Mark your calendars! The Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) Spring 2022 Meeting will take place Thursday, May 12, 2022, hosted virtually. The Spring 2022 Meeting will begin at 9:00 am and conclude in the afternoon; a meeting link and further information will be forthcoming.

The theme for AAAL’s Spring meeting is Care Work: Practices and Ethics of Care in Academic Libraries. Caretaking or care work is a fundamental, but historically unacknowledged, part of academic library work, whether in preserving physical and digital collections, providing service to library users, or managing staff. While the COVID-19 pandemic and related shifts have brought the care-based dimensions of libraries to the fore, libraries are also increasingly asked to take on the kinds of work typically performed by explicitly care-based professions. More broadly, there has been an ongoing shift of the burden of care from the social to the individual, ranging from the rhetoric of self-care to how the collective risks of a global pandemic are mitigated.

We invite proposals that consider what a care-based perspective might offer for academic libraries. What new challenges or pitfalls might a view of library work as care introduce? What examples of practices of care can you share with the AAAL community?

Proposals can be for either a:

• 5 minute lightning talk that is a quick overview of your ideas, experience, and programs/services,

​OR

• 20 to 30 minute presentation that can include ideas, experiences, original research, engaging discussion questions or activities.

Submit your proposal by Sunday, April 10. Successful presenters will be contacted within the following week.

Do you require financial support to attend or present at the meeting? We encourage you to apply now for an AAAL Professional Development Award, whose scope has extended to be inclusive of technological peripheral support. PD Award applications are due April 15, 2022.

Wondering how we’ll select sessions? Take a look at our Rubric for Selecting AAAL Sessions and use it as a guide for your proposal.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The AAAL Workshop Committee:
Kelley Wadson, Carla Lewis, Kevin Tanner, Alexandra Alisauskas, Jorden Habib

Mark your calendar!  The Alberta  Association of Academic Libraries plans to hold the 2022 Spring AGM on Thursday, May 12th. The meeting will be held virtually and hosted by AAAL so that the meeting can be flexible and accessible for as many members as possible, with the intention of planning for in-person meetings in the near future. 

A call for virtual presentations, RSVP information, and the meeting agenda and package will be available soon; this year’s theme is Care Work: Practices and Ethics of Care in Academic Libraries. 

Did you miss AAAL’s Spring 2021 Meeting? Interested in learning about Canadian copyright OER, best practices for library chat, or data physicalization? Check out the recorded keynote address and presentations on the AAAL YouTube channel.

Please note these videos will only be available until July 14, 2021.

Hopefully, everyone has marked their calendars and is ready for the AAAL 2021 Spring AGM, hosted virtually in partnership with MacEwan University on May 6th, 2021 from 9:00 am-3:00 pm MST. 

All AAAL member library staff are welcome to attend. We are so pleased to share our meeting package and amazing full-day program including our keynote speaker Dr. Norene Erickson (MacEwan University) where she will speak to the relationship between different roles within the library.  The full agenda and meeting package can be accessed at https://aaal.ca/events/. 

To join us, please follow this link (https://ca.bbcollab.com/guest/74a87d5cceeb4c04b46d8558ca383df8).  There is no registration required to attend. 

If you are unable to attend, we will endeavor to offer recordings of our presentations and will post a link to these recordings on our website after the meeting. 

We have also extended the deadline for the AAAL Professional Development Award to Monday, May 3, 2021.  We have extended the scope of this award to include peripheral support and technology expenses. Please visit the PD Award page for details.  

A huge thanks to MacEwan for hosting, as well to the Learning and Developing Committee for their hard work in putting this all together for us. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to aaal.executive@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you there!

The deadline for proposals has been extended to April 18!

The Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) Spring Meeting and AGM will be hosted virtually in partnership with MacEwan University on Thursday, May 6th, 2021. A registration link will be forthcoming.

We are now in our second year of the global pandemic and a repositioning of post-secondary education in Alberta. These events have highlighted inequities for minority groups and concerns about employment stability, training, recruitment, culture and working conditions. It is time to reconceptualize our professional identities, our roles in academia and the nature of our work.

The theme for AAAL’s Spring 2021 meeting is Working together…when we’re working apart. You are invited to submit proposals for presentations exploring how recent events have affected library workers and their relationships with patrons, colleagues or workload. What projects and collaborations have resulted from challenges faced in the last year? Have new or unexpected (unlikely?!) partnerships developed between groups, departments or institutions?  We particularly encourage the participation of staff who are not librarians (technicians, assistants, specialists etc.).

Proposals can be for either a: 

• 5 minute lightning talk that is a quick overview of your ideas, experience, and programs/services,

OR

• 20 to 30 minute presentation that can include ideas, experiences, original research, engaging discussion questions or activities.

Please note that the final timing and duration of the day is still to be determined.

Submit your proposal by Sunday, April 18th. Successful presenters will be contacted within the following week. 

Do you require financial support to attend or present at the meeting? We encourage you to apply for an AAAL Professional Development Award, whose scope has extended to be inclusive of technological peripheral support.  

Wondering how we’ll select sessions? Take a look at our Rubric for Selecting AAAL Sessions and use it as a guide for your proposal.

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Best,

The AAAL Workshop Committee: 

Lucinda Johnston, Jessica Leslie, Carla Lewis, Sarah Shaughnessy, Kelley Wadson