Interview with New Chair of Canadian Federation of Library Associations

The website of the International Federation of Library Associations recently published an interview with Andrea Cecchetto, the new chair of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA).

The CFLA is a Canada-wide federation of associations, including the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.

In the interview Cecchetto addresses many topics, including the Federation's recently adopted strategic plan:

"Our new strategic plan also focuses strongly on advocacy. When we were developing this plan last year, we reached out to members and ‘advocacy’ was by far the most common priority identified as a strategic goal. We have objectives around formal government relations work with the federal government, but also goals to collaborate with other national associations and agencies on joint issues. To give a couple of examples, CFLA-FCAB has a very active Copyright committee that pulls together expertise from both academic and public sector knowledge specialists. Our Intellectual Freedom Committee recently announced a joint project with the Centre for Free Expression to track IF challenges across the country. Our newest committee, the Climate Action Committee, compliments work that is happening regionally through provincial associations by focusing on Federal stakeholders – this committee secured federal funding for a national campaign which would have been inaccessible for regional organizations, but which ultimately secures a different platform to amplify their work. These are some examples of how we will focus our efforts on strengthening capacity for the Canadian library sector through collaboration."