The Portage Bear Clan is looking to build a book nook that will be free to use and filled with Indigenous literature.

Coordinator Manon Timshel says the group is never low on ideas, but knew the book nook was the one to push for this time around. She goes into detail on how the community played a role in the decision.

"We were getting requests from adults wanting resources for how they could learn and how they could educate themselves," explains Timshel. "One of the things that my team and I brought up was wouldn't it be great if Bear Clan could provide all of these educational resource material?"

She says they went right to work gathering resources, and that was what sparked the idea for a free book nook. She also says it will be accessible for anyone at anytime, but they would need help from partners such as the Portage Learning and Literacy Centre, Recreation Opportunities for Kids Central, and Portage Community Revitalization Corporation.

"I'm talking to different potential partners that can help us provide content for the library," adds Timshel. "Some of the funding will go towards purchasing books, but to really maintain this and keep it full of awesome content, we'll need to solidify those partnerships."

She says they will be purchasing weather resistant cabinets for the book nook, which will be set up outside their Bear Den at Apartment 2, 624 Oak Bay. She adds the books will mainly be aimed at children, and there will be two shelves for the books.

"One will say take me. This is the shelf that's provided and maintained by our team, so this will be multiple copies of whatever book is featured," says Timshel. "No payments, no sign outs, nothing like that, and then the second shelf will say take me, but bring me back."

She says they hope to have the book nook ready to go by the first week of August.