BCLTA WEEKLY BULLETIN – June 19, 2009
CONTENTS
Announcements
BCLTA Board Activity Report
Featured Grants
Featured Resources
Upcoming Events
Member Information Requests
Advertisements
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- A copy of the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of The Open Door newsletter will be mailed to all trustees next week. In the meantime, please visit the BCLTA website to download your full-colour electronic copy today: http://bclta.org/opendoor.html .
- At an Interim Steering Committee (ISC) meeting on June 15, 2009, it was agreed that a new Committee would be formed to continue work on the vision and goals of what was formerly titled “Libraries 2020”. It has been suggested that the new group will consist of three CPSLD members, three members drawn from BCLTA and ABCPLD, three members representing school librarians and one non-voting BCLA representative to provide administrative support. This structure is consistent with the feedback the ISC received on the Consultation Options report by Marleen Morris & Associates, which was circulated to the library community in April of 2009. Background information on the L2020 initiative is available at http://library2020.bclibrary.ca/ .
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BCLTA Board Activity Report
- Project Consultant Daphne Wood provided the BCLTA Board and PLSB staff with a presentation on her initial findings in BCLTA’s Public Library Infrastructure Study. Next steps are to refine this data into a final report which we will circulate to the library community this Summer as our first foray into examining public library infrastructure needs throughout the province. Additional research and refinement will be necessary before we will have a comprehensive document we can use to approach government for capital funding; and we will also be looking to provide accompanying resources (such as a list of grant opportunities, grant writing tools, facilities master plan templates, etc.) to assist library boards in identifying and securing funding to address their infrastructure needs.
- BCLTA’s Summer MLA Reception advocacy initiative is well underway, with several events already scheduled at libraries around the province and others in the works. If you haven’t yet done so, please contact BCLTA to advise when and where your reception will be held. A news release will be going out to major media outlets early next week to announce the Summer-long campaign.
- A letter requesting a meeting with the Premier and the new Minister of Education to discuss the importance of provincial library funding was sent on behalf of BCLTA, BCLA, ABCPLD, FVRL and UBCM. This is the next step in BCLTA’s ongoing campaign to ensure continued library funding in the next provincial budget – set to be released early this Fall.
- A letter of congratulations and welcome was sent on behalf of the trustee community to the Honourable Margaret MacDiarmid, BC’s new Minister of Education and Minister Responsible for Early Learning and Literacy.
- A letter of thanks was sent on behalf of the trustee community to the Honourable Shirley Bond, formerly the Minister Responsible for Libraries and now Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
- Planning is now underway for the annual BCLTA/BCLA/ABCPLD Library Reception at the 2009 Union of BC Municipalities Convention in Vancouver. The event will be held on the evening of Thursday, October 1 at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel and the theme will be BC Libraries: Champions of Literacy and Learning. We hope that the new Minister of Education will be able to address the crowd once again this year, and we are pleased to announce that Irving K. Barber will also give a brief keynote speech to UBCM delegates. Members are requested to submit photos of library programs, services, awards ceremonies and other events/situations which support this year’s theme – these will be used in a scrolling PowerPoint show at the reception and can be sent to admin@bclta.org .
- The BCLTA Board has decided to introduce a Library Board of the Year awards program to recognize the boards of small, medium and large libraries for outstanding teamwork and accomplishments. Draft criteria will be considered over the Summer and we expect to formally announce the new awards program in time for the 2010 BC Library Conference next April.
- Planning is getting underway for the 2010 BC Library Conference, to be held April 22-24 in Penticton. Feedback from the 2009 conference has now been processed, and we will be looking to hold an even better event based on your comments and suggestions. Please stay tuned for updates as we will soon be issuing a call for volunteers to join the planning/organizing effort – we hope to recruit a few trustees from around the province to our ranks.
- The Board has made WebJunction BC (http://bc.webjunction.org ) a top BCLTA priority for 2009/10. Staff will be uploading content relevant to trustees, as well as directing BCLTA members to existing content and resources of relevance. In addition, we hope to provide some trustee-specific online learning opportunities in the coming months. If you haven’t yet signed up for your WJBC account, please do so to begin taking advantage of the free online courses and materials available to you as BCLTA members. Contact Errin Morrison at execdirector@bclta.org if you have any questions about WebJunction or about affiliating with WJBC.
