CAPL townhall in St.John's

As an ongoing series of townhalls across the country, CAPL held a townhall in St.John's NFLD as a segment of the CAPL AGM. The notes from the session follow for your information. The CAPL Executtive integrates the input from the townhalls in the annual plans for the divistion. An updated plan will appear on the CAPL Website in the fall. We welcome your thoughts/feedback!

Susan Mclean, CAPL President


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How can CAPL become more relevant to your needs as a member?
- Member appreciates information on listserv.
- Establish a better system on listserv. Member disappears for no reason.
- How do we meet needs of new generation? Facebook? Myspace? Can we make librarianship fun to appeal to millenials?
- Comment that people at meeting are not in the millennial group, as not funded for conference as much as older librarians. How to reach them? Only a few in room.
- Important to go where people are, because lots can’t afford the conference. Townhalls important.
- Glacial approach to preparing projects. Can work be broken down, distributed to facilitate speed?
- Pat Jobb mentions advocacy, asks whether we see CAPL as a way to promote careers in public libraries.
- Annual program to promote public libraries across the country? Only a national organization can do this.
- Suggestion to create teleconference town hall.

How can CAPL build a sense of community among public library practitioners in this country?
- CAPL should focus less on prodigal son, recognize long-term members, ones who participate. Honour the existing community. Customer retention is important. Let’s have fun!
- Spotlight on people across the country so we can get to know each other. Blog? Mentorship piece? Help our community see our own faces. Committee of newer members who interview new members and post to the blog.
- Recommend that we spend our budget. Hire people? Concern with travel costs a false economy? Stipend for travel?
- Chunk out CAPL tasks and assign them to library staff.
- Build community by face-to-face meetings. Let’s get together. Regional reps?
- Cross-fertilization, new connections.

What do you see as priorities and/or key issues for CAPL in the coming year?
- Something to further #2, use electronic means to connect. How we come together.
- Do not ignore the need to attract new librarians to public library field.
- Do we visit library schools? We did visit Western. Can other members serve as ambassadors in the field?
- Personal phone calls made to new members.
- Public librarians serve as mentors to library school students.
- We need to start recruitment earlier than library schools. Session on Succession encouragement? Try to inspire old fogies to become change agents one last time. How to eat a boiled frog? (some humour here).
- Liaison programs in high schools to speak at career days. Retention/regeneration: How get staff learning about new technology developments so that they can speak intelligently to younger clients?
- Pen pals - pairs of workers in different organizations or geographic areas with similar roles to discuss work.
- CAPL should support Library Advocacy Now handbook updates. It’s dated. Could chunks be farmed out? (Pat Cavill).
- Continuing education bit very important to maintain. Partnership very effective and inexpensive. Could be more public library workshops.
- Remember the library technicians - lots in the north.
-Recruit for diversity. New Canadians for example.
- At next CAPL exec will go through comments to develop strategies. Make a summary of this conversation available to membership. CLA website, listserv, blog. If further thoughts, get in touch with CAPL exec.
- Many thanks to Pat Jobb for facilitation.
- Participate in OLS in Thunder Bay.
- National Marketing campaign: cross between battle of the books, Canada Reads. To promote libraries more than books. Librarians compete like a game.