A voracious reader at an early age, he loved the quiet of the library and the thrill of finding an unexpected book.
Children are also well served by a library that has such programs as the Summer Reading Club. Last year, the theme was Follow the Reader, which promoted the notion that readers go on to become leaders. A total of 4,490 children aged 12 or under willingly spent their summer vacation between covers.
Children build and program robots as part of Lego Mindstorm Robotics. Older teens can borrow video games.
“Why not? It’s a form of literacy,” said Tracy Kendrick, co-ordinator of children’s and teen services. “In this world, content is key. The format can be any format. You can have a story that is a book, a movie, an audio-book, a website, a video game. All the same story, but in a different format.”
Her own first experiences came as a girl growing up in a rural community, where she eagerly awaited a visit to the bookmobile.
The library still has a chess club and, in the next months, will launch a manga club focusing on the popular Japanese cartoon style.
A cut in provincial funding threatened the $13,000 Books for Babies program at the end of 2009. The library found new sponsors in the Steve Nash Foundation and the TD Bank Financial Group Fund, so that a kit including a CD and book, as well as brochures about the benefits of early literacy, were distributed for free to 2,000 parents of newborns in Victoria.
A librarian recently sent out an e-mail notice under the subject heading: “Old gems from Surrey Libraries need a new home.” The five titles include poetry, a selection of ballads of the Pacific Northwest, a history of the Dominion Rubber Co. of Montreal, a two-volume guide to steam and gas turbines, and the Automatic Record Changer Manual, Vol. 3. The manual was compiled by Howard W. Sams & Co., issued circa 1950, on the cusp of the rock ’n’ roll era.
A quick search on Google reveals that the Indianapolis publisher of technical manuals is still in business. The only other question is, ‘What’s a record changer?’
Special to The Globe and Mail
The public library
What it is
The Greater Victoria Public Library embraces technology while respecting the time-proven value of that fine medieval invention, the printed book.
Why it works
The public library remains a vital part of the city. The staff has responded to community needs and stays up to date with the latest developments in an era of fast-changing technology. Today's library is both virtual and brick-and-mortar. Librarians continue to develop new programs to engage and serve patrons. One of the innovations is the tech buddies program in which teenaged volunteers instruct older adults in the dizzying array of technologies, from computers to Wii to MP3. The library offers e-books and audio-books, as well as DVDs and video games. Of course, it also stocks dead-tree products. “You get a new book – the smell of it, the feel of it – people get excited,” said librarian Matthew Bingham. “People still love books.”
Update: Punk band D.O.A. says DIY
The veteran Vancouver punk band embraced the do-it-yourself ethos on principle, but also because it was practical. No one wanted to record them after the punkers burst onto the disco scene. They were rude, crude and as unpredictable – and exciting – as a back-alley knife fight. More than three decades later, they are still at it, led by take-no-prisoners front man Joe Keithley. The hockey-loving punk godfather high-sticked his way across Canada yet again this year with a 19-city tour stretching from Joe Clark's hometown of High River, Alta., to the aptly named Café Chaos in Montreal. Earlier, the band hit seven European countries. Mr. Keithley's Sudden Death Records reissued D.O.A.'s classic 1985 album, Let's Wreck the Party, and released a new studio album, Talk - Action = 0. In 2011, the safety-pin Visigoths will tour the Maritimes. You have been warned.
Tom Hawthorn
