ELA is interested in providing resources for retirees and current library workers to share and learn through its conferences and events programs. For almost four decades, ELA has organized talks, round-table discussions, webinars, conference addresses, and lectures. Some of these presentations have been recorded by video, audio, or PowerPoint format, saved as portable document files (PDF), or transcribed as regular web pages. While not every event has been captured for the ELA website, a selection of presentations follows.

One of ELA's more thought-provoking programs took place in 2002. There are always new trends in Library and Information Science (LIS) but in 2002 the need to change and adapt by library workers seemed undeniably clear. To provide more context, ELA invited six well-known panelists to discuss the issue with its members on November 4th, 2002. The proceedings of this meeting, Is Librarianship Headed for Oblivion?, is available at this page.

Ken Setterington spoke about his career as a children's librarian at Toronto Public Library and his passion for storytelling for children at the ELA annual meeting in 2010. His entire talk was recorded and is available here at this page.

Mariella Bertelli, a children's librarian with the Toronto Public Library, also spoke at the 2010 ELA meeting. ELA recorded her speech and it is available at this page.

ELA member, Shirley Lewis, spoke to members in 2010 about the Older Woman's Network in Toronto formed in 1986 to provide a voice for the concerns of women aged 55 and older. She also talked about her experience as a volunteer in Ethiopia. Her short talks can be viewed at this page.

Jean Weihs, whose remarkable career is outlined in an ELA biography, Jean RIddle Weihs, spoke on the possibilities for temporary paid employment in the retirement years, such as teaching, writing, indexing, cataloguing small collections, and acting as a consultant. Her recorded topic was uploaded to Youtube and is approximately fifteen minutes in length.

Lisa Glandt (MAS, University of British Columbia, 2001) spoke via Zoom to ELA members on November 7, 2022 about how archives are working towards Truth and Reconciliation calls to action in relation to archival practice in British Columbia. She has worked in many archival and records management organizations: the municipal government, academic institutions, museums, and the private sector. Lisa has been an Education and Advisory Services Coordinator for the Archives Association of British Columbia. In this role she organizes workshops and webinars, teaches distance education courses, conducts site visits, and supplies guidance to archives and archivists. Her presentation is available as a portable document file at this link.

In November 2022, Richard Beaudry spoke to the Ex Libris Association annual meeting via Zoom about the censorship of materials in Canadian libraries and current threats to intellectual freedom. He is a Librarian and an Information Specialist who has worked as a teacher-librarian and taught in the Teacher Librarianship Diploma Program at the University of British Columbia. In 2016, he received the Canadian Library Association Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada. He served as chair of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations/Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques Intellectual Freedom Committee before he stepped down in 2022. His presentation is available on Youtube.

Richard Ellis, librarian emeritus at Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, spoke via Zoom about the current situation libraries face on the intellectual freedom front in Canada. Richard is a long-time member of ELA and served as University Librarian at Memorial before his retirement in 2007. He has been a member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations–Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques and keeps abreast of new developments in IF. His PowerPoint presentation (converted to the PDF) on the current state of intellectual freedom and Canadian libraries is available for download at this link.

Kayla Lar-Son's webinar was arranged by the Ex Libris Association and presented to members on Monday, October 24, 2023. Kayla is the Indigenous Programs and Services Librarian for the Xwi7xwa Library at the University of British Columbia. The presentation is approximately fifty minutes in length. and can be expanded to be played in picture-in-picture mode or full screen at following URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fRyy4ucfGE

Guy's 45-minute webinar on June 18th 2024 covered a broad range of risks involved with future planning for natural disasters, human-caused problems, technological accidents, security breaches and threats, as well as organizational difficulties. His survey highlights the need for planning to mitigate risks and ensure staff preparedness in the event an unexpected threat should arise. An audio of his talk and more information about Guy is available at this page.

The new funding model adopted by the Ministry of Education’s eliminated protected funding for school libraries and library staff. Consequently, OLA Executive Director, Michelle Arbuckle and Lily Kwok, the Advocacy & Research Officer for OLA, have launched a campaign to create a defined allocation for all school libraries and staffing funding and festore the annual reporting and accountability requirements for school libraries. The PowerPoint presentation is available at this link as a PDF.

Librarianship in the 21st Century has become increasingly fraught with controversies and conflict over collections and spaces, with competing factions within their user communities protesting or championing particular books or events. Michael Dudley introduces major theories in city planning that can better support librarianship in the public interest and in the context of pluralist societies. The profession of city planning is expressly oriented to working collaboratively with diverse community stakeholders in creating dialogic spaces where such issues and controversies in the community may be openly debated and, hopefully, resolved.

The presentation will first explain the many commonalities between librarianship and planning before setting out and applying the ways in which planning theory can enrich library practice in challenging times by better-defining the oft-debated concept of library neutrality and its different value meanings.

Michael Dudley brings a unique combination of experience to the challenges facing public libraries. He is a Librarian at the University of Winnipeg responsible for outreach to international students, students with disabilities, and other campus stakeholder groups, and currently sits on the CFLA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee. He is the author of the 2023 book The Shakespeare Authorship Question and Philosophy: Knowledge, Rhetoric, Identity from Cambridge Scholars Publishing, and blogs at Heterodoxy in the Stacks. Click on the video for playback (about 45 minutes) or the PDF download that displays the PowerPoint slides used in the presentation.

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