New library system

Hi everyone,
I'm back from holidays and I'm ready to blog! Thanks to Jayson for taking care of things while I was away. A lot of things will be happening in the next couple of months. As I previously blogged, Eastern Regional Libraries will be changing to a new library computer system and catalogue in March.

We will be updating you on the progress of the new library system and make any announcements on the blog and on the library website.

The new system will mean improved functionality for staff and also offer our customers improved features through the Public Catalogue (called iBistro).

Some of the great features include:

• Improved search functions and access to items held by other libraries in the Swift Consortium
• Email notification of overdue and reservation notices.
• Alerts for new items that match your interests
• Enhanced reservation facilities and payment of charges on pick up only.
• Clearer summary of user account information
• Status of reservations will be easily seen with an option to cancel reservations
• Display of Bill/Account information
• Enhanced contents information including book covers, book reviews and contents of titles
• Descriptive locations of items available in the library
• “Nearby items on shelves” option – show other titles in the same general area of your search
  

Cheers, Maryanne

New non-fiction @ our libraries

The following non-fiction titles have been added to our libraries:

James Hird - Reading the play : on life and leadership.
Patrick McCaughey - Bert and Ned : the correspondence of Albert Tucker and Sydney Nolan.
Joan Rice - Sand in my shoes : Wartime diaries of a WAAF.
Graham McCann - Spike & Co. : inside the house of fun with Milligan, Sykes, Galton, and Simpson.
Will Hodgkinson - Guitar man.
Marina Aidova/Anna Horsbrugh-Porter - From Newbury with love : letters of friendship across the Iron Curtain.
Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer - Raising and praising girls.
Howard Marks - Mr. Nice : an autobiography.
Lily O'Connor - Dreams of hope : the remarkable memoir of an Irish woman's life, from the tenements of Dublin to Luton and Australia.
Richard Dawkins - The God delusion.
Norman Davies - Europe at war 1939-1945 : no simple victory.
Peter Godwin - When a crocodile eats the sun : a memoir.
Rachael Weaver - The criminal of the century.
HAzel Edwards/Trevelyan Quest Edwards - Cycling solo : Ireland to Istanbul.
R.M. Williams (Publisher) - Guide to farmers' markets : Australia and New Zealand 2007.
Andrew Denton - Enough rope with Andrew Denton (Vol.4).

Search for them in our web catalogue. Type in your search in the box next to Find a Book. If you have a password on your card you can reserve books, cds & dvds to be sent to your closest branch. It costs $2.20 per item for adults, $1.10 for govt. concession card holders, free reservations for children. Find out about reserving and more with the catalogue tutorials.

Thanks, Jayson

New fiction @ our libraries

Here's some popular new fiction titles now available at our libraries

E.V. Thompson = Brothers in war (Vol.9 Retallick)
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - The burning roses (Vol.29 Morland dynasty)
Nicholas Rhea - Constable on the coast
Catrin Collier - Tiger ragtime
Paul Doherty - The waxman murders
Alice Hoffman - Skylight confessions
Anne McCaffrey - Maelstrom
Nora Roberts - Night Shield
Jonathan Kellerman - Capital crimes
Maxim Jakubowski (editor) - The best British mysteries IV
Nora Roberts - Jewels of the sun (Vol.1 Irish trilogy)
Ilsa Evans - Flying the coop
Lyn Andrews - Far from home
Doris Lessing - The cleft
Janet Evanovich - Plum lovin'
Jack Higgins - The Valhalla exchange


You can place holds on them with our catalogue.
Reservations are $2.20 for adults, $1.10 concession, and free for kids.

Learn more about our catalogue in our catalogue tutorials.

Thanks Jayson

Rowville Bookchat Group

Join us on the first Monday of the month at 2pm for a chat about your latest favorite book. Hear what others have enjoyed reading.

Where: Rowville Library
When: First Monday of the month at 2pm.

Beginning Family History

Start the hunt for your ancestors with Ann Dixon. Learn the what, where, and how of Family History.

Where: Ringwood Library
When: Friday 9th February 6pm - 8pm.

Bookings necessary. Free event.

Montrose Library Bookchat Group

Learn about new authors, browse some of the latest titles, and discuss great books you have read recently. Refreshments provided.

When: First Tuesday of the month at 2.30pm.
Where: Montrose Library

Auslan Storytime

Calling all toddlers!
Join Croydon Library for stories, rhymes and song on the first Friday of the month at 11am. This will start on the 2nd of February.
This even sponsored by Maroondah Council.

Jayson

The Eastern Regional Library Show

Another update from Lesley Conway of the Eastern Regional Library show.

