It was particularly helpful to learn more specifics about metadata and ONIX. The sessions showed me how some of our most technical marketing tasks are the ones that ensure that very important information about our books gets “out there” for readers to find.

I also had a chance to look at their blog. The post about the Canadian Book Consumer 2012 caught my eye. Did you know that 77% of people read at least one book a month? Or that one of the reasons that mystery book readers buy a book is because they are intrigued by the title?

As ever, the wonderful owners and staff at Audreys were gracious hosts, providing a space full of books, chairs, and even a microphone for Astrid to make sure that everybody would hear her softer voice. The fun continued after the reading, with people enjoying wine and cheese and chocolate while Astrid signed book after book after book.

Richard Van Camp wasn’t able to make it to the launch last night, but he has finished reading the book and sent some enthusiastic words our way:

“Astrid Blodgett explores lives in flashpoint and innocence meeting regret forever in “You Haven’t Changed a Bit” (University of Alberta Press).  My favourite stories are ‘New Summer Dresses’ and ‘Ice Break.’ What a read. Congratulations, Astrid, on a collection I’ll be thinking of for a very long time. “

Canadian Writers Abroad began as a blog about my research on the topic and has evolved into a more collaborative site or e-zine for and about Canadian writers who are working or have worked outside of Canada. The site has three purposes: to promote, to share, and to record. Through interviews, profiles and reviews, the work of wandering writers is promoted. Through Letters From and mini interviews, writers share their more immediate experiences of leaving Canada. Finally, the site serves as an archive, with such things as photographs of places where writers lived abroad — a digital version of London’s blue plaques. In 2012 the site’s overall theme was to link current events to writers who had lived abroad. In 2013 the theme is to look at how writers write about place. CWA also posts poetry to punctuate the seasons.

Here is a sample of what you can find on her site:

2013 theme of place: Place and the Blues;  book review sample: Christmas on Toy; 2012 theme of current events and literature (by Canadian writers who lived abroad): The Future Margaret Laurence Wanted; the About page, which includes an invitation to writers.

On April 6, the Ottawa Citizen published an excerpt from the book. On April 16, Jian Ghomeshi interviewed Lawrence Hill on Q, which was followed by a review by Randy Boyagoda in the National Post and an interview with Donna Bailey Nurse in the Toronto Star.

Lawrence Hill will be participating in a discussion organized by PEN Canada on May 16 at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum. Please join him, Carol Duncan and Randy Boyagoda if you can.

Glenbow Announces New President and Chief Executive Officer

Calgary, AB (May 8, 2013) – The Board of Governors of Glenbow Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Donna Livingstone to the role of full-time President and Chief Executive Officer of Glenbow Museum, effective immediately.

“The community support and participation and the interest from local, national and international candidates was very impressive,” said Jack Thrasher, Chair of the Glenbow’s Board of Governors.

Over the past six months, as Interim President of Glenbow, Donna has opened the doors to new opportunities and partnerships in the community, undertaken a review of all collections and operations, managed a significant reduction in the operating deficit, and strengthened the senior leadership team. She took on the Interim President role at Glenbow on November 6, 2012, while on secondment from the University of Calgary where she was Director of Cultural and Community Programs and Director of the University of Calgary Press within Libraries and Cultural Resources.

Donna has a long history in successful leadership roles with arts and cultural organizations in western Canada, and is well regarded in the communities that Glenbow serves. She previously worked at Glenbow from 1995 – 98 as Vice President, Program and Exhibit Development and served as a Governor from 2008 – 2012. She holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Lancaster and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria. Donna has published extensively on western cultural history, and serves with several provincial and national cultural associations.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to refresh Glenbow as a place of significance in the arts and culture community,” Donna says. “We are already seeing great response to such exhibitions as No Roads Here: Corb Lund’s Alberta and Made in Calgary. It shows us what amazing results can come from inviting the community to participate with us.”

“The Board would like to thank Donna for her inspiring and effective work-to-date as Interim President and looks forward to working with her in revitalizing Glenbow as a cultural cornerstone in the Province,” says Jack Thrasher. “We are also very grateful for the support of the University of Calgary in allowing her to take on the interim role during a critical time of change for our organization.”

Five years ago, the members of the NRC began with a simple idea: that there’s immense value in reading in all forms. We have now developed the National Reading Plan, and are in the early stages of its implementation. We need your support now more than ever.

Our first order of business is to finance the campaign. We know your organization feels as strongly about the power of the written word as we do, and we need your help.  We’re asking you to customize the attached individual donation request with your and/or your organization’s signature and contact information, and to send it out to everyone you know. Encourage your members to donate. We need every reader in the country to step up and make the National Reading Campaign a reality.

This year, we are focusing on the following programs:

• Joy of Reading in Schools: While reading scores have increased in elementary schools, children’s enjoyment of reading has gone down. The National Reading Campaign calls on the Ministry of Education, teachers, teacher librarians, parents, and others concerned with how we teach reading in schools, to enter into a dialogue on how best to ensure that our school systems and families nurture and reinforce  children’s love of reading..

