Homeless Connect Reminder

Hi everybody!


We hope the long weekend treated you well and you are refreshed for the coming weeks!


This is just a reminder that Sunday (October 19th) is Homeless Connect. We'll be at the Shaw Conference Centre (9797 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.


See you there volunteers!

Homeless Connect: It's that time of year again!

Hey everyone!

This is just a reminder that FLIF will be participating in Homeless Connect on October 19th from 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. (Two weeks from today!)

Homeless Connect takes place at the Shaw Conference Centre, 9797 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton.

If you're volunteering, see you there!

FLIF at Homeless Connect

FLIF will be participating in Homeless Connect this Sunday, April 6, 2014 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. 

Homeless Connect takes place at the Shaw Conference Centre, 9797 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton. 

Come browse our books! 

10th Homeless Connect Event

Thank you to all of the FLIF volunteers who helped to make the Homeless Connect event a success this weekend! Homeless Connect is a bi-annual event hosted at the Shaw Conference Centre that provides homeless and at-risk individuals with access to many important services at no cost. FLIF has traditionally taken part in Homeless Connect by setting up a “library” of sorts containing free books. This would not be possible without the help of our volunteers, so thanks again to everyone who was able to volunteer at this busy time of year!

A special thank you as well to AP!RG and EPL for their generous support in helping us to take part in this event.

CTV News is reporting that over 1,000 individuals were able to access the 65+ services provided by approximately 400 volunteers at this event.

Human Library Events Recap

Local libraries and other centres across Canada, in partnership with the CBC, hosted a number of Human Library events on Saturday January 26. Events took place in Yellowknife, Surrey, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Windsor, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, and St. John's. In Edmonton, the event took place at the Stanley A. Milner branch of the Edmonton Public Library. The Edmonton Journal has written an article about the event and includes the perspectives of the “books” as well as the “readers.” An associate manager of Stanley A. Milner was also quoted, describing the purpose and importance of the event:

“An event like this provides people with the opportunity to have a conversation with a person they might not otherwise meet and to help them understand the world, maybe, in a different way.”

The CBC hosted live webcam chats with a variety of Canadians: Susan Ormiston, Measha Brueggergosman, Robert Munsch, Shad, Grace Park, Margaret Trudeau, and Tammy Marquardt. A recording of the sessions is available from the CBC.

Sweater Vest Sunday

Today is also Sweater Vest Sunday! Raise awareness of the need to report challenged material to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) by wearing a sweater vest. Visit the OIF Blog to find out more about Sweater Vest Sunday and how you can show your support.

Libraries & Hurricane Sandy

The Library Journal has published an article on how libraries in the path of Hurricane Sandy have been impacted by the superstorm. While part of the article discusses the damage to facilities and loss of power, much of the article speaks to the importance of libraries as open public spaces. According to author Sarah Bayliss, "[…] public libraries are unofficial but critical places of refuge for people during times of disaster." Libraries in New Jersey and New York have been providing the public with Internet access and a place to charge electronics. Many libraries have also added extra children’s programming and family movie viewings. The CEO of Queens Library has stated that staff members are on hand to "help people with any kind of FEMA applications and other services" that they may need in order to begin the recovery process.

In the aftermath of the superstorm, libraries have brought members of the community together. To find out more about how libraries have been affected by Hurricane Sandy, read the LJ article or view the School Library Journal's photo gallery.

Archivists and the Occupy Wall Street movement

Check out this very interesting article from the Chronicle of Higher Education blog from April 3, 2012 about clashes between members of Occupy and archivists who want to document the movement.

The article opens with this line:

Howard Besser, a New York University archivist, recently got into a shouting match at an Occupy protest, making a case for why the activists should preserve records of their activities.

The article discusses how archivists have been working to document the Occupy Movement for future scholars within a community that is suspicious of formal organizations including universities and libraries. Archivists have had to come up with new ways of collecting information and documents including "distributing postcards promoting archiving at protests, developing automated systems to download photos posted online, and asking participants to vote on which images are most important for the historic record."

This is a really fascinating example of non-traditional document management and working with a community that doesn't necessarily trust traditional organizations' way of working, like the NYU library's request for a signed donor agreement that was denied by the group who did not want to tie themselves in the traditional hierarchical power system they are protesting. In response, many of the protestors are releasing images and videos under Creative Commons licenses as a way to self-document and disemminate information about the movement.

The author also mentions the dangers of self documenting and putting non-censored images up online, where both scholars and police can access them freely, and attempts to get document creators to add standardized metadata to their work.

