Children's Library launches science program at Forum

June 9 was the official launch of the Montreal Children's Library's new educational program on science, Science is Everywhere.

The library was able to put the program together for this year and the next thanks to funding received from the National Science and Engineering Research Council.

Monthly science clubs will be offered at the library's three branches, and special scientific programming will be provided for the children throughout the year. The library's collection will also be enhanced in the area of the sciences.

"Today is a way to get children interested and excited about science and to let the public know that we've begun our science initiative," said Robin Sales, the Montreal Children's Library's head librarian.

"We've had our science clubs up and running in our three branches since earlier this year," added Carol Ann Hoyte, the library's science coordinator. "A library is about information and information can come in many forms," she said.

"We're just making it really accessible and fun, and I think that's usually the best way to get information across to people in general — but particularly kids."

Among the many demonstrations and displays set up for the occasion were the Redpath Museum's Dinos and Bones, which was a small collection of fossilized remains from the dinosaur era; the Morgan Arboretum's Sights, Smells and Sounds of the Forest; Biodiversity by the Ecomuseum; and Captain Catalyst's Missing Links Puppet Show.

As Sales noted, the ever-popular dinosaurs are always a big hit with children. They have been, in any case, for at least the past 14 years, since the blockbuster success of the Hollywood science fiction film, Jurassic Park.

There was also a butterfly table, a display on the tropical rain forest where kids could draw and create their own rain forest animals, and a table on the boreal forest. Captain Catalyst has been a regular presenter at the children's library, as well as a mentor and consultant for the library's science literacy initiative.

"The Missing Links Puppet Show is about the missing link of human beings and how we're not taking care of the planet earth," he said in an interview with the Examiner. "We have to protect the animals of today if we don't want to go extinct like the dinosaurs.

"So things that we can do are to protect migratory songbirds, plant flowers for butterflies and not spray pesticides," he added. "We can use natural predators to kill. We just have to learn to become a better friend of nature and not treat it like it's our enemy."