Man Booker short list announced

The 2010 Man Booker Short List was announced earlier this week. The 13 books on the long list have been narrowed down to these six:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Atlantic Books - Grove Atlantic)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song (Headline Review - Headline Publishing Group)
Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

Full details are available on the Man Booker Prize website.

Photo credit Man Booker Prize website

Hello to Leigh Primary School

The final Rodney Libraries Roadshow for the year heads out to Leigh Primary School this morning to say hello to one of our favourite small schools. They are also some of our most ardent fans (which is why we like them), having recently picked up the prize for the highest school participation in the 2010 Mayor Penny's Reading Challenge.

Anne and Nicki will be talking about what the Library can do for you, as well as having some fun reading books, storytelling and getting the students to help us act out some stories. We'll also be talking about some of the latest books and the upcoming school holiday events.

Canterbury Earthquake

I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like for the people of Christchurch and surrounding areas at the moment. Not only because of the initial 7.1 magnitude quake on Saturday morning, but now having to deal with the clean-up and rebuild amongst the continuous after shocks and with severely limited services. Our thoughts are with you all and we sympathise with your losses both personal and in terms of the heritage that you have lost.

In library terms, all libraries in the area remain closed. Libraries generally have disaster management plans and these will now be put into action as management and staff try to restore some sense of normality to their service and city. I haven't seen any direct library photos from any of the Christchurch libraries yet to find out what sort of devastation has greeted them when they unlock their doors, or if any of the libraries have suffered any substantial damage. But it probably looks at least a little like this image from the 2007 Gisborne Earthquake. And here is a link to some of the scenes at Canterbury University

Most of us think in terms of a major disaster happening while we are at home and we are all encouraged to have our emergency kits ready. But how many of us know if we have an Emergency Kit at work if the disaster happens while we are there. Maybe it is a good time to check.

Here are a few links that may be of interest.

Civil Defence - Be Prepared Links to information on how to Get Thru whether you are at home, work or school.

Canterbury Earthquake A new site with all the most up to date information

Moata's Blog Idle One person's experience of the earthquake

Relief Funds Details of the different relief funds which have been set up if you would like to help the region through.

Biodiversity lecture series at Auckland Central Library #3

United Nations has designated 2010 as the Year of Biodiversity and Auckland Central City Library has organised a series of four free lectures to generate awareness of this diverse and interesting topic. The third is on Wednesday 8 September.

Grapes, Guava, Ngutu Kaka and Land Crabs.
David Havell, Biodiversity Technical Support Officer at DOC will be talking about threatened species and ecosystems.

The Department of Conservation manages several biodiversity programmes in remote areas. Islands such as Hauturu in the Hauraki Gulf, Raoul Island - midway between Tonga and the North Island - and Moturemu Island in the Kaipara are important sites for threatened plants and animals. Predatory mammals and mammalian herbivores have been removed from many of these islands and recovery is underway, yet island biodiversity faces several threats including some from favourite plants such as grapes, passion fruit and guava.

Wednesday 8 September 2010
12.00pm - 1.00pm, Central City Library, Whare Wānanga, level 2
Bookings essential, phone 377 0209 to reserve a place

Wriggle and Rhyme at Rodney Libraries

"Wriggle & Rhyme: Active Movement" for early learning is an initiative which allows parents, babies and toddlers to learn and participate in active movement experiences which can contribute to early literacy development. It has evolved from a 2008 Auckland and SPARC (Sport and Recreation NZ) initiative. In Rodney is it run as a partnership between Sport North Harbour, SPARC and Rodney Libraries.

Free ‘Wriggle and Rhyme’ music and movement sessions for very young children are on during school term time at Rodney Libraries.

Sessions are 30 minutes long and prior booking is not required to attend these.
- Helensville Wednesday 10:30 a.m.
- Mahurangi East Thursday 9:30 a.m.
- Warkworth Thursday 10:30 a.m.
- Whangaparaoa Friday 10:00 a.m.
- Kumeu Friday 10:30 a.m.
- Orewa Friday 11:30 a.m.

The weekly sessions are targeted at babies – 2 years olds, but older pre school children are also welcome to attend.