Occupy now has an Archives Working Group of their own which you can check out through their website.

Exciting times in the world and for libraries and archives. I think this kind of archiving challenge will become more and more relevant in our current political and global information-driven world.

GELA-FLIF-APIRG Edmonton Women's Prison Tour Debriefing

Last week members of FLIF, GELA, and APIRG went on two tours of the Edmonton Women's Prison led by corrections staff members. 

GELA has worked very hard to implement several projects in the prison community including bringing in books from the Edmonton Public Library based on the requests of the inmates because they do not have access to library cards or the EPL library catalogue. Requests are varied and include materials in different languages such as Arabic, Chinese, etc.

GELA has a great relationship with the inmate librarian Cathy to develop and execute projects such as the children's storybook project, supporting and growing the prison's library, book clubs, EPL loans, fundraising, and information literacy initiatives. GELA is interested in starting a technology literacy initiative that is in the very early stages and welcome anyone interested in participating in this discussion. 

Volunteer Opportunities: 

GELA is always looking for volunteers for the storybook project. This involves completeing two training sessions and takes place one Saturday per month. You don't have to go every month, but having a larger pool of available volunteer is helpful. You would go into the prison and use a voice recorder to record an inmate reading a children's book and then burn the recording onto a CD and then the book and recording is sent to the inmate's child. Don't worry if you don't have a voice recorder or laptop or experience with audio editing - we are happy to support you in getting access to the skills and technology you need to participate in this project. 

There is a mentorship program that matches inmates with mentors that is looking for people to participate in this capacity. This program includes meeting with inmates in the prison as well as escorting partners to cultural and social events.  They are always looking for people with different perspectives and especially younger people for this project.

GELA is organizing an art show at the Latitude 53 community gallery in the spring of 2012 of works made by the inmates. Help organizing this project would be appreciated and is something that could be done outside of the prison facility.

The library is always accepting donations of books. Contact GELA for a list of specific requests for the library.

The technological literacy group led by GELA member Masha would be a great opportunity to share your expertise and get involved in this capactiy.

For library school students GELA has also supervised a practicum at the prison library - this would be a great opportunity for an unusual practicum and a very rare and valuable experience. If you are interested in community librarianship or working with marginalized communities this could be a great fit.

There are lots of opportunities for getting new projects started, lots of things are possible if you have a passion and want to start a project. Past examples have been a zine that was produced based on the writing of the prison inmates.

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FLIF would like to thank the volunteers at GELA (Sarah, Liz, Allison, Danielle & Anna) for organizing this tour and participating in this discussion, the prison facility staff, and APIRG for organizing the tour members and transportation to and from the facility. There was a lot of interest in these tours this time around and we could not accomodate everyone. If you are interested in these programs or possibly going on a tour in the new year please let us know and if there is interest we can work to organize another tour in early 2012. 

If you have any questions about these programs please check out the GELA blog - http://gela.ca/

or email us at flifblog (at) gmail.com and we can connect you to the GELA Google Group

United Nations' University/University of Alberta volunteer opportunities

Get those planners out - it's going to be a busy autumn!

For all those interested in human rights - and you wouldn't be here if you weren't, right? - there are opportunities to get involved with the UN University and U of A's upcoming international conference, "Towards 'the Dignity of Difference,'" happening October 2-4. That is, if you can find enough time between volunteering at Homeless Connect and celebrating not one, but TWO FLIF co-chair birthdays! A variety of positions are available - check out the details below, provided courtesy of the FGSR:

"United Nations' University - October 2-4
John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights is seeking volunteers to help with final pre-conference planning and onsite assistance for United Nations' University and University of Alberta's international conference entitled "Towards 'the Dignity of Difference'", scheduled to be held October 2-4 in Edmonton. The conference's objective is to examine the impacts and implications of the most recent iteration of the Western-centric discourse represented in Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and Francis Fukuyama's The End of History theses. It will bring together some of the most prominent scholars in the relevant fields, as well as many distinguished public figures including: Fred R. Dallmayr, Hassan Hanafi, Benjamin Barber, Robert Cox, Hamid Dabashi, Tanya Narozhna, Roger van Zwanenberg, and Vesselin Popovski. The following committees have volunteer spaces available: conference promotion, local arrangements/onsite arrangements, registration, transportation, and social committee. If you are interested in getting involved in the exciting work of this international conference by volunteering your time, please contact Siavash Saffari (ssaffari@ualberta.ca) indicating your area of interest, times when you are available and language spoken. We will be happy to discuss options or answer any questions you may have."

See you all there,

FLIF