Search the Masterton District Library Blog
The Summer Reading Programme is back, and this year we’re encouraging kids to ‘Be A Legend- Read!’ with a theme drawn from the myths and legends of Ancient Greece. Funded by the Eastern and Central Community Trust, the Summer Reading Programme is offered by libraries throughout the Eastern and Central region. The Summer Reading Programme aims to encourage a love of reading and books amongst children and thousands have benefited from the programme over the past 15 years.
Children (pre-school and primary aged) enrolled in the Summer Reading Programme talk to library staff about the books they have been reading (or had read to them) and in exchange receive incentive prizes. Those kids who complete the programme (by reporting in to the library on four or more occasions over the six weeks it runs for) are also eligible to attend finale celebrations with more prizes, certificates, food and entertainment.
Also available are the SRPlus and read+ programme which operate on a slightly different basis. SRPlus is designed for intermediate aged kids and read+ has been developed for secondary students. Participants in both these programmes receive a booklet in which they write book reviews. These are then shown to library staff and for every three reviews they complete they can choose a book to keep. There are some fantastic books available and this year teens enrolled in the read+ programme have the added incentive of entering a prize draw to win an iPod.
In the Wairarapa the Be A Legend-Read! Summer Reading Programme, SRPlus and read+ programmes are being offered by the Pahiatua, Eketahuna, Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough libraries. Masterton Library also has 50 places available for speakers and readers of Māori to do the Summer Reading Programme in Te Reo.
At Masterton registration night is on Thursday the 24th of November from 3:00 to 7:30pm. The Tararua libraries including Eketahuna and Pahiatua will be taking registrations from the 28th of November. The Wairarapa Library Service (Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough) will be taking registrations from around the middle of November. If you would like more information on registering or the programme in general, please contact your local library.
Thanks to the co-operation of local councils, the hard work of librarians, and the financial support of the Eastern and Central Community Trust, the Summer Reading Programme has been incredibly successful tool for the encouragement of reading. Children enrolled on the programme can maintain and even improve their reading skills over the summer break - a period when many loose the gains they have made at school. For those not yet at school it is a chance to become more familiar with books and reading; the SRPlus and read+ programmes are great vehicles to keep older children and teens reading; and for all it is a chance to get to know their librarians. And on top of all these benefits, it’s a whole lot of fun. So let’s help grow more legendary readers with the 2011/12 Summer Reading Programmes.
The SMART network of libraries is now active and proving to be a great success, with Masterton readers at the forefront. Nearly 2,000 library users from 23 libraries around the lower North Island have signed up for a SMART card since the service went live last month, and more than 400 of these are from Masterton. The SMART card provides access to more than half a million books, DVDs, CDs and magazines and SMART borrowers have already placed 5,646 requests for library items.
SMART (Sharing and Managing A Region Together) is a collaboration between the libraries of Masterton, Hutt City, Porirua, Kapiti, Whitireia Community Polytechnic and WelTec and is unique in New Zealand in that it incorporates both public and tertiary libraries. The SMART network is also allowing for unprecedented levels of collaboration between the libraries, but still enabling each to retain its own identity, and reflect the character of their different communities. It has been a learning experience for all of us at the library and a lot of work has gone into getting it to work, but it’s very rewarding to see it being adopted with so much enthusiasm.
Borrowers who sign up to SMART are able to use their cards at any of the member libraries, or request the items they want and have them delivered to their closest library. They can do this either in the library or online via the Internet. Borrowed items can be dropped off at any of the member libraries who will make sure it gets back to its ‘home’ location. A dedicated courier service runs between the libraries each day and if an item is available (on the shelf), the aim is to have it ready for pick-up within three days of the request being made.
There is no fee for Masterton residents to sign up to SMART and although there may be rental charges for certain items, it costs nothing to reserve them or have them delivered to their local library. There has been a considerable effort to consolidate the loan policies and charges of the individual libraries and the full outline of each library’s individual practices can be accessed through the SMART website. The SMART option has also been extended to our out-of-district borrowers who for either $35 for six months or $65 for a year can gain full access to all the resources of the SMART collaboration.
The collection that has been created by the SMART network is huge and allows us to provide a greatly enhanced service to our borrowers. While we have always aimed to offer as comprehensive a service as possible, limitations of budget and space inevitably placed some restrictions on what we could provide. Although we could augment this to some degree through inter-library loans, the ready access SMART provides to a greatly expanded collection is a significant improvement. The ability for borrowers to be able to use their SMART cards in other libraries, whether they be shopping in the Hutt or holidaying on the Kapiti Coast, just adds to the appeal.
Last month we had a special launch of SMART at the library with guests including council CEO Wes ten Hove, mayor Garry Daniell and councillor Lyn Patterson. We were also able to switch our first borrower over to a SMART membership and begin the process of requesting books from the other SMART libraries. It was the start of what is already proving to be one of the most exciting developments in the library’s history and we have high hope for the continuing success and benefits of the SMART network.
