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. 

National Volunteer Week

Did you know that April 15-21, 2012 is National Volunteer Week across Canada? Volunteers are an important part of any not-for-profit's success in Canada. Just think about who volunteers to make your library a success - service volunteers (such as pages and programmers), Friends members, and your Board! An important part of a strong volunteer program is ensuring that you make time for recognition. Most volunteers spend time working for you and your organization getting very little back in return. Why not make sure they feel valued and recognized this volunteer week (if not all year round)?

Volunteers: Passion. Action. Impact. is the theme of this year’s National Volunteer Week campaign. The theme recognizes the individual volunteers across Canada who dedicate themselves to improving their communities.

The National Volunteer Week website (http://nationalvolunteerweek.ca) provides you with a number of resources to help celebrate:

• a 60-second PSA is available to submit to your local TV station (the site includes instructions on how to do so). Stations reserve time for Public Service Announcements, so why not try it out to raise awareness of volunteerism in your community?
• Best Practices for thanking volunteers. Includes free volunteer recognition items and support materials, and suggestions for volunteer recognition gifts.
  
• The Campaign Kit on the site includes free: customizable e-cards, posters, banners, powerpoints, videos, certificate of recognition, a mayoral proclamation and more.
• There is also information on the site regarding volunteer statistics in Canada and a program currently being used in Quebec that provides recognition for volunteers in the form of a professional reference for volunteers that details the skills and experience gained through volunteering. This program is slated to be translated into English for use across Canada. If you are needing to attract more volunteers to your organization, being able to offer something like this will be very attractive to some volunteers.

Take a look at how other organizations recognize their volunteers. It does not necessarily mean a lot of time or money. I received a free pass to Disneyworld once (accommodation and travel not included of course) just for volunteering, and it didn't cost the hosting organization a thing. No matter the time and resources available to you, formal recognition of your volunteer's hard work can go a long way to retaining volunteers and attracting new ones. Don't take them for granted - they can be one of our greatest resources!

What shoud we do with all these old magazines and periodicals?

Well, it's officially spring, and as such, many of us library folk have gotten the urge to do some spring cleaning...which, in library land, often means weeding. One collection that likely gets weeded quite frequently is magazines and periodicals. Some libraries may choose to sell old magazines and periodicals in their book sales, and others may opt to recycle or turf them. However, if you find yourself struggling with programming ideas for your library, you might want to read on before turfing all those magazines.

Crafting is often a large part of many library programs, but we're often left struggling for funds to pay for supplies...so why not re-use our garbage? Today I came across a great little resource: 100+ Ways to Creatively Reuse Old Magazines. This page provides several links to different webpages offering a variety of unique ways to re-purpose old magazines, such as:

Coasters












Picture Frames













Ornaments















And many, many more...

So get weeding those magazines and periodicals so you can create great, cheap crafts for your library's programs!

Random House Increases Price of EBooks in OverDrive

On March 1, 2012 Random House increased its prices of eBooks available through OverDrive by approximately 200 to 300%. This increase was announced at the beginning of February, at the same time that Random House affirmed that it would continue to sell eBooks to libraries without any lending restrictions. Although they knew it was coming, librarians did not expect the increase to be so steep. One article posted on the change pointed to the “sticker shock” occurring in the library world.

The development was widely reported in the news by both library and non-library sources. Many librarians initially reacted with anger – even voicing the need for legislation. Since then though, other, more somber ideas, such as what else you can do with your eBook budget and whether or not libraries should actually be in the eBook business, have surfaced. With all the upsets libraries have faced in the last year - HarperCollins’ move to 26 checkouts in March 2011 and Penguins’ discontinuation of sales through OverDrive this February – it is not surprising to see librarians considering other courses of action.

Whatever the outcome that libraries choose, it does mean providing patrons with a more limited eBook selection. Within OverDrive there are still many titles for $4.00 and up, but when a New York Times bestseller increases from $27.00 to $85.00, it behooves us, even more so, to explain to our patrons why we have the selection we do in OverDrive. For some great ideas on how to do this, check out Librarian By Day’s post, “How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other Publishers Not Loaning eBooks to Libraries." Additionally, you have any questions, comments, or thoughts about this matter and moving forward, we would love to hear them.