Ask on Astronomer event recording available!

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We had such a great time with Rachel Wang and Trish Pattison from the Space Centre today during our Ask an Astronomer event!

After a minor technical delay we launched straight into exploring our universe, straight from the Space Centre (notice the giant telescope behind Rachel!!) And we had so many great questions from viewers all over the province!

In case you weren’t able to attend, we’ve added a link to the recording (just scroll down to the Event Details section on our Ask an Astronomer page. We’ve also added info on stargazing apps, a DIY star finder, and how to find Comet Neowise in the sky (see it now! Next chance is in 6,800 years!)

Be sure to mark August 12th (2:30-3:00) in your calendar when Astronomer Rachel answers more questions just in time for the Perseids Meteor Shower!

Happy Summer Reading!

Virtual SRC events from Vancouver Island Regional Library

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The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) is excited to share our SRC 2020 virtual events: https://virl.bc.ca/summer-reading-club-2/.

We have authors, artists, musicians, wolves (!), an astronaut candidate AND… Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jenni Sidey-Gibbons!

All BC libraries and their patrons are welcome to join us!

This week’s bcsrc.ca updates

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Last week, we launched the activities and were excited to see kids participating online, whether it was voting in our Battle of the Books challenge, downloading activity sheets, starting their BINGO challenge, submitting questions for Ask an Astronomer (so many questions about the Black Hole!), and more.

We had about 150 entries for our weekly caption contests and we’re excited to announce our winning captions for the younger and older kids. We already have about 60 entries for this week’s contests and excited to select our finalists later this week that kids can vote on.

This week’s DIY for tweens includes a tutorial for two different jar lanterns using everyday household items (a sample can be seen below) and we’re excited to see what tweens come up with.

It’s also been so exciting to see what different libraries are up to this summer, whether it’s digital programming, take away kits, and more. Katherine Parker over at VPL shared their fantastic digital escape room using Google Forms if any library is interested in using it for their own programming. It can be found here. If your library is doing a great activity that you’d like to share and make available to other libraries, please add them to the blog!

Lastly, we’re excited to start sharing content submissions we’ve received from kids from weekly content on our Instagram page. If you’re not following us already, head over to to our page @bcsummerreadingclub to give us a follow.

Thanks again for all your amazing work this summer!

Happy reading!

Reading Record DIY

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One of this year’s SRC initiatives was to add more tween specific digital content to help boost engagement with the 9-12+ crowd. As a result, we’re launching Weekly DIYs and creative projects that tweens and their families can make at home with household items.

To kick off this new series of content, I created an inspiration page for how to decorate your Reading Records that libraries may also find helpful. With the freedom of the new reading record design, kids can now choose to use and decorate their reading record however they please. The tutorial provides tips like what types of layouts or trackers to create, recycling old stationery and magazines, more.

You can find the Reading Record DIY over here, but here are some photos to get an idea of what to find:

Be sure to look out for other Weekly DIYs at the start of each week.

Fabulous Promotional Videos from BC Libraries!

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So much fun to see the promotional videos some of you have made! We are collecting them here in one place for everyone to enjoy:

FVRL: https://www.facebook.com/ReadLearnPlay/videos/630665680872983/

GVPL: https://youtu.be/Mxuvp1efbPw.

NVDPL: A joint video with Honourary Librarians from District and City of North Vancouver and a NVDPL-specific video

ORL: https://youtu.be/IcExkgSLSoI (from ORL: We made it in Canva and happy to share the original if other systems want to edit for their own purposes.)

Surrey: https://youtu.be/8qOcls3PXEY

VPL: https://youtu.be/_0363crFETI

WVML: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=fE0J_JTrJhE&feature=emb_logo

If you have a video to share, please send an email to bcsrc@bclibrary.ca and we’ll add it to the list!!

Medal brainstorming

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At my library, we are wondering how we will be handing out medals at the end of the summer. I would love to brainstorm solutions with folks at other systems. Some of the options I have been considering are:

1) curbside pick-up – very difficult to keep on top of since there is such high demand already, so I am hesitant to complicate it further by having people call to arrange pick-up for their medals.

2) hoping the library will be open by then – we will still likely not want to draw a crowd (we get high volumes of kids on the first day of handing out medals).

