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. It was a wonderful chance to share some of the climate action work happening across Canada with colleagues from around the world. Many of the opportunities and challenges we’re navigating are shared across borders. You can watch the recording here, if you’re interested.  

Last week also marked the retirement of Catherine Biss from Markham Public Library. Catherine has been a thoughtful, steady presence in Ontario libraries for many years, and it was a privilege to celebrate her career on Friday. On behalf of OLA, congratulations, Catherine, and thank you for everything you’ve contributed to our sector.  

Back at OLA, it was great to see Lily Kwok presenting the findings from our Inclusive Libraries Report at CAPAL (Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians). I love seeing OLA staff contributing to conversations beyond our own programs and events. It’s a reflection of the expertise within our team and another example of the relationships we’re continuing to build across the library sector. 

A lot of my time this past week was spent behind the scenes working on OLA’s advocacy toolkit, and it’s been exciting to see it really starting to come together. We’ve been refining content, incorporating feedback, and asking ourselves a simple question every step of the way: Will this actually help someone advocate for their library? The goal isn’t to create a document that sits on a shelf (or more realistically, a PDF that sits in a downloads folder). It’s to build something practical, approachable, and useful—something that helps make advocacy feel like part of everyday library work, rather than something reserved for moments of crisis. There’s still more to do, but we’ll be able to share this with members very soon! 

Finally, if you’re looking for a little summer inspiration, our newest Library Land Loves podcast episode is now live and focuses on summer programming. It’s packed with practical ideas and creative approaches – we’re talking books on boats, and city-wide Swiftie parties (apologies to Team Bieber).  

Summer is officially in the air, have a good week.  

See you next Tuesday!