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Library




  • Books, Grimm, Internet, Library

    Download e-books to your nifty device

    15.02.11 | Permalink | Comment?

    If you have an e-book reading device such as an iPod Touch or an iPhone*, you can download e-books for free using your library card. All you need to do is search for “Overdrive Media Console” in the Apple App store, download said media console and then browse the library’s growing collection of e-books.

    Here are some new YA e-book titles:

    * This is also true of other e-book readers, like the Sony Reader, the Kobo (but sadly not the Kindle). For a complete list and more info go here.


  • Isn't that cool?, Library, News

    New Teen Space

    14.12.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    Sophie, Kate, Izzy, Hayley and Christina from Wellington Girls College won an award in the BP Community Enterprise Project for re-designing our Teen Space in Cummings Park.

    We love what you did!


  • Grimm, Library

    Free E-Books at the Library

    18.11.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    Do you enjoy the virtual page-turning experience? If you are do (doh) you might be interested to hear that you can now borrow e-books from Wellington City Libraries’ Overdrive service.

    Some of the titles already available include the following:

    (and much more)

    Overdrive e-books are in EPUB format, and will work on a PC, Mac, Sony Reader or Kobo (but not unfortunately a Kindle). In December/January you will also be able to access them on iPads, iPhones and iPod touches.

    Like Overdrive audiobooks, e-books are free to download, and you won’t have to worry about overdues. For more information about what you will need to start downloading e-books have a look at this page here.

    * Incidentally, these are some of the books that we think are the choicest.


  • Horror, Library, Study

    GOOD LUCK

    10.11.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    Yup, it’s that time.

    We can’t sit your exams (and you probably wouldn’t want my French mark) but we would like to help, so:

    We have old exam papers, if you would like to use them in your study. Just ask one of the librarians at the desk. (In Central ask at the children’s desk or on the second floor.)

    We’ve collected some tips and sites that might help you here

    When you need a break, you might like our facebook page which has some fine ways to use your time.

    And lastly if any old people are being too noisy and disturbing you,  please ask a librarian to shush them. It’s only fair.

    Good Luck!


  • Edna Welthorpe, Library

    Cover to Cover

    05.11.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    Cover to Cover is Kerikeri High School’s library blog, and it has loads of content! Loads of excellent content that we wish we had (and maybe will have soon, haha). Anyway, do take a look!


  • Grimm, Library

    We’re Back

    27.10.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    Hello again! We’re back from our hiatus. It was fun. Now it’s business as usual, with a few changes you might like to note:

    1) Check your library card online. When you log in to your card you’ll notice it all looks a bit different (font, mainly). Some enhancements include:

    • You can see where you got that book. Huzzah. In the expanded view of what you’ve got out look at “loaned at”. So now you’ll never have to wonder again.
    • Again, in the expanded view you will see book covers. So you’ll know exactly what that book you can’t find looks like, which is a good starting point. Look under the couch.
    • All the fees and lost stuff is lumped together under “charges, fees and lost material”. If you’ve had something for really rather ages it won’t appear in the “loaned” list, it’ll be in the don’t really want to go there but should if I want to use my library card list. Easy
    • In the reserves you can see how many available copies the library has. Number 37 in the queue doesn’t look so bad if there are 20 copies, for example.

    2) Normal common or garden variety catalogue searching. A couple of things to note on the Classic Catalogue: for some titles you will be able to read the first chapter. Also, don’t forget to read the catalogue searching help file if you want to do advanced Boolean search type things, or if you just want to know which search type best suits your needs.

    Cool and useful trivia for the day: proximity searching

    When searching, you can specify how close you want the words you’re looking for to be together. You can also use (w)  and (n) to retrieve results with your words in a specific order and a specific number of words apart.

    (w) specifies how many words apart and in what order. Insert a number to specify that you want the words to appear no more than that number apart (anywhere from 1 to 99).  So something like Lady (3w) Grey will give you Lady Grey or Lady Jane Grey, for example, but not Grey Lady.

    (n) just specifies how many words apart. Therefore green (4n) ham will give you results for green ham, and also green eggs and ham, but not recipe books involving green beans lightly drizzled with olive oil covered in ham, with a mention of a recipe for scrambled eggs at the bottom of the page.

    [I learned this by reading the informative catalogue help page mentioned above.]


  • Library, Library Serf, Study

    The Oh Yay It’s Almost Exam Time Blog Post

    14.10.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    KitKatNearly time to study for exams? Never fear, here are some links and stuff that will help you:

    Rather than shutting yourself in your room to study, you could also consider the library as a venue: we’ve got copies of NCEA study guides, and some past exam papers (or you could download from the NZQA site at the library), tables, chairs, and ambience.

    If you’re needing to procrastinate take a small micropause, here are some non-study related links that may interest you:


  • Library, Library Serf

    New Digital Audiobooks

    05.10.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    If you like listening to books then you’ll be keen to see what’s new in the digital audiobook collection: a couple of princesses, some vampires, a high school student who can travel through spacetime to distant territories, and something for Glee fans.

    The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor – “Princess Alyss Heart is brutally cast out of Wonderland by her vicious Aunt Redd, who beheads Alyss’ mother (Off with her head, she cries!) and begins to rule over Wonderland with an iron fist.” (Overdrive catalogue)

    Princess Ben, Catherine Gilbert Murdock – “With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle’s highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts: mastering an obstinate flying broomstick, furtively emptying the castle pantries, setting her hair on fire…” (Overdrive catalogue)

    Also new to Overdrive are: The Strange Power and The Possessed, L J Smith, books one and two of the Dark Visions series, and also all eight books in the Pendragon series by D J McHale. Finally for Glee fans you can listen to the first spin-off book, Glee: The Beginning by Sophia Lowell.

    You can browse the Overdrive collection: have a look at the young adult collection, and also the children’s fiction collection: start here.

    What’s Overdrive? It’s a collection of digital audiobooks that’s available to you for free if you have a WCL library card. It’s easy to use: just download the Overdrive media console (kind of like an iTunes equivalent), browse for books and start downloading (each catalogue record will tell you about format and compatibility).


  • Library, Library Serf

    Teen only night! At! Karori!

    04.10.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    teenonlynight


  • Grimm, Library, Writing

    About an Author: Sarah Dessen

    22.09.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    We recently-ish did a post about a Top 100 YA fiction list, in which Sarah Dessen featured strongly. So what about Sarah Dessen then? Who is she and why is she so popular? Here’s a very brief summary.

    Sarah Dessen is the writer of (currently) nine novels for young adults, all of them stand-alone (which is unusual, since it seems everyone thinks you have to write series to be popular). We have them all! She studied creative writing in college (lucky her) and her first book, That Summer, was completed while she was waitressing (good job for writers: write during the day, wait at night).

    Sarah Dessen fans (wittily called dessenites) love her for her realism, her focus on interpersonal relationships (the catch-all subject for fiction), and, yes, her books are a little bit romantic. Of Just Listen, possibly her most critically well received novel, one reviewer wrote, “Annabel and Owen’s finely limned connection alone gives this novel staying power”.

    If you’re wanting to make a serious study of Sarah Dessen’s works then the place to go is the Literature Resource Centre. This is one of the online databases you can get at through MyGateway.info. The Literature Resource Centre is a fantastic resource: there are reviews (separated into reviews and more highbrow literary criticism), biographical articles and interviews, plus much more. Great for your NCEA reading log.

    Sarah Dessen on t’internet:
    Website | Twitter | Blog | Facebook


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