- The Board has updated its Goals and Objectives for 2009/10 – focusing heavily on providing trustees with resources and tools such as the Public Library Infrastructure Study and online learning opportunities through WebJunction BC. Advocacy is another primary focus in these difficult economic times, and we will be looking for all kinds of ways to communicate the value of public libraries to key funders and supporters. A summary of the Board’s 2009/10 priorities is available on the goals and objectives page of the BCLTA website at http://bclta.org/goals.html .
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FEATURED GRANTS
The objective of this program is to provide access to celebrations across Canada to enable all Canadians to appreciate Canada’s cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and geographic diversity by providing funding to community-based activities celebrating and promoting National Aboriginal Day (June 21), Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24), Canadian Multiculturalism Day (June 27), and Canada Day (July 1) each year. Consider working with your local government to apply for funding in 2010.
The Cultural Spaces Canada Program (CSC) contributes to improved physical conditions for artistic creativity, presentation and exhibition. It is designed to increase and improve access for Canadians to performing arts, visual arts, media arts, and to museum collections, heritage displays and exhibitions. CSC supports the renovation and expansion/construction of arts and heritage facilities, and the acquisition of specialized equipment as well as preparation of feasibility studies for cultural infrastructure projects... Eligible costsinclude those associated with renovation, expansion/construction, specialized equipment purchases or feasibility studies related to buildings for arts and heritage activities that are delivered in a professional manner. Consider working with your local government to apply for funding.
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FEATURED RESOURCES
- The SFU Seniors Program would like to donate a series of Seniors Program Outreach DVD videos to Canadian libraries coast to coast. The DVDs cover a wide-range of topics of concern to seniors, including elder abuse, democracy, multiculturalism and grandparenting. Please contact Julian Benedict if you would like free copies of the tapes mailed to you: Tel. 778-782-5212; Fax 778-782-5098.
- The National Film Board is proud to be a major collaborator of Canada CODE , a grassroots digital collection of text and photos by Canadians about their daily lives and experiences. It is the first of several projects from Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad's digital edition, CODE. The Cultural Olympiad is a three-year series of multidisciplinary festivals of arts, popular culture and digital programs. A number of noteworthy Canadians have already contributed to the Web site, including Giller Prize winner Joseph Boyden, Vancouver's Evelyn Lau and Nicole Brossard of Montreal. A total of 49 Canadian writers will help launch the site. Anyone with access to the Internet can contribute to, or simply explore, the Canada CODE Web site. Canada CODE is a constantly morphing online portrait of contemporary Canada created by Canadians for the entire world to see. A selection of the best content will be presented on public screens in Vancouver and Whistler for the thousands of spectators and athletes visiting during the Games.
For more information, read the full press release .
- The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and Canadiana.org hosted a celebration to launch the Canadiana.org Digital Collection Builder on Monday, June 1, 2009. The Digital Collection Builder (DCB) is an open-source software tool that makes it simple for libraries, archives, and other heritage organizations to provide access to their unique digitized collections; it brings their collections together with other Canadian online resources for Canadians and the world. The DCB greatly facilitates even the smallest institution's ability to describe its digital content in a structured way so that it can be discovered through the Canadiana.org or other search portals. For details, visit http://www.carl-abrc.ca and http://www.canadiana.org.
- PLSB staffer Kyle Armour has posted a great piece on the WJBC Blog pointing out all the resources on wireless networking that can be found within WebJunction. Go and have a look, and why not also add "BlogJunction BC" to your Reader, by clicking on the orange RSS feed button? Click on the above link to read Kyle’s post and subscribe to the blog RSS about 2/3 of the way down the main WJBC page at http://bc.webjunction.org/, to the right of the blog portlet.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
- June 25 – First AGM of the BC Libraries Cooperative
- June 26 – Summer MLA Receptions Begin
- October 1 – BC Library Reception at UBCM
- October 2 – Quarterly BCLTA Board Meeting
BCLTA welcomes the submission of upcoming events of interest to trustees. Please send notice to Errin Morrison at execdirector@bclta.org to have your event included in next week’s bulletin.
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MEMBER INFORMATION REQUESTS
Do you have an information need, issue or concern you’d like to put to the larger trustee community? If so, consider submitting a member information request to Errin Morrison at execdirector@bclta.org . Often our best resource is each other!
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ADVERTISEMENTS
Advertising in BCLTA’s Open Door newsletter, weekly member bulletin and website is now available to businesses, consulting firms and others who provide goods and services of interest to library trustees and public libraries. Please contact Errin Morrison at execdirector@bclta.org for information on BCLTA advertising criteria and pricing.
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