Canadian Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination

Over the past couple of years myself, and fellow Consultant Librarians, have conducted a number of community needs assessments for our libraries in the development of their Plans of Service.  One of the most prevalent needs we hear is for communities (and libraries) to celebrate the diversity of their population.  Celebrating diversity includes making all cultures, religions and races feel welcome and included in the community.  Libraries have a large role to play here, as a municipal service, community meeting place and one of the last remaining public buildings in many communities. 

UNESCO has put together a toolkit for Municipalities, Organizations and Citizens for the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination.  The coalition itself invites municipalities to join the cause against racism and discrimination, but the toolkit provides some valuable information and resources for any organization to use.  Here is a summary of what the toolkit contains:

• Practical Information on how to join the Coalition, develop and implement a Plan of Action, monitor your community’s progress, engage youth, collaborate with Aboriginal communities, and much more.
• Examples of Good Practices documenting promising municipal initiatives linked to the Ten Common Commitments and offering practical advice to advance the Coalition.
• Useful Tools such as examples of press release and media advisory, examples of resolutions adopted by City Councils, samples of Plans of Action, and many other tools.
• Additional Resources about international and national days/weeks/months, awards, funding, media resources (many of them free) as well as a list of films related to the Ten Common Commitments prepared by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). 

In particular, you might want to check out Chapter 6 on engaging Aboriginal communities, Chapter 7 on youth engagement, and Chapter 8 on promising practices.  However, best practices are scattered throughout the toolkit, with some really interesting examples of what communities are doing in this area.

Libraries are often the model in the community for positive community engagement and providing a welcome environment, so this is a natural fit for us!  If Celebrate Diversity is one of your library's strategic goals (or even if it's not) this is a great place to start.

For more information on the Coalition, or to download the toolkit (either in whole or chapter by chapter) go to: http://www.unesco.ca/en/interdisciplinary/coalition/CoalitionofCanadianMunicipalitiesagainstRacismandDiscrimination.aspx

Did you know about our vimeo channel?

If you don't already know, Chinook Arch has a vimeo channel! We use the channel to post video training sessions and videoconferences that are relevant to Chinook Arch libraries. If you haven't already checked it out, you should. Here's the link: http://vimeo.com/user5260068

The RISE network also has a vimeo channel where several recorded videoconferences are uploaded: http://vimeo.com/channels/risenetwork

You may want to subscribe to both of these channels to stay informed when new videos are uploaded!

Hunting for Manly Titles

From March 14 to 17, Chinook Arch Regional Library System shared a booth with Lethbridge Public Library at the Lethbridge Home and Garden Show. While there, one of our librarians heard from a few male patrons that our OverDrive eBook and audiobook collection was somewhat feminized.

In response to this feedback, I decided to go hunting for purported experts of manly titles. According to the American Library Association’s 2011 State of America’s Libraries Report, women are significantly more likely (72%) to have visited a library, including visits in person, in the last year as compared to men (58%). To encourage male readers using our OverDrive collection and assist our collection purchasers in finding titles that might be of interest to this user group, I located the following sources:

• Books for Dudes: Library Journal has devoted an entire column to this subject under Collection Development on their website. Douglas Lords writes on what up-and-coming novels could be of interest to men or, as his column title states, dudes. His picks are wide-ranging, from Thrillers to Biographies to Graphic Novels to Love Stories.
• The Literate Man, a Book Blog for Men: Admittedly pre-disposed to the classics, TLM is edited by Patrick James O’Connor, a lawyer and writer who recently published, “The Last Will and Testament of Lemuel Higgins.” Featuring author interviews, guest posts, and reviews of new and “unheralded” books, this blog makes for informative reading.
• Men Reading Books: The subtitle of this blog says it all: “Book summaries and opinions by guys about books that other guys might consider reading.” The contributors to this blog have dubbed themselves vardaman99, East Coast Don, Midwest Dave, and West Coast Don. What really is great about this source is the sheer amount and breadth of titles reviewed. These gentlemen appear to be bibliophiles indeed.

In the last few years there has been a lot of focus in the library and education world on encouraging boys to read. Although we may assume that adult male readers will find what they want on our shelves, we should continually consider unique preferences and interests that specific groups may have. Now, to fish out a few good books ...

(Note: All of the above sources include titles written by both male and female authors.)

Just Say Yes! To Summer Reading Programs...

As spring approaches and the school year slowly nears to an end (only three more months!), many parents and caregivers are mulling over summer programs for children to participate in. Amongst sports and camps, a summer reading program or club at the public library is one important consideration. 

For children and young adults, what are the benefits of participating in a summer reading program? In an article by Joe Matthews in Public Libraries Online, key advantages of a summer reading program include:

• Children maintaining a learning process over the summer months
• The encouragement of parent/caregiver participation in their children’s reading activities
• Children partaking in a variety of creative activities (crafts, drama/theatre, play)
• The opportunity to instill in children the enthusiasm for reading

The last point should be taken to heart. Creating a passion for reading is extremely important as it is the foundation of maintaining a motivation to read throughout one’s life, whether you’re reading mysteries, graphic novels, poetry, newspapers, or a journal. This is critical now more than ever. Recent findings in an Ontario report published by the People for Education, an independent research organization, highlight a drop in reader enthusiasm in school aged children. The report found that “the percentage of children in grade 3 who report they “like to read” dropped from 76% in 1998/99 to 50% in 2010/11. The number of students in grade 6 who “like to read” fell from 65% to 50% in the same time period.” The link to the full report and news release can be found below.

This research has educators and policy makers thinking about ways to reignite the spark for reading in children. For librarians, it’s a call to act and to strongly (if not incessantly) encourage the promotion of all reading programs and clubs - in the summer and all year round.  

Find Joe Matthew's article in Public Libraries Online here.

Find the report and news release from the People for Education here.

Find information about the TD Summer Reading Club in Canada here.