Posted in Advocacy, and Professional Development
CFLA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee is searching for four new members. We welcome nominations from CFLA member associations and interested individuals who are members of a CFLA/FCAB member association. Once appointed to the Committee, the responsibility of members is to the Committee, not to the nominating body.
Posted in Advocacy, and Professional Development
The CFLA-FCAB Cataloguing and Metadata Standards Committee (CMSC) is seeking expressions of interest in representing CFLA-FCAB on the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing (CCC). One CFLA-FCAB position is currently open and CMSC would like to have someone in place for September 1, 2022. The appointment will be for a three-year term ending August 31, 2025.
Posted in Advocacy, and Professional Development
In January 2022 Manitoba Library Association was invited by Manitoba Department of Families to review the discussion paper Developing Manitoba’s Homelessness Strategy and attend a strategy call. MLA provided feedback to the Department of Families on the role that libraries play as community hubs for connecting all users, including users experiencing homelessness, to information resources that they require to support their cultural, social, and economic well being. The Department of Families has since developed the What We Heard report from their consultations.
This past December, representatives from the MLA Board spoke with representatives from the CFLA Board to address concerns about the lack of consultation regarding the CFLA Intellectual Freedom Statements. After stating concerns, a verbal agreement in principle was made by the meeting attendees that greater consultation should be undertaken. A tentative and high-level plan was discussed whereby CFLA and MLA would jointly consult with MLA members. Meeting attendees agreed to bring this high-level plan back to their respective Boards to obtain commitment on next steps.
Following our organizations’ Board meetings in December and January, CFLA has provided the following response:
“The CFLA board understands that there are divergent opinions on the topic of intellectual freedom in libraries, especially as it relates to the goal of supporting social justice and inclusion. We thank MLA for their commitment to engaging in a consultation process with their members to inform future directions, but feel that at this point CFLA does not have the capacity to develop a consultation process with the robustness and attention it deserves, so this issue is being deferred until after a new Board takes office in February. We are also committed to facilitating a National Forum on this topic, as was planned for the canceled MLA conference in 2020, but this event continues to be deferred due to the pandemic.”
– Todd Kyle, Chair, CFLA
The MLA Board will continue to engage CFLA on this matter, and will keep our membership informed of new developments as they arise.
Posted in Advocacy
MLA has sent this letter in support of the Librarians, Archivists, Professors, and Instructors represented by the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), dated November 17, 2021.
Posted in Advocacy
MLA wrote this letter to CFLA outlining concerns over CFLA’s lack of consultation with members regarding their support/lack of support for CFLA’s position, dated November 21, 2021.
Posted in Advocacy
MLA sent this letter to Premier Pallister regarding the continued closure of libraries, museums, and galleries.
To see other letters sent and received by MLA, please go to our Letters and Statements page.
Posted in Advocacy, and Library Technicians
Please see the reply from Dr. Watson regarding the shift online of the Library Technician Diploma program.
On July 8, 2020, Red River College (RRC) announced that it was suspending 6 on-campus programs offered to students, including the popular Library and Information Technology (LIT) program. Please read MLA’s letter sent to Dr. Christine Watson regarding this announcement.
