What’s available to the community and has 6,000 options? The MSVU Canadian Children’s Book Collection!

Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative held every year on January 27. The purpose of the day is to recognize the importance of literacy in Canada and encourage families (particularly those with young children) to strive to improve their reading and writing skills. This Family Literacy Day, MSVU encourages families to explore the Canadian Children’s Book Collection housed in the University Library. MSVU is proud to be the home of the Atlantic repository of this important literary collection.

The Canadian Children’s Book Collection contains every children’s and young adult book published by a Canadian author since the collection’s creation in 1976. There are five cities across Canada that house an iteration of the full collection: Halifax, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Vancouver. The collection contains more than 6,000 books, including picture books, nonfiction, and fiction books. Each year, MSVU receives two shipments of newly published books to add to the ever-growing collection.

The CCBC has an important connection to the Child and Youth Study program at MSVU. As part of a class assignment, students enrolled in the program select a book from the collection to read to the children at the University’s Child Study Centre. MSVU Professor, Dr. Joan Turner, has also featured the collection in her research.

Of particular note this Family Literacy Day is that the community is able to access the collection. Members of the public are able to use the workstations in the MSVU library and can check out books with an MSVU community borrower’s card or a Halifax public library card (with ID). MSVU understands that purchasing books can be a financial hardship and is proud to offer this service to the community.