Silly old Bear

It’s Winnie the Pooh’s birthday today! Well, sort of. Winnie the Pooh was first published on the 14^th October 1926 and told of the adventures of A. A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, and his toys: Pooh Bear, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and of course Owl, Rabbit and all of Rabbit’s friends and relations. The book and its sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, are still firm favourites with children and adults alike and have even received the Disney seal of approval with various cartoon adaptations. The original books are surely the best, though, and E. H. Shepherd’s beautiful drawings are hard to beat.

You'd have to take a trip to the New York Public Library to see Christopher Robin's original toys (minus Roo, who is still missing in action in the real-life Hundred Acre Wood!), but the books are available for all to enjoy. You won’t be surprised to learn that both titles are available in Townhill Library’s Teaching Practice collection, as are Milne’s poetry books When we were very young and Now we are six. Well worth another read as they are just as engaging for adults as for children! You might also like to take a look at The Pooh perplex in Townhill Library at shelf mark 823.912 MIL. It’s an irreverent look at literary theory and criticism with some help from our astute and useful bear. Very funny!

T. Llew Jones Day

Tying in nicely with Children’s Book Week, it’s T. Llew Jones Day! The prolific Welsh writer and poet, who wrote for both children and adults, is celebrated every year on his birthday, 11^th October. He was born in 1915 and died in 2009, but his English and Welsh language books remain as popular as ever. He was committed to addressing the shortage of Welsh language books for children in post-war Wales and became involved in conferences and competitions to generate new works as well as helping the shortfall by writing his own books! You can find out more about T. Llew Jones from the National Library of Wales’ Welsh Biography Online and see what the Welsh Books Council has to say about T. Llew Jones Day on their website. If you’ve yet to discover T. Llew Jones yourself, we have a number of his books in Townhill Library.

Children's Book Week

Yes, it’s Children’s Book Week from today until Friday! You can find out all about it on the Booktrust’s web page. To celebrate this year’s book week, the Booktrust has selected 100 books to read before you’re 14 (and well worth a read if 14 is but a distant memory too!), handily broken down into different age categories. You can even vote for your favourite children’s book in each of the four age ranges – 0-5 years, 6-8 years, 9-11 years and 12-14 years – so if you want to cast your vote for Matilda over Harry Potter, or Princess Smartypants over the Jolly Postman, now’s your chance!

You’ll find many of those top 100 children’s books, as well as a whole lot more, in the Teaching Practice collection on the first floor of Townhill Library. Come in and have a look, or use our Catalogue to find the book you want and ask for it to be sent to your home campus library!

A reminder - why use your university library?

Again, this is a re-post of a recent post, but what with returning students now back at university, we think it's a good opportunity to remind everyone of what your university library has to offer!

Take a look at this video that was produced by CyMAL to promote university libraries in Wales - you may even recognise one of the locations, as it was filmed here in Swansea!

It gives lots of reasons why you should use your university library - including saving you time and money, providing you with expert help from library staff, as well as access to a vast range of print, and e-resources! So take a look and hopefully you'll be inspired to use your university library this academic year - we look forward to seeing you soon :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol_Nn8Jjhe8

Find out more about your fantastic Swansea Public Library service!!

This is a re-post of an article we originally posted earlier in the summer, but feel is relevant to all UWTSD Swansea students who may wish to find out more, and use their local public library service here in Swansea!

This week we're delighted to introduce another special guest blogger for you - Lizzy Evans, one of the assistant managers at Swansea Central Library! Lizzy started to work for the library service in December 2007, in time for the New Central Library opening. She started working as an Assistant Manager in 2010, having graduated from Swansea University in 2005 with a BA hons in History and Politics. She then went to Aberystwyth to study a MA in Film Studies and has recently submitted her dissertation for the BSc Library and Information Management degree. When not writing assignments or working, Lizzy spends time travelling and going to the theatre.

Your course has finished for the summer, so why not take this opportunity to try a different type of library experience?

