Skip to content

Feel the love at the Nelson Library

“Libraries Connect” is the theme for Canadian Library Month this year.

“Libraries Connect” is the theme for Canadian Library Month this year.

“Connect” refers to the ways in which libraries connect patrons with information, and people through shared experience — think moms and dads and kids through storytimes, writers with readers, neighbours meeting neighbours, or connecting with friends and family via the Internet. Libraries connect people of all kinds with inspiration, entertainment, education, and opportunity. And “connect” also refers nicely to the digitization of our world, and how libraries are keeping up.

But to me, it’s really about relationships.

The Nelson library, situated as we are in the City of Hugs (spend five minutes outside Oso Negro on a sunny morning and you’ll see what I mean), has taken Library Month to a more personal place. Our theme is “Love Your Library.”

Now try it with me: elongate the O in Looooove. Make your tone a little sultry, with a touch of humour and lots of promise. Yes — that’s it.

We have lovingly crafted a month of great stuff for all ages — full of humour and promise — to help celebrate.

A Berry Interesting Evening, presented by naturalist Daphne Van Alstine on Tuesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m., is a family event that explores the lovely berries feeding critters this fall. Author and ice climber Margo Talbot reads on Thursday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m., and author and Cuba-phile Rosa Jordan joins us Thursday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m.. On Thursday, October 25 there’s Bookapalooza! in which readers get connected, and new relationships — ideally, book discussion groups — are formed.

There are two Wild & Wacky Wednesdays for teens this month: Games Day on October 3 at 3:30 p.m. and on October 24, HallowTeen, an opportunity to find your inner Zombie through fun with make-up and other stuff. For the younger set, things get creepy on Thursday, October 25 at 3:30 p.m. with Halloweentime for six to eight-year-olds. The Nelson library believes that zombies need love, too.

The Friends of the Library Booksale spreads booklove and librarylove around while connecting readers to bargains. This fall the book sale moves to a more spacious location: Renew Personal Training, located in the old church at Kootenay and Victoria. The sale runs 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, October 26 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Can you feel the love? There’s more. Nelson Library’s fall fundraising initiatives spread the love with a touch of humour and a great deal of promise.

The library and Nelson’s Chocofellar bring you four kinds of bars with eight different “bookspine” labels. Titles include Fall on Your Coconut, Pride and Pecans, In the Skin of a Raisin, Fifty Shades of Chocolate, and The Call of the Wild Hazelnut. There’s also Much Ado About Chocolate, Phantom of the Almond, and the haunting question: Who has Seen the Chocolate? (with apologies to W.O. Mitchell and all those other authors). Collect all eight! These will be popular stocking stuffers, with the love spreading nicely between the library and the recipients.

The library and Oso Negro have roasted up a “library blend” of coffee beans we’re calling Read All Night — Rich, page-turning adventure with mystery, romance, and a hint of swashbuckling, set in Java, Uganda, and Central America. Not only will it spread the love, it should connect a few synapses, too.

As well, we’re trotting out four lovely bookmarks featuring gorgeous paintings by Lainey Benson, Rick Foulger, Yvonne Vanens-Munro, and Keira Zaslove. And I mean lovely. Wow.

So we have art love, coffee love, chocolate love, and a lovely bunch of special events heading your way: your library, making all the right connections.