President’s Report / Rapport du Président
50th Annual General Meeting / 50e Assemblée Générale Annuelle
Saturday May 13 2023 / le samedi le 13 mai 2023
In Person / En personne : Durham College, Oshawa Ontario
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 first begin by thanking the members of the 2022 Board of Directors, including Lori O’Connor, Mary Doyle, Janna Munkittrick-Colton, and Eleni Gouliaras, the Appointed Officers including Jessica Hymers, Tamara Ozdemir and Mary Doyle and the Appointed Executive Officers of the 4 Chapters.
On Saturday May 14, 2022, the 49th Annual General Meeting of OALT/ABO was called to order 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, External Communications Coordinator, Internal Communications Coordinator and Chapter Coordinator.
The Board of Directors (“the Board”) met for the first time on June 09, 2022, via the Associations’ online meeting software (Zoom Meetings). Over the course of the year the Board met formally 10 times. All of our Board meetings this year took place online. Members of the Association also attended Advisory Committee meetings of the Algonquin and Mohawk Colleges’ Library and Information Technician Programs.
This year, the association will be celebrating our 50th anniversary as a bilingual association. The founding meeting of the association took place on Saturday October 27, 1973 at Humber College. The meeting was to discuss the formation of a Library Technician Association, and was chaired by Douglas Willford.
To quote from this meeting “In his opening remarks Doug Willford talked about the May seminar on Library technology, which Course Directors, Library Technician students and some Library Technician graduates attended. He stated that the idea of forming an association of some sort had been discussed at the seminar and that there was a feeling that the impetus to form an association must come from the employed technicians. … The agenda included a) Formation of an association, b) Whether the association should be provincial or national, c) writing of a constitution, d) Holding a first annual general meeting and e) Whether or not the Canadian Library Technician Association (CLTA) exists as a legal association”
Report of the Founding Meeting of the OALT/ABO, Saturday October 27, 1973 (available in English / disponible en français)
Communications & Programming
In 2022, we announced our Professional Development Lunch & Learn Series. Sessions hosted included:
Ontario Archives: Yours to discover! (June)
Woodland Cultural Centre Museum Tour (November)
The Board has continued 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 also are now using Google as their document management platform.
The Board 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, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. We also maintain the OALT/ABO Discussion list, which contains 245 members (as of May 1, 2023).
At the end of 2022, our social media following included:
- Facebook – 678 fans with 26 new fans
- Twitter -27 new followers
- Instagram 138 followers with 20 new followers
- LinkedIn 705 followers
- 104 Posts across all networks
- 17K impressions across all networks
- 11K users reached across all networks
A summary of our social media highlights can be found at the end of this report [PDF version].
Student Engagement
The Board recognized the OALT/ABO Outstanding Student Award winners of the three college programs, including: Malini Srinivasan (Algonquin), Catherine Detzler (Mohawk).
This year we held virtual and in person Student Meet and Greets at all 3-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 2023
Mohawk College – This year we held one Zoom meeting, taking place in November2022. Students who attended these sessions had some great questions, and we received positive feedback from attendees.
Seneca College – This year we held in person sessions at Seneca College in February 2023. Students who attended this session had some great questions, and we received positive feedback from attendees.
OLA Super Conference
This year, the 2023 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 Mary Doyle as the Library Technician Stream Planner.
Every year we look forward to our annual conference as an important time to connect, share and learn together. This year we have ventured into uncharted waters, and are hosting our conference in a hybrid format (both in person and online). Thank you to Janna and her conference team for their planning, and execution of our conference. Please communicate with the Conference team with your feedback.
For fifty 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.
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/