test blog #10

Wishing you all a happy, healthy 2021. Peace, love, and vaccinations! Click here to open the card . PS: This is my new favourite e-card site. I will post about them soon.

I recently completed three booklists for library customers, part of a system-wide readers' advisory project. The lists use good gender balance, and a strong representation of people of colour and LGBT themes. I did classics , award-winning nonfiction , and essay collections . I love readers' advisory, and I really enjoyed the challenge of writing about each title in about 45 words. In the list of essay collections, I included Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me . Then I decided it was time to read it! She's a brilliant essayist, one of the best I've ever read, and an important feminist voice. This slim collection packs an enormous punch. Reading Solnit's  now-famous piece about mansplaining made me think of another, related phenomenon. Both my partner and I have noticed this in discussions online, in a context where the commenters are mostly male. Here's how it goes. A man comments.  Many people disagree with him, including me. The man attacks me. Onl...

Like many writers, especially those of us who grew up before the digital age, I keep a notebook. I use it to capture ideas, capture thoughts about I'm reading, take notes on experiences, and take notes on various activist or community meetings I attend.  I've learned that I have to make notes while I'm thinking of something, because I am unlikely to remember the thought at another time, out of context. Before the digital age, I carried a small spiral memo pad with me almost all the time.  These days, however, I don't always have a notebook with me, so I do whatever is quickest -- type a note on my phone, scribble it on a scrap of paper, save an email in drafts, or email myself from one address to another. Later on, when I'm blogging, I check my notebook to see my notes. But I don't look at the notes on my phone or the scraps of paper sitting in a neat pile on my desk or any other form of notetaking. My note-capturing process has changed, but my writing process ...

Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and I feel (to paraphrase my favourite baseball player ) like the luckiest person on the face of the earth.* I'm healthy, my partner is healthy, and no one in our extended families has gotten covid. Thanks to my union, and to my partner's very decent employer, we have a comfortable income, and we didn't lose any income during the pandemic. I have a safe, comfortable, spacious place to ride out the lockdown and the pandemic in general, with plenty of indoor interests to keep me busy.  I live in an area with very low covid incidence, where it's easy to enjoy the outdoors while maintaining social distancing. And that's just my covid-related good fortune. In general my privilege is vast. My young life had many challenges, and perhaps my future holds more (who knows), but in the present I am incredibly fortunate.  I hope many of you reading this also enjoy lives of privilege, and that you have strong support for the areas o...

An Antidote to COVID Boredom: Virtual Book Clubs As winter settles in on the North Island, and we continue social distancing to lessen the risks of contracting COVID-19, life can sometimes get a little monotonous. Boredom is bad for our mental health. Plus, it's boring! If reading is one of your pleasures, perhaps now is the time to try reading with a group – a book club. The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) is offering three virtual (online) book clubs with three different themes. Like all library programs, you can join in for free. All you need is a device and an internet connection. All the selections for these virtual book club titles will be available as eBooks and eAudiobooks with no waiting. " Our Shared Shelf " Book Club is focused on children's chapter books that the whole family can enjoy. November's title was Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, an adventure story about a brave 11-year-old girl on a supernatural mission to save her best friend Jack from m...

Homeschooling? Your Library Can Help One of the many ways COVID has changed our lives is an increased interest in homeschooling. Of course no parents want their children to be exposed to the virus. But many families face health challenges that make the possibility of exposure much more dangerous. Parents may have many reasons for preferring homeschooling, and the pandemic has brought them front of mind. If you're a homeschool family, you already know that the public library is an invaluable resource. But the Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) can support your efforts in many ways that you might not be aware of. One of VIRL's most popular resources for homeschool families are our Tinker Totes . Tinker Totes help you bring STEAM learning to life in your own home. STEAM – which stands for Science Technology Engineering Arts Math – activities encourage creative thinking and build problem-solving skills. With STEAM learning, children learn through hands-on experience, rather t...

New E-Resources – and New Hours at the Port Hardy Library The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) has added some terrific new e-resources to our catalogue. If you read this column, you've read a lot about e-resources. VIRL gives you access to digital tools that focus and it's all free. All you need is a library card. Our newest e-resource is Clicklaw . Clicklaw provides legal information and education, specifically for people in BC. The law affects our lives in countless ways, and Clicklaw can help you understand your rights and your options. It's kept updated with the most current laws, and can connect you to expert knowledge and advice. Some of the categories of information in Clicklaw are money (debt, pensions, benefits), families (divorce, abuse, wills), housing (landlords, tenants, neighbours), consumer (contractors, warranties, lending, credit), and employment (hiring and firing, harassment, benefits). These are just a few examples. Clicklaw is also a great resou...