2025
MANITOBA
LIBRARIES
CONFERENCE
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
MAY 6-7, 2025
RBC Convention Centre, Winnipeg, MB
DAY 1: TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2025
9:00 AM Registration Opens
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Conference Opening & Welcome
Main Hall
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Keynote Speaker: Niigaan Sinclair
Main Hall
11:30 AM Exhibit Hall Opens
11:55 AM – 12:20 PM Not Just for Kids: Engaging Adults and Building Community Using Storytime and Music Programs
Room 1 – 25 Minutes
Austin Matheson, Brittany Lagassé (WPL)
11:55 AM – 12:20 PM Curating the Museum of Books
Room 2 – 25 Minutes
David Eden (U of T)
11:55 AM – 12:20 PM Reconciliation Through Partnership
Room 3 – 25 Minutes
Ken Kuryliw (GFPL)
12:30 AM – 1:00 PM Lunch
Main Hall
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM Demystifying ChatGPT: AI Innovations for Libraries & Digital Repositories
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Christopher Desrochers, Mike Ellis (WPL)
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM Empowering Access: Supporting Patrons with Print Disabilities Through Accessible Reading Technologies
Room 2 – 50 Minutes
Jessica Desormeaux, Tara Glaspey (CELA)
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM Information Justice Inside and Out of Provincial Prisons
Room 3 – 50 Minutes
Linda Fontaine (MLL), Ashley Huot (PLC), Karen Sawatzky (LIIM)
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Library Tour: ideaMILL
120 Minutes
2:00 PM – 2:50 PM How Are You Doing? Build Team Morale Using Empathy-Based Leadership Skills, Tips, and Tricks
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Sarah Giesbrecht, Nadine McCaughan (WPL)
2:00 PM – 4:20 PM How to Library Board: Roles, Responsibilities, and Resources for Success (includes coffee break)
Room 2 – 110 Minutes
Meagan Richards (PLS)
2:00 PM – 2:50 PM Cultivating Abundance in Librarianship by Visiting
Room 3 – 50 Minutes
Claire Settee, Shirley Delorme Russell (U of M Library)
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM Coffee Break
3:30 PM – 4:20 PM The Power of Intersectional Representation: Centering 2SQTIBIPOC Stories and Literature
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Carla Taylor, Nix Cristobal Calma,
Bre Cristobal Calma (Matter Queer Space Manitoba Inc)
3:30 PM – 3:55 PM Library Workers Unite: How CUPE is Working with Library Workers Locally and Nationally
Room 3 – 25 Minutes
Kim Tuesday, Maya Martinez-Alper (WPL)
3:55 PM – 4:20 PM Building Stronger Communities: Effective Relationships Management for Public Libraries
Room 3 – 25 Minutes
Oluwatofunmi Oyebola (PLS)
3:30 PM – 4:20 PM Lightning Rounds: Various Topics
Main Hall – 7 Minutes Each
Lise Brin, Marie-Andrée Guy, Reegan Breu, Stephanie George, Nadine McCaughan, Andrew McCulloch, Emma Robin, Nicole Matiation, Austin Matheson, Joel Martine
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM Wine & Cheese in the Exhibit Hall with Musical Entertainment by Anne-Marie Williott and Ian Cherry
6:30 PM Pub Night at Shannon’s Irish Pub
DAY 2: WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Manitoba Library Association Annual General Meeting & Continental Breakfast
Main Hall
9:00 AM Registration Opens
9:30 AM – 9:55 AM Nature Programs in a Rural Public Library: Hatching Chicks and Growing Vegetables
Room 1 – 25 Minutes
Meg Gregory (WPL)
9:30 AM – 9:55 AM Developments in Library Provision Guidelines
Room 2 – 25 Minutes
Nicole Matiation, Gaeby Abrahams (Nordicity)
9:30 AM – 9:55 AM Where Reading and Climate Action Meet: UN Sustainable Development Goals in the Elementary School
Room 3 – 25 Minutes
Suzanne Simpson (Louis Riel School division)
10:00 AM Exhibit Hall Opens
10:00 AM – 10:50 AM Staff Picks: A Fun, Online
Readers’ Advisory Program Model for Your Library
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Reegan Breu, Courtney Campbell, Karli Fisher, Meg Gregory (WPL)
10:00 AM – 11:50 AM You Have a Strategic Plan, Now What? (includes coffee break)
Room 2 – 110 Minutes
Jen Kendall (Fort Erie Public Library)
For best results, bring your most recent strategic plan.
10:00 AM – 10:50 AM Behavioural Mapping Techniques for Any Library
Room 3 – 50 Minutes
Josh Herter (U of W Library)
11:00 AM – 11:50 AM Rock That (Interactive and Rich) Read Aloud
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Please bring your favorite read-aloud book to the session!
Erica Hildebrand, Andrea Edwards (Frontier School Division)
11:00 AM – 11:50 AM In Search of the Lost Library
Room 2 – 50 Minutes
Laurie Lam, Chris Mailloux
12:00 PM Lunch & Awards Ceremony with Guest Speaker:
Chimwemwe Undi
Main Hall
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM From Story Hours to Nerf Battles: Programming in Libraries
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Jess Martens (SCRL)
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM Vitamin K(M): Improving the
Health of Your Library Through Knowledge Management
Room 2 – 50 Minutes
Rémi Fontaine, Monique Woroniak (WPL)
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM Software Migrations: Forget the Tech Issues, It’s a People Project
Room 3 – 50 Minutes
Sophie Firby (WPL)
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Library Tour: Law and Legislature Library
120 Minutes
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM Coffee Break
2:30 PM – 2:55 PM Naawi-bimosanaan – In the Middle of Our Walk: 2 1/2 Years of Being Indigenous Librarian Interns at the University of Manitoba
Room 1 – 25 Minutes
Shirley Delorme Russell, Claire Settee (U of M Library)
2:30 PM – 2:55 PM The Little Libraries That Could:
Housing Three Rural Public Libraries in Community Schools
Room 2 – 25 Minutes
Marie-Andrée Guy, Isabelle Hadley, Tanya Lemoine, Monique Robert (Bibliothèque Ritchot)
2:30 PM – 2:55 PM The Cultural Politics of Libraries
Room 3 – 25 Minutes
Sam Popowich (U of W Library)
3:00 PM – 3:50 PM The Burnt-Out Librarian: Moving on From Vocational Awe
Room 1 – 50 Minutes
Carolyn Minor, Monique Woroniak (WPL)
3:00 PM – 3:50 PM Advancing Public Library Regionalization: Strategies, Developments, and Progress
Room 2 – 50 Minutes
Meghan Hansen (PLS)
4:00 PM Exhibitor Hall Closes