OLA SUPERCONFERENCE 2011 LIBRARY HISTORY ROUNDUP

Library history at the Ontario Library Association Superconference has come and gone now, with two successful sessions on Friday, Feb. 4th.

The Ex Libris Association sponsored the workshops at OLA Superconference 2011 with four speakers: Dr. Leslie McGrath, Toronto Public Library; Peter McNally, McGill University; Dr. Elaine Boone, Belleville; and Larry Moore, former OLA Executive Director 1984-2008. Almost twenty persons turned out for each session. Good questions and discussions helped inform each gathering.

The morning session featured Leslie McGrath’s powerpoint presentation on the development of Toronto’s Boys and Girls House and the growth of special children’s collections at the Lillian H. Smith branch, which opened in 1995. Many important people and events from the 1920s to 1990s appeared in interesting slides of buildings and books. Facts about Lillian Smith’s work in promoting and organizing children’s services, the Edgar Osborne Collection donated to TPL in 1949, and the eventual reorganization of children’s work at TPL in the 1980s and 1990s were quite interesting. Children’s services and collections have changed greatly and TPL has been at the forefront for many years.

The second morning speaker, Peter McNally, spoke to the issue of academic status for university librarians in Quebec and Ontario. This development began in earnest in the 1970s and has received considerable attention in the literature, although definitions of terms of employment, academic freedom, academic governance, and faculty status remain contested (and perhaps misunderstood?) by many librarians. Given the primacy of local conditions, librarians have developed status through bargaining as professional staff, academic staff, and faculty with varying degrees of rights and entitlements. The effort to achieve academic status is ongoing.

The afternoon session began with Elaine Boone’s presentation on children’s library work at TPL before the 1930s. Using an “imaginary interview” as a frame of reference, Elaine worked through many things that George Locke or Lillian Smith expected their librarians to perform during their regular working hours, including keeping books clean, and standing when Ms. Smith entered the room for a meeting! Children’s librarians often got their training “on the job” and were encouraged to improve children’s reading with the “best books.” Formal classes for school library work first appeared in Toronto in the 1930s.

The final presenter, Larry Moore, talked about education for Ontario’s school librarians in the post-1960s period. He featured important educators, such as Margaret Scott, and particular programs, such as Partners in Action (1992). The sixties and seventies was an exciting time for school librarians when educational requirements and curriculum ideas were expanded and new school libraries were built across the province. However, financial retrenchment in the 1980s and 1990s did not allow educators to build on those successes in ways originally conceived to be most effective. Many of the ideas outlined in Partners have yet to be implemented on a broad basis.

Will there be library history session at OLA Superconference 2012? Stay tuned ...