We're often asked why we don't have the current Top 10 available in our libraries' audio collections. Unfortunately, we can't: one of the conditions of the national agreement made between public libraries and the British Phonographic Industry is that we have to hold back new releases for three months so that it's less likely that library stock would be the source of pirate copies. This means that we're nearly always making material available some weeks after they've been in the charts.The month that we're making a title available in our libraries can be seen in the "Status" column in the Web Catalogue record. Items that will be made available this month have the status "September release."Titles you can look forward to this month include:We currently charge 50p for each three-week loan of audio items (25p for Passport to Leisure holders).
Did you know that we provide free access to a wide range of online reference books and encyclopædias to our readers? All of the online references we subscribe to are available on the Library Online terminals in our libraries.
Some of them are available to you in the convenience of your own home. Your library barcode can provide free access to online resources like:
- The Encyclopedia Britannica
- Grove Art Online
- Grove Music Online
- The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- The Oxford English Dictionary
- Oxford Reference Online.
Links to the services that are available, newsletters, quizzes and users' guides are available on the Web Catalogue.
We also have a wealth of books and other materials to support children's learning and homework. The "Homework Help" section of the Kids' Portal provides subject-based booklists and suggestions for useful websites.
"Quick Reads" is a national initiative providing fast-paced, bite-sized books by bestselling writers for emergent readers, anyone who had lost the reading habit or simply wanted a short, fast read.
We have Quick Reads titles in all our libraries. Not sure what to read next? Have a go at The Quick Reads Quiz.
Booked Up is the new national programme which encourages Year 7 children to read for pleasure. This autumn every 11-year-old in England will be able to choose a free book from a list of 12 specially selected titles.The Reading Agency is working in partnership with Booktrust to promote the Booked Up programme to public and school library services in England. The aim is to provide children with the opportunity to read all the Booked Up titles for free at their public library; to encourage and promote opportunities for joined-up working between public libraries, school library services and schools and to give positive library messages through the programme and its website.To support this programme we've added more copies of the Booked Up titles to our library stock. You can check the Library Catalogue to see whether or not a copy's available at your local library.
Today marks the start of Organic Fortnight, the Soil Association's celebration of organic food and farming. The objective of Organic Fortnight is to encourage those new to organic food and drink to try it and to encourage gardeners to grow their own organic produce.If you're interested in growing and/or eating organic food we have books in our non-fiction collections which might be helpful.
