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FROM LYNN O’MALLEY: I’d seen the invitation so often, I’d long ago stopped seeing it. You know the one – the “Suggest a Purchase” button on the North Van Library website.
Usually, I’m happy to have any excuse to purchase my own books, as my groaning shelves will attest. But over the past year, in an attempt to actually live within my means – now there’s a concept – I have been relying even more on our library collection. (Also, I actually had to do a modified duck-and-roll manoeuvre in bed the other night, when the three-foot stack of unread books on my nightstand came crashing down in my direction…. another sign, perhaps, that my buying abilities long ago exceeded my actual reading capacity.)
So when I saw an intriguing title reviewed in the Vancouver Sun a couple of months back, rather than reaching for my wallet I went to the library to see if I could put it on hold. And when the computer told me that particular book wasn’t in their holdings, my gaze fell upon that ever-present “Suggest a Purchase” tab.
Why not, thought I, and entered the requisite info. I didn’t think too
much more about it, until one day only a few weeks later, when I received an email saying the book was not only purchased, it was waiting for me at the hold desk. What service! Never were our municipal tax dollars better spent.
Now I was curious – how many titles does the library custom-order for people? Will they buy just ANYTHING for you? Do they put limits on the number of books each of us is able to request in a lifetime?
David Johnstone, audiovisual coordinator in the Lynn Valley Library, was kind enough to answer many of my questions. “Last year we received over 2,800 suggestions from patrons,” he told me in an email. “Of these, we purchased over 80% of the titles suggested that were actually available to order.”
Suggestions included books (for adults, children and teens, in regular and large print); dvds, music cds, and audiobooks.
In general, David said, the titles that are ordered are (1) recently published (although they do purchase classic items as well), (2) available in Canada, (3) of general interest and (4) have received positive professional reviews. Patrons can suggest purchases from home via the library website, or at any Information Desk in the branches.
“And – as you know – patrons who suggest an item that is purchased will be the first to borrow it when it arrives,” he noted.
But curling up with “my” new book wasn’t the end of the story. I wasn’t able to finish it by the end of the loan period, so I logged into the library website to renew it. Imagine my thrill when I found I couldn’t – some other North Vancouverite had placed a hold on it!
I was glad to find out I hadn’t wasted library budget dollars by asking them to buy a book that I thought might have a limited audience. Whoever my book-buddy is out there, I hope you enjoyed the read – I know I liked the first few chapters! I’ve checked it out again, and this time I’ll finish it!
Do you love your library? Then make sure you come out to the Friends of the Library Book Sale, happening on Lynn Valley Day weekend at the end of May. All details are on our Events Calendar.
Local moms help keep kids around the world safe and dry!
FROM THE EDITOR: Do you consider yourself an opinionated person? If so, this is the week for you!
I can’t remember being asked for my opinion quite so often. Between the North Van District Open Houses presenting the new Lynn Valley Town Centre proposal, to tonight’s Healthy Communities Conversation Cafe, to a Cultural Plan Open House in the Village on Thursday, there is enough proposing, pondering, possibility-seeking and planning going on to satisfy the most ardent citizen activist.
Thing is, it’s not just the typical ‘citizen activists’ who should becoming out to these events. Lynn Valley is fortunate to be home to a great corps of dedicated people who pay attention to community planning, who take the time to think about the issues, and who give their feedback and follow the process through to its conclusion.
But the decisions being made now don’t affect just them. They affect busy, double-income families and single seniors. They affect our lower-income residents and our mortgage-free homeowners. And they affect our children, most of whom will have to leave this community to search out affordable accommodation elsewhere – unless, of course, things change.
At tonight’s Conversation Cafe, hosted by Vancouver Coastal Health, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and North Van District, North Shore Health Officer Dr. Brian O’Connor told us that as far as our health is concerned, district planners are far more important than doctors.
“The decisions they make shape the context of your everyday life,” he said. “Your health doesn’t depend on the advice of your physician; it depends on where you live.”
As just one example, he pointed to study that found a typical, 35-year-old male who lives in a walkable neighbourhood weighs 10 pounds less and has better physical and mental health than his ‘twin’ who lives in a lower-density, less-walkable community.
It’s also been discovered that children who live in higher-density, mixed-income neighbourhoods score better on ‘school readiness’ assessments than children who live in uniformly wealthy neighbourhoods, as they have easy access to a wider range of community services.
Finally, seniors who are able to stay in their home community have more social connections and lower mortality rates than those who have to leave their familiar neighbourhood.
Clearly, community planning affects every age group, income level, and interest group. Unfortunately, most of us are too weighed down with the busy-ness involved in the present to pay enough attention to the future.
Which is why it’s so great the District is doing all it can to make engagement easy, interesting, and – yes – even enjoyable! Take tonight as an example. Attendees were given a lovely, heart-healthy dinner and entertained by a live jazz combo; they heard interesting presentations, had the pleasure of having their views actively solicited, and even witnessed the evening unfold visually as artist Taraneh Erfan King used her felt pens and fine doodling to bring people’s thoughts to life.
So, please accept district planners’ invitation to get involved. Help ensure that our neighbourhood can be a vibrant community that is home to people at all ages and stages of their life. Over the next 20 years, it is projected that 5,000 people may move into this community – this is not a small project!
If you can’t make an in-person event, be sure to make time to review and comment on the proposals online.
A Cultural Plan Open House is taking place in the LV Village Community Room on Thursday, May 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. Details, here. (Heads up, an arts facility for the Lynn Valley area is under discussion, so put your two cents in!) You can fill in the Arts Office online survey, here (until May 18).
For all the information about North Van District’s proposals for Lynn Valley Town Centre, see our earlier blog post. You have one more chance to see the displays this week, and that’s tomorrow (Wednesday, May 2), at Karen Magnussen Rec Centre from 1 to 8 p.m. Online options for reviewing the plans, though, are available and we’ve given you all the details.
We promise you’ll discover something interesting in your perusal of the plans. Personally, I love the proposed idea of a “Rain Street”! If we’ve got it, we might as well flaunt it!
– Peggy Trendell-Jensen
