Prince George, B.C. – Over 130 delegates are in Prince George for the two-day biennial Beyond Hope Conference at the Bob Harkins Branch of the Prince George Public Library and Civic Centre starting today.

“It’s the ninth Beyond Hope Conference that has been organized and hosted in Prince George,” says PGPL communications coordinator and conference co-chair Amy Dhanjal. “It brings together library staff from all over B.C. for hands-on, practical education sessions.”

She says session topics will touch on a wide variety of areas including mentoring and coaching, library accessibility and even the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“In January 2017, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations established the Truth and Reconciliation Committee which is a national effort by the Library Archives community to examine and give recommendations on long-term support for indigenous people of Canada.”

She says the goal of the conference is to provide practical sessions that are accessible to smaller, more remote libraries.

Dhanjal says Beyond Hope adopted its name in the early 1990s in response to the fact most professional development opportunities tended to focus on the Lower Mainland.

She says the name is also a way to highlight the achievements of libraries in the North, beyond the community of Hope, B.C.