Oranmore Library Prize winners

Prize winners from the October Book Festival in Oranmore Public Library. Oisín and Ailbhe Doyle won prizes in the Art competition and Cian Mullan won a prize in the Writing competition. They received book tokens. Our congratulations go to them.

Ballybane Chess Club

Following a very successful chess tournament during our recent ‘Children’s Book Festival’ Ballybane Library decided to start a chess club for children in 5th and 6th class from local schools. Thirty two children from four schools – St. Michael’s Boys’ Mervue, Gaelscoil Dara, Brierhill N.S. and Scoil Náisiúnta Cholmcille – had participated in this tournament. Peter Healy from St. Michael’s was the overall winner and Brierhill N.S. won the team event.
The new Club meets on Fridays from 3.30 – 4.30p.m. at Ballybane Library and is suitable for children in 5th and 6th class. It is an informal gathering of children who can play chess to enable them to improve their skills in chess. To date fourteen children have signed up for the club. If other library branches set up similar clubs, then an inter library chess competition could be arranged.

Poet-critic, John Goodby, for November Over The Edge

The November Over The Edge: Open Reading will take place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, November 20th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Elizabeth Power, Gordon Hewitt & John Goodby.

John Goodby is a poet and translator who lectures at the University of Swansea. His poetry has been described by Sean O'Brien as ‘bold and sensuous ... it reads like a chowder of names laced with methedrine ... at once lush and abrasive.’ John Goodby has translated Heine's Germany: A Winter’s Tale (2005), the contemporary Algerian poet Soleiman Adel Guemar, and is currently translating the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Among his latest publications are the first anthology of translations of Irish women poets into Spanish, No Soy Tu Musa and Uncaged sea (2008), a cut-up version of the Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. He is the author of the influential Irish Poetry Since 1950: From Stillness Into History (Manchester University Press) and founder of Wales’s only poetry performance group, Boiled String.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Recent opinions on the value of books, reading and libraries

Almudena Grandes, wrote last week in the Madrid newspaper El Pais that "true freedom is not to be able to say what you think, but is the power to think about what is being said."
And she continued: "Because an uneducated country is not a country of citizens, but of audiences, a country of audiences who will swallow everything."

And Rawi Hage, the Beirut-born writer, speaking after being awarded the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2008 said:
"To all those librarians who currently and historically have gathered and diffused knowledge, beauty, and resistance, even as the waves of ignorance periodically cover words and stifle thought, I say: I am an admirer and an ally."

Age banding

The practice of indicating suitable ages for goods bought by or for children is rarely the subject of controversy. Apart from the children themselves, who always desire whatever happens to lie in the age bracket above, most adults find such advice helpful in avoiding potentially dangerous or inappropriate items.

But publishers' plans to introduce age ranging guidance onto children's books have met with fierce opposition from authors including Philip Pullman, Anne Fine and Michael Rosen.

The 'No to age banding' Campaign has been set up by writers and other professionals who believe that the proposal to put an age-banding figure on books for children is ill-conceived and damaging to the interests of young readers. The Campaign's statement and supporters are at: http://www.notoagebanding.org/

Galway City Library Summer Reading Programme...revisited

The Summer Reading Programme has been running in Galway City Library since the 1980's.
One of the interesting features of this years recent certificate award ceremoney was the attendance of a former particpant of the programme from the early years.
She is now a lecturer in pharmacology at NUIG and was one of the first to receive a certificate when it started over 20 years ago. This year she attended the awards with her niece, who completed the reading programme this year.
Her career success is evidence that reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.

Hallowe'en in Oranmore Library

Some fantastic and imaginative costumes were to be seen at the recent Fancy Dress party in Oranmore Library.

One of the prize winners, left, came as Jacqueline Wilson's Dustbin Baby!