Our First Nature Playground

Our First Nature Playground

Dignitaries at CIP150 announcement

This summer, 16,000 community kids under 17 years of age will benefit from Forest Lawn Library’s Nature Playground—thanks to the Canada 150 Infrastructure Program (CIP150).

“Celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday with a nature playground is an incredible way to ensure everyone understands how foundational play is to all future learning,” says Bill Ptacek.

Safe outdoor spaces inspire active, fresh-air-filled play that supports the early learning needs of Calgary’s youngest citizens, putting them on the pathway to future success.

The CIP150 contribution of $119,000 was announced January 17 by The Honourable Kent Hehr.

The Calgary Public Library Foundation is raising $51,000 to complete this project. View the PLAY! video or to make a donation, visit www.libraryplayground.ca.

Great Reads for 2017

“Thank you for everything you do for readers,” Saleema Nawaz tweeted. The author of Bone and Bread went on to say, “I love the recommendations in this guide and how it's organized!”

Great Reads for 2017 fosters members’ enthusiasm for reading and raises awareness of the diverse titles to be found at the Library. You’ll want to note that the adult section of the Guide is organized using our We Recommend collection (plot, prose, place, people). Parents and grandparents will love the children’s section—and teens get their very own special section.

Books featured in Great Reads for 2017 were chosen by four teams of reading experts from Service Design, Service Delivery, and Collections. The titles selected are books we are proud to promote to readers due to their memorability or distinctiveness. A mix of reading interests are represented and we feature both recently published works and forgotten gems. And, of course, we included a healthy nod to Canadian authors!

TIP:

This unique endeavour is best-public-library-for-the-world worthy—no other library in North America produces a high-quality, comprehensive reading guide on an annual basis. Help members of all ages to celebrate reading with Great Reads for 2017!

We’re challenging Calgarians to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by reading 150 books in 2017 (using Great Reads for 2017, of course). Participating readers are eligible to win prizes—by posting their reads on social media with the hashtag #read150 or entering the contest on our website. For more information, visit calgarylibrary.ca/great-reads-for-2017

Introducing Lisa-Marie Brunnen

Lisa-Marie has always been passionate about stories and how they have the power to transform individuals, families, and communities. “Narratives tell us who we were, are, and help shape who we will become,” she explains. This passion drew her to a career at the Library—a place that values and preserves stories while enabling the creation of new ones. “I love being a part of such an extraordinary institution,” Lisa-Marie says.

Growing up in Bragg Creek, Lisa-Marie headed east to complete her BA in English with an Honours in Creative Writing at the University of Prince Edward Island. One of the children's stories she wrote won the Joyce Barkhouse Writing for Children Prize in the Atlantic Writing Competition, and she had another children's story published in the anthology Riptides: New Island Fiction.

An LA6 at Alexander Calhoun, Lisa-Marie is an expert in children and teen services. Her readers’ advisory skills are highly coveted—she’s even created fantastic lists of Young Adult books for other staff to consult. When engaging with children and teens one-on-one, she provides a positive experience that kids remember and share with their friends and families.

Lisa-Marie looks forward to participating in Info Investigators, an outreach program we’re currently piloting for Grade 6 students. “The training was so utterly informative and fun,” she says. “I can't wait to visit the Grade 6 classes in my community and see the connection grow between students, teachers, and the Library!”

IMG: Lisa-Marie

The Library Store Reimagined

Last year, the Foundation expanded the Library Store—testing new products, introducing more items, and promoting the store through in-library pop-ups and advertising. These efforts resulted in a record number of sales and hundreds of customers who are excited to support the Library in a new way.

If you have any ideas about products you’d like to see or artists

the Foundation should work with, contact Dan at dan@addin.ca.

The Foundation has now unveiled a new look and logo for librarystore.ca. In addition to a more modern interface, they have streamlined the categories and put products up front. The new site also highlights local artists who have created products for the store. The Foundation plans to further expand the store by collaborating with more local talent and adding new items for book lovers.

Play…and Learn!

What do Raccoon Ninja, Wonder Bunny, and Bungee Pig have in common?

They would all make fantastic characters in a picture book—and they’re all games available on our new Playaway Launchpad tablets for kids aged five to ten!

These attractive tablets are designed for educational play, and are part of our quest to create exciting learning environments for children and families. After a successful trial at three locations, we are now rolling these tablets out to all library locations in January and February 2017. Each library will receive ten tablets with a mix of STEAM, as well as individual Science and Math theme packs. There should always be two to four tablets available, with the tablets being rotated as they need charging—after about four hours of active use.

Tablets are for in-library use only; they are not catalogued and do not need to be checked out or secured. Kids are free to use them anywhere in their library–the same way they use smartphones or tablets at home.

Fun games help school-aged children build their

STEAM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math),

and give them their own opportunity to learn through

play beyond our early literacy areas.

Technology is a great tool for learning, especially when parents and children collaborate. Parents can create a more powerful learning experience by engaging with their children as they use the tablets, so we encourage the whole family to play…and learn!

If you have questions or feedback, contact

Carrie Kitchen at Carrie.Kitchen@calgarylibrary.ca.

Book Discussion Groups

Book Discussion Groups are an exciting new way for adults, teens, and tweens to explore great reads! The Library is piloting this new program from January–April 2017. This format allows us to better respond to current reading trends and make better use of our collections. It also supports our strategic goal of community building by encouraging readers to engage in a wider discussion on topics or issues.

Book Discussion Groups offer more variety and more

opportunities for great conversation than traditional book clubs.

Members are encouraged to drop in and join a discussion at any community library hosting a title or topic of particular interest to them—for example, The Widow by Fiona Barton or a topic such as “Inspiring Biographies” or “The Book That Blew My Mind” (for teens). Book topics or book titles are announced in advance on worldofideas.ca to encourage broad participation, and can also be viewed on Sharepoint (Service Design > Public Documents > Book Discussion Groups 2017).

For more information, contact Rosemary Griebel at 403.260.2701

Read for 15

On January 27, Family Literacy Day, Calgarians will take the province-wide Read for 15 Challenge and help Calgary become Alberta's most "readerly" city!

Participating is easy: members can spend 15 minutes reading anything: War and Peace, Facebook, the warranty for their mobile phone, etc. They can also read to their child or their pet iguana—that counts, too!

All they need to do after that is let us know about their reads anytime between Midnight and 11:59 p.m. on January 27. They can do this by using our webform, calgarylibrary.ca/read-for-15, or by using the hashtag #Readfor15yyc on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Best of all, taking part in Read for 15 absolutely counts towards our Read 150 Reading Challenge—members can use their reading time not only to help us become the most “readerly” city in Alberta, but could also win #Read150 prizes!

The New Nose Hill Library

The renovation is complete! We can't wait to share with you your fresh, new community library. Drop in for a tour and join in on tons of fun activities for the entire family.

January 21, 2017

2:00–4:00 pm

Nose Hill Library

Light refreshments provided

#LibraryLove

A message from a Library donor:

"I am so grateful for all that Calgary Public Library

provides to the citizens of our city. You are awesome!!"

Three Things for Canada

For Canada’s 150th birthday, let’s all give a gift of three things.

Three acts of service for our neighbours, our nation, and the world.

That’s 100 million acts of community service! ThreeThingsforCanada.ca