# Christine Van Walraven Helping Public Libraries navigate the future with community-grounded AI literacy and strategic design. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada --- ## Contact * **Email:** me@christinevanwalraven.ca * **LinkedIn:** [www.linkedin.com/in/christinevanwalraven](https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinevanwalraven) * **Personal:** [christinevanwalraven.ca](https://christinevanwalraven.ca) * **Blog:** [futurelibrarydreams.substack.com](https://futurelibrarydreams.substack.com) --- ## Summary Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how people in our communities look for, access, and interact with information. For public libraries, this rapid technological shift isn't just a hurdle to react to—it's our greatest opportunity to step up and actively shape the future we want our communities to live in. With a decade of experience as an Emergent Technology Programmer, combined with my background as an educator and makerspace leader, I have seen firsthand where technology trends, libraries, and people meet. Today, I help public libraries navigate these shifting landscapes through AI literacy staff training and strategic consulting grounded in participatory design and futures thinking. Through my blog, "Future Library Dreams," I explore the convergence of AI, robotics, and community spaces. I guide library boards and executive teams in evaluating their strategic plans through the lens of four critical tensions: * Privacy vs. Data Gathering * Automation vs. Deliberate Human Presence * Expanding Horizons through Knowledge vs. Experience * Future Scanning vs. Reactionism I believe that by balancing these tensions—optimizing spaces for both technology and human connection—we can build proactive, resilient roadmaps. If you are looking to empower your staff and strategically design a future-proof vision for your library, let's connect! --- ## Top Skills * Project & Program Management * Strategic Foresight & Executive Governance * Organizational Design & Change Management * Stakeholder Engagement & Consensus Building * Data Analysis & Visualization * Technology Evaluation & Upskilling --- ## Experience ### Founder and Principal Consultant **Future Library Dreams Consulting** | *Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, ON* | *February 2026 - Present* * **Thought Leadership & Framework Design:** Authored and published a comprehensive strategic framework analyzing the intersection of AI, participatory design, and the future of public libraries. * **Strategic Development:** Building a specialized consultancy dedicated to helping library executive teams navigate the core tensions of technological integration, automation, and community impact. ### Library Assistant (Part-Time) - Strategic Support & Education **Waterloo Public Library** | *Waterloo, ON* | *January 2026 - Present* * **Executive Committee Work:** Selected to serve on the CEO-led Library Futures committee, contributing on-the-ground insights and futures-thinking expertise to long-term organizational strategy. * **Direct AI & Tech Education:** Facilitate customized 1-on-1 technology sessions with community members, bridging the digital divide and teaching practical applications of generative AI and foundational digital literacy. ### Strategic Consultant - Organizational Design (Pro Bono) **kwartzlab** | *Kitchener, ON* | *December 2025 - May 2026* * **Trusted Executive Advisory:** Recruited directly by current executive leadership to evaluate and finalize the implementation of an operational "teams" framework originally conceptualized during a 2017 tenure, demonstrating a decade-long reputation as a highly trusted organizational advisor. ### Library Assistant (Special Project) - AI & Robotics Space Design **Waterloo Public Library** | *Waterloo, ON* | *November 2024 - December 2025* * **Community Needs Assessment:** Partnered with local organizations to gather real-world insights and feedback on emergent technologies, ensuring the library's new offerings aligned with proven community use-cases. * **Cross-Functional Strategic Planning:** Collaborated closely with library management to analyze departmental constraints and needs, translating those insights into a comprehensive, actionable implementation plan that addressed operational concerns and secured organizational buy-in. * **Strategic Space Design:** Spearheaded the conceptualization and final design of a specialized, family-oriented AI and robotics space, utilizing Human-Centered Design principles to ensure the environment met the specific learning needs of the community. * **Technology Evaluation & Curation:** Assessed and selected various STEM and AI educational products, evaluating their effectiveness for hands-on, experiential learning and community engagement. ### Board of Directors & Corporate Secretary (Volunteer) **Waterloo North Condominium Corporation 17** | *Kitchener, ON* | *May 2021 - June 2023* * **Information Governance & Risk Mitigation:** Navigated a high-stakes executive offboarding process following the statutory disqualification of the Board President. Spearheaded the secure decoupling of corporate communication channels from personal devices, mitigating severe data privacy risks and ensuring strict information security. * **Business Continuity & Succession Planning:** Stabilized operations as the sole remaining executive board member during an acute organizational crisis. Successfully recruited a trusted community stakeholder to an interim executive role to maintain legal quorum until the AGM. * **Conflict Resolution & Consensus Building:** Navigated highly polarized