Librarians' and Archivists' Conference Speakers

Francine Berish has been working as the geospatial data librarian and liaison librarian for geography and planning at Queen’s University since 2014 in Ka'tarohkwi / Kingston, where the St. Lawrence River and Great Cataraqui River meet Lake Ontario. She is currently serving as the Library Representative on the Bargaining Team and is the chair of the Queen’s University Librarians and Archivists group (QULA). Having grown up with parents who were teachers and attending labour demonstrations, she adopted an early understanding and tremendous respect for the value and work of unions.

Joey da Costa is the Collections Librarian for Thompson Rivers University, situated on the traditional lands of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops, BC). He is responsible for resource and budget management and ignoring cold calls from vendors. His primary area of interest revolves around criticism of monopolism and corporate practices within the library ecosystem. His background is in emerging technology, digital literacy, copyright, and makerspaces. Joey’s been an academic librarian, a digital literacy & teen librarian at a public library, touring musician, and house painter, among other things.

There’s a better-than-50/50 chance that one of his kids gave him a daycare illness and his voice is going to be destroyed for his part of the presentation. Ask him about mountain biking, luthiery, early Christian history, or black metal. Feel free to tell him about your cat, dog, or D&D campaign.

Robin Desmeules is the outgoing Interim VP for AMLAS at McGill University Libraries. She has served MAUT-LS in several capacities over the years, including as Chair of the Section in 2022. She works currently as Interim Coordinator of Scholarly Communications at McGill, but is still a cataloguing and metadata librarian at heart.  

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 professionals throughout Manitoba. Since 2012 she has been actively involved in the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), including serving as President (2021-2024) during UMFA’s 35-day strike in 2021. For over a decade she has worked with UMFA members to develop their skills to “organize for power” and to increase the number of opportunities for members to be involved in their union, to mobilize to demonstrate their collective strength, and to collectively advocate for improvement to post-secondary education in Manitoba. She is a past President of the Canadian Health Libraries Association (2010), is an active member of her local Winnipeg Public Library Advisory Committee and is an active member of the CAUT Librarians' and Archivists' Committee (2018-2021 and 2024-present).

Cecile Farnum is a liaison librarian at Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries, where she has worked since 2004. In this role, she supports specific academic programs, providing instruction, reference and research support to students and faculty.

Cecile actively engages in labour spaces, having participated in several rounds of collective bargaining through her faculty association, as well as work on other faculty association committees. Cecile is a former member of the CAUT Librarians’ and Archivists’ Committee and also served on the steering committee to organize OCUFA’s 2024 Bargaining Stronger Together Collective Bargaining Conference.

Most recently, Cecile has written and presented on artificial intelligence and its emerging impact on the labour of academic librarians.

Natasha Gerolami is an Archivist and Chair of the Department of Library and Archives at Laurentian University. Believing in the need for strong unions to represent workers and the need to advocate for librarians and archivists, Natasha has engaged actively with her union on campus. She served for a decade as a steward for the Laurentian University Faculty Association - Huntington local, was a member of two bargaining teams and is now Chair of the committee on freedom of information and privacy for the faculty association.

Brandon Haynes has worked at the Toronto Public Library for over 15 years, most recently at the North York Central Library in the Business, Science, & Technology department.

One of his earlier experiences with the Union took place when, as a Site Monitor for the “Leading to Reading” after-school program, he was informed by management that they were eliminating his position.

Thankfully, the Union was there for him and made sure there was a process in place for his redeployment. Without the Union, he could have lost his job.

He decided right then that he needed to give back to his Union. He wanted to join the fight to advocate for libraries and help protect the Library Workers who deliver top-notch service to the world’s busiest urban library system!

Since that time, he has been involved with the Union in various roles, including sitting on the Health and Safety Committees, the Executive Board, and as the Ontario Representative and Co-Chair for CUPE’s National Library Workers’ Committee. He was elected President of TPLWU, Local 4948, in November 2019.

The strength and resolve of Library Workers, and from the communities we serve, inspires and motivates him to be a proud advocate for libraries and for the membership he humbly serves.

Dr. Hannah Johnston is an Assistant Professor at York University’s in the School of Human Resources Management where her research focuses on the digitalization of work. She holds a PhD in Geography from Queen’s University, Canada and has published in a wide range of labour, industrial relations and geography journals. She was previously employed by the International Labour Organization and continues to work collaboratively with various trade unions and workers' organizations on topics including collective organizing, algorithmic management, and technological change. 

Meredith Kahn (they/she) is the Librarian for Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Michigan. They are a founding member of their union's organizing committee and have served on two bargaining teams—helping to win a first and a second contract for their union, which represents librarians, archivists, and curators at all three University of Michigan campuses. Along with Kelly McElroy, Angelo Moreno, and Emily Drabinski, they wrote Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers, the first book about labor published by the American Library Association in decades. 

