Thursday, January 28, 2010

Friday@ Your Library - Shoe and tell with Ann Dixon

Come along and see Ann's wonderful collection of shoes from bygone days to the present. Discover the history and if you have a pair of unusual shoes, bring them along.

When: Friday 19th February 12noon
Where: Knox Library, 425 Burwood Highway, Wantirna South, 3152.
Cost: Free event
Bookings essential phone 98011422

Cheers, Maryanne

The science of science fiction

Warp speed... space battles… matter transport… artificial gravity…. universal translators… time travel. Have you ever wondered how much science fact there is in your favourite science fiction novel?

Join professional astronomer and public educator Dr James Murray on a tour of the possible and the impossible in his latest evening lecture.

When: Thursday 18th February 7pm
Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave
Cost: $4
Bookings essential phone 97547266

Cheers, Maryanne

Job vacancies

Eastern Regional Libraries are looking for some motivated staff for the following positions:

Graphic Designer & Manager - Lilydale Community Library

View the position information & position descriptions for each job on the library Job vacancies page.

Cheers, Maryanne

Knox Mobile

Due to rostering difficulties, there will be no service to Bayswater this afternoon for the Knox Mobile. We apologise for any inconvenience. Items may be returned to any branch or renewed via the web catalogue.
Cheers, Maryanne

Monday, January 25, 2010

Australia Day

All of our branches will be closed for Australia Day tomorrow.

Cheers, Paul.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

2010 Chinese New Year Party at Rowville

2010 - Year of Tiger

Join us in celebrating the Year of the Tiger with the Chinese New Year Party at Rowville Library. Please bring a small plate of food to share.

When: Friday 12th February from 10:30am
Where: Rowville Library, Stud Park Shopping Centre, Stud Road, Rowville
Cost: Free event
Enquiries phone 9294 1300

Cheers, Maryanne

Friday, January 15, 2010

Readers' Cafe - Meet Judith Lanigan

Judith Lanigan was the first Australian to study at the Moscow State Circus School and then created a hula hoop version of a ballet solo originally choreographed by Fokine for Anna Pavlova a hundred years ago. Her virtuoso performances with the hula hoop have taken her all over the world.

The award of an ASA mentorship led to the publication of The True History of the Hula Hoop in 2009. A clever story that weaves history and the present to create a riveting read. A portion of the story The Great Clown Kidnap of 1572 has been optioned by UK film company Firefly Films.
'Beautifully melancholic, a My Brilliant Career with hula hoops and spangles' 
Judith Lukin Amundsen.
Join us for the very first Readers' Cafe.

When: Thursday 11th February 12:30pm
Where: Ringwood Library, 4 Ringwood Street Mall, Ringwood
Cost: $10 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 98700177

Cheers, Maryanne

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Ranges and Valley Mobiles off the road

Because of the Total Fire Ban declared for the whole of Victoria the Ranges and Valley Mobiles will be off the road today.
If you would like to renew your items please phone one of our branches. The numbers can be found on our website at the following address - Find A Library.

Paul.

Armchair Travellers - Discover the fabric of India

Margaret travelled with 7 women interested in textile and fabric design through some amazing sites in India.

From a hair-raising trip to Old Delhi Markets to seeing tigers in the wild, and visiting a Women's Co-Operative in Chandeleo Village, this afternoon will take you to Rajasthan, Agra and Varanasi where the women enjoyed visiting roadside markets, a silk centre,carpet makers and Indian Emporiums.

Margaret will bring an 150yr old sari and other scarves and pashmina wraps to view.

This will be a fantastic afternoon. All welcome, tea and coffee provided.

When: Thursday 4th February 2pm
Where: Mooroolbark Library, 7 Station Street, Mooroolbark
Cost: Free event
Bookings essential phone 97268200

Cheers, Maryanne

Monday, January 11, 2010

Ranges and Valley Mobiles off the road today

Because of the Total Fire Ban declared for the whole of Victoria the Ranges and Valley Mobiles will be off the road today.
If you would like to renew your items please phone one of our branches. The numbers can be found on our website at the following address - Find A Library.

Paul.

Intrepica - new online resource available


We have just subscribed to a new online resource that will help children with their reading skills. It's called "Intrepica" and contains over 10,000 interactive learning activities that will help children in the areas of Phonics, Vocabulary, Reading, Spelling, Grammar and Comprehension.

