Canadian Federation of Library Associations Update (August 2018)
September 1, 2018
Katherine McColgan, Executive Director of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA), has provided an overview of activities since May 2018.
Advocacy
Copyright Act Review
Meetings with Members of Parliament and Government Officials
V. Owen and K. McColgan were scheduled to meet with Mary Ng in her riding office on July 18th however this was cancelled as she had been called to Ottawa for a cabinet shuffle where she was appointed Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion.
C. De Castell and N. Marelli were working to meet with INDU representatives over the summer but this proved difficult to schedule. Work has begun to meet with government officials throughout the fall.
Committee Updates
Copyright
The committee will resume its regular meetings in September. The next meeting of the committee will be looking in to the issue of E-book access and pricing and the Heffel Gallery ruling and the effects to cultural property in Canada amongst other things. These discussions will help guide CFLA-FCAB’s next steps on these issues.
A statement on Crown Copyright has been developed by the committee and is awaiting Board approval.
Intellectual Freedom
This committee has developed its terms of reference and has a draft work plan for the coming year.
CFLA-FCAB has adopted the IFLA Code of Ethics statement and is encouraging libraries and library organizations to consider doing the same.
The next meeting of the committee will be looking at recommendations from the National Forum.
Annual Challenges Survey
Donna Bowman and Katherine McColgan have written a Freedom to Read article based on the data collected for the 2017 challenges survey which will be published in May 2019.
The committee has revised the survey to make it easier to collect data, more information on this will be sent out in the fall.
Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange
The Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange (CCM) met on June 11, 2018 by teleconference. This is CCM’s usual summer meeting, to consider the summer round of MARC 21 proposals and discussion papers and prepare a Canadian position on each, informing the Canadian representative (this time Sarah Stacy from Library and Archives Canada) who will attend the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) and the MARC Steering Committee that meets in conjunction with ALA.
For this meeting CCM reviewed 4 proposals and 5 discussion papers. The papers are all posted and can most conveniently found through the MAC agenda at: https://www.loc.gov/marc/mac/an2018_age.html
CCM has prepared and sponsored two of these proposals:
- Proposal No. 2018-02: Subfield Coding in Field 041 for Accessibility in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
- Proposal No. 2018-03: Defining New Fields to Record Accessibility Content in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
Both are concerned with aspects of metadata needed to record information relating to accessibility features of resources. Both follow up on previous discussion papers prepared by CCM. Proposal 2018-02 follows from Discussion Paper 2018-DP02 (Subfield Coding in Field 041 for Accessibility in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format) which was discussed at the January 2018 CCM meeting.
CFLA-FCAB’s representatives to CCM are Trina Grover and Pat Riva (chair of CCM).
Working Group on Alternate Format Materials for Canadians with Print Disabilities
The final report of the Working Group was submitted to the government at the beginning of June 2018.
As a result of the Prime Minister’s cabinet shuffle, the accessibility portfolio has shifted from Canadian Heritage to Public Services and Procurement and we are working to schedule meetings with the Minister’s office.
Other Activities
The CFLA-FCAB Board, Executive Committee and Governance Committee continued its work throughout the summer working on various administrative, policy, and governance issues. The Board has been exploring revenue diversification options to help grow the Federation. Strategic Planning Working Group worked to develop a survey as part of the initial consultation with members and the greater stakeholder community in the development of a Strategic Plan for the Federation.
National Union Catalogue
A survey has been developed to conduct an environmental scan of the Canadian library community to assess the impacts of the move of the National Union Catalogue to OCLC’s Voilà service and the help determine what support and tools are needed for this new service.
More information on these activities and the surveys will be sent out in the coming weeks.
Administration & Outreach
New on the website
2018 CFLA-FCAB Brief to INDU on the Copyright Act Review
Meetings with Members
K. McColgan met with the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries’ (FOPL) Board of Directors on June 8th to discuss both organization’s activities and share in information.
In the Community
On June 18th K. McColgan attended a panel discussion hosted at Library and Archives Canada on misinformation online, part of Facebook Canada’s Hard Questions Roundtable series. The panel, comprised of Nathaniel Gleicher (Director of Cybersecurity Policy, Facebook); Chris Dornan (Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University); Jeremy Kinsman (former Canadian High Commissioner to the UK and former Canadian ambassador to the EU, and to the Russian Federation); and, Jennifer Anderson (Archivist, Science, Environment and Economy, Archives Division, Library and Archives Canada) who discussed challenges and solutions for misinformation online and how safeguard personal privacy online, what is the meaning of free expression, and looking at the future of journalism worldwide.
Camille Callison,Vice-Chair of CFLA-FCAB attended the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Kuala Lumpur in August 2018. She attended the Annual General Meeting and co-hosted the Canadian Caucus, along with ASTED, on behalf of CFLA-FCAB.
On August 14, 2018, T. Kyle, CFLA-FCAB Board member and K. McColgan met with The Partnership to discuss current activities of CFLA-FCAB and The Partnership and to explore where there are areas for further collaboration. It also provided CFLA-FCAB an opportunity for early feedback on our Strategic Planning process and discussions of national advocacy and policy issues.
CFLA-FCAB 2018 National Forum
Powerpoint presentations, table notes and videos of the keynote address by Bruce Walsh, artificial intelligence panel and intellectual freedom panel can be found on the CFLA-FCAB website at http://cfla-fcab.ca/en/meetings/national-forum-2018/.
A summary of the recommendations from participants at the Forum has been prepared with suggestions of what CFLA-FCAB can do in support of the recommendations. Items have been referred to the CFLA-FCAB Board and Intellectual Freedom Committee for consideration and action. A call for interest to partner with CFLA-FCAB in a future Forum was circulated to members in June 2018. If you did not receive it or would like further information, please contact K. McColgan at kmccolgan@cfla-fcab.ca.
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