If you need an incentive to visit the library at the moment, aside from a peaceful air-conditioned environment, you can take advantage of free reservations at Croydon Library on Sunday afternoons, you can also get free reservations at any branch on any of the '20 novels set close to home' booklist, all set within Victoria. Your children can also attend one of the many free or inexpensive holiday activities in all our branches over the next two weeks.

If you are thinking seriously of following up your New Year's resolution to undertake your family history, you can start by going to the Family History page on our website to see what resources and services are available. From there you can subscribe to the library Family History newsletter, sign up for our 'Family History for Beginners' workshop at Ringwood Library on February 9th, or drop into one of the Genie Exchange sessions which take place at Ringwood, Knox, Belgrave and Lilydale libraries in February. Genie Exchange is a session with like minded enthusiasts and a knowledgeable staff member; it's free and requires no booking.

For those that don't know library ERL staff member Lesley Conway runs a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 99.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next week for a great show.

Lilydale Library Competition

Lilydale Library is running a monthly competition. For each 5 items you borrow, you will go into the draw to win a prize. The winner will be announced at the end of the month. That sounds like a great idea!

Where: Lilydale Library, Anderson Street, Lilydale
Ph: 9294 3120

Cheers, Maryanne

The Eastern Regional Library Show

For those that don't know library staff member Lesley Conway runs a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 99.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next week for a great show.

On this week's show

Getting into the shorts or bathers can make us think hard about excess weight, but do we go to the latest fad diet in the latest women's magazine? Rosemary Stanton, Australia's best known nutritionist has written extensively on how to eat well, and how to lose weight safely. Her book The diet dilema looks at a range of popular diets and rates them, and she offers some well researched advice on how to best go about weight loss. Some of her other very popular books are Eating for peak performance, The good gut cookbook and Healthy cooking. Other highly recommended and well researched books on diet and weight loss are The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Book 1 and 2.

Music today was from Nostalgia : complete and the soundtrack of The Full Monty.

Cheers, Maryanne

Chinese activities at Knox Library

China Books – celebrate the Chinese New Year

The largest specialized Chinese bookshop in Australia , China Books is coming to Knox Library. This is a great opportunity to see and buy new Chinese language books, CDs and DVDs.

When: Thursday 18th January 10am–2 pm
Where: Knox Library activity room, 425 Burwood Highway, Wantirna South


Mandarin Story Time - Chinese New Year

For preschoolers and junior primary school students who are speaking or understanding Mandarin.

When: Thursday 25th January 11am-11:45am
Where: Knox Library activity room, 425 Burwood Highway, Wantirna South

Cheers, Maryanne

New Library Management System at ERL

In March 2007, Eastern Regional Libraries will commence using a new Library management system.

ERL is a member of the Swift Library Consortium and has been one of the original libraries involved in the project since its inception. By July 2007 there will be nine libraries running live on the SirsiDynix Unicorn library management system and already another five libraries have signed up to join the Consortium in 2007/2008.

The new system will mean improved functionality for staff and also offer our customers improved features through the Public Catalogue (called iBistro). These features will include:

• Improved search functions and access to items held by other libraries in the Swift Consortium
• Alerts for new items that match your interests
• Enhanced reservation facilities and payment of charges on pick up only.
• Clearer summary of user account information
• Status of reservations will be easily seen with an option to cancel reservations
• Easier renewal of items on loan
• Display of Bill/Account information
• Change of address form
• "Find it Fast" to allows visual searches of the catalogue
• Enhanced contents information including book covers, book reviews and contents of titles
• Descriptive locations of items available in the library
• "Nearby items on shelves" option – show other titles in the same general area of your search
• Recommended reading lists
• Email notification of overdue and reservation notices.

The expected date for ERL to go live is March 15 2007, the first library to do so in the Swift Consortium.

Due to the nature of such a major conversion and update, there will some minimal disruption to service to the public during the final conversion stage of the project in March. We will keep you notified of dates when they are confirmed. This is the first major upgrade of the library management system undertaken at ERL for over 20 years.

Margaret Hall
I.C.T. MANAGER

Waterwise Gardening

Diana Cotter from Sustainable Gardening Australia will talk about gardening using water saving methods and answer your questions.

When: Monday 29th January, 1-3pm
Where: Lilydale Library, Anderson Street, Lilydale

Bookings Ph: 9294 3120

Cheers, Maryanne

Beaded Insects

Join artist Joy Serwylo and make a beaded insect.

When: Monday 22nd January 11am
Where: Mt Evelyn Library, 50 Wray Crescent, Mt. Evelyn
Cost: $3:00

Bookings essential Ph: 97363851.

