Peter Fitzsimon's new book 'Mawson'

Sir Douglas Mawson, born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, remains Australia's greatest Antarctic explorer. On 2 December 1911, his Australasian Antarctic Expedition left Hobart to explore the virgin frozen coastline below Australia, 2000 miles of which had never felt the tread of a human foot. He was on his way to fulfil a national dream he had first conceived three years earlier, while on his first trip to the frozen continent on the Nimrod expedition under the leadership of the charismatic Anglo-Irishman Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Even as Mawson and his men were approaching Antarctica, two other famous Antarctic explorers were already engaged in nothing less than a race to become the first men to reach the South Pole. While Roald Amundsen of Norway, with his small team, was racing with dogs along one route, England's legendary Scott of the Antarctic, with his far larger team, was relying primarily on ponies and 'man-hauling' to get there along another.

As Mawson and his men make their home on the windiest place on earth and prepare for their own record-breaking treks, with devastating drama to be their constant companion, the stories of Amundsen and Scott similarly play out.

In his new book, “Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen”, Peter Fitzsimons provides a compelling portrait of these great Antarctic explorers. In a recent talk reported in “The Bayside Bulletin”, Peter Fitzsimons said “Mawson's perseverance in the face of challenges and setback was inspiring. I think the thing that stood out the most for me was when Mawson finally returns and is on the home stretch, and he sees the ship he was meant to be sailing home on slowly sailing away in the distance.”

This book and many other good books are available for loan from the Library. We hope you enjoy whatever you are reading this week. To see what books the Library has, check out the online catalogue at http://nwls.spydus.com.

Joy McKean, Slim Dusty and Wiradjuri Survival Legacies

Slim Dusty and Joy McKean came together through their shared passion for country music and their love of taking their show on the road. Their marriage of more than fifty years is celebrated as the most successful partnership in the history of Australian music. “I’ve been there (and back again)” by Joy McKean is a book about her life with Slim Dusty.
Presented in the style of a “coffee table book”, “I’ve been there” is part storytelling, part photo album, part songbook. It’s a lovely book to leaf through, and the stories of their life on the road together, from 1954 onwards, are interesting and engaging. They travelled all over Australia, and in the book, Joy says of the early days “Our old caravan was short on home comforts but we could make do like plenty of other people, and we were our own bosses….. a fact that pleased Slim even more than it did me. I think it was the big deciding factor in us continuing the touring life. That’s why I agree with a line in one of Slim’s songs where he says, ‘I always say the old days were the best damn days of all.’ He was referring to the hard days before we had motels and cars and bitumen roads; big sound systems and stage bands; planes and tour managers. I enjoyed the easier side of touring in later years, but, like Slim, I think the exciting adventure of being out there among the little towns and the big, being able to talk to people after the show every night, and living all over this land and being part of it, was the best of all.”

“Survival Legacies” by Peter Kabaila is another excellent book. It details stories of survival of Aboriginal people in the urbanised south-eastern part of Australia and presents them in a historical framework drawn from Aboriginal elders, mothers, stockmen, storytellers, politicians, tour guides, law-breakers and law-makers.
“In this book I've tried to tell stories of adaptation and survival in Aboriginal communities of south-eastern Australia,” author Peter Kabaila said. “I was attracted to visiting and recording southeast Australian Aboriginal settlements, particularly in the Wiradjuri and neighbouring regions of New South Wales, rather than seeking out distant communities, because this is where I live. Many of the stories here are highly personal accounts; about discrimination, family, poverty, community and re-settlement. Details of survival are the most important themes in life, and because such families are largely forgotten, these accounts are an important record of Aboriginal life.” This book combines the three Wiradjuri Places field books, which have been long out of print, with additional interviews, maps and discussion. The 600 page book includes an Aboriginal family name index and a place name index, as well as 370 photos and illustrations.

These two books, and many more, are available from Gilgandra Shire Library. The Library is open from Monday to Friday, from 10am to 12.30 and from 1.30pm to 5pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 12 noon. To see what books the Library has, check out our catalogue at http://nwls.spydus.com. Happy reading!

