Visiting Rotarians:

Announcements:

None

Program

VIU Library provided a tour of the Special Collection library room.  In 2003 the 5 Rotary clubs in Nanaimo provided funding to develop this special place.  Coincidentally Gill Campbell was on the VIU Foundation board at the time.  We were given the opportunity to see some  old and rare publications.  The first one we were shown was a book on plant species that was published in 1636.  As this predated the development of the current plant classification system, the nomenclature was nothing I had seen before.  The second books were transcribed from Captain Vancouver's notes of his expedition to our coast by his brother John in 1801.  There was also a selection of first Nation language books including several written in Chinook which was the original common language used for communication between the Coastal nations and the first settlers.  Another interesting publication was the atlas used in the successful Delgam Uukw vs The Queen land claim.  Several of the pages showed the areas where specific types of food were gathered or hunted in their territory.  The focus of the special collection is first anything to do with the history of VIU, Mal U,  Malaspina College, and the Vocational school.  They are currently working on a project to digitize publications about the Arctic and the Northern BC coast.

This interesting presentation was followed by dinner at the Jingle Pot Pub.  Dinner included a Trivia contest.  

• December 19th, 5 club Christmas dinner at the Bastion.  All are invited.
• December 17th for our Christmas party at Barneys house.