In this issue:
- Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
- Awards update!
- Canada Post Service Interruptions and CELA Services
- Books for Remembrance Day
- Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
- CELA in Quebec
- Books to promote at your library
- New on YouTube
- Workshop: Accessibility and Licensing of Digital Resources
- Webinars
- Featured title for adults: The God of the Woods
- Top five books
- Top five for kids
- Featured title for young adults: Desert Echoes
- Top five for teens
- Holiday hours
- Stay connected!
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
Over the next few weeks, many of the major Canadian literary awards, including the Governor General Awards for Literature, the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust, will announce their winners. We always appreciate the opportunity to work with these organizations so that our users can read the nominees and the winners without delays. We encourage you to promote accessible versions of the awards lists alongside any promotion of the print or audio copies available in your library. To keep up to date on the short lists and the winners, visit our Awards page and watch our upcoming newsletters.
We're also so pleased to have worked with the Festival of Literary Diversity (the FOLD) on their November Reading Challenge featuring an accessible book by a marginalized author. Visit the FOLD's website for more information and to take part in the challenge.
We have been delighted with the response to our call for participants for our Accessible Commercial Audiobooks Project. The project, which is funded by Accessibility Standards Canada, aims to develop standards for accessible audiobook production and provide guidance for producers and others involved in audiobook production. Participants in our project, both with and without print disabilities, will offer their feedback on various features and we will gather that feedback for our recommendations. As part of this project, we have welcomed Mélissa Castilloux to the team as the Accessible Audiobooks Project Coordinator. If you would like to learn more about this accessible audiobook research project, please visit our blog.
And as we look towards the winter holidays (and a potential Canada Post service disruption), I want to encourage all our users to consider digital delivery options.
Digital delivery offers fast and efficient delivery of our books direct to your patron's device without worrying about delays due to weather, mail volume or holiday hours. Please direct your patrons to the support on our website if they would like to learn more.
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Awards update!
It is an exciting time for lovers of literature as many of Canada's most prestigious literary awards have announced their nominated titles and we wait to hear who has won. You can keep up to date by visiting our Awards page.
The Giller Prize has released its shortlist. The prize will be awarded on November 18.
The nominees for the Governor General Awards for Literature are public. Check out our list to find titles in a number of the categories.
The Writers' Trust has released shortlists for both the Atwood Gibson Prize for Fiction and the Hilary Weston Prize for nonfiction.
Congratulations to Jenny Erpenbeck who won the International Booker prize for Kairos, and Han Kang who recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
We also want to congratulate Lisa Brideau, whose book Adrift (available in audio and braille) is the winner of this year's Evergreen Award program. The Evergreen has already announced the long list of titles for the 2025 award. You can get started reading today!
And lastly, Canada has an incredible collection of children's authors and illustrators. They were recently celebrated by the Canadian Children's Book Centre and we are delighted to have the winners in our collection.
Congratulations to all these incredible authors. Watch our Awards page for updates as more award announcements are made.
Canada Post Service Interruptions and CELA Services
At the time of this newsletter there is a possibility of a service disruption at Canada Post. CELA users who receive their books by mail will be impacted if regular mail deliveries are suspended.
In the event of a mail disruption, your CELA patrons who rely on physical materials may turn to you for assistance. You can help them by:
- Promoting your DAISY CD deposit collection if you have one.
- Downloading CELA titles and delivering them to patrons on a CD or USB.
- Providing technical assistance for those who would like to download books directly on to their devices
- Circulating devices such as an Envoy Connect or Daisy Player which have preloaded books.
- Offering to download books onto patrons’ devices directly.
Should the service disruption occur, our blog will have information about our digital services including tips and links to tutorials to assist you and your CELA users.
Additional information including tutorials can be found on our Public Libraries page.
Books for Remembrance Day
In honour of Remembrance Day, we've gathered a few books which are new or recently added to our collection.
Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham
Paris '44: The Shame and the Glory by Patrick Bishop
Never Far Apart by Ellen Foster, Kitty Salsberg
When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day by Garrett M Graff
The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War by Lezlie Lowe
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni
By the Ghost Light: Wars, Memory, and Families by R. H. Thomson
Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
Who We Are: Four Questions For a Life and a Nation by Murray Sinclair
Structured around the four questions that have long shaped Senator Sinclair’s thinking and worldview—Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I?—Who We Are takes readers into the story of his remarkable life as never before, while challenging them to embrace an inclusive vision for our shared future.
CELA in Quebec
CELA serves people with print disabilities across the country. In Quebec, CELA service is provided through Service québécois du livre adapté (SQLA). SQLA is Quebec's provincial accessible library service, offered through Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). It gives eligible Quebec residents access to thousands of books and other reading materials in multiple accessible formats.
CELA and BAnQ work together to ensure that all Canadians with print disabilities get access to library materials in both official languages.
Learn more on our CELA for Quebec residents page.
Books to promote at your library
Are you looking to promote some new accessible titles in your newsletters, social media feeds, or as part of an in-branch display?