Vote for our State book- Australia's Biggest Book Group

Did you know that next year is Australia’s National Year of Reading? One of the nationwide projects planned for 2012 is Australia’s biggest book group, where people from across the nation all read the same book. As with any book group, the difficulty is “which book do we choose?” In the end, the organisers decided not to choose just one book, but eight books, one for every state and territory of Australia. Margaret Allen, chair of the National Year of Reading founders and State Librarian of WA, explained, “For 2012, we’re creating a collection of books which, read together, describe the Australian experience. We’re hoping that thousands of readers will take a journey around Australia through the pages of these eight books and come out of it with a deeper understanding of what it means to be Australian.”
The National Year of Reading founders brought together an independent panel of readers to choose a shortlist of books for each state, and now they have invited everyone to vote for their favourite. The shortlist for NSW is: “Torn apart” by Peter Corris, “Lilian’s story” by Kate Grenville, “Sydney Harbour: a history” by Ian Hoskins, “The idea of Home” by John Hughes, “The Harp in the South” by Ruth Park and “Bereft” by Chris Womersley. Until 6 January 2012, you can vote online by going to www.abc.net.au/yearofreading or by completing a voting slip at the Library.
The winning list will be announced at the launch of the Year of Reading on 14 February at the National Library. After that, we will be able to register as members of “Our Story”, a nationwide reading group, and discuss the chosen books. This is just the first of many plans for the National Year of Reading, and we are looking forward to celebrating our love of reading on a very big scale in 2012. Happy reading!

Bob the Builder Story Time

The RTA roadworks at the back of the Library have provided interesting viewing for many little ones over the last few weeks, so this week our Story Time will have a “Bob the Builder” theme. Come along and join us at 10.30am on Thursday 24th November for stories, activities and fun. Story Time is for babies, toddlers, under 5s and their parents or carers. Story Time is free, but we ask you to book in so that we have enough materials ready. You can book (even on Thursday morning) by phoning 6817 8877, or by emailing library@gilgandra.nsw.gov.au.

This will be our last Story Time for 2011, but we will begin again in February. Story Time is held on the fourth Thursday of the month at 10.30am, and usually takes about 45 minutes.

Free online tutoring for school students

Did you know that anyone with a Gilgandra library card can log in to a free online tutoring service? It is called yourtutor, and the Library pays an annual subscription fee which allows all library members free access to the service.

How does it work?

*It operates Monday to Friday, from 4pm-8pm.

*It is designed to help students from Years 4-12.

*You log in with a particular question you need help with, and a tutor will work with you to find the answer, via instant messaging, an online whiteboard, and links.

* Do you have a library card? If not, call in at the Library to join, or get a new card. Those under 18 need to be enrolled by a parent or guardian.

* Go to http://nwls.spydus.com/
*Scroll down until you see the yourtutor logo, as above.

*Click on the word "here".

* Where it says GILGANDRA borrowers click here, click "here".

*Type in your library card number.

*Select your year level.

*Select your subject.

*You will be connected with a tutor, whom you can talk to via instant messaging on the screen.

We hope you like this service!

Treasures left in libraries in Edinburgh

Just felt I had to pass on this link for these amazing paper sculptures, left as gifts in libraries in Edinburgh. There is an Ian Rankin link to them, too...

The first of these sculptures bore a tag that read, in part:
"We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books....a book is so much more than pages full of words....."

The blog these sculptures appeared on is pretty inspiring too: Central Station.

Reading in someone else's shoes

One of the wonderful things about reading is that it enables you to walk in someone else’s shoes for a little while. Sometimes those shoes take you to places and lives radically different to your own. “Tamil Tigress” by Niromi de Soyza is an example of just such a story. Two days before Christmas in 1987, at the age of 17, Niromi de Soyza found herself in an ambush as part of a small platoon of militant Tamil Tigers fighting government forces in the bloody civil war that was to engulf Sri Lanka for decades. With her was her lifelong friend, Ajanthi, also aged 17. Leaving behind them their shocked middle-class families, the teenagers had become part of the Tamil Tigers' first female contingent. Equipped with little more than a rifle and a cyanide capsule, Niromi's group managed to survive on their wits in the jungle, facing not only the perils of war but starvation, illness and growing internal tensions among the militant Tigers. Today, Niromi de Soyza lives with her husband and children in Sydney. Walter Mason reviewed this book for “Good Reading” magazine (September 2011) and he said “This is a book about suffering, resilience and personal strength that I found ultimately unsettling and uniquely insightful”.

We hope you enjoy whatever you are reading this week. To find out what other books the Library has, visit http://nwls.spydus.com.