3) coordinating with the schools – families would have to call us to tell us their child’s name, school, and teacher’s name/division so we could sort them and send them. Won’t work for some kids, may result in miscommunication and lost medals, and some families may opt out of returning to the classrooms. Could also clog up our phone lines for the first few days.

Even if one of these were a workable option, there seems to be very little opportunity for children’s librarians to celebrate the achievement of the kids! What have the rest of you been dreaming up for medal pick-up?

Where to find….

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Here is your handy 2020 BC SRC reference page:


Online registration & reading tracker	bcsrc.ca
Overview of online registration	Staff Orientation Video
Parent/Caregiver FAQ	Online Registration & FAQ
Preschooler Registration	Type “other” into the school field Select “other” in the grade field. (The program is funded for 5-14; we have included “other” to capture anyone on either side of that range.)
SRC T-shirts	Adult and Ladies T-shirts We have a (very!) limited quantity of available for purchase, in case you missed out. Please contact bcsrc@bclibrary.ca with the sizes and quantities you are looking for.
Survey	2020 Survey and Evaluation
Technical Issues	Online Registration & FAQ page (scroll to bottom of page)
Weekly Videos	See Resources: Video Files (Includes video files for your website, etc.

Online SRC Registration Open!

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Hi Everyone — We are delighted to welcome you to the new 2020 BC SRC Online website: bcsrc.ca and we gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Education for making this possible!

As of Monday, June 15th, children and their families can register online for the 2020 BC SRC, track their summer reading, and unlock digital badges for every 7 days of reading! And, starting June 29th, BC kids will have access to weekly activities, quizzes, contents and fun!

We have recorded a staff orientation to the full site, including the registration app here: https://youtu.be/dlmYne-6zyQ In the video description you’ll be able to see the time stamps for various sections, in case there are specific topics you wish to review.

The BC SRC could not have completed this project in such a short period of time were it not for the outstanding work and generous efforts of the following people:

Michal Utko and the development team
Stephanie Hong (Tween Coordinator, BC SRC)
SRC Co-Chairs, Alicia Dobs (NWPL) and Laura Zaytsloff (Castlegar)
BC Libraries Cooperative (Scott Leslie, Jonathan Schwartz, Kevin Wooley)
Neil Firkins (staff site and more!)
Jon Whipple and Will Hopkins (Mission Control site)

Be sure to visit the BC SRC staff blog (https://kidssrc.libraries.coop/) throughout the summer and subscribe to the YAACS list for regular SRC updates.

We are so excited to see the launch of BC SRC Online and thank you all for your emails of support and encouragement. We look forward to continuing to expand our program, and to incorporate more and more ways for communities to access BC SRC.

Happy Summer Reading!

BC SRC 2020 Survey and Evaluation of Outcomes

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Here is a link to this year’s BC SRC Survey and Evaluation of Outcomes. Given the impact of Covid-19, this year’s survey results will not be representative of usual SRC activity and this will be taken into account.

You may wish to download this (optional) SRC In-Person Reg Spreadsheet for use in tracking your in-person/curbside registration. This is for tracking purposes only. Please use the link to complete the actual survey.

Once we have received your completed survey, we (BCSRC) will tally the combined total of your library’s Online Registration plus the In-Person total you submit in this survey and count that as your Total Registration.

As always, our goal is to maintain the intrinsic value of the BC SRC while improving our ability to measure outcomes and provide our funders with accountability. To that end, it is essential that each library SYSTEM (NOT BRANCH LIBRARIES OR INDIVIDUALs) complete the survey. By all means consult your staff but report once only please!

Our future funding is dependent on us providing this information on our grant applications. Please spend some time reviewing the questions beforehand so that you and your staff will be comfortable answering them. Attached is a PDF-version of this year’s survey for information purposes only. Please use the link to complete the actual survey.

Please note, the survey deadline is September 25th, 2020. We need all surveys in by that date in order to report back to our funders in time for next year’s application.

Thank you for your efforts — this information will help us to guide the evolution of the BC SRC and ensure its relevancy. If you have any questions, please email bcsrc@bclibrary.ca

BC SRC T-shirts and tattoos starting to ship!

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Just a quick note to let you know that if you ordered any 2020 BC SRC t-shirts and/or tattoos, they are starting to ship this week! 🙂

Online registration & reading tracker

Overview of online registration

Parent/Caregiver FAQ

Preschooler Registration

SRC T-shirts

Survey

Technical Issues

Weekly Videos