Musings from the Pacific coast about books, history, education, and libraries
Throughout March and April in Victoria, the streets and parks are filled with beautiful Japanese Sakura [cherry blossom] trees. When I grew up in Vancouver, there was an annual Sakura festival which is still going strong.
Here is a beautiful haiku that won the 2006 Vancouver Sakura festival poetry competition.
the long road
boughs of white blossoms
light the way
Helen Baker, North Vancouver
Pleased to write another blog post for European colleagues at the International Network for Education History Collections (INEHC). And, this time my friend and colleague, Chaa’winisaks at Royal Roads University, worked alongside me with developing this piece which is titled, “Animals, The North, and settler-colonialism in historical educational media: A comparison of Dutch and Canadian sources in the early 1900s.” Our recent post is inspired by my INEHC colleague from the Nationaal Onderwijsmuseum [National Museum of Education] in the Netherlands Jacques Dane, who wrote an excellent blog post in November 2024, titled ‘Animal love in the classroom.’ Our recent post considers conceptions of ‘The North’ through a comparison of a Dutch wall chart from 1911 and a British Columbia geography textbook used in schools between 1899 and 1910. If you are interested in blog posts about BCHT, here’s another one I wrote last fall for colleagues at University College London when I was a Liberating the Collections Fellow at the Institute of Education’s Research Institute for Collections. So many compelling similarities and differences. This one’s a long one, so get comfy!
Thank you to the lovely Sara Cassidy for inviting me to speak about Children’s Librarianship in her course WRIT 407: Writing for children and young adults. This group asked excellent questions about how to build inclusive and responsive library collections, the pathways to becoming a librarian focused on youth readers, and how to professionally navigate an era of increasingly challenged books for children. If you are interested in becoming a children’s librarian, it is a great gig. Happy to chat about pathways to the profession anytime; feel free to book an appointment with me.
Sara is a wonderful local, children’s author; one of my favourite of her recent books is Kunoichi Bunny published by Orca. WRIT 407 students are so fortunate to have Sara as their instructor. Happy writing!
Pleased to have recently reviewed Dan Marshall’s latest book with Ronsdale Press, Untold Tales of Old British Columbia. Check out the full review in the latest issue of BC Studies. A UVic Libraries, you can read his entire monograph here.
Victoria, BC, sure does love its Little Free Libraries. Within a 20-minute walk, I came across these three beautiful examples.
According to Little Free Libraries worldwide, there are over 200,000 globally. Victoria Place Making has a great blog post about the city of Victoria’s particular love for them; check out their local map. One of my favourite local publications, Capital Daily, states that Victoria has the highest density of little libraries in Canada. A city of avid readers. Well done, Victoria!
Next time you are in McPherson Library/Mearns Centre for Learning, be sure to check out the newly installed wall map of treaty relations in the Salish Sea. Developed by the library’s Decolonizing Working Group including Ry Moran, Associate University Librarian for Reconciliation. This map is also informed, by excellent sources such as the ‘History & Territory‘ pages of the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council’s website, as well as Professor Brian Thom’s extensive Coast Salish bibliography. If you are looking for a highlight from this bibliography, Duff’s BC Studies piece endures.
Duff, Wilson. “The Fort Victoria Treaties.” BC Studies 3 (1969): 3-58.
https://bcstudies.com/issue-single/bc-studies-no-3-autumn-1969/
Interested in learning more about the BCHT collection and project? This four-minute video intro will be a helpful starting place.
Designing a syllabus for a new course, or course that is new to you, is a lot of responsibility but also exhilarating! Developing outcomes, lectures, and assignments is a remarkably creative exercise. Keeps my thinking fresh and flexes my scholarly muscles. Looking so forward to meeting the new students this July. Let’s get knee-depth into literature searching!
Interested in the history of the Victoria Historical Society (VHS)? Look no further than the most recent issue of the VHS Newsletter where Professor John Lutz and I continue a writing theme started by Jack Bryden’s article published in the fall of 2024. John Lutz and I consulted with numerous previous board members and wrote up an overview of the last three decades of activities by the VHS, “Driven by People with a Passion: VHS Moves into the Twenty-first Century.”
When researched and written well, corporate histories can be fascinating. I acquired a small taste for the genre during the 2022 STO:LO Ethnohistory Field School when I wrote ‘Sqwélqwel: A Preliminary Corporate History of the Stó:lō Archives and Library, 1994-2022.’ Still lots to learn, but when I am done my dissertation, I imagine a handful of worthy corporate history writing projects such as a revised inclusive and exhaustive history of the HBC and an update to the Bannerman’s 1985 illustrated history of the BC Ferries. So little time, so much to write…
Still reflecting on the excellent Canadian Museums Association Symposium on Teaching, Learning, & Reciprocity. Thank you Tania Muir for hosting! Highlights included the keynote by Dr. Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk-Newfoundlander and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at UVic. Met so many lovely people who are fellow practitioners of public history. The evening reception at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria was also wonderful, particularly viewing a piece by the amazing Kent Monkman.
What a wonderful week with EDCI303 courses as we analysed the BC Historical Textbooks collection in the Special Collections classroom. So many excellent conversations to begin decolonizing historical curriculum and reflect upon the history of schooling in BC. We also found some remarkable marginalia and ephemera (including a driver’s license from 1953)!
This new, brief library guide includes a preliminary bibliography of Dr. Vine Deloria Junior’s work. The late Deloria (1933-2005) was an influential professor, theologian, and theorist in Indigenous studies. His works like God is Red and Red Earth, White Lies endure as impactful scholarship. Many UVic students studying Indigenous education find his work deeply meaningful to their own scholarship. This guide provides of listing of Vine’s work cross-referenced with UVic Libraries’ holdings. If you are looking for other topics, at UVic we have over 30 library guides specific to education! Thank you to Chaa’winisaks and her IEd students for suggesting this bibliography!
So excited to buy several copies of this new Orca title for UVic’s Curriculum Collection when it will be released in May 2025! ‘Two Tricksters Find Friendship’ was written by my dear friend, Jess Willows, and her friend Johnny Aitken. Beautifully illustrated by Alyssa Koski, this 96-page children’s book is part of Orca’s Echo Series. Aimed at Fountas & Pinnell level R, this wonderful book covers important topics such as reconciliation, friendship, and family. Well done Jess, Johnny, and Alyssa–looking forward to book two!
Working on a literature review? Need good quality teaching resources for your practicum? Looking for more info on research methods or methodology? Book a 30- or 60-minute research consultation with me during my office hours. Each academic year I meet with hundreds of students and it is my favourite part of being a librarian; I learn so much from you! We can meet remotely over Zoom or MS Teams or in person at the ‘Ask Us’ desk near the main foyer of McPherson Library. If we are meeting in person, wait for me here:
Have an upcoming appointment during Pia’s office hours? Meet Pia Russell at the ‘Ask Us’ desk on the main floor of McPherson Library, just inside the foyer.
This blog shares my professional musings on topics related to books, history, education, and libraries. You will find regular postings of curated book lists, library updates related to education, and progress on the BC Historical Textbooks (BCHT) project.
“Map of the World on Mercator’s projection showing the British Empire (British Possessions).” (1899). New Canadian geography: specially adapted for use in public and high schools. Page 200. https://archive.org/details/newcanadiangeogr0000onta/page/n199/mode/2up