All you need to do is go to the Library Users page and fill in a short form with your details and those of your child - make sure that you choose "Eastern Regional Libraries" on the drop down menu next tot he "Library" box. You'll then be sent an email with your login details and away you go.

This testimonial is from one of the Year 4 users Marina:

"I like Intrepica because it is a fun place to learn. When you play a learning game you earn coins to buy clothes from the shop for your avatar. Cool! I love selecting different looks for my cute little avatar. I also really enjoy the different spelling games, they help me improve my spelling skills. The donkey race in the Arena is a fun competition, although I keep losing."

Cheers, Paul.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Eastern Regional Library Show 6th January 2010

Library staff members Lesley Conway and Pia Butcher run a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 98.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next Wednesday for a great show.
On Wednesday 6th January's show
Fantasy fiction is hard to define, because most will have a strong adventure, mystery or romance thread, but set in a world which is not the 'real world', even if there are many similarities. One definition which I like, because it is broad enough to cover all the possibilities is that it is "a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot". Books as diverse as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lord of the Rings and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series can all fit under the umbrella.
Some readers are scornful of fantasy, but are perhaps not aware of the diverse and brilliant writing which is  labelled fantasy. One of my favourite writers is Robin McKinley, who takes classic stories such as Beauty and the Beast (Beauty) or Sleeping Beauty (Spindle's end) and turns them into character driven mysteries.
Juliet Marillier writes intiguing stories set in ancient Ireland, populated by mythical beasts and Robin Hobb writes rich and complex stories of other worlds and times.
There are a lot of excellent writers for teenagers whose fantasy would be enjoyed by all ages. They include Phillip Pullman whose series His dark materials is being filmed, with the first novel coming to screen as The golden compass in 2009. Australian authors worth following up are Garth Nix and Isabel Carmody who both tell a great adventure story. Some old favourites of mine from my teenage years are Alan Garner, who wrote The owl service, and Mary Stewart with her series based on King Arthur and Merlin, beginning with The crystal cave.
Don't forget to check our 'Who writes like' and 'Fiction genres' available through Readers Corner on our web page for more options.
Music today was from Come out swinging

----Lesley

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

e-Library catalogue will be down tonight

The e-Library catalogue will be unavailable from 10pm tonight for approximately 1 hour while SirsiDynix reboot the system.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Cheers, Maryanne

2009 library website in review


Well I've finally managed to tally up the stats for our website visits this year and it's been a great one. We've had 828871 visitors through the front door of the website, striving for 1 million visitors in 2010.


So let's start the countdown (not including the front page).....

20. 4 Kids Animals
19. Reader's Corner Reviews blog
18. Births, Deaths and Marriages
17. Teen Fashion
16. 4 Kids
15. Family History
14. Reader's Corner
13. 4 Kids Games
12. How to use the catalogue
11. About us
10. Contact Us
9. What's New events blog
8. SiteSearch
7. Teen Online Games
6. Job vacancies
5. Online resources
4. Email & Search
3. Using the library
2. 4 Kids Science

and number 1 is......................... Find a Library

Not really a huge surprise as one of the most common questions we get asked in the branches are the branch hours.

The 4 Kids website was extremely popular, especially 4 Kids Science, thanks to the support of schools around the world, curious young minds and recommendations from people such as Mrs Parrington at Mrs. Parrington Loves Science.

We also had 80840 searches on our Who Writes Like database, which is a very popular resource on the 'net. Who Writes Like is compiled by hand on genres and subgenres and we're always looking for more suggestions, particularly in the Fantasy & Science Fiction area. If you like to help you can contact me through the contact form on our website and let me know what genre you read.

I'm currently working on a new website for the library using a content management system so I can look at expanding the site and looking at new training opportunities for staff and members. We will continue to explore other means of reaching our members and trying to connect you with information or great books. 

Cheers, webgurl

Monday, January 04, 2010

Eastern Regional Library Show 16th Dec 2009, 23rd Dec 2009 & 30th Dec 2009

 Still playing catchup with the last few radio shows. Apologies to everyone from webgurl.

