little black books big launch

BIG day in Townsville Monday - Jeanie Adams from Black Ink Press (also author of Pigs and Honey, Going for Oysters) is launching 12 little black books - the work of young Indigenous writers and illustrators from Heatley, Aurukun and Garbutt. Congratulations to all involved!

Titles and creators to check out:
The Day My Yumby Went Missing / Graeme Owens
Fishing Time in the Banana Boat / Jesse Mooney
When I Was In the Bush... / Shannon Summers Phillips
Two in a Boat (Boatang mo'pull) / Steve Yunkaporta
Spearing Crabs / Brent Wolmby
Catching Fish (Minh Nga'an Wichan) / Venita Korkaktain
Disaster Camping / Monty Pompey
Watch Out For Cars / Bruce Nelson
My Fishing Adventure / David Inkerman
Trip to Cairns / Erica Kerr
Smashing Aunty Kathy's Car / Rehannon Pompey
My Holiday at Balgal Beach / Tasha Nelson

wordbox is SCISsed!

librarians get excited about some crazy things. I just discovered that wordbox was reviewed on Curriculum Corp and has a SCIS number!! No: 1383316!
Check it. Thanks Nigel Paull, Teacher librarian at South Grafton Primary School, for spreading the word.

eve pownall book of the year

In all the excitement of the Children's Book Week awards, make sure to borrow or buy the books shortlisted for the Eve Pownall book of the year - information books are amazing too!

The awarded books: Alive in the Death Zone / Lincoln Hall (winner)
The Word Spy / Ursula Dubosarsky, Tohby Riddle (honour book)

Simpson and his Donkey / Mark Greenwood, Frané Lessac (honour book).

Enjoy your discovery!

peace cranes

So it's been a busy year with moving home and all, but at least I made it to the theatre before December. The place where I used to live had a fabulous theatre but I saw better plays at the Z-Pac amateur theatre in Hervey Bay. I did see Max Gillies in something at The Brolga some years ago, but apart from that it was all Wickety Wak comebacks and acts. Of course Glenys invited me to a Shakespearean ballet in June but I couldn't go because I was flying up here.

The Civic is smaller than the Brolga but there are some amazing productions coming - Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and Thursday's Child. We have both books at CityLibraries, and Pam was generous enough to show me how to make peace cranes. If Nicole and Pam got together we would have 1000 in no time...

There are so many shows on that I have missed some - sad to miss the Grimstones last week at Riverway - Nic saw this puppetry performance in Brisbane and loved it. And I have yet to discover all the theatres here. And DanceNorth. This place is full on.

Nette Hilton loves wordbox!

Nette Hilton loves the 'box! And we love Nette Hilton!
Nette has recently added wordbox to her recommended sites list on both her blog and website. And people are linking to the box from there!
Thanks Nette! Another Australian writer who believes in the creativity of young writers. Check out her site at http://nettehilton.com.au/wordpress/ and read her books. I love The smallest bilby and the midnight star!

information services time!

In honour of our information services review coming up on Friday... let's get out there and focus on customers, people!

wordle advanced

!!! How long has Wordle advanced been up and I didn't know?
Working on it. Snapshot of thoughts running through my head about the direction of information service (no longer reference desk duty, nor reference service).
Thanks to the guy at wordle: http://www.wordle.net/, you no longer have to type the word in 150 times (or copy and paste). You just write it: information service: 150 etc.Brilliant innovation.

D*P*C #8 Keeping track

I like Delicious and I'm trying to get it to work as an information service tool across our branches. I downloaded all the favourites from the IS pc at one branch, but have to go through it to edit out the not necessaries and outdateds. Then I'd like a delicious account for clients' access. What I'd actually like is a delicious account that lists all my 2.0 tools so I don't have to open up ten different apps just to get somewhere. I hate waiting!
I'll try Digg next ... reminds me of Bob the Builder's rap song.

Plus you can access your online bookmarks from any internet computer, anywhere. - That's the most important point for me. It drives me crazy to get to work in any other branch and I can't access my favourites. Delicious makes it all simpler.