News from Ontario, Canada: WE SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES  The people of Canada's most heavily populated province are living up to these words, "Investing in Ontario's public libraries is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives."

"Ontario is investing $3 million through the Improving Library Digital Services fund and will support up to 307 libraries and library organizations across the province. This includes $1 million for rural, remote and First Nation public libraries through Budget Talks."

This is the press release from the office of the Hon. Eleanor McMahon Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport , MPP (Member of the Provincial Parliament) for Burlington (Ontario):  http://bit.ly/2tTA1Of

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The initiative will support funding for "access to technology, digital services and training opportunities at public libraries in towns, cities and Indigenous communities across the province."

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Ontario is the most populated province in Canada with 38.3% of the country's people mainly gathered along the border with the United States. Canada has only 11.2% of the population of the United States of America but it is clear that Canadians' 'Community Intelligence Factor' is more in tune with their citizen's needs.

Living south of the 49th, we have this year witnessed the erosion of trust in the Media; shortsighted slashes to funding for libraries at the Federal level (see this article in ALA News,23May'17); imprudent stagnation of funding to libraries at State levels and ignorance of the essential role of Information Literacy. We are proud that the people in Ontario gave voice to their needs so that they can take their place as leaders in our world economy and participate in global stewardship.

 The Ministry site also provides a complete list, with live links, to all the libraries in Ontario, check them out there are some fantastic things going on in Ontario and Canada-wide in Your Library.

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CANeLearn June News

A shout out to the librarians and trustees who participated in our session and workshop at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference 3 February in Toronto.

Our entire presentation and all the notes that accompany our work with you in Toronto are now on the OLA, OLASC17 web site here: PLAN22Archibrarians OLASC17 Presentation NOTES PDF

HOVER OVER THE YELLOW ARROW to see the notes.

Contact us directly if you have any questions. We are here to help.

THANK YOU to the organisers, staff and volunteers at OLASC, and especially to Michelle Arbuckle @Citybrarian  and Pamela Sweet who took the time to stay with us after her introduction - we appreciate all the work you do.

Link to Session/Workshop Information

We are look forward to meeting librarians and trustees at the @ONLibraryAssoc Ontario Library Association Super Conference #OLASC in Toronto this Friday, 3 February.

Our Session and Workshop  - "Communicate Effectively with Design Professionals" - will introduce and develop the concept of the the Library Building Program Document as a comprehensive method for organizing your library’s requirements and communicating them to library users, board, city or municipal councils and the architect.

We believe that the librarian is the person who should lead the Library Building Project and we do everything we can to support you with tools to help you systematically navigate your Library Building Project. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or feel unsupported.

We help librarians lead the pre-planning phase of the library building project and offer and explain the use of methods and strategies to use throughout the design development phase that help you retain control of your design into the acceptance of construction drawings.

So that you are familiar with the visual language that designers use, we will introduce you to adjacency charts; bubble diagrams; construction drawing schedules and Room Data Sheets . We will workshop three of these with exercises so that all our attendees can get hands on experience of the work involved and gain some experience for when you begin the design conversation with your architect.