Library News

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 21^st 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.