Love Reading? Join the National Reading Campaign!

Please consider to support the National Reading Campaign. Read about their five new initiatives for this year.

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 2013

It was wonderful to have many fans and friends out to celebrate with us on April 23. Literary Cocktails is the signature event of the University of Alberta Press. Once again, it took place in collaboration with the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

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!

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Petroleum History Society’s Book of the Year: We Gambled Everything

Arne Nielsen’s memoir, We Gambled Everything: The Life and Times of an Oilman, has received the prestigious Book of the Year award by the Petroleum History Society. Arne received a congratulatory letter and an invitation to the awards ceremony on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 27 as a part of the PHS’s Annual Meeting at the Petroleum Club in downtown Calgary.

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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.

Disinherited Generations Launch at the Provincial Archives

A very special event took place on April 12, 2013 at the Provincial Archives of Alberta. About 150 people celebrated the publication of Disinherited Generations: Our Struggle to Reclaim Treaty Rights for First Nations Women and their Descendants, by Nellie Carlson and Kathleen Steinhauer, and the donation of the Indian Rights for Indian Women Collection to the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

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!

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Queen’s University’s New ebook Agreement

The following news release appeared in the Queen’s News Centre, the official online Queen’s University publication.

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.

Quadruple Launch for Miriam Green Ellis

The Bruce Peel Special Collection Library provided the perfect backdrop for the quadruple multi-media launch of  Miriam Green Ellis on March 14. As guests mingled in the lower level of the Rutherford Library, they were able to walk through the Bruce Peel Special Collection Exhibition, check out the online exhibit, and purchase copies of the book, Travels and Tales of Miriam Green Ellis and the Exhibition Catalogue.

Patricia Demers, editor of Travels and Tales of Miriam Green Ellis and author of the Exhibition Catalogue was introduced by Dr. Merrill Distad and Chancellor Ralph Young.

Friends, colleagues, and booklovers of all sorts mingled and chatted during the well-attended talk and reception. Paula Simons was one of the attendees; she gives a wonderful overview of Miriam Green Ellis in her extensive piece in the Edmonton Journal. She also posted two excerpts to her blog.

 

Invitation to smARTs Event

The Collective Body for Arts Students (CBAS) represents the over 6,000 undergraduate students at the University of Alberta within the Faculty of Arts. We are proud to present our first smARTs event to showcase the impressive research and work being done within the Faculty of Arts.  This high profile event will allow members of the community to celebrate the amazing quality of work produced by our institution. Come prepared to engage with community leaders on a huge array of themes and topics, and to be introduced to new perspectives.

Please join us on Thursday March 21st at the Horowitz Theatre, located in the Students’ Union Building.  Cocktails will begin at 6:00 pm with the show beginning at 7:00 pm.

smARTs speakers will deliver presentations representing the huge diversity of disciplines within the Faculty of Arts, with presentations ranging from restorative justice to ethnomusicology.

In light of the contemporary attitude towards the Arts, we believes that this event gives us the opportunity to show the greater community the value of the study of Arts, and all that Arts Students provide society.

Asking you to attend our event goes beyond a mere request, and rather, it is an opportunity to be a part of the ideas that can change our world. On behalf of CBAS we thank-you for your support, and look forward to including you in our community.

Feel free to invite your friends and family.

See you at the show,
Emma Tunney
External Coordinator
The Collective Body for Arts Students
externalcommunications@thecbas.ca

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Event Details:

Thursday March 21st
Doors open at 6pm for cocktails and hor d’oeuvres
Show starts at 7pm

Horowitz Theater
Students’ Union Building
University of Alberta
8900 – 114 Street NW
Edmonton, AB
T6G 2J7

Tickets
$11.25 for students ~ $21.25 for non-students (plus applicable service charges)
ticketfly.com (Search for “smARTs”)

Please RSVP by March 18th: externalcommunications@thecbas.ca