HLABC Annual General Meeting

by | 16 June 2026
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The HLABC AGM is on June 25, 2026 at 12pm PST. During the AGM, Colleen Pawliuk, Edlyn Lim, and Shannon Cheng will be giving an update on their research regarding the impact of the CPSBC library closure. Immediately following the AGM, from 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm, there be an informal roundtable with June 2026 CHLA conference attendees. 

The minutes from the last year’s AGM can be found here. To submit items for the agenda, please email hlabcexec@gmail.com with ‘AGM Agenda Item’ as the email subject.

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66982311379?pwd=UqZwpHXJJLMFTzdOxqpNaUkbCiVtGa.1

Meeting ID: 669 8231 1379
Passcode: 145525

We look forward to seeing you at our AGM and 2026 CHLA Conference Roundtable!

Continuing Education Event: Paper Panel with Glyneva Bradley-Ridout and Tyler Ostapyk

by | 23 February 2026
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HLABC and eHLbc have partnered to present a virtual paper panel featuring Glyneva Bradley-Ridout, Liaison and Education Librarian at Gerstein Science Information Center at the University of Toronto and Tyler Ostapyk, Librarian at the WRHA Virtual Library at the University of Manitoba.

Join us on February 26th from 1:00 – 2:00 pm PST. Please register for the Zoom link below: https://forms.gle/kJquQvMGwuHR6ZQP8

History of Glyneva’s work:

Glyneva recently completed a one-year sabbatical where she investigated the impacts of play on students, and their motivations for participating in play events, when visiting academic libraries. This research resulted in two publications on the topic of play in libraries, which Glyneva will shamelessly share during her presentation. This semester, Glyneva also developed and is teaching a course at the U of T iSchool called Developing Play based programming for adult users of libraries. Fun fact: Glyneva thought she wasn’t a pet person until she adopted her cat Bandit, and is now completely obsessed. Some pictures of Bandit will also shamelessly be shared during the presentation! 

History of Tyler’s work:

I started developing the tool I am presenting [www.rxstring.ca] when I noticed the amount of time it was taking me to identify brand names and synonyms for drug interventions when developing literature search strategies. I knew many of the sources I was using to identify these terms had APIs that I could potentially leverage to automate the process. I began working on the tool in 2024 and first presented a prototype at the Linked Data 4 Production Conference in October 2024. I made the tool publicly available in March 2025 and presented it during a lightning talk at the CHLA conference in June 2025. Since then I have shared the tool with various groups and have incorporated feedback to further refine the tool and its features. As of today the tool has been accessed by 324 users and close to 1000 queries have been run by these users. Fun fact: I was a cataloguing librarian at Library and Archives Canada for five years before moving into health librarianship.

Special thanks again to eHLbc, the Electronic Health Library of BC, for making this event possible. We look forward to seeing everyone at this event!

Winter Social Event: Lightning Books

by | 14 January 2026
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Join your HLABC colleagues for Lightning Books – a fun online social event to share reading recommendations! 

Date/Time: Friday January 30, 2026, 12:00-12:45 PM 
Location: Zoom (details below)
Topic: HLABC Presents: Lightning Books
Time: Jan 30, 2026 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/69888340366?pwd=aeqPcAuzO1Rs0lYrx9g1w7JCG3LFh9.1

Meeting ID: 698 8834 0366
Passcode: 032112

About the event:

  • Choose 1-2 books you’ve read in the past year and email hlabexec@gmail.com the titles
  • Pitch a quick 1-2 minute review at our event
  • Collect some incredible titles for your reading list!
  • Enter to win a door prize!

Books can be any genre. This is just for fun personal reading! No medical texts allowed! (Unless you read those for fun!) If you don’t want to present any books, that’s totally fine. Feel free to attend to socialize and hear about some great reads. Those who present a book are eligible to win an eGift card!

Continuing Education Event: Getting Comfortable with Context: An introductory Qualitative Research Methods Workshop

by | 4 November 2025
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Join HLABC for a free Continuing Education event: ‘Getting Comfortable with Context: An introductory Qualitative Research Methods Workshop’. This webinar scheduled for November 17th and will be presented by Lindsey Sikora, Head of Research Support for Health Sciences, Medicine, and STEM at the University of Ottawa, and Robin Parker, Acting Head for Library Academic Services in Medicine, Health & Dentistry and Evidence Synthesis Librarian & Faculty of Medicine Liaison at Dalhousie University.   

Using examples from their own doctoral research, the workshop leaders will walk participants through the basics of qualitative research methods. This introductory session will help participants get comfortable with the key parts of qualitative research design, such as aligning the purpose, philosophy of science, research questions, methodology, and the methods for collecting and analyzing data.

Special thanks to eHLbc, the Electronic Health Library of BC, for making this event possible. We look forward to seeing everyone at this event!

Topic: Getting Comfortable with Context: An introductory Qualitative Research Methods Workshop
Time: November 17th, 10:00-11:00 AM PST
Please register for the Zoom link here: https://forms.gle/knm2bsTi31fWyocm7