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.
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.