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Organizing for power in your health sciences library: a workshop to utilize labour organizing techniques to engage with health library patrons, and advocate for library workers
2024-06-14 , Charleswood A
Language: English

Health libraries utilize a wide variety of promotion strategies to reach the broad spectrum of health professionals, faculty, and students who use their services and resources. The tools and strategies of renowned labour and community organizer Jane McAlevey can be applied to identifying, and building strong relationships with, health library patrons. These tools and strategies can also be used by health information professionals interested in advocating for library workers within their union, faculty associations, and the larger library community, to improve working conditions and advocate for social justice.

Using health library case examples, workshop participants will learn how to use organizing techniques, such as mapping and charting, to systematically identify and engage health library patrons.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
• Describe the principles of organizing for power.
• Create an organizing map to use in their health sciences library.
• Create an organizing chart to use in their health sciences library.

Orvie Dingwall (she/her) is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Manitoba and is Head of the Outreach unit that provides library services and resources to health professional throughout Manitoba. Since 2021 she has been President of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), the union which represents 1,300 full-time professors, instructors, and librarians at the University of Manitoba. For over a decade UMFA members have been developing their skills to "organize for power", by providing an increasing number of opportunities for members to be involved in their union, to mobilize to demonstrate their collective strength, and to collectively advocate for improvements to post-secondary education in Manitoba. Since 2024 she has been a member of her local Winnipeg Public Library’s Advisory Committee and is engaged in community efforts to lobby for improvements to library funding and building the community library system that Winnipegers need and deserve.