General Menu
- National Collections
Includes literary awards, CBC Massey Lectures, and the Truth and Reconciliation Reports. - Regional Collections
Includes projects contributed or funded by our provincial and territorial partners. - Reading Programs
Includes summer reading clubs, First Nations Communities READ, and CBC Canada Reads. - Books for Young People
A good place to browse for books for kids and young adults... find many more by searching.
1. National Collections
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British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
BC celebrates Canada's best! For more information, please visit the BC Achievement website.
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CBC Massey Lectures
The Masseys are an annual five-part lecture series about a political, cultural or philosophical topic given in Canada by a noted scholar. They began in 1961 to honour Vincent Massey, the Governor General of Canada. Their purpose is to "enable distinguished authorities to communicate the results of original study on important subjects of contemporary interest."
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Governor General's Literary Awards
Each year, the Canada Council for the Arts honours the best in Canadian literature with these awards. As Canada's national literary awards, the Governor General's Literary Awards represent the rich diversity of Canadian literature, with awards in both French and English for fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction, children's literature (text and illustration), and translation. Thanks to a partnership with this program, NNELS receives advance notice of finalists and makes the winners available in accessible formats as quickly as possible. Learn more about the program at the GG Books website.
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Griffin Poetry Prize
The annual Griffin Poetry Prize awards two prizes: a Canadian prize is given to a living poet resident in Canada, and an international prize is given to a living poet from any country in the world. NNELS production focuses on the Canadian titles. Learn more about the award from the Griffin Poetry Prize website.
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Leacock Medal
The Leacock Medal for Humour is an annual award for Canadian humour writing. For more information about the award, please visit the Leacock Associates website.
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Scotiabank Giller Prize Shortlists
This award recognizes excellence in Canadian fiction – long format or short stories — and is Canada's largest purse for a literary award. Thanks to a partnership with the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted titles are available in accessible formats from NNELS on the date they're announced nationally. Learn more about the program from the Scotiabank Giller Prize website.
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Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports
The NNELS team produced all of the reports from Canada's Residential Schools, The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015 and 2016) in accessible formats. For a full list of reports, please visit our TRC page.
About our Awards Collections
At every opportunity, we negotiate with awards committees for advance access to shortlists and award winners so that the books can be available in accessible formats on the same day (or as close to it as possible) that they are announced publicly. We appreciate the help and support of organizations like the Scotiabank Giller Prize, CBC Canada Reads, TD and BC Summer Reading Clubs, Governor General's Literary Awards, and, the Southern Ontario Library Service for partnering with us.
Our collections generally include both winners and shortlisted titles, and, where possible, titles from the award long lists. A number of titles are not included in our collections because they are available commercially in accessible formats, and we are prohibited by the Copyright Act from producing these works. That said, when we are able to purchase rights to commercially available titles, we include them in our collections. For full lists of nominated or shortlisted titles, please visit the program websites included in each description below. Please contact us if you have any questions about these collections.
2. Regional Collections
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Alberta eBooks
A partnership of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta (BPAA) and Alberta Municipal Affairs’ Public Library Services Branch (PLSB) launched the Alberta eBooks Collection, with a copy of over 1,000 books coming to NNELS. The books are in PDF and EPUB formats, and come from 24 publishers.
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Atlantic Canadian Collection
The Nova Scotia government, in partnership with members of the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association, contributed 84 titles in accessible formats to the NNELS database, highlighting Atlantic Canadian authored and published books. The Atlantic Canadian collection includes a range of fiction and non-fiction for readers of all ages, including adventure stories, mysteries, classics, ghost stories, general histories, tales of pirates, ghosts and rogues, and much more. Added to NNELS in January 2017.
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BC Audiobook Collection
These 85 audiobooks were originally produced by Public Library InterLINK, some funded by the BC government's Libraries Branch. They were converted by NNELS from large-format reels in 2015 — more information about this collection is included in our April 2015 news release.
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Public Library InterLINK 2018 highlights 29 titles added in 2018.
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BC eBooks
Thanks to a partnership with the Association of Book Publishers of BC, there are 455 BC-published EPUB files in this collection on many subjects, but especially LGBTQ and environmental topics (and a whole bunch of Orca read-along books for kids!).
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BC Book Prizes
The BC Book Prizes have been celebrating the achievements of British Columbia writers and publishers since 1985. For more information about the Prizes, please visit the BC Book Prizes website.
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Saskatchewan Book Awards
The Saskatchewan Book Awards recognize, celebrate, and reward the excellence of Saskatchewan writers and publishers, building greater awareness of Saskatchewan books. These awards have a solid reputation for celebrating artistic excellence, and are recognized nationally. For more information, please visit the Saskatchewan Book Awards website.
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UBC Okanagan Recordings
Students enrolled in UBC Okanagan's Community Service Learning Program have an opportunity to record children's books for NNELS using recording facilities in the UBC Okanagan Library.
3. Reading Programs
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CBC Canada Reads
Thanks to CBC's support since 2016, we have been able to release accessible formats simultaneously with the announcement of the program shortlist. For more information, please visit the CBC Canada Reads website.
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First Nation Communities Read
First Nations Communities Read (FNCR) is is an annual reading program launched in 2003 by the First Nations public library community in Ontario. The program is designed to encourage family literacy, and promote the voices of indigenous authors, illustrators, and publishers. Learn more from the FNCR website.
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Summer Reading Clubs (books for kids)
These collections of summer reading club titles are an excellent source of reading material for young readers.
- 2019 BC Summer Reading Club
- 2018 BC Summer Reading Club
- 2018 TD Summer Reading Club
- 2018 Club de lecture d’été TD
- 2017 BC Summer Reading Club
- 2017 Club de lecture d’été TD
- 2017 TD Summer Reading Club
Past years:
4. Books for Young People
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Young Adult Audiobook Collection
These 70 audiobooks -- purchased and produced with thanks to funding from the BC government's Libraries Branch -- were added to NNELS in early 2017. BC librarians had a hand in choosing some of the books so you'll find some books recorded in this collection that you won't find anywhere else. For more information, see the news release.
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Summer Reading Clubs (books for kids)
These collections of summer reading club titles are an excellent source of reading material for young readers.
- 2019 BC Summer Reading Club
- 2018 BC Summer Reading Club
- 2018 Club de lecture d’été TD
- 2018 TD Summer Reading Club
Past years:
(Updated 4 July, 2019)