Journalist Creates German Wikipedia for Me & CITL

It was several weeks ago when journalist Gereon Kalkuhl infomed me, completely unexpectedly, that he has written a German Wikipedia page on me and Chess in the Library! Boy, that sure came as a huge surprise!

Interested in learning more about his motive, I asked Gereon what made him decide to write a Wikipedia page about me and CITL, especially in German. This is his response, word for word:

"The reason why I wrote the article in German is simply that German is my first language.Journalistic work is fun for me. Newspapers and magazines often have inacurate information about chess players. By writing these articles I provide some facts about chess personalities. The article about you I wrote because I like the idea of Chess in the Library and I thought we didn't have enough biographies about Canadian chess players. The only other female chess player from Canada that has an article on de.wikipedia was Nava Starr. I could have written about Natalia Khoudgarian, Dinara Khaziyeva, Johanne Charest, Dina Kagramanov, Diane Mongeau, Smilja Vujosevic or Vesma Baltgailis, but since you lead the Canadian FIDE list..." - Gereon

You can see the article here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuanling_Yuan. I will also post the link on the right sidebar, under CITL in the Media.

Although I don't understand a single word of the article, the fact that it is there, English or not, is heart-warming. I am touched not because of the sight of my own bibliography, but rather the short paragraph on Chess in the Library. The fact that this organization has become nation-wide, and now aware to Germans across the world, is simply unbelievable. I did not write this blog post earlier because it took quite some time for me to actually believe that I'm not dreaming!

You can see a list of Gereon's other articles here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Gereon_K.

I want to take this opportunity to give a big THANK YOU to Gereon for helping us spread the word on CITL to the millions of Germans out there!

Victoria Library Juan de Fuca Starts New CITL Session

It was only several days only when I heard from Brian Raymer and Shannon Kenning with regards to the great news of revitalizing the Chess in the Library program at the Juan de Fuca Library after a year of inactivity.

The new session began on Wednesday September 28, 2011 and will continue every Wednesday until November 30, 2011. The first session attracted 16 participants which leaves only 2 more spots in the program open. Below are the details for this location:

Juan de Fuca Library  

1759 Island Highway
Victoria, BC V9B 1J1
250-391-0653

Open wednesdays from 6:30 PM to 7:45 PM till November 30.

I'm so excited to see the program restarted in the west end! Although I had a chance to visit Vancouver this summer for Shad Valley, I have never been to Victoria. However, it is definitely one city already marked down on my "future travel list"! When the day comes for me to fly over to Victoria, I hope to meet the legendary Brian Raymer in person as well as the amazing librarian, Shannon, who made all this possible!

North York Central Library Create Special Chess Display Case

This news is a little outdated but I'm super excited to tell you all that in August this year, NYCL dedicated one of its stand-alone display cases just to chess and Chess in the Library! The display case was placed near the elevator on the third floor and it was there for an entire month, according to Gal.

It actually came as a complete surprise to me when I first saw it. Gal and I was at a meeting with Cameron, the new NYCL "chess manager" to book rooms for next year's festival. Speaking of that, we will have the NYCL auditorium for the ENTIRE day next year! Isn't that lovely news? This was something we've been trying so hard to accomplish for the past 2 days and because of Cameron, our dreams came true!

Anyways, after the meeting we went to the third floor (unintentionally) to put away the chess sets that were just being used for the Saturday program. I actually didn't even notice the display case when I walked by but then Gal suddenly exclaim:"Oh yeah, Yuanling, I forgot to tell you...look at this!" After that I practically was in shock for the rest of the day and it took me a good 10 minutes to examine each and every single detail on it. Take a look for yourself:

Front view - see the trophy??? :O

Side view

Back view - you can catch a glimpse of the 3rd floor front desk. If my eyes don't lie, then is that Tom I see sitting in front of the computer? Haha~

In the middle you can see the CITL Annual Trophy that was won by NYCL this year, so yes, they do have the bragging rights for it. The precious trophy is surrounded by many chess books and tiny chess pieces if you take a closer look at it. However, I am most impressed by the self-made paper chess pieces that are taped around the top of the display chess. It must've taken A LOT of time to draw and cut these out! Here's a close-up:

Don't you think that chess pieces are easy to cut! I've tried it many times before and boy, there are surely many contours! 

Nonetheless, the reason why I was in a shock for so long is because this is the first time that someone voluntarily did something great for chess under the influence of CITL. I didn't even know about this entire project until Gal and I accidentally walked passed it. This was the day I that had been waiting for ever since I founded this program. It shows how enthusiastic NYCL, the second largest library in Toronto, is about chess now, to the point where they take the time and effort to put this together. This display case must also be in high demand and to consider it a possibility of dedicating it to chess makes me thrilled, let alone a reality. However, the significance of this display case far exceeds what can been seen on the surface. It is a representation of a true beginning towards the growing popularity of chess in Canada!

New Chess in the Library Executive Blog

The Chess in the Library team has recently launched our very own blog this month, which will be updated on a weekly basis! :)

Originally, I encouraged many CITL volunteers to start up their own blogs in order to reflect upon their personal experiences when volunteering at the program like I do; however, none of them seemed to last very long. Well, not everyone likes writing and blogging, right?

Nonetheless, a great idea that the new CITL Executive Board has came up with is an official "CITL Executive Blog" that will be written by the CITL Executives currently in position. I will not be participating in the writing of that blog, since I've got my own to keep up with! However, it is a great idea in the long run because the day will come when I am no longer the President of CITL and I hope to see the organization running smoothly without me. The executive blog is one of the many things that will help CITL's name live on. That doesn't mean the end of my blog though! Even if I cannot always be the President, I will forever and always be the CITL Founder that will step in when help is needed.

