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Member Communiqué – Fall 2016

September 22, 2016

What’s new?

We hope all of you enjoyed a good summer, wherever you live in Canada, and that fall is treating you well so far. We have been busy at the Co-op: working with our members on various projects and moving forward with our many services.

A couple of highlights since our last Communiqué:

  • We are pleased to announce that the Cooperative is joining several other partners to participate in the new MassLNC Evergreen Development Initiative. The project is an opportunity for libraries and consortia running Evergreen to maximize their resources by pooling funds to sponsor exciting new features and important improvements for the open-source system. Sitka Staff will keep members informed on the progress of this initiative. For details, see http://masslnc.org/node/3215
  • In August, Ben Hyman, our Executive Director, attended the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities conference in Louisville to present about NNELS. An international crowd was impressed by what the Co-op is doing with this service. What many organizations are calling for around the world – such as books on demand for readers with print disabilities – is exactly the kind of work NNELS has pioneered. It was a very encouraging conference.

Comings and Goings

Since our last communiqué, it has been our pleasure to meet two new directors: Surinder Bhogal at Surrey Libraries, and Judy Moore at Thompson Nicola Regional District Library. Welcome to the community, both of you!

As for Co-op employees, we bid adieu to two people: Harris McKay who joined our Systems team as a Co-op student, and Cynthia Ng, who was the NNELS Content Coordinator since the summer of 2014. Harris has returned to school, and Cynthia is now Manager of Technology and Infrastructure at the New Westminster Public Library. A new Content Coordinator will begin work with NNELS in October.

Upcoming Co-op Training

We have some upcoming training and webinars which may be of interest to members:

  • It’s Academic! – Evergreen for Academics: webinars take place Tuesday, October 18th & Thursday, October 20th.
  • Cooperatively Cataloguing in a Consortium: webinars take place Tuesday, November 8th and Thursday, November 10th
  • Hands-On Accessibiity Technology Training: taking place in Burnaby with NNELS and the Neil Squire Society on November 22. For more information, please write to support@nnels.ca.

Co-op Week: October 16-22

Co-op week is an opportunity for Canadian co-operative members to celebrate the many things they have built together.

This year, Co-op Week will take place from October 16-22 and the theme is Our Co-op Advantage. We invite you, our members, to reflect on the benefits of working co-operatively, and what we have achieved together over the years. If you would like to share your thoughts with us, we would love to hear from you. Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada has created and shared a celebratory PDF poster for Co-op members to print and post.

Read Local BC: October 28 – November 7

We have been asked to share with our BC members this important message from the Association of Book Publishers of BC:

Dear BC Librarians,

For the second year in a row, the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia will be conducting Read Local BC, an exciting cross-province campaign running from October 28 – November 7, 2016. Our goal is to encourage the public to support our local industry by visiting libraries, and reading and purchasing BC books, particularly BC-published books.

Outreach for Read Local BC will include a media relations campaign, with dedicated and enthusiastic social media support, and bold, eye-catching promotional materials such as postcards, bookmarks, posters, bag stuffers and advertisements. As well as arranging 10 events in communities across BC, we will offer our support to libraries arranging their own events during the campaign with Read Local BC print materials and promotion through ABPBC and BC Books Online social media.

We would love your help to celebrate BC books!

You can participate in Read Local BC in a number of ways:

  • Post a Read Local BC poster in your library;
  • Share Read Local BC postcards;
  • Host events with Read Local BC authors;
  • Create a display with Read Local BC materials and books;
  • Promote Read Local BC on your social media feeds.

If your library will be hosting an event during Read Local BC please send the details to Natalie at natalie@books.bc.ca by September 30th to have it featured on ABPBC and BC Books Online social media and receive additional promotional materials.

We are committed to creating a campaign that benefits libraries and your patrons, and to providing as much assistance as we can when you participate.

Please circulate this letter among your colleagues.

Sincerely,

Kevin Williams

President, Association of Book Publishers of BC

Every library in BC will be receiving a package of information from ABPBC. If you have not received  package within the next 3 weeks, please contact the ABPBC directly. Their website is currently being updated with the 2016 information, but the 2015 page is still available with the list of events held last year, and that list is full of inspiring ideas.

On the week of the event, we encourage libraries to share their Read Local BC activities on social media using the #ReadLocalBC hashtag. We look forward to hearing what you do. Happy reading!

Happy fall!

We wish you all a good and beautiful autumn. Please write to us if you have any questions or feedback. We always love to hear from our members.