Write to Read BC

Tag: books

  • Xeni Gwet’in

    About the community

    Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government, part of the Tŝilhqot’in Nation, is about 200 km west of Williams Lake, BC. Tŝilhqot’in is often translated as People of the River, or People of the Blue Water. 

    About one third of the Xeni Gwet’in community’s 400 members lives on their traditional territory. The people in Xeni Gwet’in maintain their land and their system of governance, as they always have. The land is a unique ecosystem, mountainous, crossed by glacial waterways and covered in forest. The government works towards community self-governance, with an emphasis on unity, respect, trust, and pride in the Tsilhqot’in heritage, language, and culture. The goals of Xeni Gwet’in government are to conserve the natural resources of its territory, keep the ecosystem healthy, in an economically sustainable way.

    The band runs the local roads yard as well as a gas-bar, and built a housing subdivision with its own electrical grid, since the community is not connected to the main BC Hydro grid. The band manages its health program, and the local school serves Kindergarten to Grade 8 in three classrooms. Its teachers are long-term residents.

    About the library

    In partnership with the community, Write to Read BC discussed the vision for a library, which was then designed and constructed.

  • Nisaika Kumtuks library opens

    Write to Read BC celebrated the grand opening of its 16th library and learning centre, Nisaika Kumtuks school, the little school with a huge heart.

    Lieutenant-governor of BC Judith Guichon attended, along with members of the school.

    One of the students, David, greeted Guichon, before taking part in a procession. The children performed a drumming song, and read a story for Guichon. To conclude the ceremony, the school library received its formal name—one that its students chose.

    In addition to books that appeal to students from Kindergarten to Grade 4, the school also offers online attendance to online courses and conferences from its learning centre. The library is equipped with four iPads, 2 all-in-one Hewlett Packard computers, and a TV with video conferencing capabilities. This benefit the students as well as their parents. School principal Heather Goodall will open the school library to parents of its students. This gives parents have access to the Internet and to online learning, as well.

    The TV screen, a donation that Write to Read BC arranged, was a pleasant surprise to Goodall.

    The shelving was made especially for the library by inmates at the Nanaimo Correctional Centre. Write to Read BC co-lead Bob Blacker said: “They do amazing work, and are very proud of their contribution to our libraries.”

  • Lax Kw’alaams shelving, furniture

    Write to Read BC partner, Nanaimo Correctional Centre, has finished an order of library furniture for the Lax Kw’alaams Tsimshian Academy and Community Library. This shipment of shelves, bound for Metlakatla Pass, is now being trucked to Prince Rupert by project partner, Bandstra Transportation. Bandstra provides Write to Read BC with free trucking.

    These shelves follow an earlier shipment in late 2016. The arrival of those shelves were accompanied by Write to Read BC’s library response team and Rotary Club of Mission BC volunteers. Together with Lax Kw’alaams community members and academy librarian Naomi White, they sorted and placed books onto the first batch of shelves.

    There were many books left over, and the second furniture shipment to the academy will help get most of those books onto shelves. A third shipment of shelves is scheduled for the end of June 2017. Mission Rotary Club volunteers will pick up the shelving in Nanaimo, drive it to Port Hardy, and then take it to Prince Rupert on the overnight ferry.

    Learning centre equipment

    Also in June, Write to Read BC will ship four Hewlett Packard all-in-one computers and 4 mini pads (tablets). This will allow the academy to offer remote attendance to courses and conferences, online, from its learning centre.

    Volunteers sitting between the shelves and books of the Lax Kw'alaam library.
    An example of installed shelves in a Write to Read BC library by its library response team.

    Once the library response team has finished with the library, and the computers and tablets are installed, the library will be ready for its formal opening ceremony. It’s been operating in Metlakatla since early 2015. It is 11th Write to Read BC library and learning centre.

  • Readying Ahousaht shelves, books

    The building for the Ahousaht community library is in place, and Write to Read BC’s construction response team has visited the site to view the building.

    Our library response team is now putting together a collection of books. Furniture has to be made and delivered when the library response team sets up the library.

    The library will likely open in the fall of 2014. It’s another success story for the partnership model, which matches communities, Write to Read BC volunteers, and other partners.

  • Yekooche to improve library

    Located on Stuart Lake near Fort Saint James the Principal of the Community School Eric Di Nozi contacted Write to Read BC for assistance to regenerate their school library and make it into a community library.

    Write to Read BC visited the community in November 2015 to discuss partnership and proejct possibilities. We agreed Write to Read BC will provide shelves and books. Our library response team is putting together books, and shelving will have to be made by Nanaimo Correctional Centre.

    Two Rotary clubs will be involved. One will collect the books and computer hardware. The other will deliver the shelving and assist in putting the library together. We anticipate doing this during the summer, an optimal time for travelling to the community.

