Dear Colleague,
This is the first step in the formation of a national non-governmental organization for the advocacy and support of professional academic librarians and academic librarianship in Canada: the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL). This website marks the first in a series of steps required to build a strong, vocal and pro-active association that will uphold and promote the values unique to our profession.
We share many values and goals with librarian colleagues working in other sectors but we see this association focused specifically on the unique concerns of academic librarians and academic librarianship. To this end, we define professional academic librarians as those colleagues who work at, or aspire to work at, accredited post-secondary institutions with a master’s degree from a program accredited by the American Library Association (or from a program in a country with a formal accreditation process as identified by ALA’s Human Resource Development and Recruitment Office), who may or may not have additional advanced degrees.
The following guidelines and statements were prepared as a foundation from which this organization can grow: Mission Statement, CAPAL Terms of Reference, Advocacy and Academic Librarians: A Statement of Principles. We have identified committees that reflect the interests of our community and these are listed on the membership page. In the first year we will need to build and strengthen our infrastructure, working with our committees to identify and set priorities, and to begin to lay the groundwork for future plans.
The first business meeting is being planned for the end of January in Toronto. We hope that you will join us!
Members of the Organizing Committee.
If CAPAL’s goal is to address “the unique concerns of academic librarians and academic librarianship”, why restrict membership to librarians “who work at, or aspire to work at, degree-granting post-secondary institutions”? I see nothing in the Mission Statement, Terms of Reference, or Statement of Principles that is antithetical to the values of any academic librarian, regardless of the type of institution for which s/he works. As it stands, the association’s name belies the group’s restrictive membership criteria and, although the institution for which I work does grant degrees, I will not join an organization that marginalizes my academic librarian colleagues whose occupation or aspirations don’t happen to include degree-granting status.
Like Ross, I’m curious as to why CAPAL has limited its definition of academic librarians to those working at degree-granting institutions.
So, I joined CAPAL, not because I agree with all of its statements and pronouncements but because I think there is a groundswell of concern in the field (academic librarianship) that needs a proper airing and perhaps this is the vehicle to do so in Canada. Paying the membership fee signals my support for that discussion.
Others have asked about various parts of the CAPAL mandate etc.
I assume none of these are carved in stone because a key principle of the organization is “shared governance.” Presumably that extends to the foundational documents as well. I look forward to reviewing these.
However, I also hope that CAPAL doesn’t get mired in “organizational minutiae.” If there are real and substantive issues that can’t be addressed through CLA, CAUT or any of the provincial organizations, then let CAPAL put those front and center. If there are none or they can better be addressed through other groups, CAPAL should pass the torch and dissolve.
Do we need yet another association for librarians? Not sure. I look forward to finding out.
…Mike
I, too, and curious about what CAPAL wants to become and has to offer; I’ll be following along with interest.
For what it’s worth, I worry that only giving one month of lead time for an inaugural meeting may not be enough for an association that aims to develop a nation-wide membership. CAPAL may want to address this by holding an initial series of regional meetups to help get the word out and to increase representation in its membership and governance.
Thank you for the suggestion Michael. We will need to collaborate on how to get this started. I will forward the suggestion to the organizing committee. Our first major step is to formulate a constitution or set of by-laws and commence incorporation. This will be one of the topics at the first membership meeting – among others.
Like Mike, I joined as a show of support. I think that CAPAL will have to address how it differs from CAUT. Along with the vast majority of its member local and provincial associations, the CAUT network has been a mainly effective advocate for both economic and professional issues of concern to librarians. And academic librarians have contributed greatly to their individual local, provincial and national associations to advance the rights and role of academic staff nationwide.
I recognize at least a couple of names on the organizing committee list who are or have recently been executive members of local and provincial faculty associations. Perhaps they have a clearer idea of how CAPAL fills a niche.
Differentiation is key, as well as a business plan for growing the organization to fulfill its mandate, whatever that may turn out to be.