Shaun Tan

The Shaun Tan interview livestreamed from the Sydney Opera House on 7th June was amazing!
We registered our school and had the big screen in operation in the library.
It was great to  see that some schools had pre-recorded questions for Shaun and he was so open and giving with his answers.
An incredible artist I have admired his books and especially his illustrations for a long time. 'The Rabbits' and 'The Lost Thing' are favourites.
A great initiative from the Creative Learning Team at the Sydney Opera House.

Lenny's Book Of Everything

Lenny's Book of Everything

by Karen Foxlee (2018)

A beautifully told story of a family struggling to  cope  with  many hardships. Told through the eyes of young Lenny Spink we learn of her  absent  father  (Peter Leonard Spink) and her mothers'  struggle to provide for the family with two part time jobs. Lenny's younger brother Davey is abnormally large for his age growing at an alarming rate, and he is eventually  diagnosed with tumours on his pituitary gland which require an operation and radiation. There are  no close family  members to help with  the care of  Lenny and Davey, and Cynthia Spink , the mother relies  on a neighbour ,the elderly Mrs Gasper to  help out. Mrs Gasper becomes family, almost grandmother-like telling the children stories and helping to care for them in times of need. There has been a falling out with family and the children have never met their maternal  grandmother, only spoken to her on the phone.

Lenny and Davey wonder what their father was like, where he might be, if he will ever return  and why he left. The reader senses a yearning in Lenny  for a father figure, and loss over his leaving them. The two children watch the arrivals and departures at the local bus stop from the bedroom window, watching for their father's return  and dream of escaping themselves.

Lenny has two close friends who accept and support  her and all her troubles.

Lenny and Davey's relationship is the core of the story. They are close with Lenny being the eldest. The two children spend hours pouring over the latest edition of a build it yourself encyclopaedia  set that arrives weekly. The editions expand the children's narrow experience of the world,  in alphabetical order. However Lenny often finds herself embarrassed and ashamed of her abnormally large younger brother and ' .....the shame of being ashamed was even worse than the shame'.  Love and shame. Complicated emotions for a young person.

A story of love, acceptance, perseverance and loss.

Anzac Day Display

A team effort produced our library Anzac Day display.
We began by making a collaged background using wordart.

We used an overhead projector to enlarge a silhouette of a soldier, painted it black, cut it out and glued it to the collaged background.

We printed off some poppies on red paper and encouraged the students and staff to write what Anzac day means to them. We added these poppies to the display.

Lest we forget.

Library Lovers Day Display

Library Lovers Day on the 14th February.....

I combined a few ideas for the display. Firstly I searched the catalogue for books on relationships, love and romance.....I made note of their first few lines....wrapped them in brown paper and attached the  books first few lines to the front of the package......blind date with a book kind of thing.

The larger display has used the posters from ALIA created for LIBRARY LOVERS DAY 2019...

I then added some extra library lovers hearts with pegs and string pinned at diagonals to the back board......

.....and asked the question 'Are my first few lines enough for you to check me out?'

Snow Falling On Cedars

'Snow Falling on Cedars'

David Guterson

After a slow start I eventually became engrossed in the story and found it hard to put the book down. Published in 1995 the book slid into the return shoot at the library where I work and I wondered why I  had not read it before now.

The story involves the trial of a local fisherman for the murder of another. Both men  live in a small close knit community on San Pedro, an island  in Puget Sound. The time frame  is post WWII  and as the story line unfolds we are given detailed information about each character and their relationships with one another. We learn of forbidden love between  Ishmael  and Japanese /American Hatsue, of childhood friendships  soured by prejudice and anti- Japanese sentiment during and post WWII, of a resentment between two families over the ownership of a small piece of land. We are left wondering what exactly did happen on the boat that night?

I loved it!

Christmas

Winding down and getting ready for the Christmas holidays. My desk has had a makeover....got my Christmas mojo back!!!!

"Mortal Engines' the movie comes out this week. Created  a display for it....

The book "Mortal Engines' is not one that I have read...it is on the holiday reading list.

It's beginning to feel like Christmas. The tree is up at home.

Digital Repositories

These images relate to an assignment where we were learning about digital repositories. The uploading of images to a digital catalogue and ensuring correct documentation goes with the images.Content DM was used...I found it non user friendly. However once I had worked out its 'oddness' I was OK. Not my favourite assignment so far.

Banned Books

This week in the library we completed a display of 'Banned Books'.....books that have been banned in the past for a variety of reasons but are not banned now!!!

