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.
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.
The library opening in Oweekeno was both formal and festive. A Wuikinuxv Elder blessed the building, and Chief Rose Hackett cut the ribbon alongside Judith Guichon, lieutenant-governor of BC and Peter Hansen of Rotary Club Lionsgate.
Volunteers in Oweekeno celebrate the Wuikinuxv community’s new library.
The Chief also presented a ceremonial paddle to the lieutenant-commander of the navy ship HMCS Calgary, at a community dinner with navy crew members, in the Big House.
Local youth then sailed the Rivers Inlet area aboard HMCS Calgary for four hours, as guests.
Also in attendance were members of the RCMP on their regular visit to Oweekeno.
This library was sponsored by the members of the Rotary Club Lionsgate of North Vancouver, who raised the necessary project funds. The modular building was donated by Britco Structures.
The Oweekeno community will employ a librarian to supervise the building. Write to Read BC’s library response team collaborated with local volunteers on the selection and cataloguing of books.
Oweekeno is on the BC coast, south of Bella Bella, accessible only by boat or plane.
The cost of the project was $60,000. Moving the modular building by sea from Vancouver to Rivers Inlet cost $20,000, which the Jack Gin Foundation paid.
This small, BC community is in the process of designing and building a new pre-school with the help of Scott Kemp, who is also our Write to Read BC architect.
The community is adding to the building design a portion that will serve as a community library. This project is a partnership with Write to Read BC.
Quatsino is located northwest of Port Hardy, on the BC coast.
Write to Read BC volunteers joined the village of Quatsino to officially open its new library on February 7, 2017. Quatsino community leaders and lieutenant-governor of BC Judith Guichon also joined the ceremony.
The village is on Vancouver Island, 15km south of Port Hardy. Most of its residents of Quatsino work in forestry, fishing, and eco-tourism.
The beautiful Quatsino library in ludes a day care centre.
The village of Ditidaht opened its library in mid-September 2014, with community fanfare and visiting dignitaries. The library is the result of a partnership with Write to Read BC.
Cutting the ribbon were British royals, Prince Edward and Princess Sophie. Edward formally asked the permission to be on Ditidaht titled lands. Sophie was given a cedar band for her head, which had been woven for the occasion by one of Ditidaht’s eldest citizens, Sophie wore the headband throughout the visit. The royals were accompanied by the lieutenant-governor of BC Judith Guichon.
In addition to celebrating the library, the ceremony honoured Ditidaht schoolteacher Eva Clarke for envisioning a space for storytelling, theatre, and reading aloud. Clarke, with the Rotary Club and Write to Read BC, was instrumental in getting the library installed.
With this new library and community gathering place, the community hopes to promote literacy and learning for its younger members.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Ditidaht library opening in September, 2014 on Vancouver Island, BC.
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.
Metlakatla, just north of Prince Rupert, recently welcomed a small, portable library. The entire building was placed on a trailer and then transported from BC’s Lower Mainland by ferry, to serve Metlakatla.
The first step: loading the library onto the ferry.
The library is a compact, 10 m² studio with built-in shelving. It has cedar rainscreen cladding, R20 insulation, tilt-and-turn windows, and high-efficiency LED lighting. The library was donated by Western Camera Building president John MacFarlane. Western Camera is known for constructing tiny buildings for use as offices, storage facilities, and—in this case—as a library.
The interior of the library shows space for hundreds of books, and seating for computer use by one person at a time. The floors are easy to clean. Some of the windows open.
Based on the National Building Code for above-ground walls, insulation rated R20 exceeds both the “Good” and “Better” standards for above-ground walls in all zones across BC.
The community library, on a trailer, on its way to Metlakatla.
The library, which the community nicknamed Hobbit House, made the overwater portion of the trip by ferry, a service that BC Ferries provided for free.
On a recent visit to Ditidaht, one Write to Read BC volunteer brought along a digital camera rto donate to the school. He described the camera as “an old Panasonic Lumix SLR” but adds: “It’s amazing what can be accomplished using digital technology. Computers and digital cameras have changed the world in which we live. Pretty soon everybody will be a movie maker.”
That includes the 10 high school students at Ditidaht’s community school.
The Lumix camera has a 24× zoom, a Leica glass lens, built-in image stabilization to reduce motion blur, and a memory card. It shoots great photos. It was given to the teacher for use by the high school students.
Students to make a digital diary
From January to June 2014, high school students will use the camera to take photos of their daily life: going to school, playing, at home, with friends, in the community. Students can also take photos in the woods and on the water.
The camera’s memory card can store thousands of images, and the students are encouraged to photograph everything they see. Their teacher, Eva Clarke, will select the best images and store them on a computer.
The learning objectives of this project are to:
learn digital photography.
learn to see and document village life.
self-publish a book—perhaps an e-book.
A digital diary that shows what life is like in the Ditidaht village can introduce people to a place few will ever get to visit in person. By using a camera, connecting people from elsewhere to an isolated community like Ditidaht is as easy as point and shoot.
The project runs from January to June, 2014.
Ditidaht teacher Eva Clarke will choose the best images that students take of their life in and around the village.
In her 2013 annual statement, Judith Guichon, lieutenant-governor of BC, said she will continue to build on the literacy program developed by Steven Point, the preceding lieutenant-governor of BC.
Point developed the Write to Read BC project by partnering with several Rotary Clubs in the province.
Steven Point (middle) pictured in a newly installed library. Point was lieutenant-governor of BC from September 2007 to November 2012.
