Category: Continuing education

The Ontario Library Association’s first-ever Safer Spaces Symposium focuses on library washrooms – policies, procedures, challenges, successes, and aspirations.

From universal washrooms, inclusive approaches, and accessible features, to wellness checks, to incident support and technology adoption, join other library professionals as they highlight wins and lessons learned, roadblocks, and plans for improvement to foster trust, respect, and secure private environments that are used by all.

Co-hosted by the OLA Library as Place committee.

BONUS! To support cross municipal collaboration, libraries may register one (1) Parks & Recreation or municipal partner to attend the Safer Spaces Symposium at no cost. This one time partner ticket is intended to encourage shared learning and conversation around creating safer, more inclusive public spaces across library and municipal settings. OLA will review the ticket list to ensure that all municipal partners registered under this ticket type also have a library representative included in the attendee list.

Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Time: 10:00am – 4:00pm EST

Location: online

Register here

The Accessible Reading Symposium is a virtual, two-day, bilingual event designed to help library staff and readers with print disabilities learn about accessible reading in Canada.

The symposium brings together readers, authors, libraries, content providers, publishers, and technology developers/providers to share practical demonstrations, introductory knowledge, and different viewpoints on accessible reading.

The Symposium’s goal is to:

  • help everyone better understand accessible reading and formats.
  • share the experiences of readers with print disabilities.
  • strengthen knowledge among libraries, content providers, publishers, technology providers, and readers.
  • provide library staff and readers with print disabilities the opportunity to explore available tools, formats, and services.

The Symposium will take place March 11 – 12 and it is free to attend. It is organized by the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS), the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) and Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ).

Learn more or register here.

Breaking the Chain: Unlocking Library Programming Ideas in Support of Freedom to Read

A Freedom to Read Week virtual panel

Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Time: 3:30pm – 5:00pm ET

Location: Online via Zoom

How do you encourage readers to seek out banned books? There’s more than one way, that’s for sure! Freedom to Read Week encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom. While there is an increasingly coordinated effort to remove books tackling a wide range of topics from shelves, libraries can put just as much effort into coordinating their own engaging programs in response. This panel includes FTR advocates from across Canada who have seized the opportunity to bring community attention to banned books in creative ways. Tune into this discussion and Q&A period to inspire your own library programming and join the effort to broaden minds and encourage important dialogues!

Hosted by The Education Institute / OLA

Moderator: Emily Burns, Director of Education, OLA

Panelists:

  • Kelly McCray, Ontario-based artist and creator of Tower of Banned Books
  • Cora-Lee Eisses, Library Assistant, Cape Breton Public Library (Baddeck Branch)
  • Wendy Wright, Library Director, Smithers Public Library

Registration: click here

This event uses a pay-what-you-can (PWYC) model and operates on a per-person basis.

 

Whether you’re in need of renovation insights or you want to share your experience and expertise with others who may be struggling with community engagement and planning, this virtual workshop series offers a unique opportunity to support the library community, and gain new perspectives on library space design challenges. Join other library workers and architects for one (or more!) of these curated case study sessions to troubleshoot and find creative solutions together. Then stay tuned for even more case studies at the main event in June 2026: the Library as Place Conference!

Series pass now available!

Register for all three workshops in the series by February 12th, 2026 and receive the best possible rate! The Series Pass includes:

Blue Mountain Public Library

Thursday, February 12, 2026
12:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Online via Zoom
Facilitated by the Library as Place Committee
Only interested in this session? Individual session registration is available here.

St. Angela Merici School (Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board – DPCDSB)

Thursday, March 12, 2026
12:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Online via Zoom
Facilitated by the Library as Place Committee
Only interested in this session? Individual session registration coming soon!

Roseville Public School 

Thursday, April 16, 2026
12:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Online via Zoom
Facilitated by the Library as Place Committee
Only interested in this session? Individual session registration coming soon!

The registration is now open for Digital Humanities Summer Institute-East 2026, which will take place at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, from Tuesday, May 5 to Friday, May 8. Faculty, staff, students, and all interested welcome.

There are three concurrent workshops this year: “Project Management in the Humanities,” led by Dr. Jennifer Guiliano; “Research Data Management for Humanities Researchers,” led by Shahira Khair and Sandra Sawchuk; and “Digital Publishing in the Humanities Classroom,” led by Dr. Andie Silva and Zelda Montes.

Dr. Susan Brown will offer the keynote talk: “‘Show Your Work’: Linking, Platforming, and Deplatforming for the Future of Born-Digital Scholarship”

Also welcome are applications for accommodation grants to subsidize the cost of attendance at DHSI-East for student participants (undergraduate and graduate); BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) participants; and under-employed participants (those in precarious positions and/or underwaged positions).

For details, including workshop descriptions, link to register, and link apply for the accommodation grant, please see: https://www.stfx.ca/research/digital-humanities/dhsi-east

If you have questions, please contact digitalhumanities@stfx.ca.

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ Communications Community of Practice is pleased to invite you to its first-ever, free half-day virtual symposium, CommConnect. This inaugural event brings together communications professionals working in academic and research libraries across Canada to share experiences, explore emerging trends, and strengthen our collective practice.

Register here

CommConnect is an initiative of the Communications Community of Practice, created as a way to further connect, support, and engage communications professionals working in academic and research libraries across Canada. Building on the Community of Practice’s ongoing conversations and knowledge sharing, this inaugural half-day symposium provides a dedicated space to explore shared challenges, exchange ideas, and learn from one another.

The theme for this year’s symposium is Communicating the Future: Libraries in a Changing Higher Education Landscape. Research libraries are navigating a rapidly evolving higher education and political landscape, with shifting priorities, new technologies, and changing user needs.

This symposium invites us to explore how innovative communication strategies, creative outreach approaches, and emerging tools are helping libraries to engage with their communities in meaningful ways — ensuring they remain visible, relevant, and impactful today and into the future.

We hope you’ll be able to join us on February 11, 2026 for this half day of conversation, learning, and connection focused on library communications.

The 11th Annual eLearning in Libraries Symposium will be held on Zoom on Tuesday, November 25th and Wednesday, November 26th, 2025. This free, two-day event will include sessions on eLearning best practices, accessible and inclusive design, instructional design, open education, eLearning tools, generative AI and much more!

The symposium includes two days of eLearning lightning talks (15-minute presentations) and workshops (60-minute sessions)—see the schedule for details. Register now!

The event is brought to you by the eLearning in Libraries Collective. Questions or comments? Email elearn.lib@gmail.com

Date: Monday, November 10, 2025
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm ET
Location: Online

Do you notice burnout in yourself or your staff? Burnout can manifest in many different ways, from a lack of motivation to complete mental and/or physical exhaustion. Library work is becoming increasingly demanding, and it is essential to develop supportive skills and strategies to help library staff flourish in today’s challenging times.

Learn how to identify, manage, and avoid burnout in this interactive workshop for anyone working in libraries. Participants will leave with techniques to manage their time, energy, and wellbeing.

To register for this workshop, please click here.