It has generated quite a bit of interest from the students. The books were displayed with a note explaining the reasons for the original ban.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Heather Morris' book 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' is based on a true story. After meeting Lale Sokolov a Slovakian Jew and hearing his account of his time spent in Auschwitz the author originally intended the retelling to be in the form of a screen play. Sent to Auschwitz in 1942 Lale is given the task of being the camps main tattooist due to his ability to speak many languages. His work adorns this wrists of many camp survivors. Lale's work does ensure him a small amount of security and he is able to get his hands on extra food which he shares with others. Lale is witness to many atrocities, the ovens, the gas chambers, medical experiments and  also meets the love of his life Gita while in Auschwitz. It deals with the idea of what a person will agree to do in order to survive. Lale and Gita do survive. There love endures.

SLANSW Making Connections, Engaging Learners

I have joined the School Library Association of NSW and yesterday I attended the  'Making Connections, Engaging Learners' conference held at the beautifully refurbished State Library of NSW.

We were taken on a guided tour of the new galleries and display areas which was fascinating. The display cases containing a variety of 'objects' were interesting to me as I am currently trying to complete the unit on 'Maintaining Digital Repositories'.....loved this small collection of glass bottles.

I was in awe of the 'reading room' and would love a library as gorgeous as this closer to home.

A fabulous day away  from the norm, opening up new possibilities with digital technology that can be used effectively in the library and classroom.

I have finished reading this month's bookclub book ready for our discussion on 28th Oct. 

'The Great Alone' by Kristin Hannah, a novel about a young troubled family that relocates to the harsh climate of Alaska, how they survive, the friendships made in such a tight knit community and the struggle to maintain the family unit. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it hard to put down.

Reading Pile

School holidays....among other things I intend to get some reading done.

Staff Holiday Reads

This week in the library we put together a collection of suggested holiday reads for the staff and invited them all into the library for morning tea. Lovely to see some staff members who don't frequent the library.

This week also saw the completion of a huge task to allocate the graphic novels a collection of their own ( they were separated on the shelves but lumped into the fiction) and attach a graphics sticker to the spine. 

'Elanor Oliphant is Completely Fine'

Gail Honeyman

A book recommended by a friend also completed this week.  The book tells the story of Elanor  Oliphant who is anything but completely fine at the beginning of the story. She lives alone, without family or close friends managing  to support herself financially and drinking lots of vodka on the weekends to cope with her loneliness. Elanor is socially awkward, people think she is odd. Details of her disfunctional relationship with her mother and her horrible childhood are gradually revealed throughout the story.As the story unfolds, so too does an unlikely friendship with a co-worker and his family, drawing Elanor out of her isolation and suggesting better things to come.

Task 10: Finalise

I still need to gain invites to a few more class members blogs to comment.

Task 9: Review

I enjoy working in e-blogger. It is a format that I am familiar with as I have had a blogspot for a number of years. I know how to use it and can quickly upload images and text and customise the look of my blogspot without too much angst....I enjoy using e-blogger. It is familiar, safe and known. You are the sole author on e-blogger and although  you  can invite comments from your readers, the control of content and image is all yours.

I have not had much experience using a 'Wiki' and am not as comfortable using it as I am with e-blogger. I do however like the fact that a wiki can allow collaboration on line amongst several people using the one document. I feel you would need to communicate really clearly any changes that you make to the working document and be flexible and adaptable to suggestions from others. Wiki's invite collaboration so you need to be open to working as a team.

I feel that a library should make use a  variety of social media platforms to inform and update their library customers. Facebook, instagram, you tube, pinterest and twitter would all be great helping library staff to advertise, inform and document library activities.

A library blogspot could be used to update library activities on a regular basis. Informing customers of upcoming events, new books, special celebrations and book reviews using text and images. Library customers can be encouraged to comment on posts providing library staff with valuable feedback.

designreflect.com

Task 8:Photo Sharing sites

I have a Pinterest account that I sometimes use. I do enjoy looking through all the photos posted by people and I like the fact that you can organise your own 'Pins' into categories and you can generally search by typing into the search bar  a broad category like 'books' as I did today.

Many, many images are at your fingertips. Quite a few are not watermarked. The image below is one that I found after searching for a while and chosen because I like the feel of the space with the large windows, lots of natural light, and lots of books to read. A gorgeous place to relax and read.

www.steppingintopm.com

Setting up a Pinterest account for your library would be a  great way to organise photographs taken in the library publicising events, showcasing new books, school holiday activities, seniors workshops, and bookclubs. The photographs can be sorted into boards or categories. A great way to make sure that the images shared are easy to search.

Task 7: Video Sharing Sites.

Coffee Break with EBYR

I used the tags book club and  video sharing  to highlight this post, as the video I have chosen to use  discusses starting a book club from scratch, member numbers, choosing books, discussion starters etc. Something I have always wanted to initiate in the library that I am working in. I enjoyed the video and unfortunately they are no longer currently posting, however  there are one hundred other bookish video's posted by Ahna and Katherine......not enough hours in the day......!!!!!!

The library could use video sharing to inform their library patrons about the library itself, a behind the scene library tour, or sharing videos from other libraries (with correct attribution) to inform people of events or information that may be important, relevant or interesting.