Laurel McLeod

Back-to-school season is just around the corner! With Ontario colleges and universities getting ready to welcome new and returning students, they’re busy hosting open houses, social activities and pop-ups. Last Wednesday, OLA joined in on the fun with Melissa, making her way to Thunder Bay to host an outreach event at both Confederation College and Lakehead University. 

I’m back! Technically.

After 10 days in South Korea for the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, my body is back in Ontario, my brain is somewhere over the Pacific, and the 13-hour time difference continues to make a compelling argument that 4pm is a perfectly reasonably time to go to sleep.

I’m still processing everything I learned and experienced at IFLA. There’s a lot to unpack, and I suspect pieces of it will continue to show up in my thinking – and this blog – for months to come.

Happy August! What’s that Taylor Swift line – August sipped away like a bottle of wine? On that note, last week I headed out to Stratford to spend some time with the team at Stratford Public Library – and yes, I finally got to experience Summer Swiftie Celebration! A group of friends and I joined in the fun, and it was exactly the kind of joyful, community-building event that reminds you why libraries are so special.

It’s the end of July. Am I the only person questioning space and time, and wondering how it all flies so quickly? These are my post-vacation existential thoughts. I spent the last 10 days away from my desk, floating in a lake and roasting marshmallows (not at the same time) and, wow, is that an effective strategy for remembering the world continues to spin even when you’re not checking your email every twelve minutes.  

Things are feeling a little quieter around the OLA office this week as people take advantage of Summer Fridays and some well-deserved vacation time. I’m about to do the same. My immediate plans involve floating in a lake for a while and attempting to remember what it’s like not to check my email every seven minutes. But before I disappear for a week, here are a few updates. 

Last week was a short week at the OLA office, but it was busy nonetheless! One of the biggest areas of focus over the past few weeks has been around school library advocacy. As school staffing numbers are finalized, we are hearing about many boards making cuts to their library staff. It’s difficult news, devastating to hear, and we know many of our members are directly affected.

Happy last day of Pride Month! Big shout out to the TPL team for the massive group that marched in Sunday’s Toronto Pride Parade – it was amazing to hear all of the love from the library people in the crowd! Congrats to all who marched, and I hope that your sunscreen held up. 

Earlier last week, I had the opportunity to co-present an IFLA webinar for the Science and Technology section with Lita Barrie, current chair of CFLA.

We are barreling towards the end of June too quickly! Last week was busy with travel and conference events. I spent Monday and Tuesday at the Library as Place conference hosted in Kingston, and what an incredible two days it was. A huge thank you to the planning team for creating such a thoughtful conference. It was especially wonderful to meet so many attendees who had travelled from outside Ontario to share the exciting library projects they’re working on.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Trillium Book Award ceremony, one of Ontario’s most significant celebrations of literary excellence. It’s always inspiring to spend time among authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers, and to be reminded of the incredible literary talent that exists across this province. Libraries play such an important role in connecting readers with these works, and it was a pleasure to celebrate alongside so many people who care deeply about books and storytelling.