Establishing a Book Club with a Legislative Officer
Dec 30, 2015
Establishing a Book Club with a Legislative Officer
Initial ContactO Received a call from the Child and
Youth Advocate (CYA) in September of 2012
O Interested in starting a children’s rights book club
MeetingO The vision O What role the library would playO What role the legislative officer and
his office would playO Dates / FrequencyO Titles of booksO Language - Bilingual requirements
CYA’s VisionO Create a book club for members of
the civil service interested in children’s rights and well-being
O Open to all civil servants
Role of the LibraryO Partner
O Help with the book selection
O Venue
O Help with the invitation
Role of the Legislative Officer
O Moderator of the Book Club
O Logistics – mail out, registrations, correspondence with club members
Dates / FrequencyO The book club would be launched on
November 18th, 2012 to celebrate National Children’s Rights Awareness Week November 18-25th .
O It was decided that the group would meet 5 times a year.
O They would meet at lunch time since the Legislative Library is within walking distance of most government offices.
BooksO The Officer had a list of books in mind but
asked for other suggestions. O Wanted books in both English and French. If
a translation was available they could read the same book, if not a different French book would be chosen.
O Since several copies of one title were already available it was decided that it would be the first book, after that they would decide as a group which books to read.
O Discussed where to get the books.
Language O It was decided that two book clubs
would be created, one in English and one in French
O They would meet the same week but different days
How to Get the Word Out
O It was decided that a mass e-mail would be sent to all civil servants inviting them to join the book club
O Create an electronic invitation
O They would use the library‘s mass e-mailing list
Benefits to the LibraryO Raised visibility by being partnered
with a Legislative Officer.
O A copy of each of the titles read was donated to the library to be added to the collection.
O Recruited new library users from club
members.
Things I Learned
O Librarian skills are appreciated.
O It is great to have someone on staff that understands technology and who is creative.
The Future of the Book Club
O In June 2013 a new Child and Youth Advocate was appointed.
O In February 2014 the new Advocate hosted his first book club. Since then there has been no mention of it continuing.