Literary beginnings

If you’re planning on doing some reading this Australia Day public holiday, but aren’t sure where to start, maybe Literary Beginnings is for you. This creative Tumblr page lists the opening lines of a variety of novels, and can be helpful in deciding what to read next!

Here’s one to get you started – the first line of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

We’re closed on Australia Day

The Library will be closed on Thursday 26 January for the Australia Day public holiday.
The chutes on the eastern wall adjacent to the carpark will be open for returns.
We’re open again at 10am on Friday 27 January.

 

Enter our Change History competition!

If you’re aged between 13 and 25, enter our Change History competition for the chance to win an Amazon Fire tablet PC. 

We are asking you to creatively ‘improve’ a photo from our local history collection, as we’ve done here. Use your Photoshop skills or some good old art and craft to go crazy and change history!
See the website for all the details.

Chinese New Year Fun

January 23rd will mark the start of the Year of the Dragon and here at the library we’re getting pretty excited about it. To get into the Chinese New Year spirit we’ve hung lots of lanterns and there might even be some dragons around over the next couple of weeks.

If you’re after some school holiday fun, why not come and help us celebrate the New Year with the Chinese New Year Storytime on Monday 16, Tuesday 17, and Friday 20 January from 10:15am to 11:00am. Join our Library family in a session of enchanting stories, songs, activities and rhymes. Create your own Chinese Lantern to take home.

Start the year with a roar and let your imagination run free! Join in the Design-a-Dragon Workshop and create your own colourful dragon to take home. The workshop is on Wednesday 11 January from 10:30am to 11:30am. Bookings essential. For booking details check out the School Holiday brochure.

For the adults, qualified Tai Chi instructor Brenda Hum will be providing two free Tai Chi sessions, one on Monday 23rd at 11.00am and again on Tuesday 24th at 11.00am. Bookings are essential for these as well.

 

A Fun Filled Week Of Work Experience

So, having returned from a fun filled week of work experience at the Tea Tree Gully Library, I am pleased to report that contrary to popular belief, it is not a building full of dusty books and irritating “Be Quiet” notices. Instead it is a thriving hive of activity, and I must say I enjoyed every second of it.

Work Experience Student Jacques

This leads to the obvious question: Why? Quite simply; you never sit still, you’re always doing something. Although to some people this may sound worse than getting keel-hauled, I found it quite invigorating. The stream of books that need to be shelved just never seems to end. Everyday there seemed to be a new activity. For example, one day was spent listening to an incredibly interesting “History of Christmas in Tea Tree Gully” lecture, after which we enjoyed a cup of Milo and some cookies.

But this was not the best part, no my biggest surprise was the sheer size of the collection. This is good, because you get a lot of variety, but I never really considered that there are people who actually have to put these books back where they belong. Nevertheless, this would not have been such a big job if not for the Interfiling Project, which sees all the Adult Fiction books being given new labels and being put back on the shelf. Soon the books will be taken down again, and the paperbacks will be mixed with the hardbacks. This will remind the patrons that there are in fact books at the back of the library as well.

But my favorite part of work experience was working at the customer service desk (CSD), to my surprise I got to serve people from the first day. I also got to work in the “Chute”, which is where all those books that you place down the holes in the wall go. I also attended a “Toddler Time” activity as well as participating in a School tour of the library and helped out at the Information desk. By “helped out” I mean I embarrassed myself with my dismally inadequate knowledge of library workings, and then quietly sat in the background while somebody who was actually qualified to do this came and repaired whatever it was that I did wrong/broke/damaged.

My final opinion? The people who work here are wonderful, I met a lot of interesting people, and doing my work experience has been exciting and informative.

So thank you.

Did You Know…About Professor Moriarty?

Professor James Moriarty as illustration by Sidney Paget which accompanied the original publication of "The Final Problem".

The forthcoming film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will see the great detective face off against the evil Professor James Moriarty, but did you know that although he is often presented as Sherlock Holmes arch-nemesis, Moriarty and Holmes only ever encountered one another in a single short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

Entitled The Final Problem, the story has Holmes revealing that the professor (whom Holmes admits is his intellectual equal) sits at the centre of London’s underworld, like a spider in a vast web. Holmes considers the eventual capture of Moriarty and dismantling of his network to be the single greatest moment of his career. The two finally face off in a duel to the death atop Reichenbach Falls.

Moriarty did go on to appear in one other story, The Valley of Fear which although written after The Final Problem, actually takes place before it. However, the Professor and Holmes do not meet during the story.

Holmes does make reference to Moriarty in five other stories: The Empty House (the immediate sequel to The Final Problem), The Norwood Builder, The Missing Three-Quarter, The Illustrious Client, and His Last Bow, but they only ever encountered one another directly the one time.

With the adaption of the Holmes stories to feature film and television, many writer/director/producers have chosen to use Moriarty as the ongoing villain or a threat working in the shadows behind the main mystery, much as the early James Bond films made use of SPECTRE and its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld as ongoing villians, even though the character and organization only appear in three and four books respectively.

The library has the complete adventures of Sherlock Holmes as well as DVDs and a new novel featuring Moriarty and his right hand man, Colonel Sebastian Moran as the main characters.

Only 2 days left to vote on Our Story

Australian libraries and library associations are getting behind The National Year of Reading 2012 campaign, linking together all the great things that are happening around books, reading and literacy.

One of the big promotions is the ‘Our Story’ campaign where the nation decides eight books (one from each state) which encapsulate what it means for us to be Australian.

Cast your vote for the book that best represents South Australia at the Library by checking out our display and filling in the voting slip or you can vote online. But hurry, as voting closes on 6 Jan!

Did You Know…About New Years?

Did you know that not all cultures and countries celebrate the New Year as beginning on January 1? In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the civil New Year falls on 14 January on the modern Gregorian calendar,  which is January 1 on the older Julian calendar.

Chinese New Year occurs on the new moon of the first lunar month, which could fall anywhere between January 21 and February 21 on the Gregorian calendar. Iranian New Year (called Nowruz) is the day of the vernal or spring equinox, typically 20-21 March.

The Ancient Babylonians celebrated the first new moon following the spring equinox as the beginning of the new year. Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday occurring in July on the Gregorian calendar, commemorating the culmination of the seven days of Creation, and marking God’s yearly renewal of His world.

There are many, many more…

Top books of 2011

Now the year is coming to a close, its a good time to look at the books published in 2011 and see what has been popular, what have you read and what have you missed?

There are a few Top 10 lists around though: The Neilsen ratings , New York Times best books for 2011, or The Book Depository’s (UK) Trends list is a quirky one. They can tell you the most popular Zombie books, Lego books, or what time of year more people buy cupcake books. Love it!

Readings bookstore also have some Australian lists for Best of 2011, including Best SciFi and Fantasy, Best Art and Design, and Best Graphic Novels.

What was your favourite new release this year?

Amazing reads and terrific trails

We’re having a short break from our School Holiday programs at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun at the Library!

If you like books, you’ll love the Summer Reading Club. The theme this year is The Amazing Read and all you have to do is read ten books, grab a reading log or book review sheet next time you’re in the Library and tell us about what you’re reading. You can enter as many times as you like for more chances to win great prizes.

Need a break from reading? Try our School Holiday Trails. Find the fake books, fill in the answers and receive a prize at the Information Desk once you’re finished.

For more information about any of these activities see our School Holiday Program.