Library News

LIBRARY NEWS ITEMS

MARCH 2023

Friday 24 March

Did you know we have an interesting range of DVDs available for borrowing? You can select from world movies both in English and subtitled, TV shows, documentaries and filmed versions of live theatre, musicals and operas. The original collection was first donated to the Maldon Golden Movies film group and was stored for a while at the house of MGM President Graham Pitts. Then he decided that the library was a better location for sharing the collection with the wider community and so it came to us. Over time more DVDs have been added but the original generous donation remains the core. Ross, who probably knows the collection better than anyone, recommends Fellini’s Intervisa about the magic of film making. Or you may be interested in the little-known film Till Human Voices Wake Us made in Maldon starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter. Why not borrow one for World Theatre Day this week?

Wednesday 22 March

Did you know you can look for books in the library by checking our online catalogue at maldonlibrary.org.au? You can search by title, keyword, subject or author. Our library team did a keyword search recently to find books for World Water Day on March 22 and, in particular, to find books related to its theme of the sustainable management of fresh water resources. Our search revealed 65 books, most of them novels, with water as part of their title or content.

But the search also showed that we would find what we were looking for in our Environment and Sustainability Section and the Gardening Section. Talking Water: An Australian Guidebook for the 21st Century, commissioned by the Farmhand Foundation, looks at ‘the management of water, its source, its availability, its harvesting and the infrastructure needed to respond to the demands of both society and the environment’. The Gardening Section has four possibilities, including Correas: Australian Plants for Waterwise Gardens by Maria Hitchcock, a popular book that has been borrowed numerous times in the last few years. It takes the reader through the discovery of the genus by Joseph Banks, how to propagate correas, how to grow them and which birds they will attract to your garden (with illustrations by John Gould). Its largest section is devoted to the different types of correas, each one accompanied by a photograph, cultivation notes and a distribution map − including ‘Coliban River’ and ‘Inglewood Gold’ from our region.

Coincidently, while we were doing our search, a donation came in that fitted perfectly: The Waterwise Australian Native Garden by Angus Stewart and A.B. Bishop. With stunning photos, it focusses on garden design and plant selection for a more ‘reliable’ garden that is both practical and aesthetic. It’s a terrific new addition to the Gardening Section.

Monday 13 March

The library is closed on Monday 13 for the Labour Day Public Holiday which is now synonymous with Moomba, but was set up to celebrate the momentous achievement in 1856 of Victorian stonemasons who brought about the introduction of the eight-hour working day as part of the international union-led ‘eight-hour day’ movement ‘eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest’ was the slogan. Here at the library, we have been labouring away (but not for eight-hours a day) to get books ready for our garage sale stall, which was a great success. We’ve also made some headway in revamping the Hallway where we have set up a History and Geography section with Australian, World and Local subsections. The Cooking and Sport sections have had makeovers with displays to catch the eye as you come in the door. True Crimes, which was hiding on a bottom shelf in the Hallway, has moved into the Main Room where there are also three new sections: Indigenous and Reconciliation; Travel Tales and Animal Tales – all non-fictions. Ross is continuing to catalogue our rather impressive DVD collection, housed at the end of the Hallway, and Fiona is doing wonders with the children’s book collection and the Children’s Library Room itself. We’ll keep you posted. Talking of posting, our news and book reviews are now also being posted weekly on the website –http://maldonlibray.org.au – check it out!

BARGAIN BOOK SALE

Saturday 4 March: We’re participating in the Maldon Town-wide Garage Sale with several stalls outside the library. We’ll have some bric-a-brac but mostly we’ll have a range of good-quality fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children to appeal to a wide range of reading tastes. Be sure to come and check us out.  

Wednesday 8 March: We’re celebrating International Women’s Day with a display of books all written by or about women. To mark the occasion, we’re also reviewing two new books about remarkable Australian women, one who made her mark on this region in the last century and one who made her mark on the world very recently.

FEBRUARY NEWS 2023

BARGAIN BOOK SALE

THIS SATURDAY MARCH 4TH

MALDON ATHENAEUM LIBRARY

9AM TO 2PM

A HUGE RANGE OF GREAT BOOKS FOR SALE

FICTION, NON-FICTION, AND KID’S BOOKS

ALL BOOKS $3 OR 2 FOR $5

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Our new non-fiction section ‘Indigenous and Reconciliation’ is now set up in the Main Room for browsing and borrowing.

The Reconciliation Australia website, www.reconciliation.org.au, describes reconciliation as a involving all Australians, both indigenous and non-indigenous, in understanding and valuing each other’s cultures, rights and experiences and accepting our nation’s history. Our collection aims to contribute to this process through a diverse range of non-fiction genres by both indigenous and non-indigenous authors. For example, historian Henry Reynold’s book Truth Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement examines the legal and historical assumptions underpinning white settlement and sovereignty. Indigenous politician and Yawuru elder, Pat Dodson, described it as allowing ‘Australians to build a better more truthful Australia’. Closer to home, historian Bain Attwood’s The Good Country looks specifically at encounters between the Djadja Wurrung and white settlers, administrators and miners in our region. Memoirs such as Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Danalis and Wandering Girl by Glenyse Ward shine a light, in very different ways and from very different perspectives, on both history and culture. Browsers will also find books about Aboriginal myth, story and art as well as biographies of prominent indigenous people from Truganini, survivor of the Tasmanian massacres, to the recently departed Uncle Jack Charles.  This diverse collection is in its fledgling stages. We welcome suggestions or donations of books to enhance it.

 

AUGUST NEWS 2022

August 22nd to 27th is Children’s Book Week and the library is celebrating with a bumper BOOK SALE of children’s books. Come in and have a browse, lots to choose from.

SCRABBLE CLUB at the library starting Saturday September 2nd from 11am – 2pm. All welcome, tea, coffee and nibbles, gold coin donation.

Welcome to our news section. Over time we will be adding events and activities that we hope will be of interest to our library members and to the local community.

Today, July 10 2022  is the launch of our updated website where, for the first time you will be able to view the entire library collection online and make a book reservation via the internet. This will allow members to view our collection at their  leisure from home and choose from around 20,000 books covering many topicsi

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