BC Teacher-Librarians' Association

Don’t forget to celebrate Love Your School Library Day in your library learning commons on February 14th. Put up some posters around your school or have students decorate your LLC with their own messages of love.

International Book Giving Day takes place on the 14th of February each year. The aim? To get books into the hands of as many children as possible.

• READ a book
• SHARE a book
• PASS ON a book

 Ways You Can Get Involved in International Book Giving Day!

1. Leave books for children to discover, or donate to a local charity.
2. Organize a book swap of gently used books in your LLC.
3. Connect with others celebrating International Book Giving Day on social media. #bookgivingday
4. Download and print an International Book Giving Day bookmark and/or bookplate to attach to a book you give, from websites like https://bookgivingday.com/ They’re free!
5. Share a photo of yourself celebrating International Book Giving Day. Use #bookgivingday and #bctla on social media so we can find you.
6. Invite your community to celebrate International Book Giving Day by creating a display, poster or newsletter item.

As teacher-librarians, we are aware that book challenges are a reality of maintaining a diverse library learning commons collection. This webinar provides tips and tools that Canadian public libraries are currently using to negotiate these challenges with the hope that teacher-librarians will join them as allies against censorship. If you or your district are concerned about these issues, we highly recommend you attend this session.

Please fill out this Google Form if you plan to attend the webinar: https://forms.gle/TMeknkegEDk86e1z7

The BCTLA will forward the Zoom link to the webinar when you sign up.

It’s that time of year again, when the BCTLA asks that all BC Teacher-Librarians please complete the Work and Learning Conditions (WLC) Survey. Data gathered from this survey can be used to assist in maintaining or improving conditions in your library learning commons or Local Specialist Association (LSA). Unfortunately, there has been declining participation in the survey over the last few years. Our goal is to get a minimum of 50% participation from each LSA. If your LSA reaches this goal, we intend to send your Chapter Councillor the specific raw data from your local so that you can use this information to improve those work and learning conditions. An overall report from participating BC school districts is presented to the Chapter Councillors at the AGM.

If that isn’t enough incentive for completing this survey, perhaps the enticement of weekly prize draws will motivate greater participation. The earlier you complete the survey, the more chances for prizes! BCTLA executive members are ineligible for these prizes.

First prize draw -January 13, 2023 for a $25 gift certificate to Kidsbooks.

Second prize draw -January 20, 2023 for a $25 gift certificate to Kidsbooks.

Third prize draw -January 27, 2023 for a free membership to the BCTLA for the 2023-2024 year.

Fourth prize draw -February 3, 2023 for a $25 gift certificate to Kidsbooks.

Fifth prize draw -February 10, 2023 for a $25 gift certificate to Kidsbooks.

Grand prize draw -February 17, 2023 for a one night stay at the hotel the night before the BCTLA conference in October 2023.

Follow our Facebook and Twitter accounts for the weekly prize winners. We will report all the winners on the website after the final grand prize draw.

https://form.jotform.com/223448703833256

In alignment with the philosophy that school libraries are essential in representing diverse cultures and advocating important social justice issues, the BCTLA has created a Social Justice Calendar. This document has active links to websites for each of the special days or events. The calendar is meant to inspire ideas for library displays and school events.  We tried to use websites with Canadian content; however, some are from other countries when Canadian websites were unavailable. We have tried our best to include key dates from a number of areas. If you feel an important date has been left off our calendar, please feel free to contact the BCTLA and we will continue to update it. The calendar can be found in “Resources and Publications” in the “Other Publications” section or by clicking this link.