The Ontario Library Association and the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries have received a Cultural Development Fund Grant, funded by the Government of Ontario. Both organizations are also providing funds to this project as well (which is required under the grant). The two-year grant is for $50,000, which must be matched by OLA and FOPL.
This project will strengthen public library board performance and effectiveness across Ontario by creating tools to increase capabilities in the areas of; board recruitment, municipal engagement and strategic and financial planning. This is a two year (April 2014 – March 2016) province-wide strategy. It will be managed by OLA, in partnership with the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries with support and involvement from the Southern Ontario Library Service and Ontario Library Service North. The objective is to create a 4-year learning cycle for board development that is aligned with the key annual cyclical components or situational events of the Board life cycle.
A team of OLBA and FOPL members will advise and participate in the project. A joint meeting of FOPL and OLBA boards with guests from OLA, OPLA, SOLS, and OLS-North was used to set priorities for the 5 major modules funded by the project. These are outlined later in this document.
Our timeline for this project is:
- We have already reviewed the new LearnHQ online learning management system (LMS) that has been created by SOLS. This was one of the priorities of the Project 2020 funding and will be launched at OLA Super Conference 2015. In short, this will be a central place which allows for the searching of all contouring education events targeted to Ontario public libraries (additional library sectors are welcome and more will be added). The LMS will have a calendar, performance management system, career planning modules, a mentoring community, and many more advanced features. It is anticipated that the learning modules will be made freely available on LearnHQ. This project must be scalable, sustainable, complex, and fill current gaps and must develop content suitable for all sizes of libraries (rural, urban, large, small) (Note the interface is in French and English but the content would need to be translated for each module and this is not funded at this point although some content is available in both official languages.)
- We have built this project to build on the good work, over many years, of our community (FOPL, OLA, OLBA, OPLA, SOLS, OLS-North, the Ministry, etc.) with Leadership by Design and One Place to Look. We have a treasure trove of documents and have done an initial Assessment of existing resources and identifying resource and training gaps. This excellent content used to build and will be referenced in the online learning modules as well as linked to the archival library and in-person sessions.
- We will let a contract to a learning and instructional designer in December 2014. The instructional designer has deep knowledge of LearnHQ.
- Shelagh Paterson and Stephen Abram are meeting with our Ministry (CDF) funding person in early January to ensure we have the project and financial management reporting in hand.
- We will soft-launch the concept at Trustee Boot Camp after OLS Super Conference on Saturday Jan. 31, 2015. We hope to have the architecture and content and a prototype to show on that day.
- We expect to have one or two modules released by April 2015 that can be taken as courses by new and returning library board members as well as referenced or used as discussion objects in board meetings as ongoing learning and professional development. We plan to have monthly communications to all boards and CEOs.
- Additional modules will come out of 2015-2016 to encompass the entire 4-year cycle of library board development.
Below is a link to the chart that was created by the facilitated session of FOPL/OLA/OLBA and guests that outlines the 5 main priority modules for this project at a high level. We are currently mapping and gapping our resources to this and designing the learning template and design.
In all this is an exciting development and our sector is leading on the advancement of non-profit board member development. We have committed to the Ministry to share this project – when completed – with other sectors they influence (culture, museums, galleries, sports organizations, etc.)
Key contacts:
Shelagh Paterson, executive director, OLA
Stephen Abram, executive director, FOPL
CDF 2014 Summary Strengthening Public Library Board Performance