Cheers, Maryanne

Library Growers & Weeders

Enjoy an informative talk on roses present by the Rose Society of Victoria Inc.

When: Friday 19th January 2pm
Where: Mooroolbark Library, 7 Station Street, Mooroolbark
Bookings Essential Ph: 9726 8200

Cheers, Maryanne

New non-fiction @ our libraries

We've also been busy adding the following non-fiction titles:

Bruce Gamble ~ Darkest hour : the true story of Lark Force at Rabaul – Australia’s worst military disaster of World War II
Cap Lesesne ~ Confessions of a Park Avenue plastic surgeon
Danny Wallace ~ Yes man
Lynn Freed ~ Reading, writing, and leaving home : life on the page
Michael Heatley ~ Ricky Gervais : the story so far …
Sarah Chayes ~ The punishment of virtue : inside Afghanistan after the Taliban

Search for them in our web catalogue. Type in your search in the box next to Search library for. If you have a password on your card you can reserve books, cds & dvds to be sent to your closest branch. It costs $2.20 per item for adults, $1.10 for govt. concession card holders, free reservations for children.

Find out about reserving and more with the catalogue tutorials.

Cheers, Maryanne

New fiction @ our libraries

The following books have been added to our libraries:

Carol O’Connell ~ Find me
CJ Cherryh ~ Fortress of ice
Dean Koontz ~ Brother Odd
Debbie Macomber ~ Christmas letters
Elizabeth Berg ~ The handmaid and the carpenter
Gloria Cook ~ A whisper of life
Greg Iles ~ True evil
Iris Johansen ~ Stalemate
Jeffery Deaver ~ More twisted
John Jakes ~ The Gods of Newport
Julia Navarro ~ The brotherhood of the Holy Shroud
Julie Garwood ~ Shadow dance
Katherine Kurtz ~ Childe Morgan (a new novel of the Deryni)
Kim Edwards ~ The memory keeper’s daughter
LE Modesitt Jr ~ Soarer’s choice (Bk6 Corean chronicles)
Linda Lael Miller ~ Deadly gamble
MC Beaton ~ Agatha Raisin and love, lies and liquor
Mercedes Lackey ~ Aerie (Bk 4 The Dragon jousters)
Nora Roberts ~ Jewels of the sun (Bk1 Irish trilogy)
Nora Roberts ~ Montana sky
Nora Roberts ~ First impressions
Orson Scott Card ~ Empire
Pamela Oldfield ~ Full circle
Sandra Brown ~ Temperatures rising
Shirley Hazzard ~ The transit of Venus
Stuart M Kaminsky ~ Always say goodbye
Ted Allbeury ~ The spirit of liberty
Tim Lahaye/Jerry B Jenkins ~ John’s story

Search for them in our web catalogue. Type in your search in the box next to Search library for. If you have a password on your card you can reserve books, cds & dvds to be sent to your closest branch. It costs $2.20 per item for adults, $1.10 for govt. concession card holders, free reservations for children.

Find out about reserving and more with the catalogue tutorials.

Cheers, Maryanne

Counting down the website visits

Well it's the time of year to take stock and look at the yearly website stats. For all of those who are interested (and who wouldn't be), here's a countdown to the Top 20 Eastern Regional Library Sites (not counting the main page)

20. Reader's Corner - Bookclubs
19. SiteSearch
18. Reader's Corner
17. Family History - CDROM & Microfiche
16. 4 kids
15. About us
14. 4 kids - Top reads
13. Family History - Births, Deaths & Marriages
12. Family History
11. Email & Search
10. Teen Online Books
9. Job Vacancies
8. Using the Library
7. Online Resources
6. Online Information
5. What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries Blog
4. Teen Online Fashion
3. Find a Library (Branches & hours)
2. Local History Community Databases

1. Teen Online Games

Teen Online Games was the overwhelming winner, thanks to the fantastic support of gamers around the world. Cheers!

Also a special mention for the Who Writes Like page on Reader's Corner. It had over 85,000 searches for the year. It's also been a great year for the blog. Thanks for reading. We'll try and do some new things for 2007. I'll probably look at podcasting some of the popular events this year. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Maryanne

New Harry Potter

Hello everyone, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

First up, I've just received news that we have created a record for the new Harry Potter - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As yet the publication date is not known however you can place your reservations with library staff. Note that the system will not allow you to place reservations through the web catalogue on this title yet as there are no copies.

While I'm talking about catalogues, the library will be using a new library system starting in March. The new system is called SirsiDynix Unicorn (catalogue is called iBistro). In the coming weeks I will let you know about the great new features Eastern Regional Libraries will be offering with the new system.

Cheers, Maryanne