Month: October 2017

Interational Games Week @ Your Library

What is the connection between libraries and board games? From the Games and Gaming Round Table of the ALA:

Board games are the only medium in the library’s collection that are explicitly designed to encourage social interaction. At a time when many parents and educators are worried about the passive, isolated consumption of digital media, board games get people of different backgrounds engaging with each other across a table, solving problems, improving a number of practical skills, and having a good time. When looked at from this perspective, board games cannot be dismissed as mere diversions but are instead critical to the library’s mission to foster community and lifelong learning.

Find out more. Check out the Games and Gaming Round Table

International Games Week @ Your Library

 

International Games Week @ Your Library is a celebration of the amazing educational power of games and the vital role that libraries can play in helping people enjoy them. The history of IGW@YL goes back to 2007 and the first National Games Day in the United States. The event grew to become International Games Day in 2012. This year it has expanded to become International Games Week.  Thousands of libraries (public libraries and school libraries) all over the world have participated in these events, including libraries from 53 and countries and all 7 continents.  The following associations are key contributors to this event:

 

STR: The Leveller

The Leveller​
by Julia Durango

“Nixy Bauer, a sixteen-year-old self-made video-game bounty hunter, gets in over her head when she attempts to rescue a game developer’s son from a virtual trap” –(Provided by publisher.)

Come down to the School Library to get your copy of The Leveller today!  Find out more about this and all the Surrey Teens Read nominated titles for 2017-2018: go to surreyteensread.weebly.com

School Library Day

Today is the most important day of the year.
Today is School Library Day.
October is International School Library Month and Canada Library Month. Very cool.
But today is the Day.
THE DAY.
Celebrate the “Most Awesome Place on Earth.”
Come down to your School Library and enjoy the awesomeness.
What is so awesome about the School Library?

Other words or phrases to add to this word cloud? Please submit a comment below.

Drop Everything and Read

Drop Everything and Read on October 23

The BCTLA, in conjunction with the BCTF, has again challenged YOU and all the people of British Columbia to take time on Monday to “Drop Everything and Read.”  Set aside your studies, your work, your social media feeds and everything else that keeps you from spending some time reading. Read for at least 20 minutes on Monday. Read for at least 20 minutes EVERY DAY.

Read for fun. Read to learn something you are interested in. Read to escape.  Read to laugh. Read to be scared.  Read for inspiration. Read because you are interested. Read to know more. Read for your own reasons.

Turn off the phone for a while. Texts, emails, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter– all that can wait.  Find somewhere quiet and comfortable. Concentrate.  Stick with it.  Read deeply.  Think. Enjoy.

 

Diwali

Source: SikhWiki

Diwali is celebrated by millions of people in India, Canada and around the world. Hundreds of millions of Hindus celebrate “the Festival of Lights.” People of other faiths, including Sikhism, also celebrate. For Sikhs the festival has added significance as it generally coincides with a Sikh celebration known as Bandi Chhor Divas. For more on Diwali check out:

source: province.com

Persons Day

“The  historic decision to include women in the legal definition of “persons” was handed  down by Canada’s highest court of appeal – the Judicial Committee of the Privy  Council of Great Britain – on October 18, 1929. This gave women the right to be  appointed to the Senate of Canada and paved the way for women’s increased  participation in public and political life.” (From Status of Women Canada: Persons Day.)

source: famous5ottawa.ca

It may seem incomprehensible to us that women were not considered to be “persons”, at least under a strict definition of Canadian law prior to 1929.  The “Famous Five” led the fight all the way to the highest courts of the land to include women in the legal definition of “persons.”

“The exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours. And to those who would ask why the word  “person” should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it  not?”

–Lord Sankey of the Privy Council, 1929 (source)

Today we can celebrate that victory, and the slow but steady change in Canadian society towards equality for women.  We still have a long way to go, and sadly, in much the world, women are still denied equality, a “relic of days  more barbarous than ours.” Persons Day is a chance to celebrate how far we have come, and to reflect on how far we still need to go.

STR: Secret Path

 

Secret Path​
by Gord Downie
and Jeff Lemire

Tells the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year old Ojibwa boy who died attempting to walk home after escaping the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in 1966. Originally created as a ten-song popular music album, the lyrics have been set into a graphic telling of the story.

Come down to the School Library to get your copy of Secret Path today.  Find out more about this and all the Surrey Teens Read nominated titles for 2017-2018: go to surreyteensread.weebly.com