  • Tsay Keh Dene library arrives

    In Tsay Keh Dene, the library is now onsite. Our Write to Read BC library response team visited and set up the library shelves and furniture. Next, Indigenous books will be ordered.

    Once we have the computers installed in the library we will be ready to open it.

  • Library with learning centre in Lax Kw’alaams

    After partnering with Write to Read BC, the isolated community of Lax Kw’alaams conceived of a community library that meets their literacy and learning needs.

    Another Write to Read BC partner, Mission Rotary Club, asked its community to contribute $5,000 to the project, and then doubled that with a $5,000 grant. The Rotary Club volunteers also set up the library in October.

    Shelves awaiting installation.
    The loading dock and crew at Bandstra Transportation that ships shelves to Write to Read BC libraries.

    This new library in Lax Kw’alaams, formerly known as Port Simpson, has shelves of books to read, comfortable seating, and computers for remote attendance in courses and conferences in its learning centre.

    Curved shelves of books at the Lax Kw'alaams library and learning centre.
    Shelves of books in Lax Kw’alaams library.
    Seats and shelves of books at the Lax Kw'alaams library and learning centre.
    Seating and more shelves of books in the library in Lax Kw’alaams, BC.

  • Opening a library in Nooaitch

    A library opening today in Nooaitch, BC, also represented a new kind of library for Write to Read BC. The new facility, near Merritt, BC, not only offers books and recorded media. It also has Internet-connected computers that offer remote access to courses and conferences. The Nooaitch library was Write to Read’s eleventh partnership to install libraries in isolated, Indigenous communities across BC.

    At the Nooaitch opening, Chief Marcell Shackelly said the library is a tool that builds a vision for their band’s future.

    The previous Chief, Joyce Sam, partnered with Write to Read BC to start the Nooaitch project. Sam is excited to see how the band will use the new building. “It’ll get us together,” she told a Merritt Herald reporter, adding that it’s a place for children to read quietly, or for learners to study for an exam. “All the tools are there, the resources are there,” Sam said.

    The opening was a festive event. Judith Guichon, the lieutenant-governor of BC, also attended.

    The ribbon-cutting ceremony at Nooaitch's library opening, near Merritt, BC.
    Two band chiefs and the lieutenant-governor of BC cut a ribbon to open Nooaitch library

  • Libraries for isolated BC areas —CBC

    On 27 May 2014, CBC reported six new libraries have been installed in isolated, Indigenous communities across BC. Each new library adds to the 200 First Nations that already have a library.

    CBC credits Write to Read BC, along with Bob Blacker and former lieutenant-governor of BC, Steven Point.

    At its start, the project recruited retired librarians to solicit book donations. Write to Read BC soon had over 30,000 new and used books to assess and catalogue from their headquarters in a donated storage locker.

    The work is ongoing, with more libraries planned.

  • Thistalalh Memorial Library opens

    The Heiltsuk First Nation and the Qqs Projects Society officially opened the Thistalalh Memorial Library in Bella Bella on March 26, 2014. Qqs is pronounced kuks, means eyes, and refers to the community’s watchful stewardship of the area.

    The portable building that now houses the library was renovated and shipped to Bella Bella complete with shelving and computers thanks to a unique partnership between Write to Read BC and its partners. The Rotary Club led the project’s fundraising. Britco Structures (now Boxx Modular) provided the portable building. Nanaimo Correctional Centre built the shelving. London Drugs provided computers that allow the library to offer remote attendance in courses and conferences online, in its learning centre. Other supporters provided shipping, books, and volunteers.

    The library is home to books donated from around the world after the town’s previous building burned down. “We are incredibly moved by the upwelling of support from strangers and booklovers who want to help us get back on our feet and put books back in the hands of our community members,” said library curator Jessie Housty. She told The Tyee news that the library is “a gathering space around stories.”

    A reader and a computer user in the library at Bella Bella.
    Cozy, curved shelves create the illusion of space inside the portable building that houses the library.

    Housty added: “Stories are sacred things. As Heiltsuk people, we really are nothing more than the sum of the stories we have lived in.” In addition to books and stories important to its culture, the library and its learning centre form an online bridge to other places and cultures.

    Opening ceremony for the library in Bella Bella.
    Community members and lieutenant-governor of BC Judith Guichon stand in front of the Write to Read BC library at its opening ceremony.

    The Write to Read BC library has a beautiful view of the Inside Passage, the sheltered waterway between the BC mainland and Vancouver Island. Travel to Bella Bella is only by sea and air.

    The original library was built in 2007 by Qqs Projects Society, a Heiltsuk First Nation non-profit organization.