Even though it is closed because of the Covid-19 crisis, the public library in Hay River is still offering online programming to the community.
"I'm doing online Facebook programming every weekday now, so Mondays through Fridays," said Marissa Oteiza, the program librarian at NWT Centennial Li
Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
brary. "There's a different theme every day. And so I'm providing online challenges and events and programs to kind of stir up some ideas for people that are at home looking for something to do, and just trying to promote some fun activities during this stressful time."
Oteiza started the weekday challenges on March 30.
However, the very first Facebook challenge was on March 17 at about the same time the library closed.
Oteiza said head librarian Christine Gyapay messaged her that day with the idea of a snowman-making competition.
"I think we had about 150 people react to the post and a bunch of people commented and posted pictures of their snowmen," she said. "It got a lot of community involvement actually right away."
Oteiza explained that the online programming is not just to offer ideas for activities.
"We want to promote literacy development," she said.
That goal can be seen in the daily challenges.
On Mondays, the activity is called Story Times. Oteiza highlights different authors reading books online, and provides information on library books and its online reading resources, plus access to free language apps and music apps.
On Tuesdays, there is the Great Hay River Bakeoff.
"People bake at home, they take a picture and they submit it for a chance to win a prize," explained Oteiza. "But even in baking you're reading because you're accessing recipes and you're reading cookbooks and you're teaching yourself literacy skills that way. Basically, it's all tied into literacy."
The Great Hay River Bakeoff has probably got the most participation, she noted. "We usually have about 10 entries every Tuesday, and then people are invited to vote for their favourite photo, their favourite recipe or their favourite whatever. And a lot of people have been liking and commenting on those posts."
There are art challenges or activities on Wednesdays, wellness days on Thursdays, and a new skill challenge on Fridays.
"Basically, we have a different theme every day," said Oteiza, adding it is exciting to see people participating.
April is also being promoted as Poetry Month.
"We have a contest out for people to write poems for the month of April and they can submit them to me through Facebook or email," said Oteiza. "So those are just starting to trickle in now."
The deadline is the end of April, when the library will create an anthology out of all the poems submitted.
"It will be online for now and then whenever the library opens there will be a visual display, as well," said Oteiza. "We're going to make a 'poetree'. We're going to get an actual tree and then print off all the poems and display them on the tree in the library."