Library books about libraries and books. And librarians, literacy, information, reading, intellectual freedom, learning commons, and all topics to consider for Canadian Library Month and International School Library Month.
Next Monday the students and staff of our school will rise to the DEAR Challenge: Drop Everything and Read. During the long 2nd block (C block) everyone is challenged to read for 20 minutes.
October 27 is Canadian School Library Day & BC School Library Day. School Libraries are valuable in so many ways. Amongst the most important is how much school libraries can educate students and staff about the massive importance of recreational reading, and how vital school libraries are in supporting students by giving them access to books. We encourage everyone in our school– indeed, everyone in the community at large– to take up the challenge to Drop Everything and Read.
Happy Canadian Library Workers Day to the wonderful Volunteers and Library Science students. October is Canadian Library Month and on the third Friday each year we celebrate the vital role played by workers in all of libraries across the country, including school libraries, public libraries, and more.
October 17 is Canadian Library Workers Day
October 27 is Canadian School Library Day
October 27 is DEAR: The Drop Everything and Read Challenge
October is Canadian Library Month
October is International School Library Month
Come down to your School Library this month to join us in celebrating Canadian Library Month. The theme for 2025 is “Libraries For Life.” We should all celebrate, enjoy, protect, support, and make use of libraries throughout our lives, from childhood to our golden years and every stage in between.
October is CLM and ISLM (International School Library Month): two good reasons among 18 billion other good reasons to visit your local library!
A new documentary explores how public school librarians are standing up for our rights in the fight against book bans and the rise of fascism.
Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.
“In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQia+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale. ” (thelibrariansfilm.com)
Find out more about the documentary film “The Librarians”
The fight against book bans by public school librarians shown in new documentary. Check out this story from PBS News.
October 5-11 is Banned Books Week
October is Canadian Library Month
October is International School Library Month
School Libraries are worth celebrating every single day of the year, but every October we dedicate the month for a chance to learn more about the joy and value of the School Library.
Sometimes known as the Learning Commons, the School Library is an integral component of public education and the welfare of children throughout the world. This October we invite you to visit us, in person, or online, to learn more.
October is AWESOME. International School Library Month. Canadian Library Month. BC School Library Day and the Drop Everything and Read Challenge on October 27. Canadian Library Workers Day on October 17. Canadian School Library Day.
And much, much more…
Celebrate the joy and the power of libraries. Visit us at your School Library to celebrate all month long!
School Libraries should be bastions of intellectual freedom. Tragically, the School Library has always been a battleground in the struggles between those that would protect our rights and freedoms and those that would impose their beliefs on others.
This has become all too evident in the U.S. in recent years, and sadly we in Canada are not immune. Provincial Ministries of Education, School Boards, and individual schools and school libraries have been sucked into the current climate of extreme political polarization. Attacks on the freedom to read are on the rise, and include recent decisions made by the government of Alberta. The following are quotes from the response of Canadian School Libraries:
“Individual parents have the right to decide on their child’s reading, but they do not have the right to impose it on everyone.
The selection and availability of school library and learning resource materials should be made by trained professionals, not politicians and bureaucrats.
Not every book in a school library is meant for every student. Schools need to have a wide range of age and developmentally appropriate resources that cover the needs of the student population.
School library collections, with a richness and diversity that allows students to see themselves and experience lives other than their own, are developed within the lens of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights and freedoms it affords to all Canadians, including children.”
Find out more about Canadian School Libraries
Come down to your School Library to see the reorganization of our fiction collection. We have moved Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Adventure onto their own shelves. You can still find other genres, such as Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Classic, Adult Literacy, and more, on the “General Fiction” shelves.
We have also created a Biography section. Learn more about the lives of all sorts of people, some famous, some not-so-famous, some heroes, some villains… We have biographies (and autobiographies) of activists, athletes, singers, writers, leaders, scientists, actors, thinkers, musicians, artists, and more.
Click here to see our School Library Map
In the past few years, the number of challenges to books in both Canada and the United States has exploded. And while sanity prevails in many cases, in more and more places the censors have been successful. In some jurisdictions, hundreds and hundreds of different titles have been pulled from libraries, schools, government offices and other public institutions. In the private sector, bookstores and publishers have reported the increasing pressures of censorship. Writers have commented on the chilling effect this has on intellectual freedom.
Stand up for your rights and freedoms. Democracy is built on upon your right to information. You have the right to choose for yourself.
Adults have the right to choose for themselves what they want to read. Adults don’t have the right to choose what other people get to read. Parents have the right– and the responsibility– to teach and guide and discuss with their children about what types of library materials are right or wrong for them. Parents are free to have their opinions on what materials are good or bad for children in general They even have the right to express their opinions about why they think certain materials are good or bad for children. Parents do not have the right to decide for other people’s children what they can or can’t read.
February 23 to March 1 is Freedom to Read Week in Canada
October is Canadian Library Month and International School Library Month. As we celebrate CLM and ISLM each year, we highlight notable librarians who have made significant contributions to libraries and librarianship. We also celebrate librarians who have raised the profile of libraries and librarianship with their fame in other fields. Here are the 2024 inductees into our Library Hall of Fame:
Ed Greenwood is a library clerk from rural Ontario. He is more famous for his prolific creativity in the world of role playing games and fantasy literature. He is the creator of the Forgotten Realms game world, which he first developed as a young child and integrated with Dungeons and Dragons. He would go on to develop intricate role playing game worlds, and write myriad novels, novellas, short stories and articles for fantasy and gaming magazines. He has won numerous awards and honours, including induction into the Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Since 2019 Leslie Weir has served as Librarian and Archivist of Canada. She is the first woman to hold this post. Weir has served in many important roles in Canada’s academic libraries, including President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and University Librarian at the University of Ottawa. She has been honoured with numerous awards during a distinguished career.
Ken Roberts is a Canadian librarian. He had distinguished career in many positions, including President of Canadian Library Association, and Chief Librarian in the Hamilton Public Library. He is also a well known as an award winning writer of books for children and young adults, including Past Tense, a Governor General’s Award nominee. Roberts has won numerous honours during his career. One supporter offered this high praise of Roberts, “What stands out for me with Ken is that, in spite of all his accomplishments, he is a librarian first and foremost, and a humble man.” (source)
Find out more:
Ed Greenwood
Leslie Weir
Ken Roberts
Previous Library Hall of Fame Inductees:
