Each year, on Jan. 27, Family Literacy Day is celebrated across Canada. Family Literacy Day highlights the learning that takes place between children and adults in daily life, every day.
In 2016, we will celebrate Family Literacy Day on the Sunshine Coast by highlighting the role libraries play in supporting literacy and families. Today’s libraries offer much more than traditional reading material. Libraries connect us to the digital age and offer access to a host of electronic resources including the Internet, databases, e-books, distance education, and more.
Libraries are also community spaces that bring people together to learn, to connect, and to participate. People of all ages take part in story times, summer reading programs, book clubs, language classes, computer tutoring, and more. The range of programs offered by libraries builds literacy and community engagement.
Did you know you can take six-week online courses on a huge variety of topics through the library? These interactive, instructor-led courses are offered in accounting and finance, college readiness, computer applications, healthcare and medical, language and arts, writing and publishing, and many more topics.
You can study how to speak up to 71 languages using a software program at the library called Mango Languages. You can read more than 4,000 current newspaper and magazine titles from more than 100 countries in 60 languages at the library. You can watch award-winning shorts, features, and documentaries from more than 50 countries through Indieflix on the library website.
All of these services are free.
Join us at the Sunnycrest and Trail Bay Centre malls on Saturday, Jan. 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to learn more about these and other services offered by the library and take part in some fun family activities.
For more information, see www.sunshinecoastliteracy.org
– Submitted by Sandy Middleton, literacy outreach coordinator, Sunshine Coast Literacy Coalition
