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Read more about "World Book Online for Kids"Explore Library Express, where you can find popular new titles, pick up your holds, and browse through books recommended by Library staff. Displays change regularly, including art exhibits.
Read more about "Return your books and then find your next great read."Find Young Adult books to delight your reading palate as we celebrate Developmental Disability Awareness Month in March.
Read more about "Books for Every Brain & Body!"Book launch for “Truth and Reconciliation Through Education: Stories of Decolonizing Practices."
Read more about "Book Launch: Truth and Reconciliation Through Education (Nov 9)"Multiplication Find a recipe book. Choose a recipe and double the ingredients.
Read more about "Multiplication Find a recipe book. Choose a recipe and double the ingredients."Community members have submitted their stories — in words, pictures, art, and video — to help future generations understand the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Read more about "Pieces of a Pandemic"Houmou Guiro is no stranger to libraries. She has visited them since she was seven years old, checking out books every few weeks. But when Houmou moved from France to Canada two years ago, she discovered a library system much different than the one she was used to.There were books to read in Calgary’s libraries, plus so much more. Houmou joined an ESL Coffee and Conversation Club to practice her English, and later signed up for an ESL Writing Club. She improved her English skills and met friends at the programs, which helped her to feel more at home in a new city.“The Library in Calgary is very awesome,” Houmou says. “In Paris, you take your books and that’s it. Here, you have services for babies, for newcomers. If you want to open a business, you have services. It’s all free and open and you can take 99 books out.”Houmou credits a resumé development program she took at the Library with helping her get her first job in Canada, at a retail store downtown. “I had a French resumé, but it’s very different how you do it in Canada. So I learned how to do it and got help to improve my resumé,” she says.She now works for a not-profit organization called PIA, which offers services and programs to francophone immigrants and refugees in Calgary. In this role, Houmou tells other newcomers about available services in the city, including all they can do with a free Library card.“I tell them ‘You have to go to the Library! It’s very good. You can take out a lot of books and a lot of everything else too,’” she says.Houmou is also an avid reader, regularly checking out French and English titles. She blogs about the books she’s reading and her life in Canada. Lately she’s been reading a lot of books about entrepreneurship and marketing, as she works on launching her own business: a French tutoring service for kids.When Houmou had her first child, Demba, she took him to a weekly Baby Rhyme Time program. “I didn’t know any English songs, so it was very good for me to meet some parents, talk about our babies, and sing with them in English. It was so cool,” she says.She brings 19-month-old Demba to Louise Riley Library or the new Central Library every few weeks, just as her family used to take her to the Library in France. “We play, we take books out, we read. He likes turning the pages,” she says. “He really likes coming here. I like the Library so much too.”We want to know how the Library has made a difference in your life. Submit your own Library Story online.
Read more about "Stories 'It's all free and open and you can take 99 books out' Houmou Guiro's Library Story helped her feel more at home in a new city"Interested in fiction featuring LGBTQ+ characters and perspectives? Try these recommendations by selecting Fiction A to Z and then LGBTQIA Fiction.
Read more about "Novelist Plus"Fast-paced fiction, graphic novels, updated classics, and even a cookbook are on this recommended list of 25 books to get kids excited to read.
Read more about "Books to Hook Middle Grade Readers"Family Reading Kits are now available at six Library locations. Featuring four different titles for school-age children and one picture book, the kits include discussion questions to spark lively conversation, related activities, and more staff-recommended titles to keep reading as a family.
