Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the City of Thunder Bay. TBPL is a member of the City’s 50th Anniversary organizing committee and is planning a number of events to celebrate this significant milestone. The ‘From Here’ Music Festival will inspire today’s musically inclined youth to add to Thunder Bay’s vibrant... Continue Reading →
Partnership continues to promote inclusion
It will be a year this summer, Anishinabek Employment and Training Services (AETS) moved in and helped transform the lower level of the Waverley Library through a collaborative partnership with the Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL). As an incorporated, not-for-profit organization, AETS continues to be part of a national network delivering an Indigenous Skills and... Continue Reading →
Drafting the Next Strategic Plan
The Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) Strategic Plan 2014-18 is drawing to a close and we can look back with some satisfaction at what we have achieved over the last five years in terms of encouraging lifelong learning, supporting our local economy, embracing change and innovation, promoting diversity and social inclusion, and fostering community well-being... Continue Reading →
Anishinabek Employment and Training Services (AETS) and Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) Partnership
Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. -Neil Gaiman, 2013 Under the direction and collaboration of both the TBPL Board... Continue Reading →
Library as Place
The Ontario Library Association organizes an Annual Institute on the Library as Place. The purpose of this event is to provide a learning opportunity for the library, municipal, design and architect sectors to learn more about physical space and to become better equipped to plan and respond quickly to capitalize on opportunities for development for... Continue Reading →
An Indigenous Partnership: A Shared Community Hub
Decolonization is a necessary process for creating community led and needs based public libraries. Partnerships with Indigenous organizations are a step towards decolonization. Partnerships transform strategies, structures and systems and challenge the organizational culture. At Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) decolonization is an outcome of our Reconciliation and Relationship Building Strategy and Action Plan. This... Continue Reading →
Community Led and Needs Based
TBPL is working on its next five year Strategic Plan for the period 2019 – 2023. Previous plans have been produced by external consultants, but this time around we are doing it for ourselves. We are using a tried and tested method of community consultation – known as community conversations - which was developed in... Continue Reading →
Blue Ocean Shift
Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) is going through a Blue Ocean Shift (W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, 2017) to move out of the red ocean of competition and create a new blue ocean of uncontested market growth. The stand alone public library is dead. Long live the Community Hub. Partnership working is the way... Continue Reading →
Thunder Bay Public Library's Book Blog 