BC Arts News » BC libraries

Victoria: Culture Days take centre stage

Sheryl McGraw — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:44:52 +0000

The Greater Victoria Public Library is accepting applications for musical performers of any age or style to compete for an opportunity to perform during a month-long celebration in September.

The GVPL Central branch courtyard will be alive with music every Saturday afternoon in September during Culture Days, a nationwide celebration of the arts.

For more information, please go online to www.culturedays.ca

Vernon: Library plans proceed with contract awarded

Sheryl McGraw — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:36:14 +0000

The task of building Vernon’s new library has been given to a company familiar with constructing new facilities in the city.

Burnaby-based TASK Construction Management has been awarded a contract up to $11 million to build the new library at 2808-30th Avenue. They will also act as the project and construction management team.

TASK built the $9.4 million Vernon Performing Arts Centre and the $15 million Wesbild Centre, both on time and under budget according to a company spokesman.

Rossland reads opens up

Sheryl McGraw — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:36:31 +0000

As the summer finally hits the Alpine City a few page-savvy readers are gearing up for another chapter of Rossland Reads, encouraging the young and old to pick some fiction books and dive right in.

Rossland Reads started to promote the local library and the joy of reading Canadian fiction.

Four distinguished local panelists have chosen four titles for this year and will be debating and defending their book of choice and its merits at fun weekly debate events in October.

“We want to engage communities and show a little bit more of the arts and culture in our area. Everyone knows the area is famous for their love of sports but this is a way for book lovers to come together and share some of their stories,” said Carey Rudisill, Rossland Reads 2010 moderator.

Vancouver: A library for the future: Bing Thom’s design for Central City site ‘raises the bar’

Sheryl McGraw — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:24:07 +0000

Surrey’s new City Centre Library will be an extension of the home, its architect said Thursday.

“It’s a community room. It just happens to store books,” Bing Thom told The Province.

Vancouver architect Thom was scheduled to talk about the library Thursday night at an event at the Simon Fraser University Surrey campus.

The 77,000-square-foot building — which is under construction and scheduled to be finished in spring 2011 — takes inspiration from “hugely successful” Central City, which Thom’s firm designed almost 10 years ago to meld an existing shopping mall with office space and a university campus.

The library features big windows, grand staircases, plenty of room to move around and a centre atrium that cuts through all four floors. Thom said it has been described as looking like a cruise ship or a carved First Nations box.

“[The design] evolves out of the natural need of the site and the function that comes with the library,” Thom said. “The building is designed to be very flexible.”

B.C. libraries venture into online reading

Sheryl McGraw — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:49:53 +0000

British Columbia public and school libraries are making books available online for the coming year in an experiment that will test the consumer taste for online reading.

All the books involved are works of non-fiction from British Columbia publishers who are participating in a collaboration with the libraries.

The project went online Wednesday with 12 libraries participating, including the Nanaimo School District, Vancouver and Richmond Public Libraries, and three universities.

City Centre library: A new chapter for Whalley

Sheryl McGraw — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:38:00 +0000

Imagine a library.

Now dismiss that thought and any traditional design concepts that could limit the potential options for a learning facility.

It’s that blank slate being worked on by Surrey library staff and award-winning architect Bing Thom as they plan construction of a $30-million library in North Surrey.

If successful, the facility is hoped to have its own gravitational pull, acting as a central hub of gathering, learning and book-borrowing for decades to come.

In time, it’s envisioned it would be positioned near city hall and a performing arts centre.

Geof Glass: Art and culture create the spaces we live in

Sheryl McGraw — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:56:00 +0000

The B.C. government is cutting funding for libraries and the arts. Libraries suffered a 22 percent cut, while community arts, culture, and sports groups are facing cuts of close to 90 percent over the next couple of years. For the government, this is not a lot of money. For the groups and communities it affects, it is devastating. Meanwhile, in the face of intense controversy, the federal government is preparing new copyright legislation. It claims that this is economically necessary—and that it will be good for artists.

So long to the paper chase as library buys new e-books

Sheryl McGraw — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Musty no longer: The Vancouver Public Library is preening to attract a new kid of customer with the introduction of 1,000 e-books to its collection, the library’s largest purchase of electronic books ever.

The collection, available on the VPL website beginning April 1, spans genres including health, fine arts, business and literature. The titles will be available to download 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can be translated into eight different languages with the click of a button, according to project organizers. And the best of all: files can’t be returned, so there are no late fees.