Tangerines, Air Raids and Santamobiles

Our friends at Cartwheel Arts have been working with groups and individuals in Darnhill and writer Joy Winkler to create a little gift book of Christmas words called "Tangerines, Air Raids and Santamobiles" to get people into the Christmas spirit.

Wartime memories and stories for children sit alongside stories about how we celebrate Christmas today and young people's hopes for the future. Joy Winkler has also contributed a special new poem to the book.

You can find some copies of the book at Darnhill Library.

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Darnhill Festival was a great success. Seasonal cheer was provided by Father Christmas, who dealt with 150 children with the full great good humour that only he can bring.

Darnhill Festival — Past, Presence and Future

Ann and the staff at Darnhill Library are working full-tilt to support the latest Darnhill Festival, which takes place on Monday 17th December.

If it's a nice day on Monday and you visit the library you'll see the Poetree — poems will be hung from its branches — and an exhibition of the work that's been done with some of the artists from Cartwheel Arts. If it's not a nice day the library will be hosting some of the other events, too.

We're definitely looking forward to the unveiling of The Father Christmas of the Future by Year 2 of St. Margaret's School!

Heywood and Wheatsheaf Libraries — temporary closures

The Wheatsheaf Library will be closed for re-carpeting from Wednesday 7th November 2007 for approximately 3 weeks.

Books and other items on loan can be returned to the Special Services unit which is situated opposite the main Library entrance in the Wheatsheaf Centre.

Heywood Library will be closed from Monday 12th November 2007 for approximately six months for extensive refurbishment works.

Some of the stock from Heywood Library, notably Best sellers and Graphic Novels, are being temporarily transferred to Darnhill Library, which will have a temporary extension to its opening hours.:

Darnhill Library opening hours from 12th November 2007:

Monday	9.30-1	2-7.30pm
Tuesday	9.30-1	2-5.30pm
Wednesday	9.30-12.30pm
Thursday	9.30-1	2-5.30pm
Friday	9.30-1	2-5.30pm
Saturday	9.30-1	2-4pm

Your custom is still welcome!

Items issued at Heywood and the Wheatsheaf in the run up to the closures have extended loan periods so that they are not due back until the libraries are expected to re-open. Fines are not incurred on days when libraries are closed.

Borrowers from Heywood and the Wheatsheaf Libraries are welcome in all libraries in the Borough. Your barcoded library card lets you borrow or reserve items from any of our libraries.

We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience.

Darnhill disappointment

Disappointing news: our Big Lottery Funding bid for the creation of a new library and learning centre co-located with the clinic and a children's centre has been unsuccessful. By definition a bid process offers no guarantees of success but it still hurts to fail.

What next? Well, we still need to modernise Darnhill Library and we still want to work in partnership with other organisations in the community. We'll be keeping an eye out for opportunities to put some, at least, of the ideas into action in the future, albeit probably on a less ambitious scale. We'll also be reviewing our bid to see what we can learn from the experience that might help our chances in future.

Big Lottery Funding bid for Darnhill

The Library Service had submitted a bid for funding to the Big Lottery. We have asked for £1.4 million to refurbish Darnhill Library and create a new Darnia Library and Learning Centre, co-located with the Clinic and a Children & Young People’s Centre.

The Big Lottery have contacted us three times for further information, which suggests that they're seriously considering the bid. We’ll be finding out if we’ve been successful in early in the autumn.