News, what's new & more
Magazines have been a big part of Libby for a while now, but thanks to a recent update, magazines are easier to enjoy than ever. This latest version of Libby removes the need to borrow a magazine before reading it. It also introduces the Newsstand and Magazine Rack!
Let’s dig into these new features so you’re ready to start reading right away.
Buenas noticias! We are happy to announce a new programme called Cuentacuentos! These storytimes are delivered entirely in Spanish!
This is a perfect opportunity to practice your Spanish, so get ready for engaging storytelling and exciting activities that will entertain the whole whānau.
Starting from 2nd September, join us at Te Māhanga, Karori Library on the first Saturday of the month at 11am. Mark your calendar!
Continue reading “New Programme: Cuentacuentos – Storytimes in Spanish”
On Monday 14 February 2022 Wellington City Council is launching a recycling programme to divert used household batteries from the landfill.
You can drop off your used batteries for free at:
1. Check your batteries are accepted.
Accepted batteries:
Not accepted*
*Items in the Not accepted category can be disposed of at the Southern Landfill.
2. Tape lithium battery terminals with the tape provided.
3. Drop your batteries – you’re good to go!
After your batteries are picked up, the components will be separated and sent for re-use, recovery and re-processing.
Batteries contain harmful chemicals, which can leach into soil and waterways if they go in the landfill. Fires can also occur when they are disposed of directly to landfill.
Recycling batteries saves valuable resources. They contain lots of useful elements, such as metals, plastic and some of the chemicals, which can be re-used.
Under our Solid Waste Management and Minimisation Bylaw (2020), disposing of batteries (including household batteries) in kerbside waste is no longer permitted.
Brilliant… a rural crime novel with remarkable breadth and depth. – Sydney Morning Herald
Over the past three years, journalist Chris Hammer has transformed himself into one of Australia’s leading crime writers. His debut novel Scrublands won the CWA New Blood Dagger Award and the Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year, while his latest title, Treasure and Dirt has been described as “a criminally good crime novel set in an evocatively desolate outback opal mining town.”
This Thursday Chris will be discussing Treasure and Dirt and answering questions about his life as a journalist and author right here via Zoom. Simply click on the link below at 7pm on Thursday, 11 November (and enter the passcode) to join Chris and host Ben Hobson for this not to be missed discussion!
CHRIS HAMMER: IN CONVERSATION
DATE: 11 November 2021
TIME: 7pm
COST: Free
Click here to join!
Passcode: 199986
Treasure and Dirt, by Chris Hammer
“In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable young people and billionaires do as they please. Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot. Nothing about the miner’s death is straightforward, not even who found the body. Homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate…” (Adapted from Overdrive description)
Every month our team releases an eNewsletter that is published on our website, in it you will find the full list of events we have in all our libraries, some highlighted blogs, new items, a kids colouring page and links to our online resources.
While we wait for a new date for ComicFest 2021, meet Austin Milne in this “5 minutes with” interview.
Austin Milne has wanted to be a cartoonist since deciding being a dragonologist wasn’t realistic. When he was 12 he tried writing a comic strip about his life but decided to stop because he was too close to the subject matter, instead he made comics about an anthropomorphic emu. Now aged 23, he has had a few comics and is working on a graphic novel about 12-year olds.
Website: austinmilne.wordpress.com
Facebook: @austincomics
Instagram: @austinjmilne
Q: What first got you interested in comics?
From age 8 I would go to my friend’s house and read all his dad’s Peanuts books. He and his sister made their own comics, and so did I. They soon stopped but I had found something I enjoyed. I remember thinking while working on a Tintin rip off: ‘this is like reading but better cause I can make anything happen that I want’.
Q: What is your average day like?
I’m still working out the perfect way to run a day. I’m most productive drawing early in the morning, when I go for at least 2 walks a day and eat lots of vegetables.
I write best at cafes or on trains, and draw best somewhere warm and quiet.
Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
I’ve been working on a graphic novel for middle readers for the last 2 years to be published by Annual Ink.
Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
I write a schedule for the day in my diary and some notes of what I did yesterday, if I don’t feel like writing, I collage train tickets, drawings, and printed ephemera I chance upon.
Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
Richard Thompson’s Cul De Sac and John Allison’s Bad Machinery are my biggest influences. Lately I’ve been loving the work of Tillie Walden, Noah Van Sciver, George Herriman and Simon Hanselmann. Historically, I was most influenced by Charles Schulz, Lincoln Peirce of Big Nate and a whole host of American newspaper comic strips.
Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
There’s so many! I really love discovering new creators and especially meeting them in person. These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Alex Cara, Sarah Laing, Dylan Horrocks, Gissele Clarkson, Toby Morris Gavin Mouldey, Sharon Murdoch, Sam Orchard, Ross Murray, David Tulloch, Lil MQ, Ursine mundanity https://ursinemundanity.com
Q: What is your dream comic project?
It would be to draw a daily newspaper comic strip, like a really big one in a broadsheet newspaper. And while I’m dreaming I would like it to be full page and in colour, and l would like to be editor of an 8 page comics section in the newspaper and commision and pay New Zealand cartoonists to make strips for it. and it would be paid for by big business sponsoring it, but as part of the deal the businesses would have to ditch identical corporate branding and have each of their stores designed by a cartoonist complete with strange cartoon mascots. And then the newspaper would just become all comics, and it would save newspapers and it would save New Zealand towns from looking boring and it would save comic strips and then it would take off all over the world and become more popular than music.
Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
I will do my best to cosplay as Gissele Clarkson’s drawing of me.
