Capilano Universe: Why we collect

People love making collections. Some bring us pride and joy, like books, badges or beautiful rocks. Some collections are necessary for survival, like the bag of belongings that a child in care brings from home to home, or the leftover meds that sick and disabled folks stash to share with others. 

This talk is a celebration of the collecting we do for joy and for survival, but also an investigation of collecting that takes place at the systemic level: how we fill waterways with our trash, how colonial governments engage in land theft and invent property for us to collect, and how policing turns human beings into objects to be collected as stats or as bodies in prison. How might tuning into the ways we collect for joy and survival help us rethink the systems we create as a society?

This talk is part of 2026 Capilano Universe, an annual lecture series presented by Capilano University faculty at local public libraries.

Presenter bio: Jocelyn Hallman has spent 15 years as a librarian, having come from a background in literary and cultural studies. She loves her collections of Girl Guide badges, No Doubt paraphernalia from the 90s, fibre arts supplies, and abandoned project ideas. She has also amassed over 80,000 photos of her kids on her phone. Hallman is the Collection Development Librarian at Capilano University.

This is a hybrid program; participants can attend the lecture either in-person at the library or via Zoom. Registration is required by 5 p.m. on January 21. For those attending via Zoom, the link will be sent at approx. 5 p.m. on the day of the event to the email address you use to register.