The future of libraries — copyright, the Internet, freedom of speech, fees for library services — is on the agenda at next week’s conference for the B.C. library community. The joint conference of the B.C. Library Association and the B.C. Library Trustees Association is being held at the Whistler Conference Centre April 25-27. "The question of the library’s role in the electronic age is confronting everyone working in the field today," said conference co-chair Ron Clancy. "The conference theme, ‘Ensuring our future; libraries working together,’ has been chosen in order to examine this issue in a positive way." The Whistler Public Library is scheduled to join the network of Lower Mainland libraries next year. The network will allow library members to, for example, pick up books or other resource material at the West Vancouver library and return the material at the Whistler library. Among the conference speakers will be Roch Carrier, director of the Canada Council and the author of The Hockey Sweater and Other Stories. Carrier will deliver the keynote address. Walt Crawford, co-author of Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness and Reality, will address some popular myths about the future of libraries in the age of technology. While Crawford and Carrier will be speaking to conference delegates, Arthur Black, host of CBC Radio’s popular Basic Black program, will be speaking at the Myrtle Philip Community School on Friday, April 26. Black’s talk, a light-hearted look at life in Canada in the last decade of the millennium, is open to all. Tickets are $10 and available at the Whistler Public Library.
