Advanced Education and Literacy Minister Diane McGifford is encouraging Manitobans to recognize the importance of strong literacy, numeracy and other essential skills during September, which has been declared Literacy Month in Manitoba. 

"As part of our government's adult literacy strategy, Manitobans will have better access to literacy programs and can expect the same high-quality, consistent instruction provincewide," McGifford said.  "Developing literacy and numeracy skills at a young age and maintaining them throughout our lives has a direct impact on how well we perform in school and at work, and on our health and well-being."

Across Canada, ministers of education have been working together for the past several years to identify common literacy issues and find solutions.  Their work is guided by research showing that individuals with high literacy skills also have better jobs, higher incomes and better health.

Manitoba's total support for adult learning and literacy programs for 2010-11 is just over $19 million. Since 1999, the Manitoba government has more than doubled the province's annual investment in adult literacy to almost $2.6 million.

Manitoba's commitment to adult literacy was confirmed by the proclamation of the Adult Literacy Act, the first of its kind in Canada, which came into force on Jan. 1, 2009.  The act is guiding efforts to improve adult literacy levels across the province, McGifford said.

The minister noted a Pan-Canadian Literacy Forum sponsored by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada in 2008 focused on literacy levels and the impact they have on labour productivity.  Statistics show as many as 40 per cent of working-age adults may have to update their literacy and other essential skills on a regular basis to remain competitive in today's labour market.

In addition to funding for adult literacy programs, the provincial government supports literacy development through a Reading for Life early-literacy program which encourages parent-infant bonding and positively affects child development, she said.

"All Manitobans are encouraged to assess their own literacy, numeracy, and computer skills and essential skills for the workplace or discuss them with family members and colleagues to raise awareness of the importance of staying current and keeping pace with current labour market changes," McGifford said.

The Scholarship and Awards Committee would like to congratulate the 2010
Jean Thorunn Law and John Edwin Bissett Scholarship recipients.

Jean Thorunn Law: Wendy Rondeau, Carla Epp and Andrea Siemens
John Edwin Bissett: Alix-Rae Stefanko and Wendy Rondeau

Congratulations, good luck and best wishes for your continued success.

CLA President Keith Walker has sent a letter to Industry Minister Clement objecting to the government’s decision to replace the mandatory long-form census with a voluntary National Household Survey questionnaire.

Links to the letter and the press release:

CLA Census Long Form Minister Letter (Adobe PDF File)
CLA Census Press Release (Microsoft Word Document)

The Scholarships and Awards Committee is very pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2010 Manitoba Library Service Award in the professional category is Kathleen Williams, Administrative Coordinator of Community Outreach and Marketing at Winnipeg Public Library. The service award honours an individual who has made an important contribution to the development of libraries and library services in our province. Kathleen received her award at the Manitoba Libraries Conference held at the Delta Winnipeg in May.

The list of Kathleen’s accomplishments is lengthy, however, some recent highlights include the development of initiatives targeted toward newcomers, Aboriginal communities, and adult literacy learners; the creation of a series of Canadian Language Benchmark orientation materials on WPL for the EAL classroom; the establishment of the Check It Out! Reading Zone mobile library service, which currently serves two core area sites in Winnipeg on a bi-weekly basis; and in April 2010, Kathleen established the first provincially-funded Adult Literacy Program in Manitoba to be hosted and administered by a public library.

Congratulations to Kathleen on her achievements, and best wishes for continued success!

Didn't make it to the conference this year? Looking to get information on some of the sessions that you didn't get to attend? Presentations are now available via the conference website.

Please note that this is not a complete list of presentations, and that only presentations for which the author(s) have given permission to post, or which have been posted in a publicly-accessible space, are included.

From CLA:

This afternoon, MP Merv Tweed (Brandon-Souris) re-introduced his private member’s bill C-509 on the Library Book Rate in the House of Commons for second reading and debate. MPs of all parties spoke in favour of the bill. You can watch the action at: http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Parlvu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=6209. Just click on “View this clip” and choose the stream. You will need to fast-forward as the discussion starts at 3:12:00 on the video.