Summer Reading Club registration now open

Get ready for mystery and fun during this year's Crack the Case! Summer Reading Club. 

Summer Reading Club is all about engaging kids with fun activities and inspiring them to read all summer long to help maintain and improve literacy skills. This summer, we need the help of young sleuths to help solve a mystery. Kids will be able to fill out a reading record to find clues and earn the chance for weekly prizes. 

Registration opened June 14 and Summer Reading Club starts June 29. 

Register today

VIRL wins award for digital care package program 

Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) has won an award from the American Library Association for a new program helping to combat social isolation. 

Since 2020, VIRL Connects has provided digital care packages, like laptops and TVs, to people in care homes and other facilities to address social isolation and foster increased digital literacy.

Close to 2,000 vulnerable residents have been helped through 27 community organizations.

VIRL will receive the Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects in the coming weeks.

More info here

Indigenous People’s History Month Challenge

Further your knowledge of Indigenous history and culture with our Indigenous People's History Month Challenge.

Each June, Canadians celebrate National Indigenous History Month to honour the history, heritage and diversity of Indigenous peoples in Canada. It is also an opportunity to recognize the strength of present-day Indigenous communities.

This month, leading up to National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21, we challenged library fans to take one action each day to further their understanding of local Indigenous communities and the ongoing affects of colonization.

Challenge records can be submitted by the end of June for the chance to win the grand prize of a $100 Gift Card to U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay.

For those who haven't participated in the challenge, we welcome you to browse the curated resource list to learn more about the history and culture of Indigenous peoples in Canada.  

More info here...

Storytime added to virtual programs portal

Families can now watch songs and stories on Vancouver Island Regional Library's new virtual programs portal. 

The new Niche Academy portal, available through our website, is in addition to the Facebook Storytime Facebook group. 

Check it out and take note of our new schedule: 

Mondays - A new on-demand storytime video will be available

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays- A new babytime song, rhyme, felt or fingerplay video will be available.

Fridays - Join us for a LIVE Zoom storytime at 10:30am! To register, email storytime@virl.bc.ca.

View the portal here...

Celebrate diversity with Kanopy

Love films and TV titles? Check out Kanopy. It's a video streaming platform for libraries with one of the largest and most unique collections in the world. It features 30,000 movie and TV titles in all genres and focuses on critically-acclaimed, foreign, educational and documentary films.

VIRL cardholders have access to 10 views per month, plus unlimited Great Courses and Kanopy Kids content.

This June, in celebration of diversity, we've put together our recommended picks. 

Start browsing

Hey Book Lover, What's Your Sign?

Every month we share book picks based on your horoscope! This June, it's all about personal growth and connecting with those you care about! Here are a few perfect picks for you Gemini!

Biblioscope

Indigenous Collection

Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL's First Treaty Indigenous Player, by Fred Sasakamoose, May 2021

Fred Sasakamoose, torn from his home at the age of seven, endured the horrors of residential school for a decade before becoming one of 120 players in the most elite hockey league in the world. He has been heralded as the first Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL, making his official debut as a 1954 Chicago Black Hawks player on Hockey Night in Canada and teaching Foster Hewitt how to pronounce his name. Sasakamoose played against such legends as Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau and Maurice Richard. After 12 games, he returned home.

When people tell Sasakamoose’s story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. That returning to his family and home was more important to him than an NHL career. But there was much more to his decision than that.

This isn’t just a hockey story; Sasakamoose’s groundbreaking memoir sheds piercing light on Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows this extraordinary man’s journey to reclaim pride in an identity and a heritage that had previously been used against him.

Start browsing