Read more about "Start a family book club"When Susan Calder’s husband was transferred to Calgary for work in 1996, she was happy to make the move with her young family. But, unfamiliar with her new city, she struggled to find reasons to get out of the house.“I wasn’t working when we first moved here — I was just writing, and spending time with the kids. So I really needed something to keep me active, keep me social,” she says.Her solution came during a trip to Fish Creek Library, when she picked up a copy of the Library’s program guide and noticed a listing for a book club. “I’d never been in a book club before, but I’d always been interested in the concept. It seemed the logical thing to do as a book lover,” she says.Susan fell in love with the club immediately. Not only did it give her a way to make new friends in Calgary, but she discovered that the group was full of people who shared her interest in and love of stories. They offered her a different way of looking at the written word, which helped her to improve her craft as an aspiring author.“It’s been incredibly useful to me as a writer,” she says, “because it’s a look at writing from the reader’s perspective. I can see how almost no book is loved by everybody — no matter how well written. You start to understand that it's really all a matter of taste, and you feel a lot better when people don’t like your work.”At 23 years, Susan is one of the longest-attending members of the book club. While her book club has since become too popular to accept new members, the Library offers other book discussion groups. “What’s really nice about the group is that we often disagree heartily, but there’s never any ill-will about it,” she says of her tight-knit reading community. “We respect each other, and the divergence of opinions is quite lovely. People come away with a bit more of an appreciation for the book, and each other's point of view. You feel like you’ve stretched a bit, and grown, for having read outside of your comfort zone."A New Book Club MemberLittle did Susan realize that her passion for the club wasn’t going unnoticed. Although her husband was an avid reader, she never would have imagined him wanting to join a book club. It came as a total shock when, shortly after he retired in 2007, he asked her if he could tag along to a meeting. “I’d go out on book club day, come home and tell him about some of the discussions — the people, what they had to say. I didn’t really realize that all these years I had basically been selling the book club to him.” Unsure if her husband, who mostly read murder-mystery novels, would be on the same page as her literary-loving friends, Susan was hesitant to allow him to join her, but eventually, she gave in. Luckily for both Susan and her husband, her fears never materialized. Her husband has been a member of the club for over a decade now, even volunteering to lead discussions on the occasion that the group pursues a murder-mystery.“We don’t often talk about the books before the club meets, because we don’t want to influence each other’s opinions,” she says, “We’re able to approach it as individuals. But we do sometimes like to talk about them after, and it’s a social event as well, so it gives us something extra in common that we can do together.”More PossibilitiesThe Library is about much more than books for Susan and her family. “When we moved to Calgary, the opportunities just opened up. There were more possibilities for me to engage with the Library. There was more offered to me,” she says.Aside from attending her monthly book club, she also sharpens her writing skills with workshops and writing programs, attending several each month. She and her husband frequently borrow DVDs and CDs to watch movies and listen to music, and once attended Tech Mentors for three weeks in a row to get help fixing their computer.“Right now, we’re planning a trip to Italy,” she says, “so I’ve just taken out a series of audiobooks and things to try to learn a few essential words of Italian before we go.”Susan also likes to give back to the Library, and frequently shares her talents through panel discussions and readings of her work. Now an accomplished local author, Susan discussed her latest book, To Catch a Fox, in May at the Writing as Medicine program, and will discuss her contributions to the literary art exhibit Print(ed) Word: The Salon Series, which is displayed in the Central Library's TD Great Reading Room, in August.We want to know how the Library has made a difference in your life. Submit your own Library Story online.
Read more about "Stories 'The Opportunities Just Opened Up' A book club at the Library was the beginning of Susan Calder's Library Story"My name is Rachel Murphy and I have two boys, Fraser and Anderson, ages three-and-a-half and two. They are growing up with a love of reading and Calgary Public Library is a big reason why.I spent a lot of time at the Library during my maternity leaves. We attended Drop-in Family Storytimes, and signed out each of the six themed Read and Play kits at Quarry Park Library. The Library was a place where I felt very comfortable bringing my boys because kids are encouraged to learn through play.When my oldest was two, I asked him what his favourite place in Calgary was. I assumed he would say an indoor play place but he said the Library, and that made me feel so happy and proud.Now that I’m back at work, the Library continues to be a big part of our lives. I place holds on books online and then pick them up on my lunch break. My boys’ eyes light up when I come home with Library books as if it’s Christmas morning. My oldest even sleeps with Library books at the foot of his bed for the three-week borrowing period.Currently, the boys are very interested in hockey and trains. I love being able to borrow books because as their interests change, so can their selection of books.We also visit several Library locations every month or two to enjoy the Early Learning Centres, as each one is interactive and centered around a different theme. We love the Early Learning Centres at Fish Creek, Shawnessy, and Quarry Park Library, but our favourite is definitely Engine 23 at Central Library.You can’t beat being able to sit inside and pretend to drive a real firetruck. We also love reading firetruck books in the upper reading area. My boys were both firefighters for Halloween because Engine 23 gave them their love of firetrucks.We are SO excited for the new Central Library to open later this year! Calgary Public Library understands that healthy development in early childhood sets kids up for future success. My family and I are so lucky to live in a place where reading is so accessible and lifelong learning is encouraged. Follow Rachel and her boys on Instagram at @newwestmom.We want to know how the Library has made a difference in your life. Submit your own Library Story online.
Read more about "Stories ‘My Boys Are Growing up With a Love of Reading’ Rachel Murphy is helping her children write their own Library Story"What is a land acknowledgement?
Read more about "Indigenous languages books added to our permanent collection"Aboard Calgary Public Library’s Story Truck, you’ll find storytime, song and rhymes, play time, and of course books — all for children from 0 to five years of age. As a precaution to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and support the City's efforts to promote social distancing, the Library is increasing its response, including cancelling all outreach programs. Please check calgarylibrary.ca/covid-19 for regular updates.
Read more about "Library on wheels"Daniel Rankin and his daughter Christina stumbled across Memorial Park Library, and signing up for a Library card only brought them closer together.We want to know how the Library has made a difference in your life. Submit your own Library Story online.
Read more about "Stories Daniel & Christina Rankin’s Library Story A father and daughter bond in this Library Story"