ELA, founded in 1986, is the national Canadian association of people who have spent an important part of their working life in libraries, archives, museums, publishing houses, and adjunct fields, and who are now attracted to historical and current issues related to those institutions as well as to issues concerning the personal welfare of their fellow members. Our objectives, our constitution, our executive and other committees, our long range plan, and our history all reflect our long-standing and continuing concern for issues related to information services.

As times change, our goals have broadened to exploit new technologies and to recognize important new issues, such as reconciliation and recognition of Indigenous peoples. We are a government recognized non-profit organization. ELA is a member of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations–La Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA-FCAB) which is the united, national voice of Canada’s library community.

More details available on the activities main page

• ELA's Annual General Meeting;
• ELA cooperates with other organizations and sponsors the W. Kaye Lamb award for excellence in library services to seniors and an Indigenous Student Bursary for studies in librarianship or archives;
• ELA publishes our newsletter ELAN, twice a year;
• ELA organizes tours of interest to the membership on a regular basis;
• ELA participates in library advocacy on a national issues and addresses issues of current interest;
• ELA maintains a website, a electronic listserver for its members and a Facebook page;
• ELA publishes Occasional papers, reports, and articles by members.

More details available on the Newsletter main page

ELAN is ELA’s newsletter of articles, reminiscences, pictures, and news.

• ELAN published list of issues available for viewing;
• thanks to the work of Jean Wheeler and Agatha Barc, a master index to ELAN's issues is available covering the years 1987 to 2016;
• ELAN volunteers: there are opportunities to contribute articles and book reviews.

More details available on the historical resources main page

• ELA is producing a database of Biographies of Librarians, Achivists and Information Professionals in Canada, a significant part of whose lives was spent in libraries, archives, publishing and related information fields;
• historical articles on Canadian library and information studies education, such as the ELAN special 2004 issue on library education;
• chronologies related to Canadian library and information studies education;
• a website section devoted to memories and tributes to former members.