Monday, March 31, 2008

New books at your library

Eastern Regional Libraries would like to get new titles out to our members as soon as possible for borrowing so we have decided not to hold any further "New Books Days" around the region.

Whilst these days have been popular, we believe that it is better to make the new titles available to members on a daily or weekly basis through special displays in the library rather than storing them waiting for the next New Books Day.

You may need to check with your local branch to see where they will be displaying their new titles.

Cheers, Maryanne

Friday, March 28, 2008

Camera to Computer

Join Chris Hamnett to advance the skills from the February program. Learn to enhance and crop images using common computer tools and store videos from your camera.

When: Saturday 5th April 11am
Where: Yarra Junction Library Hoddle Street, Yarra Junction
Bookings appreciated Ph: 5967 1588
Morning tea provided.

Cheers, Maryanne

Puffing Billy, Australia's Favourite Steam Train

Come and meet Don who will show and tell you about Puffing Billy and Thomas the Tank, who pull the steam trains in the Dandenong Ranges. Be in the running for a free family pass by entering the Puffing Billy colouring or story writing competitions.

When: Thursday 3rd April 2pm
Where: Yarra Junction Library, Hoddle Street, Yarra Junction Ph: 5967 1588

All ages welcome.

Cheers, Maryanne

Fabulous Fruit

Fruits are amongst nature's most bountiful and versatile creations offering a variety of colours, textures, scents and fabulous flavour. Fruit is a healthy food, bursting with natural sugars, vitamins and minerals.

Anita Jackson from Wild About Fruit will talk about fruit and the products developed by this family run Yarra Valley company.

When: Thursday 3rd April 1:30 pm
Where: Healesville Library, 231 Maroondah Highway, Healesville
Cost: Gold coin donation
Booking essential.Ph: 5962 4423

Cheers, Maryanne

The Eastern Regional Library Show 26th March 2008

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's show

The rain of the last two days has been welcomed by everyone, not least the gardeners in our midst. This is a good time to remind you that there are two garden groups operating out of Eastern Regional Libraries branches ... Growers and Weeders at Mooroolbark on the fourth Wednesday of the month and Gully Gardeners at Ferntree Gully on the first Wednesday of the month. Each group is free to join, swap ideas and cuttings over afternoon tea, and host regular speakers and garden visits. In fact Gully Gardeners will be visiting Cloudehill Garden and Nursery on Mt Dandenong next month, which should be a very enjoyable outing.

In fact, if you check a copy of Australia's Open Garden Scheme 2007-08, available through our libraries, you will find many gardens which are exciting to visit now that autumn colours are coming into their own.

If you don't want to go further than your lounge room for inspiration, check out the complete box set of Gardening Australia on dvd. Produced in 2007, it is a very up-to-date and comprehensive range of gardening topics from your favourite presenters.

---- Lesley

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Eastern Regional Library Show

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I've been off work sick for a few days in the past two weeks and have been trying to catch up with everything. That includes having to print off 600 overdue and hold notices for the past few days (which actually wasn't a lot considering) and sending out about 70 PINs this morning. "Easter Tuesday" is actually the busiest day of the year at our libraries. Branch visits are up and the volume of items returned are huge, which is great actually. It's nice to be missed.

Anyhoo, 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. The following is a summary of the radio show for the 13th March......Cheers, Maryanne

Reading book reviews can be very exciting, and sometimes frustrating. Books which you decide you must read as soon as possible, have barely made it into the bookshops, and are in the library catalog, but not on shelf yet. This is when a reservation is the best option. Reservations are free, and you can put on as many as you need.

I was inspired by a recent review of A voyage round John Mortimer : the authorized biography by Valerie Grove. I have long been a fan of Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey, and of the writing of his first wife Penelope Mortimer. This is a revealing, robust and affectionate portrait of a multi-faceted, talented, flawed human being.

An Australian novel which I first discovered through a review is The art of the engine driver by Steven Carol. It is a tale of 'ordinary' suburban lives, on the fringe of Melbourne in the 1950's. It is a story of one summer evening when Vic, an engine driver, his wife and son go to a party given by one of their neighbours, which gently unfolds to reveal layers of complexity and drama.

And for light relief The meaning of tingo and other extraordinary words from around the world by Adam Jacot de Boinod ( originally titled Toujours Tingo ). I came accross an article about this book in Country Life magazine December 13 2007, and it intrigued me immediately. As the author Jacot de Boinod says, " we must encourage the survival of some rare and wonderful languages which are, tragically, becoming extinct at the rate of one a fortnight". For example the Tsonga word poyipoyii, which means 'a person who talks at length, but doesn't make sense', or the Hindi kanjus makkhichus which is a person 'so miserly that if a fly falls into his cup of tea, he'll fish it out and suck it dry before throwing it away'. My favourite is the Nilo-Saharan barbarian-on, 'to sit in a group of people warming up in the morning sun', enough to make you elmosolyodik, Hungarian for 'break into a smile'.

