Library closures due to bushfire risk

Just alerting everyone to the following closures:

Healesville Library
Healesville Library will be closed today. Management will make decisions for the rest of the week on a day by day basis.

Valley Mobile
The Valley Mobile will not be on the road today. Management will make decisions for the rest of the week on a day by day, site by site basis.

Please note the Yarra Junction Library is open but this will be continually monitored and we'll advise if this changes.

Stay safe everyone.

Cheers, Maryanne

Receiving email notices

If you have your library record set up to receive email notices instead of the phone calls or paper notices for overdues and holds you might need to make sure that the notices aren't going to your Spam/Junk Mail folder.

If you think you should have received a notice, check your Spam/Junk folder first to see if the notice is there.

Email notices for overdues and holds have the following email address as the sender:



The subject is called:

Library Notice - Automated notice - Do Not Reply

Check your email settings to see if you can add this address into a safe list so that emails from this address are never sent to the Spam folder.

If you haven't yet set your record up so that you receive email notices, please ask staff to do this on your next visit. It's really easy and means you won't be woken up at 9am by the automated system. Of course you'll have to make sure you don't exceed your email quota as the emails won't get through.

Cheers, Maryanne

Literary Lunch - Ilsa Evans

Since her debut novel Spin Cycle was released in 2002, Ilsa Evans has gone on to publish six further novels. Drip Dry and Odd Socks continued the Laundry Series to be followed by two stand alone novels Each Way Bet and Flying the Coop. The sixth novel Broken (2007) was a complete breakaway in style from light fiction, to a work that looks at marriage breakdown and its effects on the family. Broken was selected as an Australian Women's Weekly Good Read, and as a 'Summer Read' in the State Library of Victoria's Summer Reading list.

Her seventh novel The Family Tree will be released in February 2009.

When: Thursday 26th February 12:30pm
Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave
Cost: $7.50 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 9754 7266

Cheers, Maryanne

Price It! Antiques appraisal and valuation

Do you have a special small antique that you want to know more about? Bring along your treasures to be appraised and valued by antique expert Lester Devere from Auction Central. Lester Devere has over 25 years experience in the antique trade as a commission agent and auctioneer.

When: Wednesday 25th February 1:30pm
Where: Healesville Library, 231 Maroondah Hwy, Healesville
Cost: Free event
Bookings essential phone 59624423

Cheers, Maryanne

The Eastern Regional Library Show 4th February 2009

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

It doesn't take a lot of energy to turn the pages of a book, and even less to press the DVD play button. If you're tired of the tennis, worn out by world affairs, visit the library and pick up something fresh to watch or read or listen to. You can even save time and energy by placing holds on items via the website and just ducking into the library to collect your treasures when they turn up. Mind you, quite a few people have discovered that our cool libraries with their comfortable armchairs are very pleasant places to while away a few hours on the hottest day.

If you have been a keen reader of Marcia Muller's detective series featuring PI Sharon McCone, then you probably have already placed a hold for her latest, Burn Out. Lyn has been reading about McCone since the series began, set in San Francisco of the 'flower power' era, and says it has been consistently engrossing. The heroine has aged with the series and the stories are now dealing with the modern world of constantly changing technology and Internet crime. In the latest, Sharon is literally 'burnt out' and retreats to her husbands ranch to recuperate. Mystery and death however seem to follow her, and before long she is involved in investigating the disappearance of the overseer's niece.

Now if a novel can't hold your attention, a good short story will, and Lyn is recommending a collection of Peter Lovesey's crime short stories, Murder on the short list. Lovesey has also been writing crime for many years, and has several central characters who feature in these short stories. If you have been a fan of his characters Peter Diamond, Cribb and Thackerey of Scotland Yard, Edward Prince of Wales (the wayward son of Queen Victoria) or the latest heroine, Hen Mallin, then these stories are for you.

Alternatively, if you became fascinated by the story of Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire in the late 1700's, and the colourful, complex and restrictive world of the English aristocracy as shown in the recent film Duchess, then you will enjoy Lady Worsley's Whim by Hallie Rubenhold. In a life with many parallels to Georgianna's, Dorothy Seymour married Sir Richard Worsley at the age of seventeen, and found that once she had produced the necessary heir, was of little interest to her husband. After a series of affairs to which her husband turned a blind eye to, she fell in love with George Bisset and eloped with him. Sir Richard proceeded to take his wife and her lover to court for having a 'criminal conversation' which would have ended in a legal separation, but was defended by George and Dorothy. It is a fascinating insight into a major scandal of the time, and also to the constraints on women which meant that they were either the property of their parents, or their husbands.

Music today was from Classic Marches performed by the Royal Australian Navy Band, which will be added to our collection in the coming weeks, along with A Flagship Recital Mark II.

---- Lesley

Poetry workshops with Steve Smart

Steve Smart is a young Melbourne poet, and former Director of the Overload Poetry Festival. He is both a writer and a performance poet. Steve has appeared in print, on stage and television, on the stage at the Opera House, in the Sunday Herald Sun and on Radio 774. His first anthology Urgent Blood will be published in 2009.

Steve will present a series of four workshops looking at all aspects of contemporary poetry.

Bookings essential
Series cost: $20 Concession $15
Individual workshop cost: $5 each
Bookings are welcome for individual workshops

Week 1 - Contemporary Australian Poetry
When: Tuesday 3rd March 1pm
Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave

Explore a range of Australian poets, from formal poetry to free verse (no rhyme, no rules) to hip hop. Through the workshop the students will read and discuss various poems and at then perform a poem of their choosing.


Week 2 - Writing Poetry
When: Tuesday 10th March 1pm
Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave

Discover how to draw inspiration from your life and the world around you. Then get down to the nitty-gritty of getting these ideas out of your head and onto the page. Sometimes all it takes is one line, one word even, to spark off a great poem.


Week 3 - Performing Poetry
When: Tuesday17th March 1pm
Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave

Use your voice and your body to share your words. A hand gesture, a tilt of the head, one line soft another line LOUD - every poem has different ways of being performed. Students are invited to bring their own poems, but there will be books on the day to choose poems from.


Week 4 - Zine making
When: Tuesday 24th March 1pm
Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave

A 'zine’ is a small magazine - handwritten and drawn, designed on computer or created using collage. The point is getting your words into a format you can give, sell, or swap with others. Students are asked to bring their own poetry in a form they don't mind cutting up.

Cheers, Maryanne

Looking for Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford

This just in from Lyn, our Collections Manager:

The new Sunday night classic serial on the ABC is Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford.

This adaptation adapts Cranford plus two other Elizabeth Gaskell stories, My Lady Ludlow & Mr Harrison's Confessions.

All of these stories are available in the edition Cranford & other stories (find Cranford and other stories in our library)

Cheers, Maryanne

An update on yesterday's outages

Just updating everyone on the outages yesterday at our branches. Croydon Library have their power restored and will be open as normal today.

Most of our branches had their network down yesterday due to an issue outside of Eastern Regional Libraries. They are all now back up and are able to offer Internet bookings.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Cheers, Maryanne