• Join Us: CanLit for New Canadians: We are creating a series of resource documents on Canadian literature for libraries and settlement service organizations to use in their programs for new Canadians. Canadian literature not only offers people a way to develop high language skills, but is also a pleasurable and exciting way to learn about the country.

• Aboriginal Policy Initiative: The NRC is facilitating a series of three aboriginal reading policy round tables over the next three years. The round tables will bring together key leaders in the field to create an effective program to promote access to reading on reserves for children and youth, and to create a much-needed common agenda  among stakeholders to champion reading and reading policies for Aboriginal children.

• Canadian Children’s Book Reviews: An independent weekly kids’ book review column in dailies & weeklies across the country to provide avid readers with access to new book ideas, and to inspire non- readers to join the fun. We will also distribute the column to schools, libraries, and community centres for use c in their programs.

•  “What did you read today?” is a three-year campaign to raise an awareness of reading’s importance, and to encourage governments at all levels to take policy steps to make Canada a nation of readers. In the fall of 2013, we will launch an advertising campaign including print, television, radio, and online ads.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 416-347-4031, or by email at sarah@nationalreadingcampaign.ca.

Literary Cocktails is the perfect occasion to launch UAP’s new fiction titles in a festive spirit — although we are still waiting for Spring! There was something for everyone: popular culture delivered by Kimmy Beach [The Last Temptation of Bond], dramatic prose from Astrid Blodgett [You Haven't Changed a Bit], and aboriginal history via Paul Zits’s poetry [Massacre Street].

Even though the sky was grey and gloomy, we had a lovely time, led by our MC, Patricia Demers, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies here at the University of Alberta. We recently published her latest book, Travels and Tales of Miriam Green Ellis.

A wonderful dimension was added by our musician-colleagues, Jerome Martin (piano) and Ted Bishop (guitar). The event was a huge success, and we hope to see all of you again next year!

Arne’s book has been on the Calgary Herald‘s Best seller list three times since its publication in November, 2011 and is available in EPUB and Kindle format.

There will be a book launch at the Calgary Petroleum Club (319 – 5th Street SW, Calgary) in the Trophy Lounge at 4:40 pm on Thursday, May 23rd.

From the opening Blessing to the closing words by Nellie Carlson, and with the participation of friends and family, the program had the perfect combination of tears and laughter, showing us all – some who were well aware of the battle and some who knew very little about it – what these remarkable women had to endure to regain rights for themselves and their children.

Special guests at the event were: Chief Bruneau, who welcomed us to his territory; Jim Robb, a lawyer who worked with Nellie Carlson and Kathleen Steinhauer for this historic cause; The Hon. Anne McLellan; Muriel Stanley Venne and other leaders in the native community, and many members of Nellie and Kathleen’s families. Gillian Rutherford of CBC Radio ensured that the event was recorded for posterity.

The families of the authors gifted Linda Goyette with a Pendleton Blanket to honour her contributions to the publication of this important oral history book.

The staff at the Archives were key to the success of the celebration, and special thanks go out to Provincial Archivist Leslie Latta-Guthrie and Jaclyn Landry for their support and hard work. The Archives’ acceptance of Jenny Margetts’ collection means that the materials recording the struggle of the women of the Indian Rights for Indian Women organization will be cared for and available to the public.

We are all proud to be part of something so important and that records the difference Nellie, Kathleen, and their colleagues made through decades of activism. Thank you all who made this evening so memorable and such a success!

Library users will benefit from increased access to Canadian scholarship

Queen’s University is among the early adopters of a new ebook collection that will see books from Canada’s university presses made available online.

The new collection of ebooks has been made possible by a partnership agreement between the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and eBOUND Canada, in conjunction with the Association of Canadian University Presses (ACUP).

The partnership aims to promote the availability of Canadian scholarship in ebook format, and will see over 3000 ebooks made available through OCUL’s Scholars Portal. These books, published by Canada’s 12 university presses between 2007 and 2012, will for the first time be available in one digital collection.

Jane Philipps, Collection Development Coordinator at the Queen’s Library, says that Queen’s is one of ten early-adopting Ontario universities participating in this partnership. “Since the vast majority of these ebooks are not currently owned by Queen’s, this agreement will give our users much greater access to recent Canadian scholarship.”

In addition to the catalogue of ebooks published since 2007, the partnership agreement includes a licensing provision that will see future books added as they are published. The total catalogue is expected to grow to 4000 titles by next year.

McGill-Queen’s University Press (MQUP), a leading publisher of scholarly work on Canada and Canadian perspectives, is one of the presses participating in the program and with this agreement all of its over 3800 books that it has published since 1960 will be available in digital form at the Queen’s library.

“MQUP is proud to be a partner in this innovative program,” says Philip Cercone, Executive Director at MQUP and an early proponent of this partnership among OCUL, eBOUND, and ACUP. “The agreement ensures that Ontario’s university libraries will have access to the wealth of scholarship that is published each year by Canada’s university presses.”

With ten Ontario universities initially subscribing to this program, over 290,000 students and faculty at our province’s universities, including Queen’s, will have access to this new catalogue of Canadian scholarship.