The BC Summer Reading Club is a free literacy program designed to engage school-aged children, ages 5-14, with libraries and reading, throughout the summer. We strive to do so in a way that is fun, educational, inclusive and community-oriented.
Each year, the BC SRC commissions a BC artist to realize our annual theme. Most recently, we’ve had the privilege of working with artists Zoe Si, Bambi Edlund, Jami Gigot, Jeff Solway, Darlene Gait, Lee Edward Födi, Shayne Letain, and Jeremy Tankard. We work with a graphic designer and web designer to ensure high-quality, visually-appealing print materials and an interactive website (www.bcsrc.ca).
The program is designed to allow libraries from every part of the Province to plan and deliver the program in the way that best meets the distinctive needs of their communities. All children are invited to join the BC SRC by visiting their local library.
The BC SRC welcomes the participation of all children and their families, and seeks to provide an accessible and fully inclusive program.
The BC SRC is sponsored by the British Columbia Library Association and your local public library with the generous assistance of Public Libraries Branch, Ministry of Municipal Affairs, and CUPE BC.
Goals, Outcomes and Objectives of the BC Summer Reading Club
- engage children in fun, free summer programming that supports literacy and literate citizenship
- connect children with a range of reading materials best suited to their needs and interests, ultimately increasing their enthusiasm for and confidence in reading
- provide appealing and high-quality program materials for children to track their voluntary reading (reading records, bookmarks, posters, stickers)
- provide sufficient quantities of the above materials to all BC libraries at no cost, so that any child who wishes to participate may do so
- build a sense of the BC Summer Reading Club as “place” throughout the province
- increase the qualitative value of feedback through the BC SRC Community Story Award
- increase the quantitative value of feedback through the annual survey
- continue to streamline processes in order to best manage resources
- to increase support and communication for libraries through interactive website
- support and promote BC children’s literature by featuring BC illustrators as SRC Artists
History of the BC SRC
Long before it was the BC Summer Reading Club, summer reading programs of one sort or another had sprang up around the province. While these programs varied in all kinds of ways, they shared one clear vision — to engage school-age children with libraries and reading, throughout the summer.
Resources were incredibly limited and the success of these programs was evidence of not only the tremendous need, but also the incredible creativity, commitment, and resourcefulness of library staff.
In 1989 the Children’s Services Advisory Committee of the Greater Vancouver Library Federation (predecessor to Public Library InterLINK) recognized the potential in pooling resources. They made a presentation to the then Public Library Services Branch: was there a way to run a summer reading program province-wide? The answer was ‘yes’ and the following year (International Literacy Year!), the Biggest, Greatest, Most Amazing Reading Club was launched throughout BC. Over the past 30 years, the BC SRC has evolved into a program that reaches more than 173,000 children and their families, throughout the province.
Each year, a BC artist is asked to realize the annual theme and, in so doing, inspire and invite children to visit their local library and participate in the BC SRC. We now have an entire generation of children who have grown up in the BC Summer Reading Club!
To view images of past Summer Readings Clubs, please see our Archive. You may also wish to purchase one of our beautiful Notebooks, featuring a selection of BC SRC artwork. Proceeds go to support the BC Library Association.
BC SRC Social Media Policy
Twitter & Instagram
Follow the BC Summer Reading Club on Twitter @BC_SRC and on Instagram @bcsummerreadingclub, #BCSRC.
It is the policy of the BC Summer Reading Club (@BC_SRC and @bcsummerreadingclub) to ”follow” libraries, library workers, and authors/illustrators/publishers as deemed appropriate by the BC SRC.
Anyone interested in the activities of the BC SRC is welcome to “follow” us on Twitter. If, however, you do not fall into one of the above categories, there is a good chance we will not follow you back. No unfriendliness or Twitter-etiquette breach is intended. Rather, we are careful not to appear to endorse performers/entertainers who might wish to market their productions to libraries. This allows each library community the opportunity to decide for themselves exactly how they will implement the BC SRC program.
At this time, the BC SRC is not on Facebook. Should you have any questions about this policy, please contact: Executive Director, BCLA, Rina Hadziev ([email protected]).
Guiding Principles for approving submissions to bcsrc.ca
As part of its goals and objectives (see above), the BC SRC provides an interactive literacy-based children’s website during the summer. Children may be invited to submit original stories, descriptions, book reviews and/or drawings. Once approved, children may see their work published on the website.
In so doing, we support the creative efforts and literacy development of children. In addition, we are acknowledge our obligation to protect:
- the children who submit their stories, etc
- the Association (BCLA)
- our funders (Ministry of Education, BC libraries, CUPE BC)
To that end, we reserve the right to publish or not, edit or not. In addition, we will:
- never publish a child’s last name (even when included with submission)
- not include any obvious identifiers (names of siblings, school, etc.)
Should any submission include any reference to the child being abused, the submission will immediately be reported to the BCLA Executive Director.
