There will be no shortage of things to do at your local public library, regardless of whether you live in Nanaimo or on Gabriola Island.
The Vancouver Island Regional Library has introduced two new programs to a number of their branches, including Nanaimo’s Harbourfront Library, the Wellington library branch and the Gabriola branch.
The programs, the Taskmaster Teen Challenge and the Adult Summer Reading Club were designed to encourage residents to use their local library and make it a fun place to be over the summer.
“Throughout the seven weeks in the summer ... there is always something happening in the branches, VIRL Gabriola branch librarian, Jason Kuffler said.
The Taskmaster Teen Challenge, which runs until July 31, is an “online scavenger hunt” with 32 different tasks and is designed for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18. Participants can receive points depending on the difficulty of the task. For every 5 points a teen earns, they receive one prize point, which is entered into a draw to win various prizes, such as gift cards.
“It’s actually really cool,” Kuffler said. “It’s not exactly a reading forum but I guess you could call it more of an activity club.”
Tasks include liking VIRL’s Facebook page, learning to say “I love the library” in a different language, making and decorating a cupcake based on a favourite book character, creating a 60 second book trailer and uploading it to YouTube, using a cookbook from the library and preparing a meal from a different culture and summarizing a book in a Vine video.
“The activities are pretty cool and were done by the Teens Services Committee…” Kuffler said. “They did a really good job of coming up with these summer activities. I already know that there are teenagers participating in this.”
The Adult Summer Reading Club, which is like any other library reading club, was created to coincide with VIRL’s children’s reading club.
“This is a way for adults to also participate in something kind of different and exciting,” Kuffler said.
The summer reading club is currently being held across all Vancouver Island library branches.
“I think the Adult Summer Reading Club is a way for adults to participate in the excitement that happens in the library,” Kuffler said.
For more information about the Adult Summer Reading Program or the Taskmaster Teen Challenge, please visit www.virl.bc.ca or e-mail GabriolaIsland@virl.bc.ca.