News from New Brunswick / Nouvelles du Nouveau-Brunswick
submitted by Sarah Kilfoil
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Staff in the Albert-Westmorland-Kent Library Region have been busy with a regional weeding project. All libraries will be going through extensive weeding in the next few months. The shelves of the libraries that have already been weeded are looking clean and fresh.
We’ve had to say good-bye to Emanuela Chiriac, Director of the Dieppe Public Library. Emanuela has accepted a new position in Montreal. Replacing Emanuela in Dieppe is Nathalie Brun. We also have a new employee starting soon at the Gèrald Leblanc Public Library (Bouctouche). Jason Savoie will take over from Michele-Ann Goguen, who has accepted the position of Library Manager of the brand new Cap-Pelé Public Library. The Cap-Pelé Public Library is scheduled to open early this fall. Best wishes to all in their new endeavors!
The provincial launch of the 2009 Summer Reading Club at the Dieppe Public Library was a great success. Highlights included speeches from NBPLS Executive Director Sylvie Nadeau and Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson, an art demonstration by local artist Madeleine Raiche, and a musical performance by Shediac Public Library’s Stéphanie Lebouthiller. A great start to what we hope is an ARTrageous summer!
Librarians in the AWK library region also participated in a discussion about the ever-declining library circulation rates. While no immediate solutions were proposed, we learned many new tips and ideas. For example:
- Have a “Librarians recommend…” section
- Develop marketing areas (e.g. display shelving)
- Capitalize on free advertising. Movie studios spend millions on advertising: buy related items as soon as they’re available. Books into film is another free advertising wagon to hitch a ride on.
- Mark certain items as “treasure books.” The more books people check out, the higher their chances are of discovering a coveted treasure book (rewards vary!).
- Scope out a local book store to see what people are browsing and buying. Or, if subtly isn’t one of your strengths, ask book store staff.
- Create an attractive “Just Returned” sign for a book truck; only fill the top shelf.
Training dominated the schedule in the Chaleur Library Region throughout the spring and early summer. All staff attended instructional sessions on Office 2007 in May with successful results and Library Managers and Directors attended training sessions on Emergency Preparedness and First Aid.
The library staff from Campbellton, Atholville, Dalhousie, the Chaleur Bookmobile, and the Regional Office took part in the annual Salmon Festival Parade held in Campbellton on July 5. All of the participants dressed as storybook characters and distributed contest ballots for parade attendants to guess their characters. Despite the torrential rains, the staff had plenty of fun and the community support was overwhelming.
Nous sommes heureux de souhaiter la bienvenue aux nouveaux membres du personnel qui font parti de notre équipe depuis quelques mois. Sylvain Meunier été nommé au poste de Directeur régional de la Région de bibliothèques Chaleur et il a entré en fonction le 2 février. Mylène May Gionet a été nommé au poste de gestionnaire par intérim de la bibliothèque de Bas-Caraquet le 17 février. Manon De Grâce a commencé à travailler comme aide-bibliothécaire à la bibliothèque publique de Lamèque le 6 avril et Carole Cyr a été nommé au poste de commis de bibliothèque à la bibliothèque Smurfit-Stone de Bathurst le 15 mai.
In addition we welcomed Sarah Kilfoil who joined the region as Acting Assistant Regional Director on May 4. Two librarian interns have also joined our staff; Sonja Irving as the Acting Public Services Librarian and Tiffany Bartlett as a Reference Librarian at the Centennial Library in Campbellton.
Nous félicitons aussi Sophie Loiselle, qui a accepté le poste de Bibliothécaire pour les jeunes adultes et les adultes au mois d’avril.
New staff joined the Fundy Library Region over the past six months. Jenn Carson-Garnhum joined the staff at the Kennebecasis Public Library and Deborah Payne joined the staff at the Saint John Free Public Library.