On the 16th December's show

GREAT HINT NO 2# Hot days, cool libraries! When the mercury is over 35, nothing could be more pleasant than an armchair, a good book or magazine to read, WiFi or internet close at hand, and it's all free. This is also an ideal time to explore family history resources. Check out the extensive collection at Ringwood Library, access Ancestry or Find My Past from any of the library PC's, or book onto a dedicated Genealogy computer, available at most branches. Computers can be booked for up to 3 hours for family history research.

To stay up-to-date with family history resources, check out or subscribe to the Family History Newsletter, available from our webpage. We also like to let you know of interesting up coming events run by the AIGS (Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies) and GSV (Genealogical Society of Victoria) The AIGS is running a very interesting talk on Sunday 21st of February from 2pm Two speakers will give advice on 'Preparing for your research trip to Britain : England, Wales and Scotland'. If you are interested in this talk, check details on the website www.aigs.org.au.


On the 23rd December's show

At this time of year we often catch up with family we haven't seen for a while. If there are very young children in the midst of all our celebrations, reading a picture book to them is a lovely way of establishing a rapport. Pia had some delightful new picture books today, including Eleventh Sheep by Kyle Mewburn illustrated by Claire Richards. It is the story of Sian, a young girl, counts sheep to help her get to sleep. She counts from one to ten while the poor old eleventh sheep waits patiently just out of sight for her to count just one more. Then one night the eleventh sheep can wait no longer. It leaps in, unbidden, and much fun follows. Bubble trouble by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by Polly Dunbar is about a girl who blows a magic bubble around her baby brother that carries him off, causing havoc until sibling love wins over rivalry. An hilarious tongue twister. Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld is a clever use of a simple line drawing which could either be a duck or a rabbit. There is lovely humour and a lot to make this worth re-reading many times.  Don't lose Pigley, Wibbly Pig! by Mick Inkpen is a story we are all familiar with...when a child loses a much-loved toy, nothing can replace it! And our dear little Wibbly Pig soon learns his lesson!

For teenage readers, the first two of a series by Suzanne Collins, Hunger games and Hunger games : cathcing fire are rivetting reading. Katniss Everdeen is a survivor. She has to be; she's representing her District in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America. To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The sequel is about the continuing trials and tribulations of the main characters. It is difficult however to speak about this book without giving away the events of the first book.

Music today was from Come out swinging, a double CD of many great artists and classic songs.

On the 30th December's show

Food, glorious food, have you eaten too much of it? It's oh-so-easy to over indulge during the festive season, to the point where boiling an egg seems unnecessary. However, you will feel excited about food again some day soon, and to inspire you, I have some wonderful cook books to recommend. The books I like best are the ones which tell you a bit about the author, and some background to the recipes too. Someone who comes accross on the page as well as he does on dvd is Jamie Oliver. Jamie's dinners aims to give you easy, inexpensive and creative ways to feed your family, and lots of great tips on how to simplify your cooking. You can find all his dvd's and books in our collection, and they are lots of fun. Mary Moody has given her book The long table : my love affair with food the full autobiographical treatment. She has mixed great recipes with gorgeous photos and recollections of her childhood, bringing up her children, living in France, and life on a farm in New South Wales.

For some interesting new takes on food, try The Produce Chef in which Matt Clark has taken a lot of unusual ingredients, particularly Australian wild foods, and created fascinating combinations. I am still doubtful about oysters with Red Bull granita, but you can't be sure unless you try. From simple recipes for 'Bush tomato sauce' to sophisticated 'Lemon Myrtle smoked chicken turkish sandwich with mango dressing' the book is full of stimulating ideas. The great Aussie Bloke's cookbook takes a different tack, which is that blokes want to cook food that "tastes great, makes him look good and doesn't take all day". I like the sound of that myself. With a lot of practical (and humourous advice) Kim Terakes covers 'Leaving home', 'Food to watch the footy with', 'Kids cooking' and much more.

Finally, The food of Australia, with contributions from many wll known chefs, but simple enough to cook at home. Contributions from Maggie Beer, Bill Marchetti, Tetsuya Wakuda and many more are definitely inspiring.

There are hundreds of wonderful dvds in the collection, such as The cook and the chef, Masterchef Australia, and Stefano De Pieri's Gondola on the Murray; and if you enjoy just reading about food, you can't go past anything by Ruth Reichl, Elizabeth David or Jeffrey Steingarten.

Music today was from Cruising stations with the Royal Australian Navy Band

--- lesley