abqla 2005 annual report

ABQLA
RAPPORT ANNUEL
ANNUAL REPORT
2005
74e Assemblée Generale Annuelle
le 5 mai 2006
74th Annual General Meeting
May 5, 2006
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ABQLA 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
Our Mission:
ABQLA, a non-profit voluntary association of library personnel and friends in the province
of Québec, provides a network for its members' mutual support. It serves the community
through education, advocacy and communication.
Goals and Objectives:
This Association shall exist for the promotion and development of library services in
Quebec. The goals and objectives of the Association shall be to promote interest in, and the
welfare of libraries throughout the province by providing its members opportunities of
meeting and discussing professional questions, by making the public aware of the facilities
which libraries offer for recreation and education, and by arousing public opinion to the
need for more numerous and better-equipped libraries and higher standards of training at all
levels. This organization shall be carried on without purpose of gain for its members, and
any profits or other gains to this organization shall be used for the promotion and
development of library services in Quebec.
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To provide opportunities for its members to pursue their professional interests
To facilitate the exchange of information on library-related issues
To raise the political and public awareness of the role of libraries in Québec
To strengthen ties with national, provincial and local library organizations
To support and promote literacy throughout the community
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ABQLA 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2005—2006
President
Past President
Vice-President
Wendy Wayling
Ann Moffat
Mary Jane O'Neill
Treasurer
Kay Turner (Nov. 2005)
Janet Ilavsky (current)
Secretary
Janet Ilavsky
Director
Director
Director
Director
Director
Director
Florian Dubois
Karen Findlay
Julian Taylor
Annie Tétreault
Maria Morales
Jean Williams
Bulletin Editor
Advertising Manager
Meg Sinclair
Maria Morales
Sections:
POSITION
SECTION
NAME
President
College & Research
Rajiv Johal
VicePresident
College & Research
Maryvon Côté
President
Public Libraries
Janine West
VicePresident
Public Libraries
Tanya Abramovitch
Co-Presidents School Libraries
Joan Burton & Maria Cavaiuolo
VicePresident
School Libraries
Anne Harkin
President
Youth Section
Martha Frey
VicePresident
Youth Section
Elizabeth Macdonnell
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SPECIAL COMMITTEES
Web Committee
Conference Committee
Rajiv Johal
Alexandra Yarrow
Jared Wiercinski
April Colosimo
Emond Duffy
Chair:
Mary-Jane O’Neill
Webmaster (until Dec. 2005)
Cornelia Penner
75th Anniversary Committee
Karen Findlay
Ann Moffat
Rosemary Cochrane
Susan Perles
Luigina Vileno
Maria Vavarikos
Wendy Wayling
Tanya Abramovitch
Lora Baiocco
Teodora Constantinescu
Jennifer Eisman
Carol-Ann Hoyte
Mai Jay
Margaret Kastner
Cathy Maxwell
Evlyn Payton Taylor
Elaine Randolph
Wendy Wayling
Janine West
Alexandra Yarrow
Archives Committee
Karen Findlay
Janet Ilavsky
Wendy Wayling
E-Journal, representative
Lorie Kloda
ABQLA AWARDS
Anne Galler Award 2005
Anne Galler Award 2006
Rosemary Cochrane
Karen Findlay
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ABQLA 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
Looking back over this past year, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the future of libraries
in this province. La Bibliothèque et Archives Nationale du Québec celebrates its first
anniversary this month - nearly 3 million visitors have walked through its doors since
opening in 2005; Montreal’s year as UNESCO World Book Capital draws to a successful
close as reading, books and libraries are brought to the attention of the general public; the
Blue Met Literary Festival held in Montreal continues to grow and gain in popularity;
government funding in the amount of $60 million over the course of three years has finally
started to filter down to the libraries in the public school sector; and McGill University
celebrated the opening of a most impressive music library, thanks to the generosity of a
benefactor, Seymour Shulich, who wanted to give back to the community! One cannot deny
that this has been an exciting year in the world of libraries.
As my year as ABQLA President draws to a close, I have had some time to reflect on what
our Association has accomplished this year. We have forged new partnerships, kept up-todate with the local and national library scene, informed our members about latest
developments and interesting news, supported literacy programs and provided our members
with a number of professional development opportunities, including our annual conference.