Kelly McElroy (she/her) is an Outreach Librarian and Associate Professor at Oregon State University, where she was a member of the organizing committee that built the faculty union, United Academics OSU, AAUP/AFT 9609. She has held a variety of leadership roles, including on bargaining teams for the inaugural and successor contracts, and currently as a steward. Along with Angelo Moreno, Meredith Kahn, and Emily Drabinski, of Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers, out from ALA Editions.    

Amy is the Assessment Librarian and a Chair of the Librarians’ Department at Thompson Rivers University. She is also a Vice-President and the Lead Negotiator of the Thompson Rivers University Faculty Association, currently in the midst of her third round of collective agreement negotiations. She is a current member of the CAUT Librarians’ and Archivists’ Committee and has published on the topic of workload and collegial governance in libraries in the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship  and Partnership. Outside the library world, she would especially love to talk to you about archery, creative writing, bouldering, or elaborate baking experiments. 

Frédérick Plamondon is a professor in the department of management at Université du Québec à Montréal's École des sciences de la gestion (UQAM-ESG). His research focuses on societal, strategic and organizational issues related to the digital transition and artificial intelligence (AI). Since 2018, he has been an active contributor to debates on the role of AI in Quebec society, taking a special interest in its effects on management practices, professional dynamics and our relationship to work and employment. His work explores both the promises and the limitations of techno-optimism, highlighting the tensions that it elicits in the contemporary labour landscape. 

Sandra Sawchuk is the Research Data & Assessment Librarian at Mount Saint Vincent University Library & Archives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She holds an MLIS and an MA in Humanities Computing from the University of Alberta. Her academic work supports research data management, and advances critical information and data literacy, while her research explores digital and spatial humanities, data rescue, and computational reproducibility. She was recently a co-investigator on a SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant to improve access to Canada’s historical census data and is currently mapping Ukrainian-Canadian settlement patterns using archival land records and GIS. In addition to her academic role, Sandra served as member-at-large and Vice-President of the Mount Saint Vincent University Faculty Association (MSVUFA), and as a member-at-large with the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT), contributing to publications on collegial governance and administrative remuneration.  

Marc Schroeder is an associate professor in Mount Royal University's Department of Mathematics and Computing, where he teaches computer science and studies computer science education from a learning sciences perspective. Marc has occupied multiple roles on the Mount Royal Faculty Association executive and served as MRFA president from 2014 to 2018. He is the Vice-president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, currently chairs its Governance Committee, and co-led the development of CAUT's new Governance Library: a collection of resources for faculty associations and individual members interested in protecting and strengthening collegial governance at their institutions. 
 
Beyond academic staff union work, Marc has published on the subject of collegial university governance and is a contributor to the forthcoming book The Contested Future of Higher Education: Lessons from Alberta.  He has served multiple terms on MRU's General Faculties Council and on several of its standing committees, including having chaired the Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee that developed the detailed criteria for MRU's then-new system of rank and promotion. 

Harold Semenuk is a board member with the Canadian School Libraries organization, and teacher-librarian and curriculum coordinator at M.E. LaZerte High School in Edmonton. Previously, Harold was President for the Alberta School Learning Commons Council - a council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association that advocated and provided professional support for teacher-librarianship and school libraries. Harold has held a variety of instructional and administrative and project leadership roles in public education, though sees his most meaningful work reverberate from contributions to helpful disruption - within and outside of institutional constructs and systems. Currently, important engagements include: protecting teacher oversight and expertise within school systems, restoring school libraries in Alberta, and preventing the further decay of individual and group competence and wise action (particularly within groups with good intentions.) Harold draws on learning foundations and principles through his work as an Associate with the Human Venture Leadership organization and community. 

Derek Silva is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King’s University College at Western University, where he also serves as Chair of the King’s University College Faculty Association (KUCFA). His teaching and research focus on sport, labour, power and inequality, with a particular emphasis on the ways institutions exploit and police marginalized groups. As KUCFA Chair, Silva has led efforts to protect faculty rights, strengthen collective bargaining, and defend academic freedom in the face of austerity measures and corporatization in higher education. His union leadership emphasizes building solidarity across faculty, staff and students, while challenging administrative practices that erode working conditions and educational quality. Silva is also an active public scholar, publishing widely on the politics of sport, labour and social justice in both academic journals and major media outlets. His combined academic and union work reflects a commitment to equity, accountability and the public value of education. 

Anna St.Onge is an archivist. She is currently serving a two-year stint as interim head and university archivist at the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections at York University Libraries. She previously served as the inaugural Director of Digital Scholarship Infrastructure in the libraries. She holds a B.A. in History and Celtic Studies and a M.I.St. degree with a specialization in Archival Studies and Book History & Print Culture, both from the University of Toronto. Her current research focuses on archival praxis and reminiscence therapy for PLWD (people living with dementia) and a collaborative archives project with the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation on Manitoulin Island.