Archive for January, 2009

Last week’s launch for Susan Schellenberg’s and Rosemary Barnes’s Committed to the Sane Asylum was a huge success. The event took place in a wonderful space, the Edward Day Gallery on Queen St. W in Toronto, and was attended by well over a hundred people.

The picture on the left shows Susan (left) and Rosemary at the signing table. They were so busy that we had to interrupt their signing so they could welcome everyone and do a brief reading. The fabulous piece of art behind them is by Andrew Morrow, who is currently featured at the gallery. You can view more pictures of the event on our Flickr site and read about the journey of writing the book here.
The room was full of friends, supporters, and those interested in hearing the story of these two remarkable women and their journey through the mental health system. The  book does a wonderful job of interweaving the authors’ stories and relates their collaborative attempts to find alternatives to conventional mental health care. Former patient and psychologist respectively, their perspectives each enrich the other.

Committed to the Sane Asylum also features reproductions of Susan Schellenberg’s mental health records and dream paintings.

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Tuesday, January 27th is Family Literacy Day, and people across the country are celebrating with a wide variety of events. One of the largest is an attempt to break a Guinness World Record of the most people reading together. As of this writing, over 190,000 people had signed up to be part of that campaign, with Oxford Learning Centres across the country participating en masse.

ABC Canada Literacy Foundation has identified a need for further literacy in a subgroup of adults, approximately 25.6% of the population, who read at grade 7-11 levels. These people are usually employed, can read newspapers, and could read to their kids, but they are ill prepared for the new economy, which requires a higher level of literacy. They often don’t self identify, so it is difficult for them to receive help. In these cases ABC is focusing on the workplace as the site of education.

A further 16.6% of the population has even fewer literacy skills. These people usually did not grow up in a print culture and are less likely to be employed than those in the first group. They usually do self identify and are more likely to seek help through community organizations.

ABC Canada Literacy Foundation has a plan to increase private sector involvement in improving literacy. Their goals include:

• Developing a core group of business and labour leaders
• Becoming the “go to” organization for governments
• Increasing understanding of workplace literacy
• Positioning the literacy cause
• Creating a sense of urgency
• Establishing ABC CANADA as a model NFP,and laying a foundation for future success

If you marked Family Literacy Day in some way, please write and tell us how.

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An interesting article in Library Journal’s Academic Newswire links dollars spent on library acquisitions to dollars earned in grants:

While return on investment (ROI) studies have become common in the public library arena, a pioneering ROI case study involving the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) suggests that each dollar invested in the library in 2006 returns $4.38 in grant income. The study, while limited in scope and arguably in need of refinement, has spurred research at several other universities worldwide….

The model
For the university environment, the model was based on the use of citations drawn from library resources in grant proposals, the success rate for proposals, and the average grant award. A survey of UIUC faculty validated assumptions in the model, confirming the importance and frequency of citations in grant proposals, and the likelihood that the citations used in grant proposals were drawn from library resources, according to Luther’s paper.

Also, faculty members explained how access to electronic resources changed the way they work, allowing them to integrate digital resources into their work regardless of their location, pursue interdisciplinary research more easily, and to save time and work efficiently.

The ROI model has its limits; it  does not address the value of resources to faculty in conducting their research or teaching, nor the value to students of the library. Indeed, the paper acknowledges that it “would be useful to expand the model to include other factors in the complete system of inputs (e.g., library resources, faculty, staff, and students) and the influence of each on the system.”

So, although it is a limited study, we’re always glad to see justification for library spending, and one that uses the promise of increased funding for the university can only be a good thing.

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Please join us tonight for the launch of Committed to the Sane Asylum: Narratives on Mental Wellness and Healing by Susan Schellenberg and Rosemary Barnes.

The event takes place from 6:30–8:30 at the Edward Day Gallery, 952 Queen Street West #200 in Toronto. Books will be available for sale at the event through Caversham Booksellers.

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One of the best parts of my job is that I’ve met so many people who also love books and reading, and through the power of social media networking I’ve been able to keep in touch with them all and be part of a great community. One of my volunteer efforts is with the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival and it’s there that I first met Adrian Hoad-Reddick. I coordinate the Young Adult site on the main festival day, and Adrian organizes the student writing seminar, which will be held this year on September 21. Last year we collaborated to bring such authors as Edeet Ravel, Arthur Slade, Andrew Hood, and Jean Mills together in a day-long seminar for young writers. It was an enormous success and a fantastic opportunity for the high school students in the area.
Adrian has an exciting new venture called The School for Young Writers, offering online writing courses taught by qualified teachers and mentored by published authors. There may be subsequent opportunity to share your writing on the Poem Repair Shop on the University of Guelph Radio station, a show produced by Hoad-Reddick.

Courses offered for March 2009 are:

Writing Because You Love It! with acclaimed author Edeet Ravel
This course teaches young writers to explore and discover both their internal creative world and the world around them. How do we transform our imaginative vision into stories and novels that communicate to readers? How do we glean details from our experiences in order to come up with our own unique voice – a voice that belongs to no one else? How do we draw readers in, and interest them in what we have to say? How do we fuse creative freedom and discipline? Which comes first? These are some of the questions we will be looking at. As a teacher, I offer young writers guidance, direction, suggestions, tips, and, I hope, inspiration.

Poetry to Go with the producer of the Poem Repair Shop, Adrian Hoad-Reddick
Are you unsure what your poetic style is? Are your poems messy, not quite as sharp as you think they could be? Learn to write and edit so your message comes across effectively. Bring your poems in for a tune up, and we’ll work together to make them ready at the pick-up window, ready to go out into the world and shine. Through the process, you will learn more about the voice that is uniquely yours.

If either of these courses interest you click here for an application form.

If you’re a publisher reading this blog, please consider sponsoring the school. For more information about partnership opportunities click here.

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