Hours over the weekend/New Year

Just thought I'd better remind everyone of the hours over the weekend and next week as I'm not here on Monday.

Saturday 29th Dec - normal hours
Sunday 30th Dec - all branches are closed
Monday 31st Dec - Yarra Junction, Montrose and Healesville are closed. All other branches open from 10am-3pm
Tuesday 1st Jan - all branches are closed.

View the branch Christmas/New Year opening hours.

If you need to renew your items, make sure you know your PIN number for your library card. You can find this out by contacting library staff on 1300 737 277 during opening hours. You can also apply to receive a PIN via email.

Return items while we are closed through the bookchutes. All branches except Croydon have after hours bookchutes.

If you have any library related issues while the libraries are closed, please fill out our contact form. We will get in touch with you and try to resolve the issue as soon as we are back at work (Wednesday 2nd January).

Have a great New Year and stay safe.

Cheers, Maryanne
aka webgurl

Branches are open

All branches except Mt Evelyn are open today until 5:30pm (Mt Evelyn is always closed on a Thursday). Our mobile libraries are off the road until Monday 7th January (Valley Mobile) and Tuesday 8th January (Knox and Ranges Mobiles).

View the library opening hours for Christmas/New Year period.

Hope you had a lovely break.

Cheers, Maryanne

Reminder of the Christmas hours

Everyone's so busy this time of year it's often easy to forget a thing like a library book but here's a few tips to make sure you get your items back on time or renewed over the Christmas break.

1. View the branch Christmas opening hours. Note that all libraries and mobiles are closed this year on Christmas eve.
2. Make sure you know your PIN number for your library card. You can find this out by contacting library staff on 1300 737 277 during opening hours. You can also apply to receive a PIN via email. It's best to fill out the PIN application today while staff are at work and monitoring the emails coming in.
3. Return items while we are closed through the bookchutes. All branches except Croydon have after hours bookchutes. Staff will be emptying the bookchutes over the Christmas break to prevent any overflow.
4. If you have any library related issues while the libraries are closed, please fill out our contact form. We will get in touch with you and try to resolve the issue as soon as we are back at work (Thursday 27th December).

Have a wonderful Christmas break and stay safe on the roads.

Cheers, Maryanne
Webgurl

Ringwood Library closed due to flooding

Ringwood library have lost power and have had a small flooding so they have closed for the rest of today.

Items may be returned to one of our other branches or renewed (online if you have your PIN or by phone if not). Renewals can now be made on 1300 737 277.

Cheers, Maryanne

Valley Mobile update

Unfortunately the Valley Mobile will be off the road for the rest of this week, due to a brake problem. As the mobile library was closing down for the Christmas/New Year holiday it won't be back on the road until Monday 7th January 2008.

Items can be returned at any of our branches if you can travel to one. Otherwise if you have your PIN you can renew your items online. To receive a PIN via email, please fill out the PIN application form.

Branch hours and contact details.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Cheers, Maryanne

One number for renewals, holds

Eastern Regional libraries now has one number that you can ring to place holds, renew your items or book PCs etc within library opening hours.

1300 737 277

From the auto attendant options you can choose to listen to the opening hours, or be put through to a branch in the City of Knox, City of Maroondah, the Shire of Yarra Ranges or Administration.

Cheers, Maryanne

Valley Mobille off the road

The Valley Mobile will be off the road today due to maintenance. At present it will not be at Chum Creek or Dixon's Creek. I will advise if this will extend to the entire day.

Items can be returned to any branch or you can contact the library on 1300 737 277 to renew.

Cheers, Maryanne

The Eastern Regional Library show

Library staff member Lesley Conway runs 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 last Wednesday's show (December 12)

Soothing sounds are very welcome at this time of the year, either to help cope with the excessive heat or as an antidote to the frenetic shopping. So today I played tracks from several CD's in the ERL collection which I have found especially relaxing and enjoyable.
Chandelier of Stars is an album by country singer John Williamson which came out a little over a year ago and has some lovely melodies and reflective lyrics. If you like your carols very English and very beautiful, Essential Carols of King's College Choir is a double CD overflowing with delights. I played one of my favourites, 'I saw three ships' today, but I could have played any and enjoyed them. The last CD was Contemplation : the serene harmonies of the harp, which to my mind is perfect for the long and gentle dusk of a summer evening, chatting and sipping a cool glass of something delicious. Don't forget too that we have played some tracks from Harry Connick Jr's CD My heart finds Christmas, which is lots of fun.

There were two new books which I brought along to the show today which serve a generous dose of nostalgia. The first is Visions of the Victorian Railways : a photgraphic tribute from 1854 to 1980 by Gerald A. Dee, which is full of fascinating photos of old locomotives, railyards and long ago Melbourne. The second is Sitcoms : the 101 greatest TV comedies of all time. Now as this is an American publication, English and Australian series don't rate a mention. The one failing aside, it is is a great read. Well presented, not too big to handle, and jam packed with interesting tit bits about shows, actors and directors. From I love Lucy and The Honeymooners in the 1950's to recent favourites such as Friends and The Simpsons, this book is full of background and gossip, and heaps of great photos.

