Proposal for (unofficial) discussion @CAIS/ASCI 2025 about future of Canadian InfoSci/GLAMS dependency on US organizations

[bri watson]

hi all!

As I'm sure many of you have been—given everything mmm... 'happening' south of the border—I have been talking with friends and colleagues what it might look like for us (i.e Canadian institutions/orgs/etc) to imagine pathways away from dependency on US-based organizations (for accreditation, infrastructure, catalogues, &etc.), and whether that might look like Canadian-based accreditation instead of/alongside of others, the reconstruction of a Canadian catalogue (instead of OCLC/Worldcat), or the ways that L&AC might need to broaden its mission.

I suggested to a few people that it might be worth having an unofficial meeting / discussion group during the CAIS 2025 conference at Dalhousie University, and have received rather enthusiastic interest, so I thought I would offer to organize. Just for clarity's sake, it's worth noting that this is an entirely unofficially organized meetup/discussion and has not been endorsed (nor declaimed!) by CAIS/ASCI or the CAIS25 organisers. I did, however, give them a heads-up that I would be sending this email!

Looking at the CAIS25 schedule and trying to avoid any major conflicts, it seems to me that the best time for this discussion would shortly after the start of lunch on May 28th/Day 2 (also my birthday!); so that folks could go see the poster session and then come to the discussion. The only likely conflict would be with the tour of the department. Ideally we would meet somewhere nearby and people could bring their lunch, drop in and out and so on. 

I am also thinking about accessibility for online participants. Depending on the level of interest and depending on where the Dalhousie-based folks meet it might be hard to hear/participate, but my current thoughts include either setting up a zoom event for people to call/listen into, or if there seems to be a lot of interest it might be a good idea for someone else to make a virtual event at the same time and then we could compare notes from the two calls (open to anyone who wants to volunteer!). 

However, it's hard to start planning all of these aspects until I have a headcount of people interested! So I'm asking for anyone interested in this discussion to fill out this Google form by Midnight/0:00 Eastern Time May 11th 2025. I'll use the phone numbers/emails to update folks on where/how/if we will be meeting. 

direct link to form: https://forms.gle/FuucxP98eDJnpcL6A 

Happy to answer any questions (but don't have many answers since this is all still very tentative!)

bri

[bri watson]

Hi everyone!

Apologies to those of you who will get this twice!

I'm pleased to report that there have been a good number of signups for this (unofficial) chat which will occur over the CAIS lunch hour on May 27th (so 9:30a Pacific / 10:30a Mountain / 11:30a Central / 12:30p Eastern) in Room 1016 of the Kenneth C. Rowe Building. Thanks to the support of the (fantastic wonderful) local organizers it has hybrid capabilities and I've set up a corresponding Zoom event (details below) if you would like to attend virtually. I'll send out the password on the day of the event, so sign up here if you haven't already and are interested in attending virtually.

There's no particular hardset topic—I'll probably open by stating why I organized the meeting and then turn it over for general discussion.

Topic: Unofficial Lunch Discussion: Canadian InfoSci/GLAMS Futures
Time: May 27, 2025 12:30  Eastern Time (US and Canada)
In Person:  Room 1016 of the Kenneth C. Rowe Building
Online Link https://ubc.zoom.us/j/62832938949?pwd=VyyZugAAT9BATVwB6H8A9d5prfw8ms.1
Zoom ID: 628 3293 8949
Zoom Passcode: Sign up at the above link to have it sent the day of!

bri