Hello again!

Well hello there!

Since Facebook pages has moved over to the Timeline format we decided that it would be a great time to re-launch our blog! Please bear with us over the next few weeks as we iron out any wrinkles.
2012 has already been a very busy year, Penlan library re-opened after a refurb and the 'New Year New You' activites went down a storm. We've got the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games coming up, not to mention the Children's Summer Reading Challenge and our Autumn programme of special events!

There's plenty to be looking forward to over the next 12 months in Swansea Libraries so we'll be sure to keep you posted, as well as keeping you up to date with all sorts of other weird and wonderful things!

Coming soon!

After a hiatus Swansea Libraries blog will be back with regular posts in Spring 2012. See you then!

Paige Turner has left the building

After almost 5 years of loyal and secretive service, Paige has finally hung up her quill and passed the blogging mantle on to some of the up and coming youngsters of the library service.

The blog will continue at the same address, and will be the place to catch up on all the goings on at Swansea Libraries (well - here and on Facebook and Twitter!).

There will even be the odd guest post from Paige herself (incognito of course).

Happy reading.

Two faced

The well established Swansea Central Library facebook page has been joined by a sibling Swansea Libraries - where you can find out information about all the wonderful libraries in Swansea.

woo-hoo

I heart twitter

I was a slow burn (me?!), but I love how I can use it to talk about important cultural events with other interested professionals as they unfold.

Really though, Estonia?

Cilip of the tongue

There are many mixed feelings about CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) in the realm of librarians and people who care about libraries, especially now when libraries across the country are under threat of closure.

However, I must pause to praise the recent CILIP Wales conference, held last week at the fabulous Metropole in Llandrindod Wells. I didn't go (some say I was banned..) but I did follow proceedings on Twitter and the conference was briefly trending at 4th in the UK - not bad for a bunch of Welsh librarians.

#cilipw11 for tweets from the conference.

I can haz weblog

OMG - I'm unblocked, I'm unblocked!! Posting to be resumed once I have finished cartwheeling down the corridor.

Keep on Running

So well, I was please to receive an email last week from "the powers that be", informing my erstwhile colleagues and I that the Paige Turner blog has been identified as the longest running UK public library blog. How cool is that?

Of course, I couldn't let my identity slip, so I joined in with the laments - "if only we knew who the mysterious Paige was - we could let her know "

Anyway - this is 100% true, a real librarian has said so, in print and everything.

Archaeology

Gosh, I read this years ago. Brilliant article, perhaps I'd better go digging for my old copy.

Reading...

Masses at the moment, including this and this and this from Richard Stark's awesome Parker series - reissued in new versions by Chicago University Press. Parker novels are my comfort reads at the moment. The Noirest of the noir... without Stark there would be no Tarantino - fact.

The first cut is the deepest

Or is it? The sword of Damocles is hanging over the heads of all public services at the moment, and we genuinely don't know how we will be affected. What we do know is that in times of hardship, recession, unemployment and squeezed public services - the public library is more important and relevant than ever. I hope that the opportunities that libraries bring into people's lives are recognised, valued and spared as much as possible.

Reading...

The Lost Child by Julie Myerson. This has been on my bookshelves for about a year but somehow, even though I wanted to read it, I was sure I'd hate it. I didn't.

Reading...

How not to grow up by Richard Herring. This book is awful. I loathe it, and I now loathe him, which is a shame as I got much comedy mileage out of recreating Fist of Fun scenes down the pub as a young 'un. Weak Lemon Drink anyone? Answer Me!!!!

I shall continue to worship at the altar of the Stewart Lee and leave the Herring alone.

I'm not a trend bucker...

Well, actually, by association I am!! This article shows Welsh Libraries well and truly bucking the trend of declining and stagnant public library usage seen in other parts of the UK.

Leading from the front (as ever) are Swansea's libraries, with Swansea central Library coming in as the busiest library in Wales and more pleasingly, the 10th busiest in the UK, despite a fairly modest population.

Well done Welsh Libraries - we have proven that the public want and will use good libraries and this is a reflection on the hard work and investment that have gone in over the past few years.

We can only hope that the sucess of this service is in some way recognised by those wielding the budgetary axe in the months to come.

fingers crossed.

Reading...

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I remember this coming out,and later being a mainstay of "one hit wonder" displays (that was before The Little Friend). Never inclined to read it until now, maybe I'm entering my "once a decade" fiction phase...

...BONG

Panorama had an equally doom laden premonition but the programme did at least send out the message "mess with libraries at your peril"

BONG.

The Bookseller's take on tough times ahead...