The ORL’s CEO, Danielle Hubbard, has been elected Vice Chair of the Association of BC Public Library Directors (ABCPLD). The ABCPLD is a professional association that represents public library systems across British Columbia and serves as a key collective voice for the sector.
The association plays an important advocacy role for public libraries. Its work includes raising shared concerns, identifying policy priorities, and advocating for sustainable funding and support. By working collaboratively, the association helps ensure libraries across the province are well positioned to serve their communities.
The ORL’s CEO brings a particularly valuable perspective to this role. The ORL serves large urban branches, growing suburban communities, and small rural libraries. That range offers insight into how policy decisions and funding models affect staff, services, and operations differently across varied settings. It helps ensure that provincial conversations reflect the full spectrum of public library experiences, not just one type of system.
In Hubbard’s words, the role presents an opportunity to “shape the conversation with government about library funding, policy priorities, and the operational realities libraries are facing.” Those realities include staffing pressures, workplace safety considerations, budgeting cycles, union environments, and increasingly complex collections and operational systems. Bringing these day-to-day factors into provincial discussions helps anchor advocacy in the lived experience of library work.
The Vice Chair role also centres on collaboration among library leaders. Through the ABCPLD, directors share information, compare approaches, and work toward cohesive priorities. This coordination helps ensure that when libraries advocate to government, they do so clearly, consistently, and with a shared understanding of the challenges facing library staff and systems across the province.
Ultimately, the ABCPLD strengthens the connection between what happens in library branches and the decisions made at the provincial level. It helps ensure that staff experience, community needs, and operational realities inform how public libraries in British Columbia are supported and sustained.
