Unique services being promoted to teachers on Canadian public library websites

I took a more in depth look at various Canadian public library websites to explore some of the more unique services being promoted to teachers:

The Burnaby Public Library (BPL) has a great link to a website with recommendations for Teacher-Librarian Booktalks. The annotated list includes “new and noteworthy titles” that were presented by BPL children's librarians at the area school district teacher-librarian meeting in 2007. A user can easily browse for relevant age categories by selecting Picture Books, Story Books, Juvenile Fiction, Teen, or Non-Fiction. Check it out at: http://www.bpl.bc.ca/gab/childlitteachlib2007.htm

Thunder Bay Public Library has partnered with Thunder Bay Transit to provide students and teachers free travel for class trips to visit the library. (I imagine that this would make it much easier to plan a field trip if the teacher does not have to worry about all the students showing up with round-trip bus fare. It would also allow students from schools in lower income communities to make the trip without financial strain.) http://www.tbpl.ca/internal.asp?id=87&cid=217

The Greater Victoria Public Library have a Awards Round-Up link on their Parents and Teachers page where they bring attention to newly awarded books for children and young adults. Check it out at: http://www.gvpl.ca/kids_and_teens/parents_and_teachers/

The Surrey Public Library links to the Library and Archives Canada Learning Centre. (An excellent online resource for teachers. I will dive into it further in another entry, but if you’re too curious to wait, check it out for yourself!) http://www.collectionscanada.ca/6/32/index-e.html

The Halifax Public Library has an excellent Kids Resource Lists! page that is a quick resource, is broken down by grade level, and is printer friendly, which teachers could use to find suggestions for good books for primary school students. The resource list links to the books in the catalogue, which allows the teacher to save another step by not having to search for the book in the catalogue. http://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/kids/kids_res_lists.html

The Vancouver Public Library has a Special Resources page available from their Links For Librarians And Teachers page that links to sites and PDF files that I did not find on any other site. Check it out at: http://www.vpl.ca/branches/LibrarySquare/chi/librarianlinks.html#libspecial It includes unique resources such as the Bannings and Burings in History page from the Canadian Freedom to Read website which contains resources useful for teaching about censorship http://www.freedomtoread.ca/links_and_resources/bannings_and_burnings.asp

The Saskatoon Public Library has some of the more unique library programs I came across. Designed with specific primary grade levels in mind, there are Teacher-Directed Research sessions where the teacher supervises their students in a particular subject area, and unique theme story times, such as It was a Dark and Stormy Night and The Gift of Giving. http://www.saskatoonlibrary.ca/children/kidsteacher.html

I found a lot of great services on these Canadian public library websites. There were many great tips for what can be offered to teachers. Next, I think I’ll browse for sites I would definitely add as links on a public library website if I were creating a page for teachers.