City and County Librarians Annual Conference Visit Watch House Cross Branch

For the second year running the City and County Librarians Autumn Seminar was held in Ennis in County Clare.

City and County Librarians from around the country gathered for the event, entitled “Developing Quality Services for Children and Young People”, at the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis on 4th-5th October 2007

A visit to the Watch House Community Library was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The group was welcomed by Pat Dowling, Director of Service, Limerick City Council & Dolores Doyle, Limerick City Librarian.

The librarians took time to browse and explore the new library and to speak with staff about membership and interest in services provided.

Refreshments were served before the group headed to Sixmilebridge.

Limerick BEST Project launch

On Friday 12th October, the Limerick BEST project was launched in the Watch House Cross Community Library.

To mark the launch, a photographic exhibition is now being held in our exhibition space.

The photographs were taken by the participants of the project who attended a photography course.

This exhibition is the fruit of that work.

All of our members are more than welcome to view this valuable work.
Each photograph is for sale at 150 euro each.

Minister of Defence, Willie O’Dea was on hand to officially launch this worthy project.

Limerick BEST is a new project for Young People in Limerick City.

The aim of the project is to give young people the opportunity to develop their personal, social and technical skills through training, mentoring and supports, thus allowing them to build their own capacity to participate in their own personal and career development.

Building Education Skills Teamwork

Puppet Show - Children's Book Festival 2007

The Pyramids - A lecture by Fiona Ismail - Childrens' Book Festival

Tuesday 8th October - Fiona Ismail, Assistant Librarian in our Roxboro branch of the Limerick City Library Service, gave a lecture today to well over 100 children from St. Munchin's Girls and the Corpus Christi Primary School.

The lecture was a whistle stop tour through some pyramids from around the world. Starting with the development of pyramid building in Egypt during the Old Kingdom - discussing the building materials that were used & how the pyramids were constructed.
Moving on to Mesopotamia and the Ziggurats that were built there.
Finishing with a look at some of the more famous pyramids from Mexico like Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza & Palenque and talking a little about the different theories as to how people on opposite sides of the Atlantic ended up building pyramids!

In The Beginning....

Pictures speak louder than words (occasionally)

Pam's Super Storytime

Pamela, one of our Branch Librarian's, held our largest ever storytime last Tuesday 8th October. She told the story to over fifty children, who were very well behaved and they all really enjoyed it.

Absolute Beginner's Computer Course

We are running a 5-week Absolute Beginner's Computer Course in the Watch House Cross Community Library. Places for the course were booked very early and we plan to run the course again in January.
We have currently held three of the five classes, and we have covered the following Computer Fundamentals with our students.
The use of the Mouse, the Keyboard, Typing, Internet Basics, Search Engines and Email.

Arts & Crafts - Children's Book Festival 2007

Sat 6th Oct, saw the biggest group for Arts and Crafts in Watch House Cross Library.
We made Pasta Picture Frames, what you may ask are Pasta Picture frames ?

Pasta Picture Frames are a very simple and novel idea using basics that most of us have in the house every day. The children glued various pasta shapes to coloured paper, leaving the centre free for them to glue a favourite photo to it.

For that rainy day at home, when you are looking for something to entertain the children, check out your cupboards, you would be surprised what you will find.

Check out our notice board for the next Arts and Crafts session that we are holding for 7 to 11 year olds.

The Salesian/Fernbank Brownies visit the library

We had the honour of hosting a fun-filled the Salesian/Fernbank Brownie visit to our new library. 40 enthusiastic Brownies from the Salesian/Fernbank troop were in attendance. They were treated to an introductory tour of the library by Sinead, our esteemed Assitant Librarian.
Following that, each of them entered the Design a Festival Bookmark Competition 2007.
This competition is held nationwide and the eventual winner will have their design printed on thousands of bookmarks!

The closing date for this competition is Wednesday 24th October.