group dynamics and partisan vendor relations by acting as a diplomatic consensus-builder. Prioritized objective decision-making and organizational momentum, ensuring the board continued to function and deliver on its mandate despite internal friction. * **Corporate Administration & Information Integrity:** Managed the end-to-end preparation of corporate agendas and minutes. Leveraged strong technical and organizational skills to ensure the strict accuracy, transparency, and uncompromised integrity of official corporate records. ### Emergent Technology Programmer and Library Assistant **Waterloo Public Library** | *Waterloo, ON* | *March 2014 - November 2024* * **Thought Leadership & AI Advocacy:** Championed emerging technology and AI literacy initiatives, culminating in presenting a participatory design-inspired AI Literacy Poster at the 2024 Ontario Library Association (OLA) Super Conference. * **Technology Evaluation & Organization-Wide Upskilling:** Evaluated, procured, and managed the library's STEM and maker equipment collection through each item's lifecycle. Designed and facilitated comprehensive digital literacy training for all library staff, elevating the baseline technical proficiency across all departments. * **Stakeholder Engagement & Event Management:** Partnered with diverse community organizations (such as the Tamil Cultural Association) to execute large-scale cultural events. Conducted comprehensive stakeholder needs assessments and coordinated cross-departmentally—managing marketing, equipment, and facility logistics—to ensure seamless event delivery. * **Systems Design & Database Management:** Designed, built, and managed custom software solutions, including a comprehensive registration database and website that successfully stored and maintained records for over 1,500 Summer Reading Club registrants. * **Creative Marketing & High-Impact Public Speaking:** Spearheaded comprehensive promotional campaigns to drive program registration, directing and performing in viral digital content while delivering high-energy outreach presentations to assembly audiences of 200+ students. * **Inclusive Technology Education:** Designed and facilitated hands-on STEM and emerging technology workshops for a broad demographic spectrum (ranging from early childhood to seniors 80+). Championed "risky play" initiatives—such as teaching safe knife handling to preschoolers—and presented on the topic at the 2017 OLA Super Conference. ### Warden Coordinator (Volunteer) **kwartzlab** | *Kitchener, ON* | *January 2016 - August 2018* * **Systems & Risk Management:** Conducted an organizational needs assessment to identify operational bottlenecks and structural vulnerabilities. Conceptualized the transition from a legacy model to a resilient "teams" system to eliminate single points of failure. * **Process Optimization & Financial Operations:** Streamlined organizational bureaucracy by implementing a decentralized budgeting system, empowering individual teams to manage their own localized expenses and drastically reducing administrative overhead. * **Talent Acquisition & Cross-Functional Leadership:** Authored targeted job descriptions, managed the end-to-end recruitment and training of operational volunteers, and facilitated cross-functional meetings to identify and resolve systemic pain points. ### Director (Volunteer) **kwartzlab** | *Kitchener, ON* | *June 2015 - June 2017* * **Board Governance & Strategic Policy:** Elected to the Board of Directors to represent member interests, drafting policy and process solutions that balanced community needs with strategic directives, bylaws, and budget constraints. * **Cross-Organizational Partnerships:** Acted as the primary liaison representing Kwartzlab at regional public library maker events, effectively bridging the gap between grassroots hacker/maker communities and formal public institutions. ### Coordinator - Youth Digital Media Project (Grant Funded) **kwartzlab** | *Kitchener, ON* | *December 2014 - January 2016* * **Program Management & Resource Acquisition:** Spearheaded a 14-month intensive STEM curriculum for at-risk youth in partnership with The Working Centre. Managed a $6,000 grant budget, secured corporate hardware donations, and recruited a team of 8 technical mentors. --- * **Simulation Skills: This is Your Brain on the Future** | *Institute for the Future (Coursera)* | July 2026 * **Forecasting Skills: See the Future Before it Happens** | *Institute for the Future (Coursera)* | April 2026 * **Python for Data Science, AI & Development** | *IBM (Coursera)* | March 2026 * **Ready, Set, Future! Introduction to Futures Thinking** | *Institute for the Future (Coursera)* | February 2026 * **Introduction to Data Analytics** | *IBM (Coursera)* | October 2025 * **Excel Basics for Data Analysis** | *IBM (Coursera)* | October 2025 * **Data Visualization and Dashboards with Excel and Cognos** | *IBM (Coursera)* | October 2025 * **Human Resource Management: HR for People Managers Specialization** | *University of Minnesota (Coursera)* | March 2021 * *Coursework Completed:* Preparing to Manage Human Resources; Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding Employees; Managing Employee Performance; Managing Employee Compensation; Human Resources Management Capstone. --- ## Education * **Master of Information, Information Systems and Change in Information Organizations** | *University of Toronto* | September 2011 - July 2013 * **Bachelor of Arts, English, Fine Art** | *York University* | September 2003 - June 2008 * **Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA)** | *University of Cambridge* | May 2007