The University of Toronto Libraries and their chief librarian, Larry Alford, hosted the 2013–2015 cohort of 26 ARL Leadership Fellows for a Strategic Issues Institute on July 13–18, 2014. The Toronto institute included an array of rich programs, presentations, tours, and networking events, as well as opportunities for the fellows to meet numerous University of Toronto administrators and library staff. A recurring theme of the institute was collaboration, including external partnerships with the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) as well as on-campus collaborations.
Highlights of the institute included an opening dinner at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, a program about the University of Toronto’s budget model by vice-president of university operations Scott Mabury, and a conversation with provost Cheryl Regehr. Alford also led several informational conversations with the fellows, sharing reflections about his experiences working across institutions in the US and Canada.
This was the second of three Strategic Issues Institutes to be offered for the 2013–2015 ARL Leadership Fellows. The next scheduled event for the fellows is a site visit to be hosted by the Purdue University Libraries and their dean, James Mullins, on September 11–13, 2014. Visit the ARL Leadership Fellows website for more information about this executive leadership program.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.