Partnerships
ABQLA joined the newly formed group called The Partnership in December 2005 to help
develop its programs. The Partnership is a new network of provincial and territorial library
associations representing more than 7,500 members who have joined forces to create
initiatives to improve librarianship across the country. Because of its national scope, it can
offer programs and services that individual library associations could probably not afford.
This is an amazing opportunity for us to share ideas with librarians and library personnel
across Canada! Both Mary-Jane O’Neill and I were given the opportunity to attend the
fabulous OLA conference in February so that we could take part in a number of Partnership
meetings.
In conjunction with the CLA-Montreal Chapter, ABQLA held a marketing workshop at La
Grande Bibliothèque on May 19, 2005. Librarians from all sectors came to hear Judith A.
Seiss, author of The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy,
talk about customer service, public relations, and advocacy in the library. The lecture was
followed by a special tour of the newly opened library.
The Canadian Library Association provided me with a complementary registration for its
annual conference in Calgary this past June. I was lucky enough to take part in some
insightful lectures, informative meetings with other provincial association members, and
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some wonderful social events. CLA has been busy working on a number of issues that
affect all of us, including the Canada Post book rate, Canadian copyright law, and the future
of human resources in the Canadian library world. ABQLA now has a copy of the bilingual
report The Future of Human Resources in Canadian Libraries which details many facts and
statistics concerning library personnel in Canada.
The 22nd SLA/CLA/ABQLA Annual CODE Fundraiser turned out to be more successful
than ever. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and members and to the hard work of
the committee, we were able to contribute $2000 to a CODE project promoting literacy in a
developing country. A special thanks to Mark Galler who continues to support this
important project through the Anne Galler Memorial Fund by matching our donation. Over
the past ten years our contribution has totaled $83,400 for ongoing projects in Africa and
the Caribbean.
McGill Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
The Career Fair – I was invited to this year’s fair held at Thomson House in March. I felt
that there was an important exchange of information – the students found out why a
professional association is so crucial to a librarian’s career and I found out that up-to-date
websites with current news and job postings are extremely important to recent graduates.
We received an invitation to the McGill GSLIS Advisory Council Meeting held in
November 2005. This meeting was an avenue for different concerned groups and
individuals to get together to share information about librarianship in the community. I hope
that this Council continues to meet on a regular basis.
Communication
Keeping you informed!
The Bulletin, which is printed three times per year, continues to be a great source of
information for our members. I would like to congratulate the editor, Meg Sinclair, on the
wonderful job she continues to do on this newsletter. As this year comes to a close, Meg has
decided to pass on the reins of The Bulletin after working tirelessly for 5 years. Meg has
always taken the job as editor very seriously by improving its design, layout, and content.
Thank you Meg for your superb work – we’ll miss you!
Thank you also to Maria Morales who will continue as Advertising Manager for her hard
work and dedication this year!
Web Page Committee – comprised of Rajiv Johal, Alexandra Yarrow, April Colosimo,
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Jared Wiercinski and Emond Duffy.
As we all know, web pages are a fantastic source of information available at the tips of our
fingertips, however, they can be difficult to maintain and keep up-to-date. I would like to
thank Cornelia Penner, former webmaster, for all her hard-work on the ABQLA web page
over the last couple of years. After Cornelia left this year due to work commitments, the
Board decided to create a web committee who would share the duties of maintaining the
page. I would like to thank Rajiv Johal for being instrumental in putting this efficient and
creative team together!
I would also like to extend a special thanks to librarian Elaine Randolph for all her hard
work designing the 2006 conference web page – her design and concept was excellent!
E-mails – I would like to thank our secretary, Janet Ilavsky, for always keeping up-to-date
with regular mailings to our members. This service is invaluable!
E-journal
The committee in charge of the e-journal, Partnership: Canadian Journal of Library and
Information Research and Practice, which is in its beginning stages and under the wing of
The Partnership will begin to publish research on best practices in public, school, college,
university and special libraries this Fall. I would like to thank Lorie Kloda for agreeing to be
our representative on this newly formed committee. The e-journal was created to address
the limited number of journals available for librarians who do research.
