National Poetry Day
Thursday 8 October 2009 is National Poetry Day, with this year's theme being "Heroes and Heroines."
TS Eliot has been voted the UK's favourite poet.
National Poetry Day web site - the official web site hosted by the Poetry Society
T.S. Eliot's work in our libraries
Man Booker 2009
Hilary Mantel has won this year's Man Booker Prize with "Wolf Hall," set in the world of Henry VIII’s notorious chief minister Thomas Cromwell. We have got copies of "Wolf Hall" in stock in both the Adult Fiction and Best Sellers collections. You might also want to check out some of her other books!
Man Booker Prize web site - the official web site, including articles by short-listed authors
Hilary Mantel's books in our libraries
Meet the author: Sadie Jones
18 September 2009
Come and meet best-selling author Sadie Jones who will be talking about her new novel "Small Wars" at Heywood Library on Wednesday 30 September at 2pm.
Tickets are free, but booking is essential.
Tel: 01706 924941
- More details about this author.
Homelands
18 September 2009
A collection of stories and poems written in English, French and Portuguese by African people living in Rochdale. It's well worth a look:
"Homelands" is published by Tell Us Another One at Cartwheel Arts in conjunction with NESTAC.
National Bookstart Day: Friday 9 October 2009
18 September 2009
Does your child or grandchild have a favourite rhyme? To celebrate National Bookstart Day 2009, there will be special nursery-rhyme themed storytimes for all children under 5 and their grown-ups in our libraries throughout the week. No need to book – just turn up.
Storytimes take place at the same time every week during school term times and everyone is welcome. Why not join the Bookstart Bookcrawl at the same time and make regular library visits even more exciting?
- Under-fives' activities in our libraries — including storytimes and Rhythm & Rhyme
National Bookstart Day web site
Black History Month
18 September 2009
Every October, for over thirty years, Black History Month has been celebrated across the UK. We will be celebrating Black History month with a range of events, displays and reading resources.
- Have you checked out these black writers based in the North West on Lancaster University's Moving Manchester project writers gallery?
- More North West based black writers for you to explore:
Black History Month web site — the official UK web site
Meet the author: Helen Tse
24 August 2009
On Monday 17 August, Alkrington Library was proud to welcome Helen Tse, local author of the phenomenally successful “Sweet Mandarin”
Helen Tse's books in our libraries
Storytelling course
Apologies to everybody who contacted us about the storytelling course. For reasons beyond our control we have had to postpone this programme. We hope to be able to reschedule it in the near future.
Riveting Reads
We had a very difficult time judging the "Riveting Reads" competition, part of Rochdale Libraries’ celebrations for World Book Day 2009. Young people across the borough were invited to tell us all about a favourite book and many of the resulting reviews were absolutely excellent.
Congratulations to Georgina Hulston who won the up to 11 age group and Tazmina Khatun who won the 12 to 16 age group. They each receive a £10 book token.
Highly commended were our runners-up, Beth Duxbury, Samuel Vain, Bridget Sutton, Jasmine Stott, Kurtis Tweedale and Danny Cheetham, who each receive a £5 book token.
Reading groups
If you love books and wish to share your experiences with other people why not come along to one of our many reading groups that are held in our libraries throughout the Rochdale borough. They are informal gatherings, which meet on a regular basis to talk about books of all genres and discuss their enthusiasm for reading. Each group is different; some may take a light hearted approach to reading while others are more highbrow and formal. There is something for everyone!
We also have writing groups and poetry groups for those who wish to branch out and participate in something a little more diverse.
Tired of struggling with small print?
You don't have to have "bad eyesight" to finding reading a chore: there are times when you want to read a book but your eyes really don't want to make much of an effort (especially if you have spent all day staring at a computer screen). Help is at hand: your local library has a wide selection of books in large print, including many titles in Amazon's best-selling list.
Here is a selection of some of the popular titles we currently have in our Large Print Collections:
New large print titles in our libraries
If you are a member of the library and have a PIN number you can use your library barcode and PIN to reserve a copy so that you can pick it up at your local library. If you are a member of the library and don't have a PIN, why not ask a member of staff to set one up for you next time you visit? You can use your barcode and PIN to log into the Catalogue so that you can renew your loans as well as place reservations.
The National Year of Reading becomes Reading For Life
2008 was The National Year of Reading, a celebration of words and reading in every form: from novels to song lyrics, from poetry to film scripts.
This year we are following up the National Year of Reading by joining in a new national literacy campaign called Reading For Life. The campaign, which will launch in Spring 2009, will build on the achievements of the National Year of Reading. The campaign will promote the importance of reading to social justice, and will be aimed at key target audiences such as black minority ethnic children, pre-school children, white working class boys and adult learners.
Reading For Life web site — news about the new programme
Read Up — teenagers have your say!
Due to popular demand we have changed the opening hours for Middleton Children's Library!
Langley Library is now having a regular coffee morning, held on the last Monday of every month between 10.30am and 11.30am.
Heywood Library's Family History Group enjoyed a very interesting and informative introduction to using Family Tree Maker by Florence Sedman at their first meeting of the year on 4 January.
Heywood Library has a Local History meeting on the third Monday of each month.