Below is the cake we had made to mark the occassion.
Food has generally been considered something of a no-no in libraries, along with disruptive noise and weapons of mass destruction. And while we are very keen to keep food off books (there are numerous stories out there in library world of rashers of bacon being used as bookmarks), the truth is there has always been a great deal of food available in the library, but it is contained within the books. We have hundreds of titles dedicated to food and food preparation available in the library, enough to satisfy the most voracious of appetites.
Being one of the basics of life, food understandably has an important place in human history. In A Taste of History author and documentary maker Bryan Bruce uncovers the stories behind our favourite foods including tomatoes, potatoes and chocolate. We also have several books looking at the history of food here in New Zealand and the evolution of our national cuisine. These include A Distant Feast: the Origin of New Zealand’s Cuisine by Tony Simpson and First Catch Your Weka: a Story of New Zealand Cooking by David Veart. Both books also feature recipes for those wanting to recreate food from our past.
When it comes to recipes our books can generally be divided up into those that look at a particular type of food or dish such as vegetarian or seafood; books that consider a particular type of cooking such as baking or barbecuing or the food of different countries and regions; or general cookbooks that tackle a range of food types and cooking styles. The latter are often produced by well-known chefs and cooks who, with the popularity of television cooking shows, have become household names.
Included amongst these celebrity chefs are names such as Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay and Rick Stein, and we hold several cook books by each of these writers. Often these cook books are tied in with a TV series such as Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, Rick Stein’s Food Heroes or Nigella Express. The interest around Gordon Ramsay is so great that in addition to many cook books, he has also released two biographies, Humble Pie and Playing with Fire.
We also have a good selection of books written by New Zealand foodies who, while perhaps not as widely known as their international contemporaries, are very popular here in New Zealand. Included amongst these are names such as Jo Seagar, Simon Gault, Al Brown, Peta Mathias, Ruth Pretty and perhaps the best known name in New Zealand food, Dame Alison Holst, who published her first cookbook in 1966. In recent year’s Annabel Langbein has been a prolific and popular writer of cookbooks. Her book The Free Range Cook was New Zealand’s best-selling title in 2010 and the accompanying television series (which we also have available on DVD) has been screened around the world including Australia, France, Israel, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Cooking is increasingly popular with children (as witnessed by the Australian television series Junior Masterchef) and we have many books available to help children learn to cook. Included amongst these are titles such as Stew a Cockatoo: My Aussie Cookbook by Ruthie May, Who’s Cooking Tonight written by teenager Claire Gourley, and Roald Dahl’s Completly Revolting Recipes which features such delights as Plushnuggets, Hot Frogs, and Glumptious Globgobblers. With all these resources available finding books to inspire and instruct kids to have a go in the kitchen shouldn’t be a problem - though getting them to clean up afterwards may be a different matter.
There are also a number of fiction authors who use food and cooking in their plots and some who even go so far as to include recipes in their books. Laura Childs ‘Tea Shop Mysteries’ are, perhaps unsurprisingly, mysteries solved by the owner of a small tea shop. The books include a selection of recipes and suggestions for tea parties. Similarly in the Hannah Swensen Mysteries, Joanne Fluke writes mysteries that also include recipes that relate to the story. The Plum Pudding Murder for example features the recipes for the main characters (and presumably the authors) favourite Christmas time meals.
As if all these books weren’t enough, we also have many magazines that cater to our love of good food. Not only are there a number of general titles such as The Australian Women’s Weekly, Your Home and Garden, Next and NZ House & Garden that have regular food sections, we also have a selection of titles specifically dedicated to food such as Dish, Cuisine, and New Zealand Healthy Food. This wealth of information may not make the daily chore of deciding what to make for dinner any easier, but if you’re looking for inspiration or something special the library has it all.
All this food can have a consequence however, and many different diets have been designed to help us loose unwanted kilos. Included amongst these, and held here at the library, are The F2 Diet by Audrey Eyton, the enticingly named Eat Yourself Slim by Rosemary Conley, The South Beach Diet by Arthur Agatson, and Dr Phil McGraw’s Ultimate Weight Solution. We also have many books on nutrition that give advice on the benefits of different foods and the best foods to help in different health situations. Included amongst these is the arrestingly titled 101 Foods that Could Save Your Life by David W. Grotto.
From absolute beginners just starting out in the kitchen, to more experienced cooks wanting to expand their repertoires, and anyone wanting to cook and eat healthier foods, we have the books in the library to inform and inspire. Issuing these often lavishly illustrated books can be an uncomfortable experience for library staff, particularly just before lunch time, but we are very pleased to see them being used. We only ask that you keep the food in, rather than on the books.
Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library
In the Wairarapa the Be A Legend-Read! Summer Reading Programme, SRPlus and read+ programmes are being offered by the Pahiatua, Eketahuna, Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough libraries. Masterton Library also has 50 places available for speakers and readers of Māori to do the Summer Reading Programme in Te Reo.
