International Day of people with a disability

Today is a very important day in the world calendar of events, it is International Day of people with a Disability.  Our branch librarian from Echuca will be heading to the Echuca Special School this morning to join in the celebrations.  Many clients from Murray Human Services and students from the Echuca Special School are also attending the "All Abilities" celebration in Echuca this morning.   
A celebration of people with "all abilities" will be undertaken in the beautiful Hopwood Gardens park. The day will consist of Harley rides, music, Zumba dance demonstration and a barbecue and many other activities.   The event is free and starts at 10am
 
For more information about the International Day of people with a Disability please go to http://www.idpwd.com.au/
 

Christmas is just around the corner

Amazingly enough there are not many days until Christmas Day.  The library team are excited about all the wonderful activities that are happening over the next couple of months.  All library branches will be having special Christmas storytimes, please have a look at our upcoming events on our website for more details.  The Scare Up a Good Book Summer Reading Club officially commences on December 6th.  All branches will have Summer Reading Kits available and we encourage all primary aged children to participate.  There is a fabulous offering of holiday activities including entertainment from the Silly Billies at Echuca, Kyabram and Rochester.  For all information regarding the holiday program please pop into your closest branch and/or our website that has all the upcoming event information.  During January we will also be conducting The Summer Read for adults.  More information about this program will be posted next week. 
Please note that our libraries will be closed from 12pm on December 24th and re-open from the 4th January 2011.

We did travel back in time last week and it was fabulous

What a great few days we had last week with our colleagues from the State Library and Warren Joel from Leonard Joel Auctions.  It is wonderful when these events go so well, thank you to all that came along and enjoyed them.  Travelling Treasures was just so interesting, Paul Dee explained each exhibit with meticulous detail and expertise.  The SLV team were so enthusiastic and really enjoyed their time at Campaspe, meeting many school children and adults who attended the night events.  Thanks to the library team for their organisation and hospitality. 

On the Friday the Echuca Friends of the Library were absolutely thrilled with the Antique Appraisal Day in Echuca.  Warren Joel was highly entertaining, engaging and very knowledgeable.  We certainly thank him for his time and professionalism.  The Friends raised close to $1000 so thank you to the many people who bought antiques along to be appraised or just came and listened to the appraisals.  The day had a lovely warm atmosphere and we look forward to when Warren can come back again. 

Travelling back in time

Coming up in November we have two very special events that celebrate and reflect on history as a nation and our own personal histories.

Travelling Treasures from the State Library of Victoria brings items from the State Library's collections to Victorian public libraries, in a program of free evening talks that offer rare access to unique books, documents and artefacts.  We will be hosting these free events at two of our branches in November. 

Kyabram Library, Lake Road on Wednesday 17th November from 6pm and Echuca Branch Library Thursday 18th from 6pm.  Please join us to view the following treasures :

• the second edition of the Melbourne Advertiser newspaper (1838)
• Raffaelo Carboni's The Eureka Stockade (1855)
• pages from Ned Kelly's famous Jerilderie Letter (1879)
• documents from the Ern Malley literary hoax (1944)
• correspondence from award winning author Sonya Hartnett's early career (1980s)

On Friday 19th November we are very pleased to have an antique appraisal day with Warren Joel from Leonard Joel Antiques.  Warren will be at the Shire of Campaspe Function Room, Heygarth Street, Echuca from 10am - 3 pm for valuations.  $5 per valuation, maximum of 3 per person.  Tea and coffee will be available from our Friends of the Library.  Even if you don't have something that you would like valued it will be a fascinating day to sit, watch and listen to the appraisals. 

For more information please contact us on 1300 666 535

The Man Booker Prize

Congratulations go to Howard Jacobson on winning this years 50,000 pound Man Booker Prize. Unfortunately Australia's own Peter Carey missed out on securing this prestigious award. Howard received the prize for his novel 'The Finkler Question' More information about the shortlist, the award ceremony and details on the award can be found at www.themanbookerprize.com

Feeling like some natural healing?

We are delighted to have Reflexologist Rebecca Cole back at Campaspe again. Rebecca is conducting two free workshops on reflexology at Rochester and Echuca this month. Rochester's session is this coming Tuesday at 1.30pm at the Library and Echuca's is on Monday 25th at the Shire of Campaspe Function Room at 11am.
Not sure what it is all about, now is your chance to find out!
There is no cost or bookings required, just come along.
Rebecca will explain the benefits of reflexology and conduct some 'hands on' applications.
Look forward to seeing you, for more information please contact us on 1300 666535 or email libraries@campaspe.vic.gov.au

New website coming soon

The staff at the library are very excited about our new library website which will be going live very soon. You will notice quite a different approach, there will be much more information about coming events, online resources to assist you, links to great websites, new genealogy/children's and youth blogs. We are hoping to go live later this week so watch out for the change. The web address will be the same as it is now www.campaspe.vic.gov.au/library
We look forward to your feedback which can be sent to libraries@campaspe.vic.gov.au