---- Lesley

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Eastern Regional Library Show - 5th and 12th March 2008

I've got recaps of the last two radio shows today. 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 the 5th March show

A librarian loves to share their particular passions in reading, and Lyn Baines love of history and mystery were to the fore today. She has discovered a first novel by Owen Shears, Resistance, which tackles the theme of 'what if' the German army successfully invaded Britain during Word War II. The story unfolds in a remote Welsh valley, where the men have all left to join the resistance, and the women must struggle alone, until the arrival of five German soldiers. Lyn says this is an intriguing read which does not resort to cliches, and is very evocative of the time.

Meetings in no man's land by Marc Ferro and others is about the remarkable truce during the first winter of World War I, when soldiers not only lay their weapons aside, but met on No Man's Land, sang carols, shared food and even played soccer. The book includes perspectives from the Russian, German, French and British armies, and draws on letters and diaries of the time for a full and fascinating picture of this period.

And for a true meeting of history and mystery, the third in a detective series set in Henry the VIII's England, Sovereign by C.J.Sansom. The central character is Richard Shardlake, an honest lawyer in difficult times, who is called on by powerful men in the government , such as Cromwell and Cranmer, to work for the king. The novels are full of rich period detail, and the stories are narrated by an engaging central character. If you are interested, the first two of the series are Dissolution and Dark fire.

On the 12th March show

Mysteries from the past are eternally fascinating. How genuine is the Turin shroud, how was Stonehenge constructed and why, what is the truth about the Knights Templar, and what myth? Spurred on by interest following the review of The secret of the spear : the mystery of the spear of Longinus, I have delved into the books on shelf at 001(knowledge), 133(parapsychology and the occult), and 366(associations).

The seven ordeals of Count Cagliostro : the greatest enchanter of the Eighteenth Century
by Ian McCallman reveals the complex layers of a man whose name is now synonymous with 'magic', but who in his lifetime was considered a faith healer, lead an exotic branch of freemasonary, was accepted by Catherine the Great of Russia and Louis XVI of France, and became involved in the revolutionary politics of the time. Was he a healer and mystic, or a dangerous charlatan? Read the book to find out.
If you thought everything about Nostradamus was published that could be, think again! In the mid 1990's an unpublished manuscript of Nostradamus' quatrains accompanied by 80 paintings, probably done by his son, was found in the National Library of Rome. The author is a former program analyst with the Italian National Police, and created a software program to help him decode the quatrains and suggest what they might mean for the future. There is some very detailed commentary on how the associations are made which is complex but interesting. The book is Nostradamus : the lost manuscript by Ottavio Cesare Ramotti.

The fog : a never before published theory of the Bermuda Triangle Phenomonen is a collaboration between writer Rob MacGregor and pilot Bruce Gernan. Bernan has first hand experience of flying in the area, and has put together eyewitness reports and scientific research to come to an intriguing conclusion. And I'm not going to give it away.

Finally, two very readable books which give a guided tour through some fascinating mysteries, Ghosts of war : restless spirits of soldiers , spies and saboteurs by Jeff Belanger, and Hidden History : lost civilizations, secret knowledge, and ancient mysteries by Brian Haughton.

---- Lesley


Knox Mobile

The Knox Mobile will be off the road today from 1:30pm due to mechanical problems. We apologise for any inconvenience. Any items can be returned to our other branches. You can also renew online if you have your PIN or over the phone on 1300 737 277.

Cheers, Maryanne

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Book Bites - Literary lunch with Toni Jordan

Author Toni Jordan is coming to Croydon Library for a literary lunch. Her debut novels deals with Grace who has a compulsion to count everything in her life - from the number of steps to her local cafe , slices of potato for her dinner to the number of poppyseeds on her daily slice of cake. Grace's life is well structured due to numbers until Seamus enters her life. I'm told it's a really entertaining read.

When: Thursday 13th March 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $ 7.50, includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Cheers, Maryanne

The latest photos of Boronia Library



I've just uploaded the latest photos of Boronia Library, which opened this week after the refurbishment. Check out the ants on the wall in the picture books section as well as the new desk and entrance.

Cheers, Maryanne

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

An update on Boronia Library

Boronia Library opened this week after the refurbishments. It looks fantastic! Very spacious, light and with great signage and lots of new display shelving for books and DVDs etc.

I'm just waiting on some final photos of the finished look and I should be able to upload the photos to Flickr by the end of the week or Tuesday next week as well as update the Boronia Library page itself.

Have you stopped by for a visit? Let us know what you thought of the changes and your favourite things in the library. My favourites? I really loved the display shelving in the Teen area and the website address on the wall above the public PCs. I'm looking forward to the ants that are going to be painted on the wall in the picture book section.

Cheers, Maryanne