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

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 Library Service 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!

Happy 4th July!

Photo by Denise Krebs (mrsdkrebs),
available from Flickr under Creative Commons licence

Yes, it’s the 4^th July, also known as American Independence Day. Take a look at our database Oxford Reference Online to find out more about the history of the day and to see how it’s celebrated in the USA today picnics and fireworks!). You could also brush up on your American history by browsing the shelves in Townhill Library at shelf mark 973. For a more British perspective, try looking at some of our books on George III, who was monarch when America won its independence. George III, of course, is famous as the ‘mad’ king in Alan Bennett’s play The Madness of George III and the later film The Madness of King George. You can find the play script in Townhill Library at 822.914/BEN (not much mention of America, to be honest, but it is a good play!).

If novels are more your thing, you’ll find all sorts of classic American fiction at Townhill. The Great Gatsby had its show-stopping release in cinemas this year, but the original novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes some beating. If you’re more interested in 1950s and 1960s counter-culture, try Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and The Big Sur. For the ultimate American novel, though, perhaps we need look no further the Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, full to the brim with adventure, friendship and freedom.

If all this gives you a taste for travel and exploration, pop in to Swansea Business School Library to take a look at their travel guides. You’ll find a whole host of countries covered, including the USA, so you’ll have no trouble planning a trip to rival Kerouac’s!

If that’s a bit beyond your budget, or your planning expertise, you could always watch other people living, and struggling with, the American dream. Griffith Library at Dynevor has a whole host of American movies on DVD: Once Upon a Time in the West, Thelma and Louise, American Beauty, Malcolm X, Bowling for Columbine, The Social Network and loads more are available to borrow for free! Remember, we’re into the summer loan period now, so even two-day loans will be issued out until the 4^th October.

50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾

Have you seen this list from the National Trust yet? You can download a copy at

https://www.50things.org.uk/.  Just as the name suggests, it offers 50 activities which children should do before they are 11 ¾. With the end of term approaching, we thought some of you might like to take a look at their ideas. You might find some inspiration for summer holiday activities with your kids, or the more adventurous amongst you might even like to take a crack at the list yourselves!

The activities suggested are all pretty outdoorsy, with rather a nostalgic feel – climb a tree, make a daisy chain, hunt for bugs – they attempt to encourage children to discover and enjoy nature, as well as to become more active. Children can register on the website to earn certificates and rewards as they work their way through the list.

If it’s been a while since you done any bug hunting or pond dipping, you might want to take a look at some of our Teaching Practice books in Townhill Library. Although they’re there primarily for our trainee teachers to use in the classroom, any Swansea Met student or member of staff is welcome to borrow from the collection. You’ll find lots of books on mini-beasts and other creatures to help you identify anything you find. You might like to check out books at Swansea Business School Library, home of our leisure and tourism courses, to find some tips on canoeing, rock climbing and other intrepid activities!

Sally Gardner and Levi Pinfold win the CILIP Carnegie and Greenaway Medals

Yes, Sally Gardner has won the CILIP Carnegie Medal for her novel Maggot Moon whilst Levi Pinfold has won the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for his picture book Black Dog. The Carnegie Medal is awarded for an outstanding book for children and young people and the Greenaway for outstanding illustration in a book for children or young people. Both winners are available to borrow from Townhill Library, as are the other shortlisted titles for both awards, so you can make your own mind up about the outcome. Let us know what you think!

Both books are well deserved winners, though competition was stiff this year, as it often is. Maggot Moon is a dystopian tale of standing up to dictatorship which takes a dyslexic teenager as its hero. Gardner herself is dyslexic and used her winner’s speech as a platform to speak up for those children who find reading and writing to be particularly challenging. She also spoke in praise of librarians and teachers, so she must be a good sort!

Black Dog is a stunningly beautiful picture book which centres on a fearsome, black dog which is seen one night outside the Hope family home. Only the youngest, Small Hope, is brave enough to venture out and take a closer look. The illustrations really are wonderful, and the story is charming and thought provoking. Levi Pinfold has quite a talent!

The Carnegie and Greenaway medals are well-respected awards in the field of children’s literature. Nominees and winners are chosen by librarians, which makes these prizes a bit different from the other children’s book awards out there. You can find out more about the Carnegie and Greenaway medals, including previous shortlists and winners on the official website. Not a bad introduction to the best in children’s books through the years!

Book Domino Chain World Record

Take a look at this fascinating YouTube video, filmed at Seattle Public Library to launch their summer reading challenge for 2013. Very cool, but a librarian's nightmare having to re-shelve all of those books...!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np450xMSncE&feature=youtu.be

The 20 Most Beautiful Libraries on Film and TV

As an antidote to last Friday's post on 'bookless libraries' - today's blog piece celebrates some of the best libraries that have appeared on the big screen, complete with books!

So take a look and tell us which is your favourite.

http://flavorwire.com/392753/the-20-most-beautiful-libraries-on-film-and-tv/view-all

Or if your favourite isn't amongst the twenty listed, let us know what it is! I personally like the library in the film 'City of Angels' (inspired by 'Wings of Desire').

Future Libraries? 6 Bookless Libraries lead the way...

The debate has been going on for some time now - 'bookless' libraries versus traditional ones complete with printed materials. Where do you stand on this issue? Either way, take a look at these six pioneering bookless libraries from the USA...

http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/libraries/6-bookless-libraries/