At this time of year, Swansea Public LibraryService is inundated with requests for travel guides, guides for days out, starting new hobbies, cooking, crafting, dress making etc. and the beach holiday read… all for FREE! Swansea libraries have a lot to offer you, not only throughout the summer, but all year round.

We hold a variety of events for adults & children. Literacy skills being at the heart of most libraries, Swansea is no different. We hold many events for children which encourage language skills through a variety of activities:

oRhyme times

oWelsh Rhyme Times

oDress Up Story times

oHomework Clubs

o‘Story and Stuff’ craft events

oWii Games

oFamily film showings

oTeen Film Club

oTeen book groups

Throughout July & August we will be holding special events for children like our ‘OZ, The Great and Powerful’ Party on 25^th July and the annual children’s Summer Reading Challenge.

Feel you’re a little old for this? We have a lot to offer you too! We hold a wide variety of events for adults, from guest author events and Family History sessions, to INK our writers group and our book group for which we are holding a special session in August where we are linking up with Radio Wales to join their book group (for more details, click here).

As technology advances, so must libraries, we now have WiFi in the central library and offer a free ebook and e-audio book download service. Libraries still anchor their work in books, be them physical or electronic, however this is no longer a library’s sole purpose, libraries are now so much more.

So, here’s the low down on Swansea’s libraries:

oWe have 17 branch libraries, a mobile service and a housebound service

oFree internet in all branches

oFree ebooks and e-audio books available to download

oOnline catalogue

oOur enquiry service Library Line (@LibraryLine) can help with the most basic or complex of enquiries

oFacebook

oTwitter:Swansea libraries (@Discovermore) and Library Line (LibraryLine)

To join, all you need is to bring down some proof of address and we can register you immediately, once registered you can use all 17 branches and all the facilities. Alternatively, you can register via the Libraries Together Passport scheme. If you’re reading this, you’re more than likely already registered with the Swansea Metropolitan University Library, and therefore you have access to many more libraries both academic and public from Pembroke, to Aberystwyth, to Neath Port Talbot. This is available via the passport, for more information visit www.library.wales.org.

For more information about Swansea Library go to www.swansea.gov.uk/libraries or call (01792) 636464.

Hope to see you soon!

Ch-Ch-Changes!

Welcome back to all our returning students! We hope you had a great summer!

...You may have noticed that there have been a couple of changes to the library service while you were away...

From September 2013, Swansea campus libraries will be changing some of our loan periods and one of our fine rates to ensure that students and staff across all campuses of UWTSD receive equitable access to library resources.

Ordinary Loan
3 weeks - Undergraduate & taught postgraduate students £0.20 per day
6 weeks - staff and research postgraduate £0.20 per day

Teaching Practice Loan
6 weeks £0.20 per day

Limited Loan
1 week £0.50 per day

Restricted Loan*
2 days £0.75 per day

Short Loan*
Overnight £1.00 per day

Inter-Library Loans
£1.00 per day

*Students referred to the Library by Student Services as requiring additional support (as part of a Needs Assessment process) will be able to borrow short and restricted loan items for one week.

Your access to the UWTSD library service has also been widened - students from Swansea are welcome to apply to join UWTSD Carmarthen / Lampeter libraries by clicking the link below and completing the form.

http://www.tsd.ac.uk/en/lrc/servicesforstudents/usingotherlibraries/swanseametropolitan/

European Day of Languages

Salut! Guten tag! Buon giorno! Shwmae! Hello! Yes, it’s European Day of Languages today, a time to celebrate the diversity of languages across our continent. Take a look at the EDL website for more information about the day and about languages in general. For instance, did you know that there are about 255 indigenous languages in Europe? Or that at least half the world’s population speak two or more languages? And there can’t be many people out there who know that Sandra Bullock is a fluent German speaker! If you’re thinking of learning another language, or just want to brush up on that secondary school French in time for your next holiday across the Channel, we’ve got lots of books and CDs to help you in Townhill and Swansea Business School Library. Pop in and have a look!