On July 2, the Saint John Free Public Library was delighted to welcome back award winning, multi-talented Canadian author, Paul Quarrington. This “Words and Music” event was held in partnership with UNBSJ’s Inprint Books, capping off a day- long celebration of their second anniversary. He treated the audience to stories and passages from King Leary, the Canada Reads winner for 2008, and Whale Music, the Governor General’s award for fiction, 1989. The readings were enha
nced by music performed by the author and band mates Martin Worthy and Rebecca Campbell. The enthusiastic audience enjoyed story songs, including “INeed My Heart” and the appropriate “Fictional World.” Training has been an overarching theme over the past few months in the Haut-Saint-Jean Library Region. All staff received training on Office 2007 in May and everyone is now using this new software on a daily basis. We held our annual Professional Development Day in Edmundston in May where all staff attended an Introduction to Web 2.0 session. Some staff attended an informative session on Nutrition where dietician Mélissa Nadeau discussed “Superportions” and how to prevent cancer through nutrition. Others learned about different storytelling techniques and shared their successful programs during a session on Programming for Children.
Library Mangers and Directors attended a training session on Emergency Preparedness and are now preparing emergency plans for their libraries. Summer Reading Club students had the opportunity to share ideas for presenting this program during their training sessions in June.
We were pleased to welcome two Librarian Interns to the region in May. Leanne Kinnear joined staff at the Mgr W.J. Conway Public Library in Edmundston to work in the Young Adult and Adult unit and the Reference unit on May 5th. Beatrice Houston started work as the Acting Technical Services Librarian at the Regional Office on May 4th.
New Brunswick Public Library Service
New Brunswick Public Library Service Provincial Office has had a busy couple of months completing projects. We recently developed a provincial information literacy program toolkit called Info Savvy. The goal of Info Savvy is to offer all New Brunswickers a fully integrated and provincially harmonized information literacy program so that they are better able to find and judge information to make informed decisions.
The toolkit consists of 14 bilingual modules on information literacy competencies ranging from where to find materials in the library to web safety, from research skills to citing. There are three target audiences for each module: grade 5-8 students, grade 9-12 students and the general public. The content of each module has been based on the information needs of each of these groups.
The materials are meant as guides for library staff in preparing and producing information literacy sessions, so that each library in the province has a common starting point for their programming.
Also, the Children’s Services Committee has completed a project for early literacy and have published a booklet called “Be Together. Read Together. Discover the Love of Reading @ your library ®”. The booklet is for parents and guardians of children from infancy to age 5 and aims to instil a love of reading from this young age.
The booklet is also available in French so that children can learn in their first language. Look for these fun booklets, made to look like children’s story books, in New Brunswick public libraries and bookmobiles.
Le Service des bibliothèques publiques du Nouveau-Brunswick (SBPNB) a connu quelques mois chargés d’activités à compléter ses projets. Le SBPNB a récemment développé une trousse provinciale de la culture de l’information appelé Info-savant. L’objectif de ce programme consiste à offrir aux Néo-Brunswickois un programme de formation à la culture de l’information entièrement intégré et harmonisé pour qu’ils soient mieux en mesure de trouver et d’évaluer l’information afin de prendre des décisions éclairées.
La trouse d’outils est composé de 14 modules bilingues sur une gamme de compétences générales en culture de l’information allant d’où se trouvent les matériaux dans la bibliothèque au dangers sur Internet, du savoir-faire en matière de recherche à comment citer des références. Il y a trois groupes cibles pour chaque module : élèves de la 5e à la 8e année, élèves de la 9e à la 12e année, et le grand public. Le contenu de chaque module est basé sur les besoins en information de chacun de ces groupes.
Les documents de cette trousse on été composés afin qu’ils puissent servir des guides pour le personnel des bibliothèques quand ils élaborent et mènent des séances de formation pour la culture de l’information, pour que chaque bibliothèque de la province aura le même point de départ pour la programmation.
Aussi, le Comité des services pour enfants a complété un projet pour la petite enfance. Ce projet comprenait la publication d’un livret intitulé « Être ensemble. Lire ensemble. Le plaisir de lire @ votre bibliothèque ® ». Le livret, qui a été élaboré à l’intention des parents et des tuteurs, a pour but d’inculquer l’amour de la lecture aux enfants de 0 à 5 ans.
Le livret est également disponible en anglais pour que les enfants puissent apprendre dans leur langue maternelle. Cherchez ces livrets, qui ressemblent à des livres d’histoire pour enfants, dans les bibliothèques publiques et bibliobus du Nouveau-Brunswick.
