The Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) Network was busy at the 2014 CLA Conference (May 28-31, 2014) in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. ViMLoC had its first CLA social at the Old Spaghetti Factory on Wednesday, May 28, following the CLA Reception & Trade Show Opening. Good food and good times were had. ViMLoC would like to extend a special thank you to May Chan for organizing the social event. We hope to have more social events at CLA where we can connect ViMLoC members across Canada.

The faces of ViMLoC , the network’s accomplishments and goals were highlighted (with other CLA networks)in a slide show at the Opening Ceremonies/Keynote Presentation on Thursday, May 29.

On Friday, May 30 ViMLoC presented a poster highlighting two major projects:

1)      a survey of visible minority librarians working in Canadian institutions (Leads: Maha Kumaran and Heather Cai)

2)      the establishment of a mentorship program for visible minority librarians in Canada (Lead: Norda Majekodunmi)

The poster was well received. ViMLoC members were able to connect with others in the profession from across Canada. We look forward to disseminating more information about these projects in the near future. ViMLoC would like to extend a special thank you to Maha Kumaran, Heather Cai, Norda Majekodunmi, May Chan and Aditi Gupta for their hard work and their role in planning, preparing and presenting the poster.

ViMLoC will continue to work towards connecting, engaging and supporting visible minority librarians in Canada. It’s not too early to think about next year’s CLA Conference which will be held in Ottawa, Ontario. If there are there any ViMLoCers, especially in Central/East Canada who might be interested in planning for, presenting or partying at the 2015 CLA Conference , contact vimloc@gmail.com.