It’s that time of year again where we celebrate the amazing work that public libraries do to connect their communities to BC Summer Reading Club. Every summer, libraries across the province create meaningful programs and engagement with children and their families through BC SRC. We don’t often get the opportunity to hear the anecdotal ways that your libraries impact your communities, whether your library is based in an urban centre or a rural remote town. And this is where the BC SRC Community Story Award comes in! This is an opportunity for you and your libraries to share the wonderful ways that the Summer Reading Club impacts your communities. Maybe your library put together a great program that instilled the spirit of the <em>All Together Now</em> theme or your staff went above and beyond to serve your community. We want to celebrate the different ways that you all came together this summer!

Here are some ideas to get you started, but by all means feel free just to tell us your story:

  • Describe a time when events at an SRC program left you feeling proud of yourself and your work.
  • While chatting about his/her summer reading, have you ever met a child so in love with books, you were reminded of why you do this work? Tell us about that.
  • Were you impressed with the way a parent or caregiver helped a child choose a book?
  • Describe what you noticed and how it made you feel.
  • When you tell your friends and family about your work and the SRC, what story do you tell?
  • Has a parent or caregiver ever told you how participating in SRC has changed the way their child feels about books and reading? Describe what they said and how that made you feel?

Nominations can be submitted via email to bcsrc [at] bcla.bc.ca and for more information about the award and previous winners, please visit the BC SRC Community Story Award webpage. The winner will receive complimentary registration to this year’s BC Library Conference, happening from April 12-14 at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond, BC. Nominations are due by March 1, 2023.

For the first 5 entries, we have BC SRC 2022 t-shirts and hats to give away (limited to available sizes). If it’s a year old, it makes them kind of retro, perfect for this year’s Time Travel theme ;)! If you have any questions, please reply to this thread or email Stephanie Usher at bcsrc [at] bcla.bc.ca.