Volunteer Opportunities for Teens at the Petawawa Public Library

Don’t wait until the last minute to start work on your community service credit for high school graduation. 40 hours of volunteering might not seem like a lot now, but trying to squeeze them all in during the last weeks of Grade 12 will really make it seem like a chore. Why not get a head start and consider the Petawawa Public Library as one of your community service options?

Who can volunteer?
As long as you’re attending high school this September, you’re eligible to apply as a student volunteer.

What would I be asked to do?
There are lots of areas where we need help. Whether you enjoy working with others, or independently, there’s a job for you at the library. Some examples:

Reading Buddies is a program where you will be paired up with a younger child to help him or her practice reading skills. This requires a commitment of 1 hour per week on a night that works for both you and the child’s family.

General Library Volunteers sort and return books to their rightful places on the shelves. Keeping things organized makes it easier for others to find what they’re looking for. We really rely on volunteers who can come in on a regular basis to help with this.

Library Programs, which take place from time to time, use volunteers for setting up, supervising activities (especially for children’s programs) and other duties according to the requirements of the event.

Internet/Computer Workshops use the expertise of tech savvy teens to help teach basic computer skills to small groups at the library using our training computers. Spend 1.5 hours per week helping others become connected by showing them how to safely use email, surf the Internet, get onto Facebook and more!

Teen Advisory Board members get to give their input on library issues to help us build programs and collections that speak to teens. By committing to two hours once a month, you can help improve the library and get community service credit. It’s a win-win situation!

Where do I sign up?
You will need to pick up a Student Volunteer Application at the library, or print out the PDF version, and just fill it out. If you’re under 18, you will also need a parent’s or legal guardian’s signature as well as a witness’ signature. Then just drop it off at the front desk. The Children’s Librarian will contact you to set up a brief interview so she can get to know you and discuss your volunteer duties.

Who do I contact for more information?
Janet Coulas, the Children’s Librarian will be happy to answer your questions about volunteering at the library. Reach her at 613-687-2227 ext. 22 (leave a message if she doesn’t answer and she’ll get back to you), or dash off an email to her at jcoulas@bellnet.ca.

Ready to start working on those volunteer hours now? Want to find out more about what the library has to offer teens? It’s your library. Check it out!

Portals to the past at your library (Part 2)

You’ve seen the commercials on TV. People just like you are using Ancestry.ca to discover and connect with their family history. Well, did you know you can use the product for free at the Petawawa Public Library?

Our version is called Ancestry Library Edition and all you need to do is visit the library to use one of our Public Access Internet stations. If you bring your own laptop to the library you may also use it to search Ancestry without worrying about the one hour Internet session time limit.

Ancestry Library Edition includes access to historical documents, records, maps and photos from Canada and around the world. There are nearly 60 million records from the Census of Canada; and key vital records, such as the Drouin Collection (1621-1967), which includes nearly 30 million baptism, marriage, and burial records from Quebec.

Find your ancestor’s name on a hand-written ship’s passenger list, along with information such as their age at the time, their occupation and the family members who accompanied them on the journey. Read an obituary that describes your ancestor’s life and discover other relatives to add to your search. The site provides many other options for genealogical research. Information you find may also be printed or emailed so it can be shared with others.

You can link to Ancestry Library Edition by visiting the Online Databases page of our website. Please remember, Ancestry Library Edition is only available for in-library use. It is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Culture's $15 million investment in public libraries through SOLS in collaboration with OLS-North.

View this 2 minute introduction to Ancestry Library Edition. Then visit the library to begin (or continue) digging around for the roots of your family tree.

(Photo from the Ancestry Library Edition website)

Portals to the Past at Your Library (Part 1).

Whether your interest is in exploring local history or delving into your own family tree, your library is the perfect place to experience how new technology and historical information meet to provide access to the treasures of the past.

The newest addition to the Petawawa Public Library’s roster of online databases is our Digital Heritage Collection. Using any computer with an Internet connection, you can examine documents, view photographs and listen to recorded interviews that bring the history of Petawawa to life!

Find out what it was like to be a young schoolteacher back in the day. Admire the fashions of the young men and women of yesteryear. Browse the assessment rolls to see if you can find your own family name and what kinds of jobs people held once upon a time.

As a Community Digitization Project, the Digital Heritage Collection needs help from the community (that includes you) in order to best reflect the history of Petawawa. Kathryn Schoutsen is coordinating this effort at the Petawawa Public Library. She will scan your historical photos and documents, catalogue them and add them to the publicly accessible collection. A “Digitization Day”, for this purpose, will be held at the library in August. For more information, contact Kathryn at 613-687-2227 or pplcdpda@gmail.com.

You can find a link to the Digital Heritage Collection on this blog (see the sidebar on the right of your screen), on our website, on Facebook, or just by clicking here. You might even stumble upon it simply by going online and “googling” something local and historical. You’ll never know until you try!

(The Community Digitization Project is a project of Our Ontario, a service of Knowledge Ontario, in partnership with OLS-North and SOLS. The project is being funded by the Ontario Ministry of Culture's $15 million investment in public libraries through SOLS in collaboration with OLS-North).

The next post will describe the technology available at the library for exploring your family tree.

(In the photo: Mrs. August Gutzman, nee Frederika Heinze).

Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant for the Library!

On Thursday June 24, library staff, board members and dignitaries gathered in the Rotary Room to celebrate the $19,400 Ontario Trillium Foundation grant which was used to purchase new computers and monitors for the library.

This equipment has enabled us to provide faster and more efficient service to patrons. It has also made it possible for us to offer computer training sessions to the public as well as to local students. This training has included basic computer literacy skills, emailing, safe Internet surfing, media downloading, and instruction on using our online catalogue and electronic databases. Thanks to the newspaper ad campaign funded by the Laurentian Valley Broadband Initiative, who also assisted with recruiting student volunteers to help run the sessions, the training was very well attended and well received. More will follow! The new computers have also been used during class visits when Children’s Department staff provided the students with hands on experience with the library catalogue and online services.

Library staff member, Kelly Thompson prepared and submitted the successful grant proposal and was honoured with a certificate from Renfrew – Nippising – Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski. Our CEO Carol Goldsmith also recognized Kelly’s initiative and dedication. Yay Kelly!

Guy Jamieson from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, who was the lead reviewer of the grant proposal, made the official presentation to Mayor Bob Sweet who accepted on behalf of the Town of Petawawa, the Library Board and staff.

(In the photo: Guy Jamieson, Carol Goldsmith, Mayor Sweet, Kelly Thompson, John Yakabuski)

Welcome to Our Blog!

We're glad you found us. This blog replaces the Petawawa Public Library newsletter we previously made available via email subscription.

It's the spot to find information about library programs and services and will be another way for us to connect to you, our users. We'll also link to other Internet resources you might enjoy as well.

But don't forget about our own library website petawawapubliclibrary.ca, our catalogue petawawa.canlib.ca, and our Twitter account twitter.com/Petawawalibrary. They are still there to serve you.

And now, something we hope you'll enjoy: