The Halifax and Oakville Public Libraries both recognize the importance of building leadership competencies in their managers and in staff who are leaders or informal leaders or who are potential leaders. They both identified core competencies in leaders, which included: being innovative and dynamic communicators and team players who understand their organization, thinking globally, the ability to adapt to change, continuous learning and awareness of trends in their field. Competencies outline what is expected of staff in their positions not just the skills they need to do their job.

With 2009 quickly coming to a close, it is time to think ahead to the Ontario Library Association's (OLA) Super Conference 2010 – this year being held from Wednesday, February 24th to Saturday, February 27th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Volunteering at the conference allows you the excellent opportunity to meet future employers, visit the exhibits, and attend workshops.

For signing up as a volunteer, your conference registration is free for the day you volunteer. If you choose Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday, you are eligible to attend the conference on another half day...

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Super Conference 2010 is in the planning stages and the Session Proposal Form is available at www.accessola.com/education/superconference

There are many ways you can contribute to the on-going success of this highly respected conference:

• Consider sharing your programs, strategies, innovative ideas
• Urge your colleagues to share their work
• Submit proposals for content you would like to see in the program

As a newbie librarian and a freshman attendee of the conference, I have to say that I have very few complaints. The scope of the subject matter of the sessions was staggering. The content quality of the sessions that I personally attended varied quite a bit, but much of that had to do with the dynamism of the panelist(s).

One aspect of the conference that was critical to me as a recent grad was the Career Development Day. This was by far the most beneficial aspect of the conference. My only small critique was that these short 30 min sessions were very rushed and, because of their popularity, there was very little time for Q & A. Also, there was a employer display going on concurrently and it was impossible to attend many crucial career-related sessions and have time to meet with reps from the various institutions. If I could recommend anything, it would be to make these session 45 mins to an hour in duration.

For folks who can not afford to attend, can't take all the time off, or are too far away, I think it would be great if there were sessions that allowed real-time remote online access to sessions across the various areas of interest.

Reports released, speaker news, and Conference photo album ...

Third Generation Public Libraries: The Ontario Ministry of Culture commissioned this report to assist with updating its policy framework for supporting public libraries. The report examines how visionary thinking and services could apply to Ontario’s public libraries by 2020. Access the report at: http://www.culture.gov.on.ca/english/library/newman_study.htm

Now I want to precede the following entry by saying that I'm not trying to get people angry, but I am trying to start a debate and I hope that my entry will get some juices flowing. I wasn't too pleased with this year's Superconference and hope that future changes can be made. Enjoy my rant! :) I waited all week in anticipation...even going on my one day off…for what is the most talked about conference in the library industry in Ontario and perhaps all of Canada: the OLA Superconference and I walked away completely disappointed.

The highlight of the evening for me was the plenary talk given by Cynthia Nikitin. Niktin's talk was all about public  libraries and space. I found this to be very illuminating. After a childhood in the highly auto-friendly Toronto suburbs, it was striking to see just how  hostile many libraries (and public spaces generally) are for walkers. There were many examples of how libraries are disengaged from the public and how there is barely any coordination on seemingly basic questions such as putting transit stops nearby libraries. Finding ways to make libraries more community and a destination for a range of services is an interesting idea.  In some ways, her talk was a library-specific version of a TED talk I watched a few weeks ago: James Howard Kunstler Dissects Suburbia. As Kunstler put it, "[suburbia] is a place not worth caring about... " . Interestingly, they both referenced Boston's failed public square as an example of a terrible public space where nobody wants to be.