Skip to main content
logo

BC Library Conference 2016

May 11–13, 2016

Richmond, BC

F07: Didn’t know I’d be a CEO

Friday, May 13, 2016 at 10:30 AM–11:45 AM PDT
Cedarbridge
Session Description

Generously Sponsored By: iSchool@UBC: School of Library, Archival and Information Studies

Few of us start our careers thinking we will be a CEO. Certainly we have personal and professional goals and as we spend time in our profession these goals evolve and change. But what were the challenges, rewards, and considerations that shaped decisions to become a library CEO? What skills were learned, or unlearned, to support this career path? What was the route, intellectually and practically, that led to becoming a CEO? Join this panel of library leaders to hear how they determined that a CEO position was right for them, hear about the work a CEO does, learn about the trials and rewards of the work, and listen to the personal stories of four of this provinces library CEOs.

Speakers

June Stockdale, Nelson Public Library
Biography

June Stockdale has been the Chief Librarian at the Nelson Public Library for the past eight years and came to the position through a non-traditional route. Under June’s leadership, the Nelson Library has become a thriving community hub that is continuously evolving to respond to the needs of the public in new and innovative ways. From policy to people, personnel to politics, June has gained many valuable library life lessons from her twenty years of increasingly complex work in the library world.

Gwen Bird, SFU Library
Biography

Gwen Bird has been Dean of Libraries at Simon Fraser University since 2014. Previous positions include Executive Director of the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries, Associate University Librarian for Collections at SFU, and College Librarian at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt, BC. She is currently on the Board of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network and is a past president of BCLA.

Shirley Lew, Vancouver Community College
Biography

Shirley Lew has been the Director, Library & Learning Centre at Vancouver Community College since January 2015. Her previous positions have included Coordinator, Library Systems & Technical Services at VCC and Student Services Coordinator at iSchool at UBC. She has also been an Adjunct Professor at the iSchool at UBC and is a board member of the Vancouver Writers Fest and Westcoast Book Prizes Society Boards of Directors. Before becoming a librarian, she was a bookseller in Vancouver for many years.

Scott Hargrove, Fraser Valley Regional Library
Biography

Scott Hargrove is the Chief Executive Officer of Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL), in British Columbia, Canada. He assumed the role in January 2015, having served in a series executive positions at FVRL starting in 2006 as the Senior Manager of Information Technology. From 2001 to 2006, he was the Manager of Information Technology at the Burlington Public Library, in Burlington, Ontario. His current professional focus includes the rapidly changing role of public libraries in their communities, new library business models, and the natural intersection between libraries and technology. He frequently speaks on these topics at conferences and to special interest groups. Scott has served as a Board Director for the BC Libraries Cooperative, chaired a provincial committee on software licensing, is a current member of the Library Leadership Development Council, and a mentor in Interlink’s Project LLEAD. Scott holds a B.Ed from the University of Victoria, an MSc in Computer Science from the University of York, England, and the Executive MLIS from San Jose State University.

Anne Olsen
Biography

Session facilitator. Anne Olsen is Head, Koerner Library, the humanities and social sciences library at the University of British Columbia. During her 25 year library career, Anne has worked in the academic, public and special library sectors. Anne is an adjunct faculty member at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, the iSchool at UBC, and her professional interests include leadership and the evolving role of librarians and libraries in their communities.

Loading…