Be At the Table in the Development of Ontario’s First Culture Strategy

We have been told that no libraries attended the first three Culture Strategy Town Halls. Please take a few minutes to review the documents and dates for these cabinet level consultations and also to consider submitting the views of your system to the online consultations.  FOPL will too!

We know this isn’t entirely true but we note that there are some best practice behaviours when you, staff and/or your trustees attend these major consultations.

1. Speak Up – your ideas and opinions matter
2. Sign in with your connection to your libraries
3. Share your business cards often and with all – introduce yourself in context.
4. Inform yourself by visiting the website and reading the materials. (It’s easy)
5. Be there!

The website that gives the Town Hall schedule is this one:  https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-culture-strategy

Here are the remaining ones:

NOTE:  The Toronto Event on Thursday November 12, 2015 at the National Ballet School has been re-scheduled to Monday Nov. 23, 2015.  The good news is that it is now in a library!

“The Toronto Town Hall was just moved and is now taking place on November 23rd at the Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. It’s the only venue that’s a public library.”

Two town halls will be broadcast live on the web to give Ontarians from all locations the chance to participate in this important conversation.

Some libraries have attended but may not have spoken up.   Sometimes library reps don’t speak up and there are other (online) ways to submit ideas and responses to the Culture Strategy.  Nevertheless, I understand Ministry policy staff are at the Town Halls, and may be thinking that Arts organizations are the ones attending and most interested in the Culture Strategy based on who is participating.  Therefore I encourage your organizations to consider encouraging and reminding public library reps to attend the Town Halls and actively participate.  Public library reps at the Town Halls could speak to the programs, services and community hub role that public libraries provide in the communities they serve.  They may have other topics they wish to raise or share as well.

Hearing from you is important. Ontarians are invited to get involved in Culture Talks by:

• Attending one of the town halls across the province
• Sharing ideas on the new Culture Talks website
• Using #ONCulture on Twitter.

We know that public libraries play a critical roles in culture in Ontario.  Some talking points that might help are:

1. We work within frameworks facilitated by the Ministry of Culture!
2. Our collections document the works of Canadians and Ontarians including authors (and not just fiction), artists, poets, photographers, and more.
3. We provide event spaces for author readings of all stripes.
4. We host and create live performance spaces and enagge the whole community in exploring our culture.
5. Public Libraries have a wealth of partnerships with all kinds of community cultural organizations.
6. We provide programs and event spaces for artists to present their works locally.
7. Public Libraries are creation spaces using makerspaces, digital creation spaces and training programs to increase the cultural innovation and creation capacity of our communities.
8. Libraries are taking a community engagement approach to services and programs. This means libraries meeting and working with other community organizations to collectively support the aspirations and needs of their community in a strategic way. Libraries are community hubs and are:
   • A platform and space for cultural programs, projects and events
   • Venue for civic art
   • The public space for showcasing and learning about the literary arts
   • Digital learning hubs

Key areas/questions the library will explore with their communities to support a cultural strategy:

• How can we program and showcase the youth strategy in public and school libraries for creation, consuming and participating in culture for youth.
• The public library reflects the diversity of their community – how can a local cultural strategy be developed with the public library?
• The role of the public and school library in digital creativity
• Need for a programming strategy for communities – how can we better utilize central and even provincial ‘booking’ agencies (for example, the Authors Booking Service, or the Ontario Performing Arts Presenting Network) to maximize awareness of and scheduling for cultural programming at public and school libraries.

Some thoughts on funding: a funding/granting strategy that encourages partnerships and collaborations to support cultural initiatives.

Some thoughts on the sector leaders: Could the ministry support an opportunity for cross-collaboration amongst the cultural sector organizations? The purpose would be to help us strategically support and leverage the cultural ideas, programming, and strategies for Ontarians that have been discovered as a result of this consultation in some sort of cohesive way.  We also need to ensure that Culture Days is integrated with Ontario’s cultural strategy.

Just some thoughts to help.  These major cabinet level consultations could lead to funding and support programs and we want to ensure that public library sector is there at the table and understood in the context of provincial strategies!

OLA’s advice is here too: https://talk.ontario.ca/culture/idea/libraries-are-your-cultural-playground

SOLS Anne Marie Madziak’s article on culture and libraries in Municipal World is here: https://fopl.ca/news/public-libraries-on-the-cover-of-municipal-world-sept-2015-issue/

Stephen