• Looking for a way to encourage reluctant readers? The non-profit Adopt an Author program helps provide teachers with curriculum for specific books, as well as direct contact with the authors using personal appearances, telephone contact, and interactive websites. Should a program like this be started in Canada?

• The international library community has started to examine the impact of the Boxing Day Tsunami on Sri Lanka. Many libraries were completely eliminated. The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) has been involved with establishing planning and resources. Just as communities here in Canada have decided to adopt or twin themselves with an overseas community, the same principle is being developed in the library community: twinning an overseas library with one that was devastated in Sri Lanka. For more information: http://www.ifla.org/V/press/tsunami04.htm

NEW ACQUISITIONS AT THE PROVINCIAL LITERACY RESOURCE

The Literacy BC resource centre catalogue is online at: http://www2.literacy.bc.ca/catalogue

Requests can be made via the catalogue, by email to library@literacy.bc.ca by telephone 1-800-663 -1293, or by interlibrary loan through your public library.

• Building adult literacy research capacity in Ontario: a university/community approach. Final report of a consultation process. Daniel Schugurensky, et al. and the Adult Literacy Working Group (OISE). 2002. Reports on the results of the consultation to investigate the research capacity building abilities by the ALWG. The consultation strived to explore potential collaborations between academics, practitioners and learners in the literacy field. Research was conducted via focus groups and workshops

• Developing successful strategies for at-risk youth: an annotated list of resources for those designing youth programs. Nunavut Literacy Council. 2004. A selective directory of programs, classroom resources, web links, and publications from across North America.

• From coast to coast: a thematic summary of Canadian adult literacy research. Pat Campbell, September 2003. The purpose of this report is to identify major themes within the Directory of Canadian Adult Literacy Research in English in an effort to determine areas of coverage and gaps in Canada’s body of research. The secondary purpose is to provide the key findings for the research conducted within each theme. (NALD).

• Hana’s suitcase: a true story. Karen Levine. An award winning biography of a Czech girl who died in the Holocaust, told in alternating chapters with an account of how the curator of a Japanese Holocaust centre learned about her life after Hana's suitcase was sent to her. Winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children and the Silver Birch Award.