Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to our Spring edition of The Courier. The warmer weather is here and so are conferences and convocations. An essence of renewal and growth is in the air. New professionals are entering the industry. Those already established are likely packing suitcases en route to a convention centre. The SLA Toronto Chapter supports everyone and their goals regardless of their plans for this season.

The Toronto Chapter has had an exciting and diverse line up this Spring. Article Clubs, co-hosted with TSLIS, have been an ongoing success. What is an article club? It’s like a book club, but (obviously) shorter. It couples a salon-like discussion with a debate on topics relevant to our profession. The sessions also provide a welcoming social environment for those new to the association to meet people and be heard.

On April 17th SLA Toronto hosted a tour of the newly renovated CBC Libraries and Archives. The group toured the main library space including music, reference, and visual resource services. They also took a tour through the deep archive and the newsroom. After a Peter Mansbridge sighting in the newsroom, the tour wrapped up with a discussion of media librarianship.

As for professional development programming, Ulla DeStricker has led a series of workshops for students and for practicing professionals. Ulla’s student workshops were hosted at the iSchool during the winter months. Her workshops for professionals—on branding and writing—took place on April 26th and May 17th, respectively. This series would not have been possible without the hard work of Bernadette Rocca, SLA Toronto’s New Information Professionals Program Coordinator.

Our Membership Chair, Christine DeLuca, organized a Membership Appreciation Event. With the generous sponsorship of Carswell, Toronto Chapter members were personally invited to enjoy an evening of hors d’oeuvres and fellowship at the Pogue Mahone on May 24th. Not a member yet? Feel free to contact Christine and she would be happy to discuss all the excellent benefits of an SLA membership.

Coming up in the later spring, the Toronto West Subgroup is hosting a speed-networking event at MapleLeaf Foods on June 11th. June also offers opportunities to brush up on your research skills before the summer holidays kick in. On June 12th Wendy Reynolds, with the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, will host a Legal Searching for the None Legal Librarian workshop, followed by a quick tour of the Ontario Legislature. To complement this session Mike McCaffrey will hold a Government Documents session later that month.

Also on the theme of member appreciation, I would like to welcome some new additions to the Toronto Executive and Advisory Boards:

Rob Ambra and Crystal Smith have joined our Partner Relations Committee.

Graham Lavender and Patricia Aspinwall have joined our Volunteer Pool.

The board is also happy to announce that Infomart has once again graciously sponsored two students to attend the SLA conference in Chicago this July. Thanks to Infomart’s partnership, Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund will have an invaluable experience, which they will share through an article in The Courier’s Fall issue.

Speaking of the conference, please join president-elect Kim Silk, the Infomart Student-to-Conference winners Heather Buchansky and Stacey Nordlund, myself, and other members of the SLA executive in Chicago this July. Be sure to swing by the Canadian Reception hosted again by our generous partners, CEDROM. Looking forward to seeing you there!

— Laura Warner
SLA Toronto’s President