Advocacy and Campaigns

Current Campaigns


St. Joseph's Healthcare (Hamilton)

CHLA President Amanda Ross-White also received an email from the President of St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton Mike Heenan, PhD, MBA.  

"St. Joe's [has] decided to engage an Ontario-based academic health sciences centre and teaching hospital to help guide the final design of the new Centre for Education and Learning. This process will help ensure that the library services currently offered at St. Joe's are comprehensive, accessible and meet national library science, technology and academic standards."

CHLA looks forward to further developments.





College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (03/2024)

  • Read CHLA's letter to the College registrar, BC Health Minister and Shadow Health Minister

  • Sign and share CHLA's petition at change.org

  • In BC? Find your MLA to send a letter of your own


Other Activities

Letter to CMA regarding recently announced changes to Canadian Medical Association (CMA) programs and services. CHLA/ABSC with Support from SAHLA, OVHLA, THLA, SHLA, HLABC, NAHLA, MAHIP, and WWDHLN. (03/2023)


Recognizing Librarians and Information Professionals as Authors on Evidence Synthesis Publications. Joint MLA & CHLA/ABSC Statement. (11/2022)

MLA Statement Calling on Hospital and Health System Executives to Support Libraries and Library Staff. Co-signed by CHLA/ABSC, American Nurses Credentialing Center, AAHSL, and SLA. (01/2022)

La contribution des professionnelles de l’information du milieu de la santé et des services sociaux à la gestion de la crise sanitaire saluée par la CBPQ, La FMD, la FMD 3S et l’ABSC. (05/2021)

Statement on the Importance of Hospital Libraries: A statement by CHLA/ABSC with support from MLA, ACMQ, CBPQ, HLABC, MAHIP, NAHLA, OVHLA, SHLA, SAHLA, and THLA.  (05/2021)

International health library associations urge the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to seek information specialists as peer reviewers for knowledge synthesis publications: Joint letter by CHLA/ABSC, EAHIL, ALIA HLA, and MLA. (06/2020)

NAHLA Land Acknowledgement, Template for Personalization, Definitions, and Speaker Protocol: Courtesy of Northern Alberta Health Libraries Association. (06/2019)

Letters of Support and Endorsements:

CHLA/ABSC funded the study Results of a Survey to Benchmark Canadian Health Facility Libraries (01/2015), which aimed to determine the status of hospital libraries in Canada and evaluate whether libraries met the 2006 CHLA/ABSC Standards for Library and Information Services in Canadian Healthcare Facilities.

Past Activities 

A summary for each group is available in the Governance Manual
  • Pan Canadian Cochrane Task Force (2009-2010)
  • National Network of Libraries for Health / Réseau national des bibliothèques pour la santé (2000-2008)
  • Task Force on Hospital Library Standards/ Normes pour les bibliothèques et les services dinformation au sein des établissements de soins de santé au Canada (2005-2006) (see the Publications section)
  • Professional Librarian Recruitment Letter Writing Campaign (2003-2004)
  • Volunteers in Libraries (2003-2004)
  • Resource Sharing II (1997-1999)
  • Benchmarking (1997-1998)
  • Resource Sharing (1994-1997)
  • Oral History Committee (1982-1983)