New Librarians Symposium

2016 Professional Association Representatives

Trina has worked in technical services and library systems since 1995 at the Ryerson University Library, which sits on the Dish With One Spoon Territory in downtown Toronto. Currently she’s a cataloguer and the Liaison Librarian for the Politics & Governance and Criminology programs, while fitting in some learning about linked open data and becoming acquainted with computational textiles. Trina participated in a grassroots training and implementation program that was offered across Canada to prepare for the adoption of RDA, the new content standard for describing collections. She’s also a member of the Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange (CCM). Trina bicycles to work and knits (but not simultaneously).

Kate Johnson is an academic librarian, former elementary teacher, and an avid information connector who has a knack for organizing speed networking events and navigating contract work in the library world. Known for getting involved, Kate is active within several library professional associations and is currently the Membership Director for the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Toronto Chapter.

As a writer, presenter and consultant, Anita Brooks Kirkland specializes in the areas of information and digital literacy and the role of the school library learning commons. She draws on her extensive experience as a teacher educator, both as an instructor in school librarianship for the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and in her previous role as the Consultant for K-12 Libraries at the Waterloo Region District School Board. Anita is very active in professional organizations, and was the 2014 president of the Ontario Library Association. She shares an extensive collection of program resources, articles and presentations on her website and blog.

Beckie has worked with the Ontario Library Association since 2010, having been an active member of the association for many years prior as a Public Librarian. She manages the member services department, the communications and marketing department, social media channels, award programs, and volunteer opportunities. In addition to this, Beckie sits on numerous councils and committees and is always available for those “other duties as assigned.” She enjoys learning new technologies, leading training sessions, mentoring, and expanding her professional network. Beckie is very passionate about speaking with and engaging new library students and graduates with the association and the profession as a whole.

Eve has served on the Toronto Association of Law Libraries Executive for 5 years, first as Treasurer and currently as the Vice-President. She is also the Vice President of the Faculty of Information Alumni Association. After graduating with her MISt from the University of Toronto in 2009, she has worked in many special libraries including the Court of Appeal/Queens Bench in Edmonton, the Ontario Legislature and McMillan LLP. Her specialties include legal research and business research for business development.

Ali is a Research Enterprise and Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Guelph, in the traditional territory of Attawandaron/Neutral People. In this role, she helps researchers understand their rights, figure out where to publish, measure their impact, and conduct systematic reviews. Prior to working at Guelph, Ali worked at the libraries of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and McMaster University. Ali received her MLIS from the University of Western Ontario in 2014 after she spent most of her time trying to jam her papers with critical theory and getting into impassioned debates as part of the Progressive Librarians Guild. Never one to make up her mind, her post-grad focus has been on mentorship, conference/event planning, and figuring just exactly how to do research. Ali enjoys big cities, buying books she will never read, and trying not to kill plants.