AAAL Fall Meeting Online: Registration, What to Expect, and Meeting Package

Announcements, Fall Meeting, Member News

Hello AAAL Members,

Registration is now open for the online AAAL Fall Meeting, November 25th from 12:30-4pm. All library employees from AAAL members institutions and students whose association has a AAAL membership, are eligible to attend.

Please register by November 20th 2026. Once registered you will receive a Zoom link at least 48hrs before the meeting.

The meeting package is viewable online. Please note that some minor changes may take place before the event.

As we welcome a number of new AAAL members this year, we have outlined what to expect from the Fall meeting.

  • We will open the Zoom room at 12:20 so that you can log on early and we will ensure that we have a quorum before continuing to voting matters.
  • After a short introduction we will ask our members to approve the agenda, approve the minutes of our the Spring 2026 AGM
  • We will begin with the Business portion of our agenda, which will include
    • An item that our voting members (or your officially designated proxies) will need to vote on. This will consist of a revamped AAAL Vision, Mission, and Goals, that is available as an appendix in the meeting minutes.
    • A short presentation from the Statistics & Assessment Sub-committee around Data Definitions & Expectations for Statistics
    • The  Resources Sharing Community of Practice will lead us in a discussion
    • Subcommittee and working groups presentations, discussions, reports,and calls for volunteers, as well as the AAAL Executive reports.
    • We will then have a short break
  • After our short break, we will move on to our guest speaker who will close out the event.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the AAAL Online Fall Meeting! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact aaal.executive@gmail.com

Many thanks,

Céline Gareau-Brennan, AAAL Chair

On behalf of the AAAL Executive Board

Call for Hosts: Micro-Residency Program

Announcements, Micro-Residency

AAAL is pleased to invite applications for hosts in the new Micro-Residency program.

A micro-residency provides the opportunity for a library staff member to spend a day at another AAAL library. During the visit, participants will work alongside library staff in a collaborative and hands-on learning environment.

Experiences may include:

·         Shadowing library staff in their daily work

·         Exploring specialized services, spaces, or technologies

·         Working at a public service desk

·         Co-teaching or observing instruction sessions

·         Participating in team meetings

·         Collaborating on projects or initiatives

·         Participating in outreach, programming, or community engagement activities

Every micro-residency is unique and shaped by the interests of the participant and the opportunities available at the host institution.

Host applications are currently open until December 15th, 2026. Participant applications will open in Winter 2027.

For more information about the program, please visit AAAL Micro-Residencies Program.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at aaal.mentorship@gmail.com

Thank you for considering becoming one of our first micro-residency hosts!

Sincerely,

Caitlin Ratcliffe (NorQuest College) & Romany Craig (University of Lethbridge)

AAAL Micro-Residencies Working Group

Call for Interest – AAAL Advocacy Sub-Committee

AAAL Committees, Advocacy, Announcements, Fall Meeting

Dear AAAL members,

AAAL is inviting expressions of interest from members who would like to join its newly established Advocacy Sub-Committee.

Advocacy has emerged as an important area of development for AAAL. As a provincial association, AAAL has an opportunity to increase awareness of the value and contributions of Alberta’s academic libraries, support members in advocating for their unique mission within their own institutions, and contribute expertise on issues that directly affect academic libraries, their workers, and the communities they serve.

The AAAL Advocacy Sub-Committee will help AAAL develop this role thoughtfully and sustainably. Its initial work will include:

  • clarifying the scope and priorities of AAAL’s advocacy activities, including developing a protocol for advocacy initiatives;
  • gathering evidence and examples that demonstrate the contributions of academic libraries
  • brainstorming on potential advocacy workshop themes and protocol development for AAAL members

Because this is a new initiative, the Advocacy Sub-Committee will begin with a deliberately modest and manageable scope. For the first year, the objective is not to undertake an ambitious advocacy program immediately. Rather, the group will together: 1) establish a sound foundation for evidence-informed academic library advocacy initiatives and 2) develop practical priorities that reflect AAAL’s wide-ranging and diverse mandate.

Interest is encouraged from members working in different academic library roles, all career stages, and all regions of Alberta. Experience in advocacy is very welcome but not required. Members who bring knowledge of communications, assessment, institutional planning, research, teaching, equity and accessibility, or other relevant areas are also invited to share their interest. Most importantly, colleagues are sought who are interested in helping AAAL to develop a credible and constructive advocacy profile.

The AAAL Advocacy Sub-Committee will meet monthly beginning in November 2026, with an initial appointment extending to November 2028. Meetings will be held virtually.

If you are interested in this exciting new service opportunity, please send a brief expression of interest to duffyj@macewan.ca by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10. Please include your current library role and institution, along with a few sentences about which AAAL Advocacy objective interests you most.

Thank you all for considering this opportunity to shape the direction of an important new area of AAAL’s work.

Warm regards,

Jane Duffy
Chair, AAAL Advocacy Sub-Committee

ACTION BY NOV 3rd – Call for member reports for AAAL Fall Meeting

Announcements, Fall Meeting, Member News

Hello AAAL members,

If you want to contribute a member report for the AAAL Fall meeting package, please send it to the aaal.executive@gmail.com before November 3rd 2026.

This is for the Fall Meeting Package that needs to go out by November 4th. If you want an example of what a report may look like, please see last year’s meeting package: https://aaal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/aaal-fall-2025_-meeting-package.pdf

We won’t be dedicating in-meeting time to these reports, but will be sending them all with the meeting package.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me

Céline Gareau-Brennan, AAAL Chair, on behalf of the, AAAL Executive Board

aaal.executive@gmail.com

Save the Date: Fall Meeting Nov. 25

Fall Meeting

Hello AAAL Members,

Mark your calendars! The Alberta Association of Academic Libraries Fall 2026 Meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, November 25th, from 12:30pm until 4pm.

Library staff from all our member institutions are invited to join us for a business meeting, followed by a roundtable, and a keynote presentation from Brenna Clarke Gray.

Brenna Clarke Gray is an open educator and critical technologist powered by righteous indignation and lattes and based at Thompson Rivers University in Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. Her work explores the possibilities of a care-centred approach to the ethical and equitable use of educational technologies. Outside of the university’s walls, she is an avid reader, compulsive baker, and tired mum. If she was a creature in the Jim Henson cinematic universe, she would be Cotterpin Doozer.

An RSVP and meeting schedule will be sent out soon.

Thanks,

AAAL Learning & Development Committee