My fellow executive members will take turn blogging once a week and they will sign their names at the end of each post so we all know which author to credit. Check it out: http://chessinthelibrary.blogspot.com/

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the new executive blog, do send us a message and let us know! Our email is info@chessinthelibrary.com

CITL in Barrie Update

We recently received an email from the CITL program organizer in Barrie, Michael Zaghi telling us about how everything went. Below are some quotes from Michael himself:

"It looks like the CITL in Barrie was very successful and I really enjoyed my time working with kids and showing them some chess. The program in Barrie officially ended yesterday (Aug 21st) which was the timeline me and the manager decided upon before the program started. Over the past 6 weeks our numbers have ranged from 9-15 which isn't bad at all in my opinion."

For a small town like Barrie that has only ONE public library, the Barrie Public Library, the turn out for CITL is quite respectable! Unfortunately, Michael didn't take any pictures as he was afraid things might get complicated with parental permission, etc. It's so true though, because in Toronto, the libraries are very very strict with picture taking - each kid that we take a picture of has to fill out a media release form! When I went to chess tournaments anywhere on this planet, people take pictures of everyone but nobody had to sign anything haha. But it's alright, I'm already used to this by now. :)

Anyways, I'm just so pleased to hear the great news about Barrie! However, Michael will no longer be able to volunteer at the program anymore and certainly, we all want to see this program continue throughout the year. Michael hopes so too.

"I am going to try and see if I can get some volunteers to continue the program so I would consider it on hold for the time being since I would like to see it continue."

Michael spent a lot of effort convincing the librarians in Barrie to get this going so securing this location was 5 times harder than those in Toronto. I want to take this opportunity here to thank him for literally everything, EVERYHING he did to make CITL in Barrie possible!

So if you're living in Barrie and would like to contribute to the Canadian chess community by promoting chess, then this is your chance! Honestly, we would all be very grateful is someone steps up and takes on Michael's position after he leaves. Even if you're only available to do this for a month, it will mean a lot to us, the participants of the program and the chess community as a whole. Even if you spread the word about this program to your family, friends, coworkers, etc who might be interested in helping out, we will be more than appreciative, really. To those of you who read this post and took action, I sincerely thank you all! It's really all of you guys who made CITL so successful today, bit by bit, little by little, detail by detail. Email volunteer@chessinthelibrary.com if you're interested in helping out! :)

A Sneak Peak at a CITL Exec Meeting

Two days ago, the new CITL Executive Board had its 2nd internal meeting, which lasted for 2 hours and 30 minutes. You might consider that a super long meeting, but you know what? This meeting was actually more efficient than our previous one, which ended after 4 hours! Well, everyone had a lot to say at the first meeting anyway...

So we all met up at the North York Central Library and walked to the nearest Tim Hortons, where we all made ourselves comfortable in the non air conditioned room with some ice cappuccino. Yum! Now down to business.

From left to right：Linda, Vivek, Gal, Aaron and me. What a coincidence - Linda and Aaron were wearing the same shirt haha~

We delineated our goals for the upcoming quarter and set deadlines for them. One of the three main projects that we are working is a completely new and updated website that will be more organized and visually appealing. Our Director of Communications Vivek as well as our Art Director Linda will be the main coordinators of this big project.

The website team hard at work...

The two other projects are more on a small scale as they will be completed in the next several weeks, especially before school begins. Gal and I will be creating a step-by-step CITL set-up manual for libraries who are potentially interested in joining the network. We will also build up our image by drafting a document explaining briefing the benefits of chess to children and seniors alike. This document will allow potential donors, sponsors and libraries interested in getting involved in CITL understand the true value of CITL's programs.

Finally, Linda will be designing 4 large CITL posters that we would be able to display at promotional sessions, workshops, or any CITL event. Can't wait to see how it looks! :)

So that's it for now. After the meeting everyone had written a long list of things to do along with their deadlines. I better start checking off those boxes on my to-do list! ^_^

New Location Out West - Runnymede

Our 17th location in Toronto has just been confirmed 2 days ago after a short meeting with the librarians of Runnymede branch. The possibility of introducing CITL to this library, located in Etobicoke, was first brought up by a chess player in April this year. I was the special guest at the Ontario Girls Chess Championships this year and after the awards ceremony, a grade 9 girl who had won second place in her division approached me and said:"Hey Yuanling, do you think you'll be able to start Chess in the Library at Runnymede? I'd really like to volunteer!".

It's not so often that I get these requests from potential volunteers, you know. Surprised at the sudden request, I wrote down her email and told her that I will look into it. So who is this girl? She is Jennifer Ugodnikov, a young girl full of passion and enthusiasm for not only chess but also the community - a complete reflection of myself when I founded CITL back in 2009.

Several months later, in mid-July, I received an email from a librarian at Runnymede expressing their willingness of giving the program a shot! And that's how we got our 17th location in Toronto and 23rd CITL location nationwide. It's great to see more CITL programs in the west side of the city! So far we've got Humberwood, Richview and now Runnymede! :)

Your Prez and Vice Prez in front of the very pretty Runnymede branch!

Close-up picture. Just look at the details on the both sides of the door! Gorgeous!

I want to thank Helen and Monica, the librarians at Runnymede who made the program possible on TPL's part and our future volunteers Jennifer, Pascale, Alexandru and 2 other girls whom I haven't yet met. So this branch will have 4 girls and 1 guy as volunteers! That's surely a first!

Group pic! From left to right: Me, Gal, Jennifer and Pascale. I love how there are more girls involved, hehe~ :)

Below are the details of this new location that will be targeting children from grade 6-8:

Runnymede Branch

2178 Bloor Street West

Toronto, ON

M6S 1M8

416-393-7697

Open from 2-4pm on Saturdays, starting from Saturday October 8, 2011.