---- Lesley

Update on the Valley Mobile timetable

Well hopefully this will be the last change to the timetable :-) - apologies for any confusion.

Wonga Park

Eastern Regional Libraries, providing library services in partnership with Manningham City Council welcomes back the Wonga Park mobile library site from Wednesday 9th January 2008 3-5:30pm.

The Wonga Park site is located on Launders Avenue, Wonga Park (located in the car park of the hall area, Melways Ref 24 G11).


Mt Dandenong

The Valley Mobile will now visit the Mt Dandenong mobile library site on Mondays 1:30-5pm, starting Monday 7th January 2008.

The Mt Dandenong site is located on the Mt. Dandenong Tourist Rd, in the car park in front of Kate Kelly's restaurant Melways Ref 66 H5.

Cheers, Maryanne

Christmas activities in our branches

I thought November came and went quickly but December is going by like an express train. However, you can still catch the following Christmas activities in our branches.

Afterschool Christmas Craft activities

Rowville Library
Thurs. 13th Dec 4pm
Glittering Christmas Decorations to put on your tree at home

Tues. 18th Dec 4pm
Perfect Christmas Cards to give to your family and friends


Yarra Junction Library
Thurs. 13th Dec 4:15pm

Recycle your old christmas cards to make a beautiful christmas decoration ages 9 to adult. Children any younger are welcome but they will need an adult for each child as the construction is a little tricky.


Mooroolbark Library
Wed. 19th Dec 4pm
Make lovely Christmas decorations to hang on the Christmas tree. Primary School age


Christmas Carols with St. Joseph's school choir

Yarra Junction Library
Fri. 14th Dec. 1:30pm


An enchanted Christmas evening

Ringwood Library
Wed. 19th Dec. 6:30 pm

Christmas family storytime, with a special visit from Sophie, Santa's Fairy Helper. Christmas cookies and a drink for the children. Children can wear their pyjamas.

Cheers, Maryanne

Valley Mobile timetable changes

The following temporary changes have been made to the Valley Mobile timetable.

The Valley Mobile will no longer visit the Wonga Park site. The mobile will visit Mt Dandenong on Wednesday afternoon at 3-5:30pm and will be closed on Saturday mornings.

Cheers, Maryanne

NOTE: Please view the latest update regarding these changes to the timetable

Book Bites - Meet Ellie Nielsen

Ellie Nielsen fell in love with Paris, so in love that she felt the need to own a little piece of it for herself. She had two weeks and a French phrase book to realise her dream. Chosen as a Women’s Weekly Great Read Buying a Piece of Paris is for everyone who ever had a dream of Paris, and who loves a good book.

Ellie studied acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, where she played a tap-dancing Sir John Kerr in the musical The Golden Years of Gough, and Olive in Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, before graduating to a very small role in the television series Prisoner. In the 1990s she worked at the Playbox Theatre Company as a publicist, curator, and script assessor. After the birth of her son she started writing and dreaming. Buying a Piece of Paris is the result.

When: Wednesday 12th December 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $7.50 includes lunch

Bookings essential 9294 5640

Still some more places left so book now!

Cheers, Maryanne

The Eastern Regional Library Show

Library staff member Lesley Conway runs 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's hard to believe that a good detective novel author has slipped under Lyn Baines' radar, but so it is! Today she brought along Missing by Cath Sinclair who has written for TV as well as novels. Her main character is a private investigator, Sal Kilkenny, who lives in the English Midlands city of Manchester, and spends a lot of her time tracing missing persons. The novels tell you a lot about what is happening in Sal's own life too, and makes for relaxed and intriguing reading.

An interesting non-fiction book which has just arrived, titled Can any mother help me? by Jenna Bailey is about British women who supported each other for decades by producing a private magazine. They wrote letters about the trials and tribulations of their lives, received advice back from others, and wrote articles about a wide range of subjects. The important thing was that the magazine was just for the women, it was not shared with the family, and many children of these women who were interviewed for the book said that they were wildly curious about their mother's 'secret' reading.

If you are a self-confessed Helen Mirren fan, as Lyn is, you will enjoy her autobiography In the frame : my life in words and pictures. There are wonderful photos of her grandfather's Russian family, and many personal photos from fim set and theatres. I first came across Helen Mirren in the fim Gosford Park, but as Lyn pointed out, she has a huge body of work behind her, including the TV series Prime Suspect and Elizabeth I, and is the only actor to have played both Queen Elizabeths, having recently filmed
The Queen, about Elizabeth II. All these movies and series are held in the ERL collection.

Finally, if you are in the mood for a good ghost story, The man in the picture by Susan Hill should fit the bill. Lyn says this author is capable of some truly eerie writing, and that this slim novel is ideal for an evening alone(with candlelight, and possible ominous rolls of thunder in the background).

---- Lesley

Website unavailable at 3pm

Our network is going down from 3pm today (in two minutes) so the website will be unavailable at that time.

Hopefully it will only be down for 10 minutes.

You will still be able to access the catalogue using the following link:

http://swft.erlc.sirsidynix.net.au

Cheers, Maryanne