture thanks to television and movie references like the “Jedi Archives” in the Star Wars franchise and most recently in Captain Marvel -- I may have been the only person in the...

The Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL) supports academic librarians and the profession. As the only national association representing the interests of librarians as professionals, CAPAL strives to provide a voice for the professional...

The Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) is (in my opinion) one of the best resources for professional development in our region.  This association is an international group of library professionals and workers from all types of libraries, in all sorts of...