Book your beach reads now!

Book your beach reads now!

July is just around the corner, Chinook readers, so why not book some prime beach reading now?

... Click here for a list of hot titles coming in July
 

Can't decide between reading and exercising?

The solution is finally here:

This lovely bookshelf is by David Garcia , and I saw it first on Stephen Abram's wonderful blog

Why holds matter - getting ready for SILS

When all of our branches are automated and everyone is on SILS, anyone in the province will be able to request our new books, and trust me, they will!

When Saskatoon came onto the system, they brought along over 33,000 holds!  Saskatoon patrons love, love, love their library and they borrow an average of 19 books per capita, one of the highest circulation rates in the country.  They are doing a great job up there, and we've already been learning a lot from partnering with them on SILS.

One of the things we've really got to start doing is training our patrons to place holds on books they want.  Otherwise, those great new books are going to just walk out the door and go to another region and our browsers won't be seeing them until the provincial demand dies down.

So, over the next few months, you'll see some promotional materials aimed at getting them thinking ahead and placing holds.  If every staff member could assist even three people per month to place holds on the Horizon catalogue for the first time, it would make a difference.

To place a hold, you search for the book on Horizon, and keep clicking on the title of the one you want until you get to a screen that looks like this:

From here, it's a snap - the person just clicks on the button marked "place a hold" (circled in green), and then it will ask them for their library card number and PIN number (the default is the last four digits of their phone number).

Et voila!

Tentative SILS dates

As you all know, we will be moving onto the Single Integrated Library System this fall.  The dates below are still tentative, as in a project of this magnitude a change to one detail can result in delays.

AUTOMATED BRANCHES
The tentative go-live date for the automated branches is September 27, so mark that date in your calendars, folks.  Training will happen in advance of that date, and we're asking that people try not to schedule holidays during the two weeks prior.

NON-AUTOMATED BRANCHES
We are still finalizing plans for training staff in non-automated branches.  Once you are trained, your branch will be able to go live on the system and become an automated branch.  As soon as we have the details confirmed, we will be contacting each of you.  In general, we hope to bring as many branches as possible up on the system in October and early November.

Internet Access in Libraries - new study shows 1 in 3 Americans uses public library internet

Not surprising to those of us who work in libraries!  But still - good to see the research happening.  Across the US services in multiple sectors are being slashed as the country deals with the fallout from its economic crisis, and public libraries are not immune.  And yet libraries are one of the first places people turn for help finding jobs, upgrading skills, or applying for government services.  The T-shirt below gives the executive summary ;)  As Canadians, our thoughts and support go out to our colleagues south of the border as they deal with this disastrous situation.

Prizes, prizes - Crozier wins for Swift Current Memoir, Eggers wins LA Times Book Prize

Former Swift Current resident, Lorna Crozier has won the BC Book Prize for non-fiction for her account of growing up in Swift Current. Fans and friends of Crozier were enchanted as she read from the memoir, Small Beneath the Sky, this winter at the Lyric Theatre.  If she comes by again, get your tickets early!

Sticking with our theme of West Coast literary prizes, we have this year's big winner at the LA Times Book Prizes, Dave Eggers.  Eggers' new non-fiction title Zeitoun captured the prizes for both innovation and current interest.  “Zeitoun is a riveting, intimate, wide-scanning, disturbing, inspiring nonfiction account of a New Orleans married couple named Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun who were dragged through their own special branch of Kafkaesque (for once the adjective is unavoidable) hell after Hurricane Katrina. . ..” —James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

 A new category added this year was for graphic novel, and the winner, David Mazzucchelli has been receiving accolades across North America for his all grown up graphic novel Asterios Polyp.  “Mazzucchelli's funny, harrowing and thought-provoking graphic novel is a remarkable portrait of an architect who is forced to build a new life for himself.” – San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of the Year

Canadian Louise Penny tops list of best crime novels of the year

Louise Penny does it again, as Booklist names ner novel The Brutal Telling one of the top crime novels of the year.  Reviewer Bill Ott describes Penny's novels as "village cozy mixed with procedural". Place your holds, mystery lovers.

The complete list of the Year's Best Crime Novels also includes some debut authors, notably another Canadian, Alan Bradley.  Bradley's 11 year old detective Flavia has captured hearts around the world in his debut novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and its sequel, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.  

Two great Canadian mystery writers to watch out for! 

Tell us your stories

One of the best things about being part of a regional library is that you're not alone.

Staff and board members have told me again and again that they love to hear about what's going on in other branches. So if you have a great idea, a great program or event, or a wonderful story about what library service can do, please take the time to share it with your colleagues around the region.

Just e-mail me at chinook.director[at]gmail.com, and I'll make sure it gets posted. Pictures help, too!

First words

Hello and welcome!

Big changes are coming to Chinook and this blog is aimed at keeping boards and staff up to date on what's happening. Other readers are welcome, too, if they would like to discover more about the inside workings of Chinook.

Why a blog?

With 105 staff, and even more local and regional board members, there are a whole lot of different information consumption preferences to contend with. Some people want it all - every last scrap of information I can send out. Some want only the vital bits. And some don't want e-mails - ever. So the blog is just an easy, free mechanism for pushing news out.

As always, feedback is welcome! We are all working towards the same goals - supporting literacy, intellectual freedom and the love of literature in all the big and small communities of Southwestern Saskatchewan - and the best way to get where we're going is by working together.

Read on!

Stephanie Hall
Director,
Chinook Regional Library