The Role

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The Role Responsibility of the Public Library

• to
• Promote the Reading Culture as a Key to
  Sustainability
• Janice Douglas, Vancouver Public Library DeNel
  Rehberg Sedo, MSVU

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Agenda

• Introductions
• Defining sustainability and reading culture
• Beyond the Book preliminary research findings
• The role of the public library in sustainability
  and reading culture
• Question/answer period

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Vancouver Public Library
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Entry Corridor, Vancouver Public Library
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http//www.beyondthebookproject.org/
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defining Sustainability

• one way to push back at this force that
  threatens to close off your capacity for reverie,
  to imagine, to sing out with sheer pleasure, to
  redirect yourself towards the stars, and to love
  intensely what comes to you, is to make your
  language soar into blockades and barriers,
  bringing them down--slowly, patiently--with the
  energy of enwombing words.
  Powe

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Culture and Sustainability Publications /
Research in process Working Paper1. Culture as
a Key Dimension of Sustainability Exploring
Concepts, Themes, and Models. Nancy Duxbury and
Eileen Gillette. (2007, February). http//creativ
ecity.ca/cecc/research/culture-sustainability/pape
rs.html
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defining Reading Culture

• Valuing and participating in the act of reading
  (in this case, books) for leisure, entertainment,
  education and personal growth

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Why Public Libraries?

• Sir Ken Robinson, The Robinson Report, All Our
  Futures Creativity, Culture and Education
• Thomas Frey, The Future of Libraries, Beginning
  the the Great Transformation
• Dr Bill Crowley, Don't Let Google and the Penny
  pinchers Get you Down Libraries and
  Librarianship in the Age of Technology

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Beyond the Book is

• An examination, explanation and comparison of the
  complexity and the uses of shared reading in
  different locations

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Mass reading events are

• city-wide, region-wide or nation-wide programs or
  events in which people are encouraged to read and
  discuss the same book

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Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge OBOC 2004

Nino Riccis The Lives of the Saints
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One Book, One Vancouver 2006
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Media Sites

• Canada Reads

• Richard Judy

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UK Sites
Bristol - Around the World in 80 Days
Birmingham Book Festival
Liverpool - Small Island
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US Sites
Chicago - Pride Prejudice
Huntsville - To Kill a Mockingbird
Seattle - The Namesake
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Beyond the Book

• Why do people come together to share reading?
• Who participates, and who is excluded ( on what
  terms)?
• What reading practices are employed, and fostered
  by these programs?
• What notions of community and belonging are
  promoted and negotiated by readers, and by the
  agencies that promote mass reading events?

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Role Reading Plays in Ones Life

• Reading has been critical to my life. My mother
  used to say reading opens up the doors of the
  world. A prolific reader, she signed me up for my
  first library card when I was 4 and open my eyes
  and mind to life-long learning.
• Canada Reads participant

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Role Reading Plays in Ones Life

• I like to read books for pleasure, but I also
  like to learn from them. I think reading more
  than watching TV or movies, teaches me more about
  life.
• Bristol participant

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Role Reading Plays in Ones Life

• I can't imagine life without a book. I've always
  belonged to a library and borrowed on a regular
  basis in fact I'd be lost without it.
• Bristol participant

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Shared Reading

• That to me is just what has added another
  dimension again. Its one thing to read the book
  and then to discuss it, but the events that
  theyve done especially the tours The Stone
  Carvers one, the tour was first ---to the pond,
  Tilmans Bridge and it was exactly as Id
  pictured in the book and it was like yeah, I
  know exactly where I am! and then did we go to
  Stratford next? To see some of the carvingsthen
  we had lunch and then we drove up to the Formosa
  churchits so nice to be with other people who
  are appreciating the same thing.
  K/W/C participant

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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Space
• Place
• Partnerships

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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Space

VPL
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Space

Chicago Public Library
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Space

Liverpool Public Library
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work
Wrong message. Bristol branch
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Place

K/W/C
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Place
• Ultimately, the pursuit of sustainability is a
  local undertaking not only because each community
  is ecologically and culturally unique but also
  because its citizens have specific place-based
  needs and requirements.

Robert E. Rhoades
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Place

Wayson Choy in Vancouver
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Place

Seattle
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Partnerships

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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Partnerships

Some members of the Vancouver Committee
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Partnerships

UKs Reading Agency
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Community-wide Reading Programs that Work

• Partnerships

Some members of the Kenwood Academy Teen Book
Club in their school library (Chicago)
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Cultural Sustainability Literature

1. The culture of sustainability
2. Globalization
3. Heritage conservation
4. Sense of place
5. Indigenous knowledge and traditional practices

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Cultural Sustainability Literature

• 6. Community cultural development
• 7. Art, education youth
• 8. Sustainable design
• 9. Planning
• 10. Cultural policy local government
• Duxbury Gillette

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• fundamentally about adapting to a new ethic of
  living on the planet and creating a more
  equitable and just society through the fair
  distribution of social goods and resources in the
  world

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The Role of the Public Library

• Board's Mission, Vision, Values
• Yearly strategic goals
• Staffing
• Recruitment

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The Role of the Public Library

• Board's Mission, Vision, Values

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The Role of the Public Library

•  Vision
• Inspiration through Information
• The Vancouver Public Library inspires and
  enriches the human spirit. It is a library for
  all. It reflects the diversity of our
  communities, preserves the record of our
  experience, and provides access to the world's
  most innovative ideas and enduring wisdom. It
  celebrates our desire to learn, to share
  knowledge, and to contribute to the human story.

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The Role of the Public Library

• Mission
• To enrich all, to reach all
• We strive to enrich the life of our community by
  providing access to the world's ideas and
  information. We offer the finest possible
  collections, services, and technology. We provide
  caring and expert service supportive of human
  differences. We promote lifelong learning, the
  love of reading and exploration of ideas,
  culture, and knowledge in a welcoming, lively
  atmosphere.We are a cornerstone to the community
  and are vital, accountable, active participants
  within it. We encourage involvement from the
  broadest spectrum of users. We shape our
  collections and services in order to be sensitive
  and responsive to community needs and aspirations.

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The Role of the Public Library

• Values
• We value
• all people and their diversity
• intellectual freedom
• access for all
• the right of individuals to learn and grow
• quality service
• teamwork and staff development
• wise use of resources
• innovation and responsiveness to community needs
• shared contributions of employees, Board
  members, Friends and supporters

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The Role of the Public Library

• Yearly strategic goals

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Characteristics of Staffto Bring these Ideas
Forward

• understand the "reaching out" part of inclusivity
  and the concepts of community development as
  defined by the HRSDC Working Together Project
• see connections between the broader scope of
  culture, libraries and lifelong learning
• understand the empowering effect of this work

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Characteristics of Staffto Bring these Ideas
Forward

• see possibilities not problems
• are effective but not mirred in detail
• understand the critical nature of this work as
  another source of being the information provider
• believe in the power of words
• like people

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Characteristics of Staffto Bring these Ideas
Forward

• are willing to risk and to build relationships
• are divergent creative thinkers challenging
  current paradigms
• will take us as institutions to the next level

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VPL Programming

• One Book, One Vancouver

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VPL Programming

• variety of bookclub system projects
• Poet Laureate
• Writer in Residence

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Powes Coda

• May the ability to see many points of view keep
  us gentle.
• May the ability to see a future keep us bold
• May the ability to communicate and to face
  facts, and yet to dream new dreams and to imagine
  fuller lives, give us the sweet strength we need.