NLA NEWSLETTER
FALL 2008
This past June, I had the opportunity to attend the Polar Libraries Colloquy in Edmonton, and also present a paper while I was there. I am still not exactly sure what a “colloquy” is, but I did learn about a number of interesting resources and initiatives!
The Polar Libraries Colloquy (PLC) was formed in the early 1970's (then known as the Northern Libraries Colloquy) to bring together librarians and others with a common interest in collections of polar information and related services. The association is international in scope and holds gatherings every other year, alternating between North American and European locations. I found that the conference and the association are largely made up of academic and special library folks, but the Colloquy is open to any interested individual or institution. If you aren't sure whether you would like to be a member or not, there are ways you can find out about the group and also participate without becoming a member. The Colloquy administers an email discussion group (“pollib-L”), for those interested in polar libraries and polar bibliographic databases. The PLC also produces a newsletter, the Polar Libraries Bulletin, twice a year, which is available online through the PLC's website. The website is also a great jumping off point for all other PLC information, including a link to the PLC blog, a Polar and Cold Regions Library Resources Directory, and also online, full-text versions of PLC proceedings from recent conferences. The website address is: http://arcticcentre.ulapland.fi/polarweb/plc/default.asp.
As for my conference experience, this was actually my second PLC. My first was in Ottawa in 2004 and at that event, I expected to be surrounded by librarians who, like me, work in northern locations, with northern people. Instead, I remember being surprised at the number of participants and presentations focused on polar information and resources housed in southern institutions. That is why, at this conference, I was motivated to give a presentation from the perspective of a librarian who is actually located in a polar region. The topic was Currents of Change: the Future of Polar Information, so I decided to focus my presentation and paper on the “polar information” that is most often used by and relevant to my library patrons: publications produced in Nunavut about Nunavut. So I described five main publishing organizations in Nunavut, past and present – the Inuit Cultural Institute, the Nunavut Literacy Council, the Nunavut Teaching and Learning Centre, Nunavut Arctic College, and the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society. The descriptions were then followed by a discussion about notable characteristics common to all of the publishers, and about the importance of their publications. The information I gathered was from interviewing knowledgeable northerners involved with each of these publishing operations.
So I tried to do my part to share what I know about polar information, and in return I learned about some other interesting initiatives relating to the Arctic and the Antarctic, from updates on the International Polar Year and the University of the Arctic, to the development of digitization projects. One presentation that I particularly enjoyed hearing was about a new web resource called “Caninuit: a comprehensive bibliography of Canadian Inuit periodicals”. You can access this website at http://www.libris.ca/inuit/go.exe, and use it to find annotated information about the magazines, journals, newspapers and newsletters of Canadian Inuit communities and people.
Rae-Lynne Aramburo
Nunavut Arctic College
Iqaluit