Editorial: My Wish for Library Leadership

One of my favourite stories I told at a library leadership Institute (NELI) held on the border of Alberta and BC, was the importance of this place. After a session with an Indigenous Elder, we held a closing ceremony that I have always found transformative, inspiring, and motivational. It’s a kinda secret cohort of library folks from across Canada with a few Americans thrown in for good measure. I made my personal remarks thusly.

“As we leave this place of majestic mountains and trees including Lodgepole Pines, sitting crosslegged under the Burgess Shale (some of the oldest fossils on our planet), we sit on the continental divide that will never divide us as librarians or as Canadians. From this place we will leave and return to our home lives and careers. We may fly today but we follow the routes of the rivers that flow almost totally across Canada from east to west and north to our three coasts. These rivers are a symbol of the journey of Indigenous lives as the First Peoples of the Americas. They are the routes our own ancestors followed to re-discover as westerners and build our country. Knowledge, then was passed on as stories. We travel home as changed people and leaders to form new Lodgepoles in our communities, to embrace people and make a positive difference in their lives. We embrace change, repsect our histories, we create and flow like a river over time. We are the Keepers of Knowledge and entrusted with our nature knowledge and shared stories. There is no higher calling. We make a difference and, we, as Library Leaders, are committed to our land, cultures, and society. As long as we touch water, our tribe spans the globe, heedless of futile attempts to stay our voices. Our impact knows no bounds or borders.”