Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2009 and Bookchats

As mentioned in the previous blog the PLA's were on their way. Well now they have been and gone, and what a pleasant awards night it was. Congratulations to all the winning authors, scriptwriters, playwriters and researchers for winning their respective catergories. The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction was The Slap by Christos Tsiokas. Also congrats to the State Library of Victoria for hosting the event, very well done!

For more information about the winners please go to www.slv.gov.au/pla

The Echuca and Kyabram Branches have commenced monthly bookchats. The first ones were held in August and they both went well. There is no set book or study notes, just bring along a book that you are reading at the moment and would like to share with others. Very casual, over a cuppa or two.

For more information about dates and times please contact Karen Teskera at Echuca on 0354821997 or Anna Bonomini at Kyabram on 0358523382.

It's your bloomin law!

Did you know that the Law Handbook is now online and totally FREE to access?

It is a very easy to use website http://www.lawhandbook.org.au/ that gives you practical legal information for everyday life. The Law Handbook cover more than 70 areas of the law, and includes contact details to many lega and community services. The promotional flyer from the Fitzroy Legal Service states that you will be able to use the website to find information on the following:

• family law issues


• social security payments


• dealing with neighbourhood disputes


• problems with credit and managing your debts


• consumer complaints and protection under the law


• wills and estates


• buying or selling a house or car


• searching for your nearest Victoria Legal Aid office or community legal centre


• helping you to find the right legal, government or community organisation

The Law Handbook Online is for anyone who wants to better understand their legal rights and responsibilities. Our library branches also have a hard copy of the Law Handbook that can be used in the library.

If you are not sure how to access the website please ask one of our staff to assist you.

Children's Book of the Year Winners are announced

If you would like to know the winning books for the Children's Book of the Year the CBCA have just posted the winners on their website http://cbca.org.au/winners2009.htm Congratulations to all winning authors and illustrators. See if your favourite is on the list.

The next important awards to be announced soon are the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, more information coming soon

Children's Book Week - it's all happening

Well the kids, parents and teachers keep pouring in to our libraries, there is great atmosphere and buzz in our branches. Thanks to the many teachers who have been willing to bring their classes along, we all know there is alot of organisation that has to be done and we appreciate being able to provide sessions for your students. The winners of the awards are soon to be chosen which is exciting, I am sure many students have chosen who they think she win. We look forward to seeing who the winning school is at our Echuca Branch competition which is run in conjunction with Book Week, there are certainly lots of books being borrowed by many eager readers. We will do another Book Week post when they winners are announced, until then enjoy the little ad that the Children's Book Council have put together.

It's Children's Book Week all month at Campaspe

Our branches warmly welcome classes from all over the Shire who are visiting to attend special Children's Book Week sessions and storytimes. In Echuca we have over 600 students participating and we are glad to see each and every one of you. The Children's Services Team have put together a great range of activities and selected their favourite nominated titles to read. We will have to wait for a couple of weeks to see who actually wins the coveted awards in the various categories. If you would like more information about the Children's Book Council and the nominated books please go to http://www.cbca.org.au/ you can even join them on Facebook and follow their news all the time. We hope the teachers and students all enjoy visiting their closest library during August. We will post a review at the end of the month to see how we went. Happy Reading!

Ancestry.com @ your library

We are very pleased to announce that all library patrons have free access to ancestry.com. This amazing genealogy database is available to you to use in the library from our internet computers. You will find that the database is the first port of call to collect information to create your family tree and find out more about your ancestors. Library staff are also learning more about this database and will be available to teach you more about it in the coming weeks, all you have to do is ask at the desk if you are not sure what to do. We know that this site is already extremely popular and and are thrilled to be able to offer it to all our valued library patrons. The only way to access this site is through our website and you will need to use it at one of our libraries, unfortunately due to licencing agreements we are not permitted to provide external access. We are also taking names at our branches for people who would interested in learning more about how to trace your family tree on the internet, just let one of the library staff your interest and we will organised small classes soon. Happy Searching!

Also don't forget we have access to newspapers, journals, health information and a wide variety of journals to also access freely online, when you search for a book these items will also be identified as an alternative reference.

Governor of Victoria Visit at Echuca highlights men's health

Today the Library Services Manager had the pleasure of meeting the Governor of Victoria, David De Kretser. He is currently touring the area and visiting the Gannawarra and Campaspe Shires. A very polite, softly spoken person but with presence and a sense of calm authority who spoke to community members and Shire Staff at a reception this evening. He spoke about his ambassador work promoting the need for men's health issues to have a higher profile and mentioned a range of resources available to assist men and women with information and support. One of those he didn't mention is the M5 Project which was launched earlier this year which is a Federal Government initiative. So far there are two parts of the project, one is a magazine that is availabe at doctor's surgeries called While you're waiting and the other part is a website www.m5project.com.au It is definitely worthwhile looking at the website and if you are in the doctors pick up the mag and have a flick through the range of interesting articles. Our libraries have many resources on men's health and we have just renewed our online resource "Health and Wellness" which has a host of journal articles and encyclopedia references on a range of health topics, this is available for free from our website. Please ask your local library staff to assist you locating the information.