{"id":22048,"date":"2018-10-24T18:21:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T22:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22048"},"modified":"2018-10-24T18:21:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T22:21:51","slug":"creativity-comes-together-for-ontario-public-libraries-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/creativity-comes-together-for-ontario-public-libraries-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity comes together for Ontario Public Libraries week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Student Eric Shoesmith’s beautiful photo of a national park in Nova Scotia was the winner of this year’s One Book One Aurora photography contest hosted by the Aurora Public Library and The Auroran Newspaper, the theme of which was “Shoot the Land”<\/em><\/p>\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public libraries provide spaces for the community to \u201clive and breathe,\u201d according to Bruce Gorman, CEO of the Aurora Public Library, and this is the message he brought to patrons and dignitaries last week to mark Ontario Public Library week.
\nBut you first have to make take that all-important initial step through their doors to get to know the Aurora Public Library (APL).
\nIndeed, the theme for this year\u2019s Ontario Public Library Week, which was marked October 14 \u2013 20, was \u201cA Visit Will Get You Thinking\u201d and the APL\u2019s Open House on October 15 provided plenty of food for thought.
\n\u201cI have been in the library business for quite a while and events and opportunities like this are great for libraries, advocacy and telling people what we can do,\u201d said Mr. Gorman to a crowd that included Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa, up-and-coming local singer-songwriter Louisa Barbosa, who provided the evening\u2019s entertainment, and representatives from the AIDS Committee of York Region, Pathway Community Services of York Region, the Women\u2019s Centre of York Region, and the York Regional Police\u2019s Diversity & Cultural Resources unit. \u201cIn the past, I think a lot of people do still have this old perception of Library, how you can\u2019t talk in a library and how you can only come in and get books, but actually libraries are really agile. We move and change with the communities as they change, or we would become irrelevant.\u201d
\nYou didn\u2019t have to look far to see this change in action. Renovations are currently underway at APL to provide new community spaces, which Mr. Gorman called \u201cthe spaces that people need to live and breathe.\u201d
\n\u201cWhatever capacity they can use the library, there are not many spaces like that where people can go to and make it their own space, whether it is a living room, or whether you\u2019re coming in to discuss business with a colleague, whether you bring your family in to undertake some STEM programming in our children\u2019s area, and a whole host of other things,\u201d said Mr. Gorman. \u201cThat is my mission in my career to make sure everybody gets to know how great libraries are, how fast we move, how agile we are, and this is a great opportunity\u2026to talk about this.\u201d
\nIn a lighthearted speech to the assembled, Mr. Parsa took a moment to acknowledge the agility of a public library.
\n\u201cI used to use the public library for various reasons, to be honest with you, just going in there reading books and I went on a lot of dates at the public library,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a great way to meet people, not very expensive, and I could show off some of the books I had read! I used to take them to that section where I would know three or four of the books and say, \u2018You ought to try that.\u2019 It\u2019s a little bit different for today\u2019s generation!\u201d
\nSwitching gears, he added: \u201cOn behalf of the Government of Ontario, it is with great pleasure that I extend warm greetings and congratulations to the Aurora Public Library on the annual open house celebrating Ontario Library Week. A library is not just a building full of books, it is rather a gateway to thousands of worlds. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the importance of libraries and all the services they provide to communities all over the Province.\u201d
\nLocal creativity in its many forms was recognized throughout the evening. Outside of Ms. Barbosa\u2019s concert, which featured a Brazilian bossa- nova and original songs entitled \u201cGood Kid\u201d and \u201cCircle\u201d awards were handed out for the top place finishers in a photo contest co-hosted by Aurora Public Library and The Auroran, along with the winner of the Library\u2019s Writing Contest, both of which were based around themes in this year\u2019s One Book One Aurora reading selection.
\nUniversity student Eric Shoesmith took home top honours \u2013 and movie passes \u2013 with his beautiful photo that captured the assigned theme \u201cShoot The Land\u201d while John Thompson\u2019s story \u201cLittle Man\u201d took home top literary honours.
\n\u201cEvery year, the Aurora Public Library selects one book we think everybody should read,\u201d said Reccia Mandelcorn, Manager of Community Collaboration for the APL, explaining this year\u2019s selection, Strangers with the Same Dream, whose opening line, \u201cThis story begins with a lie\u201d formed the basis of the writing contest.
\n\u201cThis speech does not begin with a lie,\u201d continued Elizabeth Bishenden, one of three community readers judging this year\u2019s writing contest. \u201cThis begins with an honest truth: the stories that were offered were fantastic. They all started with a lovely spark of imagination and true craftsmanship to complete a story. I probably had the best three days of reading, of stories from my own community. It was a delight. Little Man is a story that just breaks your heart. Golly, it is such a well-imagined story!\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student Eric Shoesmith’s beautiful photo of a national park in Nova Scotia was the winner of this year’s One Book One Aurora photography contest hosted by the Aurora Public Library and The Auroran Newspaper, the theme of which was “Shoot the Land<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-10-25-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5JC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:41:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}