Late news

Smallbridge Library recently accepted two slightly overdue Library books – one from 1978 and an earlier one from 1973.

We didn't charge hundreds of pounds in overdue fines!

Riveting Reads

To celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 5th March, we ran a book review competition called “Riveting Reads” for children across the borough. There were 2 age groups, up to 11 and 12 to 16, and children were asked to write about one of their favourite books, explaining why they like it and why others should read it too.

We had a fantastic response, receiving over 250 entries, from children as young as 5, right up to 16. Entry forms were available to pick up in libraries or could be downloaded from the council’s website but the best form of publicity proved to be contacting primary and secondary schools via the school’s intranet. Some schools really went for it and obviously had whole classes writing reviews.

Bedtime Story Week 27th May – 3rd June

by Irene Peachey

In conjunction with the launch of Bookstart’s Bedtime Story Week, we had some fantastic events in Heywood throughout the week.

Thursday 28th May
The week began with a joint event at The Yard, the youth and children’s centre on Darnhill, just behind Darnhill Library. The family day event was organized by Woodland Sure Start Children’s Centre. I work on many joint partnership events with Woodland CC and I was invited along to see many of the families I work with at Darnhill who I have not seen for some time due to the library’s refurbishment.

As well as taking along library and Bookstart information, which I was able to share with the families, we had a great story and singing time together.

A Day in the Life of...

Name: Maureen Watson
Role: Library Outreach Worker Bookstart and Early Years

This role is varied and involves working in an outreach capacity plus organising and delivering inhouse Story times and Rhythm and Rhyme sessions.

Currently my activities involve promoting the Library service to families with pre school children in the Rochdale borough. A major part of my role is promoting Bookstart and Bookcrawl. This is outreach work that takes me into many Early Years settings in the borough ie. Nursery Schools, Nursery Classes, Private Nursery provision, Children's Centres and Playgroups.

‘Tell My Story’ Event’

Middleton Library held a ‘Tell My Story’ event on Tuesday 2nd June. We wanted to showcase some of our local studies materials, to encourage people to write down their memories and to have an enjoyable social morning.

• Local residents, Alice Mellalieu-Campbell and Albert Findlow came to talk about their autobiographies.
• We pulled out all the books from our collection which give first hand accounts of people’s lives in Middleton.
• We had representatives of the ‘Middleton Memories’ reminiscence magazine and a member of Langley Library writing group.

All those who attended had a good time and left positive comments.

We were disappointed that we didn’t attract more people. We would have liked to attract some younger people and some who were new to the local studies service. We suspect the theme of the event was a bit off putting (people seem to have thought they would have to contribute).

When we hold similar events in future we will use more publicity and direct it more toward younger people to see if we can encourage them to join in.