Treaties Recognition Week is the first week of November every year. Most of Canada is under treaty for shared use with Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous communities. Treaties help demonstrate "ongoing rights and obligations" for all who live in Canada. Canada has two types of treaties with Indigenous communities, called historic and modern treaties. Historic treaties […]
October is Canadian Library Month, and October 17-23, 2021 is Ontario Public Library Week. The theme this year is "One Card, One Million Possibilities." And it's true. With a Toronto Public Library card you have access to: 100 locations over 10.5 million items eLearning courses Digital Innovation Hubs live programs and workshops and much, much […]
You may have seen this mural of Mary Ann Shadd by local artist Adeyemi Adegbesan (also known as Yung Yemi) on Mackenzie House (the home of William Lyon Mackenzie). In his distinctive "Afrofuturist" style he's re-imagining a portrait of the American-born Shadd who worked and lived in Canada during the 1850s -60s. Mary Ann Shadd […]
September 23 is International Day of Sign Languages and this week is International Week of Deaf People (September 20-26). These annual awareness dates are an opportunity to recognize the importance of sign language and to celebrate the unique linguistic identity and rich diversity of Deaf people and Deaf culture. For this post, I have put […]
September 23rd is the annual day that acknowledges the bisexual community. It has been called a lot of different names over the year: Bisexual Awareness Day, Bi Pride Day, Bisexual Visibility Day and Celebrate Bisexuality Day. Personally, I like the versions that are about pride and celebration rather than visibility and awareness. It might seem […]
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place from September 9 to September 18. This year, the Festival is using a hybrid approach. They have a handy "Getting Started" guide to help film buffs navigate its in-person and online events, with COVID-19 protocols in place. While celebrity encounters may not be in the cards […]
International Literacy Day is almost here! This worldwide celebration and recognition of literacy is coming up on Wednesday September 8, 2021. We thought, being a library, this was the perfect time to think about what literacy means. And to share some ideas on how to celebrate the importance of literacy in your life! UNESCO has […]
Reading and writing are the core of most curriculums, but how students learn the basics varies. Historical children’s books can help us understand how education has changed over the centuries. Our Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books at Lillian H. Smith Branch has interesting examples of educational books and teaching aids from the 14th century […]
Did you know that some of TPL's special collections have books that are centuries old? You may not be able to borrow them — but they're available for researchers or curious visitors to examine in person. Our conservators recently treated one of TPL's oldest books: a religious publication from the 15th century. It's part of […]
Every year on August 9 is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples was created in 1994 to remember the first time the UN's Working Group on Indigenous Populations met in 1982. Indigenous peoples are a little over “6 per cent of the global population. There […]