Speakers

Virginia Sytsma is a legally blind librarian. She has been the Information Services Librarian at the Belleville Public Library for the past four years. Prior to that, she worked for the Upper Canada District School Board. She is passionate about breaking down barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from entering the field of Library Science.

Vivian Lewis has served as University Librarian at McMaster University since 2013. Vivian holds a M.A. from York University and a M.L.S. from the University of Toronto. She is a graduate of the Harvard Institute for Academic Librarians and a fellow of the Frye Leadership Institute and the ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows program. Vivian …

Wendy Hicks is the Director of Public Service at Stratford Public Library. After starting her career as a reference librarian, she has gathered expertise in other areas, including administration, public service, collection management, human resources and outcome-based planning. Projects she manages have been honoured with federal and provincial awards and exposure through the ALA e-learning …

Whitney is the Pokemon GO Master of our Library staff. She also happens to be the Children’s and Youth Programs Coordinator. She is responsible for manning the Children’s and Youth department in addition to class visits and programs where you can often hear her bringing characters to life through her voice-acting skills. In her spare …

Zahra Premji is an early-career Research and Learning Librarian at the Business Library, University of Calgary. She has previous experience as a health sciences librarian. Her current areas of interest and research include development of active-learning instructional sessions, gamification, and knowledge synthesis methodologies. She holds a MLIS from University of Alberta (2016), and a PhD …

Zarena Cassar is a Branch Manager at Brampton Library. From working on expanding Brampton Library’s after hours study spaces to implementing creative ways to address customer needs, her focus is on creating great experiences for both staff and customers. Zarena began her career in 2012 in Children & Youth Services. She has worked at both …

Zile Ozols is a sci/fi horror reader, house builder, maker, and the Manager of Programming and Outreach at Brantford Public Library. She oversees all programs and develops partnerships with community organizations. Starting her career in an independent public library in Quebec, shaped her understanding of libraries as institutions for empowering individuals and increasing community resilience. …

Suzanne McLean has been working at the Circulation Desk of the Collingwood Public Library for the last two years. She has always been a keen library user, and found that when she moved to Collingwood, the public library was a supportive and welcoming space to meet new people and to foster a love of reading …

Tammy Moorse is the Project Coordinator for the Red Book Community Information by Hamilton Public Library and was until recently one of HPL’s cataloguing & metadata librarians. Tammy has spent a lot of professional time working with subject headings, controlled vocabularies and taxonomies. She really does enjoy this aspect of librarian work. She knows that …

Teresa is a passionate community builder, a champion of customer service, an advocate of intellectual freedom, an imminent MLIS graduate who has been working with King Township Public Library as a Library Assistant since April 2019. Teresa worked for almost two decades in the music industry before finding a deep and meaningful professional purpose in …

Terri Rodak is a research/reference/collections/nice/fun librarian at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health in Toronto, where she gets to do all kinds of fascinating library things. Her passion project is a narrative & graphic collection launched at the CAMH Library in early 2019, which encourages clinicians, researchers, and patients & families to read memoirs …

Tim is the Director of Library and Information Services at the University Health Network in Toronto. There he leads a team of information experts supporting patient care, discovery and the ongoing learning of healthcare professionals. Tim’s interest in technology led him to healthcare. He originally joined UHN in 1999 as a project manager in the …

Tim began working at Brock University in 2006 and recently took on the position of Acting Head of the newly opened Digital Scholarship Lab. His research areas involve technology in the library and labour issues. Tim is a dog person.

Whether working with children or adult learners, Tina is passionate about engaging learners with current digital tools and seeing that spark from a meaningful learning moment. Tina is an avid user of social media, finding each platform can lead to new connections with educators both near and far. She pushes her own learning as she …

Todd Kyle is the CEO Newmarket Public Library. He is a Past-President of the Ontario Library Association and the 2019 Vice Chair of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations/Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques.

