Where do you come from?

If one of your burning desires in 2008 is to find out your heritage, Rodney Libraries has plenty to help you.

Start out with tips from the people that have already done this. Books on geneaology are on our shelves in the 929 section. There are plenty to choose

from if you do a subject search in our catalogue. Click on this link for a quick result.

Our Orewa branch houses the collection and records of the Hibiscus Coast Geneaological Society. These are now available for loan but can be viewed at the library. The Hibiscus Coast is just one of the local geneaology groups. They can also be found at Helensville, Warkworth and Wellsford.

And if you need to get further afield, you can use your library card at any of the Rodney Libraries to access the Ancestry Library through the e-resources link on the catalogue home page. Ancestry can only be accessed at the library (unlike most of the other databases we subscribe to for you which you can easily look up from your home computer).

Good luck with your search (or as someone referred to my search once as "tomb tours").

Those radio book reviews

Do you often catch the end of a book review on the radio and think to yourself "That sounds good"? But then you can't remember the name of the book or the author, so when you get to the library all you can do is stare vacantly at the shelves.

We try to help out with this as much as we can by having the local newstations on our bookmark page so please ask if you need help (that's what we are here for). If you can remember the station and the day you heard the review it helps us to track down the book you are looking for. Or you can try it yourself. The NZ Booksellers site book review page has details of all the books reviewed on the National Programme. Other radio and television websites also have details of their book reviews.

However check with us if you are not sure and we can usually track it down for you.

Good reading everyone.

Tennis on a high

Wow - a New Zealander through to the semi finals of the tennis champs and beating the number one seed to get there. I'll certainly be cheering on Marina Erakovic today as she plays to make the final tomorrow. It would be a bit of a fairytale for organisers if the New Zealander would find herself playing comeback queen Lindsay Davenport but whatever happens there has beens ome fantastic tennis.

If watching the games has inspired you to get out and pick up a racquet, there are plenty of local courts and clubs. Rodney Libraries have plenty to help you along the way as well. Check out the catalogue at www.rodneylibraries.govt.nz and enter a subject of keyword search for "tennis" (or if you a feeling lazy just click on this link and you will go straight there). There are plenty of hints and tips for the young and the old.

Or if the weather packs it in at some stage and you are still inspired, there are biographies on the Williams sisters, Agassi, McEnroe and Seles (among others) or read about the history of tennis in New Zealand.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone. Go Marina!!

No late nights

Just a reminder to all our customers. Once again this week there will be no late nights. Today and tomorrow all libraries will be closing at 5.00 pm. All libraries will be open their usual hours on Saturday and Mahurangi East is open on Sunday morning from 9.30am to 12.30pm.

We return to normal hours (including late nights) next week.

Happy New Year!

Hopefully this will be the beginning of a fantastic and fun year for everyone (although our hearts go out to those families whose start to the New Year has been marred by tragedy).

It's traditional around this time of the year to take stock of where you are in life and make some New Year’s resolutions. I have forgone the usual resolutions and have for the past couple of years been working on a list of the 101 things I want to achieve before I die. Which means sometime in the next 50 or so years (being from a line with a gene for longevity) I want to get fit, lose weight and throw myself out of an airplane (to name just three). I may not get to them all this year but it certainly takes some of the pressure off so I can enjoy the summer.

If you've made one (or some) resolutions, and aren't sure where to start let us know either by commenting on this post or by email and we’ll find some resources for you. We'll be posting on this theme over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned...

Don't foget to slip slop slap and wrap today. Ka kite ano
Kowhai Reader