Download our printable book list or forward the link to your colleagues.
Find the new list, updated monthly and featuring links to new books in our collection, on our For Libraries page.
New on YouTube
CELA's webinars are recorded and made available on our YouTube Channel. We have recently added "Navigating the CELA Website with NVDA or JAWS" to our channel. The video features our Peer Trainer Ioana demonstrating how to navigate our site and offering the tips and tricks she uses. She also demonstrates some new features of the site.
You can find this video and others on our YouTube channel.
Workshop: Accessibility and Licensing of Digital Resources
BCLA's "Conference Virtual Reboot Series," offers a selection of presentations from the annual BC Library Conference last spring.
On Tuesday, November 12, CELA's Executive Director Laurie Davidson, along with colleagues Daniella Levy-Pinto (Manager, NNELS) and Tami Setala (Licensing and Business Development Manager, BC Libraries Co-op), will explore the various aspects of accessibility as it relates to licensed digital resources including procurement, model license agreements, accessibility testing, staff and user training, and vendor advocacy and awareness.
The workshop takes place on Tuesday, November 12th at 11am-12pm PST (2pm-3pm EST) on Zoom.
Non BCLA members are welcome and equity pricing is available.
Webinars
Are there topics related to accessibility that you would like to see included in our webinars? We regularly update our content and always appreciate hearing ideas from library staff. Send your suggestions to members@celalibrary.ca.
Help! How do I support struggling readers?: An introduction to accessible literacy and reading formats
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to support readers with print disabilities, including learning disabilities, vision loss, and physical disabilities. You’ll receive an introduction to different reading formats and the features that make them more accessible. Formats will include ebooks, audiobooks, braille, decodable books, hi-lo books, and graphic novels. Join in to discover a broader approach to reading and literacy development.
- Review of the different types of print disabilities and their unique reading needs.
- Discover various reading formats and their accessibility features.
- Learn how alternate formats contribute to literacy development.
- Learn helpful tips for supporting struggling readers, including those with print disabilities.
To register for this one-hour session select the link below:
All about print disabilities: CELA eligibility workshop for library staff
Have you ever wondered whether someone was eligible to use CELA’s collection of accessible reading formats? Library staff are essential in helping to make sure that people living in Canada of all abilities get access to reading materials in the formats that they need. Equally important is the crucial role they play in ensuring that use of the CELA collection is restricted to those who have a print disability, which is a learning, physical, or visual disability that prevents someone from reading conventional print. Through polls, discussion, and other interactive activities, this workshop will help library staff to better understand eligibility, be confident in explaining it to their patrons and colleagues and increase CELA usage through their library by promoting it to all community members who may be eligible for CELA. Attend this workshop for the opportunity to:
- Understand what a print disability is
- Understand why it is important that only people with print disabilities use CELA’s collection
- Gain confidence in determining eligibility and explaining it to others
- Get ideas on how to promote CELA to eligible patrons
Thursday Nov 21 2:00-3:00pm EST
Featured title for adults: The God of the Woods
"Riveting from page one to the last breathless word."
-Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of I Have Some Questions For You.
"Brilliant, riveting .. an epic mystery, a family saga and a survival guide...I loved this book."
-Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace.
When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn't just any thirteen-year-old: she's the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region's residents. And this isn't the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara's older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore's multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore's most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.
Read The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.
Top five books
Most popular with our readers this month:
- Tom Lake: A Novel by Ann Patchett, Family stories
- The War We Won Apart: The Untold Story of Two Elite Agents Who Became One of the Most Decorated Couples of WWII by Nahlah Ayed, Women biography
- Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton, Biography
- The Briar Club: A Novel by Kate Quinn, Suspense and thrillers
- A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue by Dean Jobb, True crime
Top five for kids
Most popular with kids this month:
- Karen's Haircut (Baby-Sitters Little Sister #8) by Ann M. Martin, General fiction
- Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, Disabilities fiction
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Fantasy
- The Barren Grounds (The Misewa Saga #1) by David A. Robertson, Fantasy
- The Boy Who Woke the Sun by A. T. Woodley, Fantasy
Featured title for young adults: Desert Echoes
From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love. Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days.
When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns. Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship-and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again. Desert Echoes is a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection.
Read Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian.
Top five for teens
Most popular with teens this month:
- Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber, Family stories
- Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Suspense and thrillers
- Stargirl (Stargirl Ser. #1) by Jerry Spinelli, General fiction
- The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J. R. R. Tolkein, Fantasy
- Leviathan (The Leviathan Trilogy) by Scott Westerfeld, Science fiction
Holiday hours
Our Contact Centre will be closed on November 11 for Remembrance Day.
For the holiday season, our Contact Centre will be available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on December 24. It will be closed on December 25, 26 and January 1 for the holidays. On December 27, 30, and 31, our Contact Centre will be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. We will return to normal opening hours on January 2, 2025.
Stay connected!
Visit CELA's social media, including X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.