Todd is the Manager of Sixteen Mile Sports Complex with the Town of Oakville. Todd is an avid recreation enthusiast with more than 20 years of municipal sector experience split between the City of Mississauga and the Town of Oakville. He believes that recreation and leisure activities unite communities and promote healthy minds and bodies. …

Tom Ryan is the author of several books for young readers. He has been nominated for a number of awards, and two of his young adult novels, Way to Go and Tag Along, were chosen for the ALA Rainbow List, in 2013 and 2014. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction. …

Tracey Donaldson has spent the majority of her 20 years of teaching with the TDSB as a Teacher Librarian. She strives to create a welcoming space for all users. Tracey uses Google Apps for Education in collaboration with the classroom teachers, sharing how to useonline resources and databases for inquiry. Picture books are her weakness!

Tracey Sinclair was born and raised in a small town in Northwestern Ontario. Tracey grew up enjoying family, friends, nature and of course a good book. This is what led her to her career of Librarian. With over 20 years of experience in the Children’s Library she has recently taken over as of CEO of …

Tracy Munusami is the Manager of Service Excellence at the Oshawa Public Libraries. Tracy has run Repair Cafe’s at two library systems, and has some experience tinkering to salvage broken items. Chair of the OPLA Community-Led Committee, she believes in bringing the community into collaborative programming to help people build stronger connections with each other.

Trina Grover works at Ryerson University Library as the Head of Cataloguing where she also provides research support to Ryerson researchers and investigates how to decolonize description. She is a member of the Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange. Trina worked as a Creative Industries Liaison Librarian at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia in …

Trish holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western University and has worked in the fields of marketing, public relations, employment services, and education since 2001. As a Director, Recruitment & Partnerships with Contact North | Contact Nord, she supervises a team of recruitment and student support professionals in five territories across Southwestern Ontario, develops …

Valeria Baxandale is a Library Technician at the Brantford Public Library where she has worked for the last 15 years as a Child and Youth programmer. Val is part of the library’s outreach efforts throughout Brantford schools and developed the library’s popular Getting Ready for Kindergarten program along with many other creative programs. In her …

Valentina Ly is an Information Specialist and Research Assistant with Sinai Health System in Toronto. Combining a background in medical research and an MLIS, her current work focuses on health information through the delivery of library services at Bridgepoint Active Healthcare’s Patient and Family Resource Centre and health policy and economics research at Mount Sinai …

Vickie Albrecht is a Science Librarian in the Sciences and Technology Library at the University of Manitoba. She has been a librarian since 2012 and prior to that a library technician for 3 years. She primarily works with science undergraduate student and a subject librarian for biological sciences. Her research interests includes mentoring, science information …

Victoria Owen, Information Policy Scholar-Practitioner in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, has a background in library administration at the University of Toronto and in special and public libraries, including the CNIB Library for the Blind. Victoria holds a Master’s in Library Science and a Master’s in Law, specializing in intellectual property. …

Scott Turner is the newly appointed Science Librarian at Carleton University, formerly Subject Specialist for Journalism and Communication. Scott began his career with Carleton University as a student employee, became full time, completed his MLIS at Western University in London, Ontario, and this will be his first conference presentation.

I have over 20 years’ public library experience in TPL at all levels from page to services specialist. I am currently a Youth Service Specialist at Maria A. Schucka Library. My priority and goal at TPL has been to encourage and develop diverse and reflective programming for youth. As such I developed an all black …

Dr. Bedi works at the University of Victoria as both Director, Academic Commons and Strategic Assessment with the Libraries as well as University Director, Office of Student Academic Success. Shailoo holds a PhD in Education, Curriculum and Instruction, and is an adjunct professor with UVic’s Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies department. Her research interests include …

Sharon Munro is an Information Services librarian at the Leddy Library, University of Windsor, with primary responsibility for Social Work and Human Kinetics.She founded the library’s Public Relations Committee, and is currently an active member.

Sharon Wagenaar is a Youth Services Assistant at the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library. She graduated from the Library & Information Technician Program through Mohawk College and has been employed by the Library for 15 years. Programming is a large part of her position and the Owen Sound Mini Comicon is a …

Shelley McKay is a marketing and fundraising executive with 25 years of communications leadership with organizations across the US and Canada. Shelley joined Hamilton Public Library (HPL) in 2018 to lead communications and outreach initiatives for the system. Prior to joining HPL, she built and managed brands for agencies, non-profit organizations and corporations. Shelley serves …

Spending over 25 years in leadership roles at UTML (one of the busiest libraries at UofT), Shelley served as Coordinator of Collection Management and Associate Librarian, Collections and Scholarship before becoming Chief Librarian. As Chief Librarian, Shelley leads an exceptional team of librarians and staff in the provision of library services and programming which support …

Sherrill Sherwood is the Collection Development Coordinator at Haliburton County Public Library. Sherrill values her role in helping to serve and enrich Haliburton County with a balanced and diverse collection. Sherrill has found it rewarding both personally and professionally to be part of the HCPL team, which has partnered with Registered Social Worker Barb Fraser …

As a member of Hamilton Public Library’s Senior Leadership Team, Sherry oversees the Digital Technology and Communications Departments. She has more than 30 years of experience in the private and public sectors, focusing on innovation, digital literacy, marketing and process improvements. Sherry graduated with an Engineering Degree in Architecture in 1984, a Master in Public …

Siobán Linnen is the Projects and Communications Coordinator at the Ontario Colleges Library Service. She is currently serving as Project Manager for the Library eResources Accessibility Project (LEAP) alongside her colleague Corinne Abba. Siobán can be reached at slinnen@ocls.ca.

Sophie Middleton is a Neighbourhood Services Manager at Vancouver Public Library. She is responsible for five community branches and various system wide projects. Sophie recently led VPL’s strategic initiative to refresh the customer service training for staff. Her commitment to social justice has inspired her throughout her career at VPL to champion extraordinary patron-centred service. …

Sophie Bury is the Director of Learning Commons & Reference Services at York University Libraries. Prior to this she assumed the role of Head of the Bronfman Business Library at York University. She has a strong research interest in IL related issues with a special focus in her presentation and publication work on the topic …

Stacy Allison-Cassin is an Associate Librarian in the Department of Student Learning and Academic Success at York University. She has been an active member of the Wikimedia community since 2015 where she primarily contributes to the GLAM and Wikidata communities. Allison-Cassin is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario and is a member of …

Stephanie Perrin is a data protection expert and the President of Digital Discretion, a privacy consulting firm. Her PhD from the University of Toronto focused on privacy issues. Dr. Perrin was one of the first federal Access to Information and Privacy Coordinators, giving her deep expertise in the interpretation of data protection law and protection …

Stephanie is an intermediate Science teacher in Whitby. She is a strong advocate for women in STEM, student voice and empowering the leaders of tomorrow.

A passionate advocate for libraries and literacy, Sue teaches in the face-2-face LIT program offered at Durham College in Oshawa. Sue’s past work experiences include UOIT/Durham College as a reference librarian and information literacy lead, Brock Township PL as a branch head and CEO, and Durham DSB as media librarian. Check out her website https://librarytechniciansatdurham2018.wordpress.com/ …

Ms. Susan E. Cleyle is University Librarian at Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador. Prior to this, Ms. Cleyle served as the Director of the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Memorial University, and held other library leadership roles. Ms. Cleyle is currently the chair of The Partnership, the network of provincial, regional and territorial …

Sarah Goodyear has worked as a Library Technician at the Ontario Legislative Library since 2016. She also currently serves as the Promotions Coordinator for the Legislative Library and Research Services. Prior to her role at the Legislative Assembly, Sarah worked in the Library Learning Commons at George Brown College. Sarah earned her Library Technician diploma …