All posts by AAAL

Register Now for ILuminate 2025

This online learning event may be of interest to some AAAL members:


It’s time to register for ILuminate 2025, the free, online learning event hosted by MacEwan University Library!

ILuminate 2025with Mikayla Redden: Surfacing Marginalized Perspectives – Library Instruction and Scholarly Conversation Beyond the Peer Review Paradigm

Event details:

Registered participants will be sent a Zoom meeting link prior to the event. We hope to see you on May 6th! 

Sent on behalf of the ILuminate 2025 planning team: Jane Duffy, Liam Monaghan, Jody Nelson, Alison Pitcher 

ViMLoC Mentorship Program 2025

This call for applications may be of interest to some AAAL members:

For inquiries or further information, please contact: vimloc@gmail.com


The Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) Mentorship Program is now accepting applications for the 2025 session! This mentoring session will run from May 1st to June 30th, 2025. To apply as a mentor or mentee, please fill out the mentor application form or mentee application form

*** Applications will close on April 20, 2025. ***

About this program

The Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) recognizes the need to help visible minority librarians, especially early career and new immigrant librarians, develop their professional careers, as well as the need to encourage and guide visible minority library students with career planning. Lack of mentorship is often cited as a challenge among visible minority librarians, and through our mentorship program, we found that small acts of mentorship were able to make an impact on our mentees.

Applying for this program will help create a larger network of visible minority librarians and increase our representation in the library profession. The 2025 ViMLoC mentoring program will recruit experienced visible minority librarians as potential mentors, as well as facilitate the matching of potential mentors to mentees. ViMLoC membership is NOT required to participate in this program, however, you are encouraged to sign up for ViMLoC membership. Please visit our mentorship program page for more information.  

Should I apply?

This program is open to visible minority librarians at all stages of their career, and visible minority library students. In Canada, the visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: Chinese, South Asian, Black, Arab, West Asian, Filipino, Southeast Asian, Latin American, Japanese and Korean. Participants with the intersectionality of these backgrounds are welcome to apply. We need mentors with all kinds of experience and skills. In recognition of your contribution to the mentorship program, we would be happy to provide mentors with a reference letter. 

Expectations

Applicants to the program are expected:

  • To commit to the full term of the session;
  • To keep in touch with their mentorship partner a minimum of twice per month (by email, phone, Zoom, or other means of communication upon mutual agreement);

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at vimloc@gmail.com

Best regards,

ViMLoc Mentorship Committee

Valentina Ly, Yanli Li, and Deks Gorecki

Call for AAAL Chair-Elect Nominations

Hello everyone,

We are still looking for an amazing individual to join us as our next Chair-Elect!

Speaking from experience, this is a fantastic role, with even better people! The time commitment is not that much, and the support in the group is incredible. I hope you will consider yourself for this role, or nominate a colleague! I would be happy to chat further if you have any questions about the role or work. Please see below for more information:

The Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) is seeking nominations for the following Executive Committee position, to begin this Spring.

All staff from AAAL member institutions (https://aaal.ca/membership/membership-list/) are eligible. To apply, simply send either a nomination or self-nomination to aaal.executive@gmail.com with a brief statement of interest.

For a full list of responsibilities for the role, please visit the AAAL Bylaws Page. Any questions about the role can be sent to Andrea Johnston (andrea.johnston@rdpolytech.ca)


The deadline for applications/nominations is Friday, April 25 at noon. 

To apply, please send either a nomination or self-nomination to aaal.executive@gmail.com with a brief statement of interest


For a brief description of the role, please see below.

Executive Committee Vacancy

Chair-Elect (3 year term – first as Chair-Elect, second year as Chair, third year as Past-Chair – note that the first year of term is only a partial year). 

Responsibilities include: 

  • Call for volunteers for executive and standing committee positions as needed and ensure positions are filled and elections carried out as needed; 
  • Communicate changes to the Executive and Committee roster, including position terms, to the Communications Committee. 
  • Solicit applications for the Professional Development Award and oversee award disbursements

Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for considering! AAAL is an incredible group to be a part of, and we hope you consider joining us!

Kind Regards, 

Andrea Johnston, AAAL Chair-Elect

Stronger Together Announcement

Dear AAAL Members,

Thank you so much to all the member institutions who cast their vote on “Stronger Together 2025” membership!

I am happy to announce that we can now report that we have a majority affirmative response from our voting members: Effective immediately, AAAL will become a trial one-year, risk-free member of the upcoming “Stronger Together 2025” initiative. 

Mary Dallas (Red Deer Polytechnical) and Meagan Bowler (Mount Royal University) have been invited to represent AAAL on the “Stronger Together” Academic Program Planning Committee for 2025. Thank you so much to Mary and Meagan for agreeing to serve Alberta’s academic libraries in this important way!

More about the “Stronger Together 2025” event will be featured in my Chair Report at our much anticipated AAAL Spring AGM, which will be held on Friday, May 2, 2025, and hosted by MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.

In the meantime, wishing you all the best as we look forward to a f-a-s-t approaching spring!

Sincerely,

Jane

Jane C. Duffy, B.A., M.A., M.L.S., M.A.C.T.

Librarian for Mathematics & Statistics, Dept of Public Safety and Justice Studies

Liaison for the School of Continuing Education and MacEwan International

Chair, Association of Alberta Academic Libraries 2024-25

MacEwan University

7-275C John L. Haar Library

duffyj@macewan.ca

Call for Chair-Elect & Sub-Committee Roles

The Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) is seeking nominations for the following Executive Committee and Sub-Committee positions, to begin this Spring.

All staff from AAAL member institutions are eligible. We ask that for Executive Committee roles (we accept nominations or self-nominations), interested candidates include a brief statement of interest in your email. For Sub-Committee positions, we only require an expression of interest. Expressions of interest can be sent to the AAAL Executive (aaal.executive@gmail.com).

For a full list of responsibilities for each role/committee, please visit the AAAL Bylaws page. Any questions about the roles can be sent to Andrea Johnston (andrea.johnston@rdpolytech.ca)

The deadline for applications/nominations is Friday, April 25 at noon.

For a brief description of the role, please see below.

Executive Committee Vacancies

Chair-Elect (3 year term – first as Chair-Elect, second year as Chair, third year as Past-Chair – note that the first year of term is only a partial year).

Responsibilities include:

  • Call for volunteers for executive and standing committee positions as needed and ensure positions are filled and elections carried out as needed;
  • Communicate changes to the Executive and Committee roster, including position terms, to the Communications Committee.
  • Solicit applications for the Professional Development Award and oversee award disbursements

Sub-Committee Vacancies

Mentorship Committee – 1 vacancy (2-year term)

The Mentorship Committee is responsible for coordinating and supporting the AAAL Mentorship program (Sept-April), including calling for mentors and mentees, pairing participants, and soliciting feedback.

Please let us know if you have any questions and thank you for considering! AAAL is an incredible group to be a part of and we hope you consider joining us!

Kind Regards,

Andrea Johnston (Chair-Elect)

AAAL Executive Board

aaal.executive@gmail.com