President’s Report / Rapport du président
52nd Annual General Meeting / 52e Assemblée Générale Annuelle
Saturday May 10, 2025 / le samedi le 10 mai 2025
Virtual / virtuel : online / en ligne
On behalf of the membership of the Ontario Association of Library Technicians/Association des bibliotechniciens de l’Ontario (OALT/ABO), I would like to begin by thanking the members of the 2024 Board of Directors, including Emily Sullivan, Anastassia Irina, Janna Munkittrick-Colton and Linda Landreville, the Appointed Officers including Jessica Hymers, Lori O’Connor and Tamara Ozdemir and the Appointed Executive Officers of the Chapters.
On Saturday May 24, 2024, the 51st Annual General Meeting of OALT/ABO was called to order virtually via Zoom Meetings. Having obtained quorum through a combination of proxy holders and members present the membership proceeded with the business of the Association. Many of the Board positions were filled except for the positions of President-Elect, Internal Communications Coordinator and External Communications Coordinator.
The Board of Directors (“the Board”) met for the first time on June 20, 2024, via the Associations’ online meeting software (Zoom Meetings). Over the course of the year the Board met formally 10 times. This year, all of our meetings took place virtually. Members of the Association also attended Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings of the Algonquin and Mohawk Colleges’ Library and Information Technician Programs.
In 2025, the Ontario Association of Library Technicians/Association des bibliotechniciens de l’Ontario will be celebrating our 52nd anniversary as a bilingual association. The founding meeting took place on Saturday October 27, 1973 at Humber College. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the formation of a Library Technician Association, and was chaired by Douglas Willford.
Communications & Programming
The Board continues with implementation of Google Not for Profit as our document management platform. This platform allows the Board to manage all OALT/ABO documents, correspondence and archives in a centralized location, with access control to retrieve these electronic files. All Committees and Chapters are using Google as their document management platform.
The Board also continues our work on membership engagement and communications with our membership and the wider library community. The association further shares news and events on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn. We also maintain the OALT/ABO Google Groups Discussion list.
Our 2025 Conference “Embrace the Future / Embrasser l’avenir” took place on Thursday May 1st, 2025 at the Best Western PLUS Toronto Airport in Mississauga. While our numbers were smaller than previous years, we were able to offer two sessions at the same time throughout the day, and have some great networking opportunities. Thank you to Janna Munkittrick-Colton and her conference team for their planning, and execution of our conference. Please communicate with the Conference team with your feedback.
Student Engagement
The Board recognized the 2024 OALT/ABO Outstanding Student Award winners of the three college programs, including: Kari Lund-Teigen (Algonquin College), Irish Bonon (Seneca College) and Emily Offshack (Mohawk College).
This year we held virtual and in person Student Meet and Greets at all three college programs. These included Algonquin College Mohawk College and Seneca College
Algonquin College – The Board of Directors attended the Algonquin Employer Meet and Greet in March 2025.
Mohawk College – We held one Zoom meeting, which took place in November 2024. Students who attended these sessions had some great questions, and we received positive feedback from attendees.
Seneca College – We held two virtual sessions at Seneca College during their field placement courses in both December 2024 and March 2025. Students who attended this session had some great questions, and we received positive feedback from attendees.
Consolidated Letters Patent and Bylaws
In September 2024, members of the Association met in a Special Meeting to discuss the proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-laws. The online ballot to obtain consent of the membership was open from September 21, 2024 until the end of day on October 18, 2024. On September 21st, our total membership was 110 members. We had 23 members submit their ballots. For each of the 23 questions, 100% approval was received for each question.
Our new Consolidated Letters Patent and Bylaws were therefore amended by electronic ballot on October 19, 2024. Work on the translation of the French version is currently underway, expected to be published on our website shortly.
Award for Innovation
The Board of Directors had the honour of striking the 2025 Award for Innovation Committee, to award the 2025 award to Jessica Hymers. The Award recognizes the contributions of Library Technicians from communities across Ontario, whose innovative efforts have contributed significantly to advancing the Association and/or our profession. The Award for Innovation was established in 2002 by Huronia Region in memory of Judy Koenig. Over her time as Membership Coordinator, Jessica has worked on automation and documenting our new processes for Association membership. This automation allows for reports such as anniversaries, monthly meeting reports and the membership directory to be created using our existing hosted technologies through code.
OLA Super Conference
This year, the 2025 OLA Super Conference was held both in person and virtually. The Board of Directors had several members in attendance at the conference, promoting the association and our annual conference. Thank you to Tamara Ozdemir as the Library Technician Stream Planner.
Looking ahead
A few of the items that the Board of Directors is currently looking ahead towards include:
- Launching the 2025 Salary and Library Profile Survey
- Refreshing our web and social media presence, to incorporate modern standards, and automation
- Reviewing and enhancing our current processes and procedures regarding finances
For fifty-two years, the Ontario Association of Library Technicians/Association des bibliotechniciens de l’Ontario has been a source of initiative and innovation for library technicians of the province. The Association and the membership have been called upon to give their skills, time and energy to:
- Define clearly the role of the Library and Information Technician and to make this definition widely known.
- To publicize the value of Library and Information Technicians and promote wider understanding and acceptance of their status.
- To institute recognized standards operating on the Provincial level.
- To work to liaison with related professions and institutions and to promote effective communication among Library and Information Technicians and others in closely related fields.
- To be receptive and aware of the constant changes and needs in the field of Library and Information Technology and the community
- To disseminate information related to Library and Information Technicians
I would like to encourage any member (new or existing) to be part of the Board of Directors, Chapter Executive, or a committee. It is an extremely rewarding opportunity, which allows you to help out the Library Community at the same time. I have had a chance to work with an amazing team of committed volunteers, where all our interests, skills and expectations have been matched and met. I encourage you to do the same. I would like to extend my deepest thanks to the members of the Board of Directors, Appointed Officers and the Chapter Executive Teams for their work this year.
Before concluding, I would like to thank Emily Sullivan, Anastassia Irina, Janna Munkittrick-Colton, Linda Landreville, Jessica Hymers, Lori O’Connor and Tamara Ozdemir for the amazing work they have done over the last year.
Respectfully submitted,
-Original signed by Vincent Elit
Vincent Elit
President, Board of Directors | Président, Conseil d’administration
Ontario Association of Library Technicians/Association des bibliotechniciens de l’Ontario
info@oaltabo.on.ca | https://oaltabo.on.ca/