CARL at 50: Zooming in on the People Behind the Association
October 6, 2026 – For 50 years, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has brought research libraries together to advance shared priorities, strengthen collaboration, and support a thriving research ecosystem in Canada. While much of CARL’s work is driven by the dedication of its members, committees, Working Groups, and Communities of Practice, our small team of staff has provided the continuity and support that make this work possible.
Although CARL was founded in 1976, the Association operated without dedicated staff during its first five years. In 1981, Margaret Allen became CARL’s first Executive Secretary, laying the foundation for the professional staff that supports the Association today. Since then, the staff team has grown from a single employee to six dedicated professionals.
Over the decades, CARL staff have worked behind the scenes to support members, organize meetings and events, coordinate national initiatives, facilitate Communities of Practice, strengthen partnerships, and help advance the Association’s mission. Their work has often been unseen, but it has been essential to CARL’s success.
Looking back from within CARL
Katherine McColgan has been part of the CARL team for more than 25 years, making her the Association’s longest-serving staff member. We asked her to reflect on how CARL and its staff have evolved during her time with the Association.
When I joined CARL in 1998, CARL staff had just become the first full-time salaried employees of the Association. I replaced an outgoing administrative assistant, and it was just me and CARL’s Executive Director, Tim Mark. The Association had an annual budget of just over $160,000, and our main project was the annual statistics program.
The biggest issues on our minds at that time were the application to CFI to create a national licensing infrastructure for Canadian academic libraries, which came to be known as the Canadian National Site Licensing Project, and, of course, Canada’s Copyright Act.
Twenty-eight years later, CRKN (previously CNSLP) is still going strong, CARL continues to administer the annual statistics program, and our public policy work includes conversations on, yes, Canada’s Copyright Act.
But while some things have stayed the same, there has also been a lot of change. CARL has grown to six full-time employees, engages anywhere from six to eight visiting program officers at any given time, and looks to special advisors for certain projects. Our annual budget has grown to over $1 million, and although our projects still include the annual statistics program, our work has expanded to a level of engagement that is too numerous to list here.
As I think back through the years, the growth in CARL’s strength as an organization is through the commitment and faith that our members have had in us. With every new project that arose, there would be at least one member who would stand up and champion the issue, understanding what it would mean for the research library community to see it through. That was often all it took for the rest of their colleagues to jump on board and invest time, and often money, into seeing it to fruition.
CARL has grown as a trusted leader both in Canada and globally, and as an organization, we have grown our staff to deliver on our commitments to our members.
And yet through all of this change, CARL has remained a steadfast organization, one that operates on trust and transparency, works to effect change to benefit our members, and continues to employ strong, intelligent, and thoughtful staff. Our collegiality as staff in a small organization has always been there, and it is something that we should be proud of.
— Katherine McColgan, Manager of Administration and Programs
To all of CARL’s past and present staff: thank you for your dedication, professionalism, and the countless contributions you have made over the past five decades.