Archives
A special committee was formed this year to look into our Archives, now housed at the
Fraser-Hickson Library. Unfortunately, our application to the Young Canada Works
Program for a summer student grant was not accepted. But we are not giving up– plans are
underway to apply again for 2007!
In preparation for our 75th anniversary next year, the committee will begin to pull out
important information from the archives to write a history of our Association. It is important
for our current and future members to understand the history of our Association within the
context of the Quebec library scene.
Professional Development
Annual Conference
Over 120 delegates took part in another successful conference last year at Concordia
University. We are expecting a full-house again this year as we embark on the 74th annual
conferernce to be held at the University Club. Congratulations to Chair, Mary-Jane O’Neill
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and her committee for putting together a great program which includes local, national and
international speakers all focusing on the relevance of libraries today!
Section Workshops
Thanks to the efforts of the individuals involved in each of the ABQLA sections, we were
able to offer a number of varied and stimulating programs throughout the year. These
workshops were all aimed at fostering professional development within the local library
community. Each section head provided a brief overview of his or her event:
• Public Libraries Section / Section des Bibliothèques publiques
(Janine West, Président / Tanya Abramovitch, Vice-Président)
Reader’s Advisory with the Dewey Divas - On October 18th at the Westmount
Public Library, a network of Canadian publishers’ reps known as the Dewey Divas
made a special stop in Montreal to talk about the season’s upcoming books.
Maylin Scott and Larhing Tribe from Random House, Maureen Johnson from
Scholastic, and Rosalyn Steele from H.B. Fenn spoke enthusiastically to an audience
of approximately 45 librarians about upcoming bestsellers, books for bookclubs,
non-fiction, YA crossover books, books for children, and as they put it “just darned
good reads.” Everyone left with some great giveaways generously provided by the
publishers. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Public Library Week!
“A Tale of Two Novels” with Dr. Elizabeth Miller – Dr. Miller fondly known as
‘Dr. Dracula’ expounded upon the two gothic vampire novels, the classic Dracula
by Bram Stoker and the bestseller, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Twenty
librarians and friends enjoyed this ‘Dracula Soirée’ that was held at the Lawn
Bowling Green in Westmount on March 9th.
Dr. Miller, author of A Dracula Handbook, is internationally recognized for her
expertise on Dracula lore, and has lectured world-wide on the subject. For her afterdinner lecture, she wove a fascinating tale of the two novels. Her intelligent and
oftentimes humorous presentation sparked the interest of the audience, who, in a
prolonged question period that followed, wanted to learn more about the various
ways vampires could be killed, and how bats got to be associated with them in the
first place!
• Youth Section / Section jeunesse
(Martha Frey, President / Elizabeth Macdonell, Vice-President)
Canadian Children’s Book Week Meet the Author Event was once again held in
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collaboration with the Montreal Children’s Literature Roundtable. This annual event
was held at the Westmount Public Library on November 2nd. Karen Krossing and
Kristin Bieber Domm were invited to present their books and share their thoughts on
writing. The topics ranged from genetic engineering to linguistics and made for a
highly interesting evening.
Marketing to Teens in the New Millennium - This workshop was held on March
28th at the Bibliothèque de Brossard and included a tour of the library. Valeria Sosa
from the Académie des arts et design, described Generation Y and the impact they
will have on library services. Valérie Comte presented the Teen Council project that
she is running at the Brossard Library. The attendees came away with ideas that they
could take back to their own libraries.
• School Libraries Section / Section des Bibliothèques
scolaires
(Joan Burton & Maria Cavaiulo, Co-Presidents / Anne Harkin, Vice-President)
Spring Books at Livres Babar was presented by owner Maya Byers in Pointe Claire
on April 11. The purpose of the workshop was to inform school library personnel of
the latest children and teen titles. Because the government has offered a three-year
funding program for library books, the workshop was very timely.
QPAT (Quebec Professional Association of Teachers)
Unfortunately, due to teacher work-to-rule, scheduling conflicts, and labour
difficulties at the Palais de Congres there was no workshop presented at this year’s
QPAT Convention.
• College and Research Section
(Rajiv Johal, President / Maryvon Côté, Vice-President)
Tour of the new Marvin Duchow Music Library at McGill took place on November
9, 2005 and was presented by Brian MacMillan, the music library liaison.
Participants were offered a behind-the-scenes look into a music library!
“The Evidence of Things not Seen and Ears not Heard: Libraries and the Hidden
Black Print Culture” presented by Dr. Dorothy Williams took place on April 9,
2006 at the Westmount Public Library. Dorothy discussed her research findings
concerning the history of Blacks not just here in Montreal but in Canada.
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Le premier événement, qui avait lieu le 9 novembre 2005, était un tour de la
nouvelle bibliothèque de Musique Marvin Duchow à McGill. Nous étions guidé
par Brian McMillan, la bibliothécaire de musique.
Le deuxième événement, qui avait lieu le 7 avril 2006 à la Bibliothèque Westmount
été intitulé « The Evidence of Things not Seen and Ears not Heard : Libraries and
the Hidden Black Print Culture ». La présentatrice, Dorothy Williams, a discuté de
son expérience et de sa recherche dans l’histoire des noirs pas seulement à Montréal
mais aussi au Canada.
Education Institute
The most developed area of The Partnership is the Education Institute - a continuing
education program which offers coast- to-coast programs through teleconferences, webcasts
and 6 to 8 week on-line courses. As a member association of The Partnership, ABQLA
members receive lower fees for these sessions which are aimed at librarians, technicians,
support staff and trustees. For reasonable costs, you can benefit from the expertise of
remarkable speakers from across Canada and the United States. This program has even
caught the attention of the American Library Association executives. Apparently, it is the
first of its kind in North America and the ALA is watching its development closely! As a
partner, ABQLA is looking for topics and speakers to include in the next Education Institute
brochure. To date, approximately 30 ABQLA members have participated in these
workshops. ABQLA receives a percentage of the profits for each one of our members who
participate.
Thank you!
To close, I would like to express my great appreciation and respect for the members of this
year’s Board. It was a privilege to work with all of you. Because of your dedication to the
mission and goals of this organization we were able to accomplish a lot this year, from the
successful Fall Kick-Off to the Annual Conference! And last, but certainly not least, I can’t
say thank you enough to our secretary/treasurer, Janet Ilavsky, for her hard-work,
enthusiasm and expertise! Thank you!
I would also like to thank the continued support of our sponsors who understand the
important role librarians play in fostering a love of learning and reading in a community.
With their support, we were able to offer some wonderful opportunities for our members.
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Wendy Wayling, President
Treasurer’s Report
May I begin by saying thank you to the Board members for their support in the past year, in
particular since November 2005, when I assumed the role of treasurer upon the unforeseen
resignation of former treasurer Kay Turner. In 2005 the Board of Directors met on May 26,
September 15, October 27, and November 21, and in 2006, on January 9, February 9, March
20 and April 20.
Please refer to the Financial Statement 2005, contained in this Annual Report prepared by
our accountant, Mr. Joe Tuwaig.
The number of memberships in our Association rose in 2005 to 143, up 19% from 2004. It
is most important that we strive to continually attract new members to ensure the future
success of our organization.
The Annual Conference was a great success last year. Lower speaker expenses and a 31%
increase in sponsorships were major contributors to the financial success of this project.
Thank you to our sponsors who have a major part to play in making the conference possible.
Various workshops were held over the course of the last year. The Fall Kick-Off revenues
were higher than the previous year, but the Bulletin expenses continue to be a big
responsibility for the Association, despite numerous efforts to save on printing and postage.
The 2005 Holiday Party held at the Fraser-Hickson Institute in conjunction with CLA and
SLA was most successful, enabling our shared donation to CODE to be increased to $2000
this year.
The Association continues to operate exceedingly well despite limited sources of revenue
and ever-growing ongoing expenses. It is important that continuous efforts be made to
increase our membership base, to encourage participation in Association events, and solicit
more sponsors, while at the same time keeping a watchful eye on expenses.
Respectfully submitted,
Janet Ilavsky
ABQLA 2005 Members
Personal 124 * Institutional 16 * Corporate 3 * Total 143
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