For more info see this webpage

Explore, Search & Discover: Google Earth

Since we opened in June '07, we have very positive feedback about Google Earth.
From children to the elderly, all computer users have been amazed at the power of this groundbreaking program.
Google Earth is installed on all the computers in the Watch House Cross Community Library.
Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

For a thorough & interactive guide on how to use it; Visit this link
Google Earth Guide

Cuisle Poetry Festival 2007

Cuisle Poetry Festival 2007

Begins: 17/10/2007 11:00

Ends: 20/10/2007 23:00

Wednesday 17th.
11am - Schools Reading - Venue: Belltable.
1pm - Lunchtime Reading - Terri Murray - Venue: Isaacs.
7pm - Festival Launch - Venue: Belltable.
8pm - Evening Reading - Roman Simic, Delimir Rešicki & Michael O’Siadhail.
Venue: Belltable.
9.30pm - Book Launch & Reading - Revival No. 5 - Reading by Keith Armstrong.
Venue: Belltable.
11pm - Festival Club - Venue: Isaccs.

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Thursday 18th.
11am - Schools Reading - Venue: Belltable
1pm - Lunchtime Reading: Ger Sheehy, Noel Harrington, Dominic Taylor.
Venue: Isaacs.
7pm - Book Launch, The Stony Thursday Book.
8pm - Evening Reading: Gary Gach, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Ger Killeen.
Venue: Belltable.
11pm - Festival Club - Benue: Isaccs.

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Friday 19th.
11am - Schools Reading - Venue: Belltable.
1pm - Lunchtime Reading, Ger Killeen, Venue: Isaccs.
7pm - Book Launch & reading: Gabriel Fitzmaurice.
8pm - Evening Reading: Theo Dorgan, Jakie Wills & Michael Longley.
Venue: Belltable.
11pm - Festival Club - Venue: Isaacs.

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Saturday 20th.
11am. -Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Awards Cermony.
Venue: Limerick City Library
1pm.- Reading & Book Launch: Brendan Cleary & Desmond O'Grady.
Poetry Reading in Irish: Paddy Bushe, Cathal O'Searcaigh.
Venue: Daghdha
3pm. - Discussion/Debate: Does Poetry make things happen?
Venue: Daghdha
7pm.- Book Launch & Reading: Knute Skinner.
8pm.- Reading: Hugh Dunkerley, Sean Lysaght & Barbara Korun.
9.30pm-Poetry Slam - Venue: white House Pub.
11pm.- Festival Club - Venue: Isaacs.

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For more info visit

White House Poet's blog

Interesting Information

Since the earliest days of astronomy, since the time of Galileo, astronomers have shared a single goal — to see more, see farther, see deeper.

Interesting Information
The Hubble Space Telescope

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The Hubble Space Telescope's launch in 1990 sped humanity to one of its greatest advances in that journey. Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth. It’s position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.
Hubble is one of NASA's most successful and long-lasting science missions. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy. Its gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.

Eventually, Hubble's time will end. At some unknown point in the future — around 2013 with the 2008 servicing mission, or earlier without — Hubble's components will degrade to the point at which the telescope stops working.

When that happens, Hubble will continue to orbit the Earth until its orbit decays, allowing it to spiral toward Earth. Astronauts or a robotic mission could either bring Hubble back to Earth or crash it safely into the ocean.

But Hubble's legacy — it’s discoveries, it’s trailblazing design, it’s success in showing us the universe in unparalleled detail — will live on.
Scientists will rely on Hubble's revelations for years as they continue in their quest to understand the cosmos — a quest that has attained clarity, focus, and triumph through Hubble's rich existence.
For more visit
http://hubblesite.org/

Recipe of the Month

Recipe of the Month - Asian Fire MeatServes 4 "For a great tasting beef dish from Asia, fire meat is delicious and easy to prepare. It originates from China, offering a refreshing change from standard fare recipes. Ice cold beer is the beverage recommended with fire meat." INGREDIENTS 120 ml soy sauce 15 ml sesame oil 25g brown sugar 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 large red onion, chopped ground black pepper to taste 3g chili flakes 20 g sesame seeds 2 leeks, chopped 1 small carrot, chopped 455 g beef round steak, sliced paper thin METHOD 1. In a large bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, garlic, and red onion. Stir in the black pepper, red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, leeks and carrot. Mix in the meat by hand to ensure even coating. Cover and let marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight. 2. Brush the bottom half of a wok with cooking oil, and heat over medium-high heat. Put in all of the meat and marinade at once, and cook stirring constantly. The meat will be cooked after just a few minutes. Remove from heat and serve with rice or noodles.

Author of the Month - Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman CBE (born October 19, 1946) is an English writer.
He is the best-selling author of His Dark Materials, a trilogy of fantasy novels, and a number of other books.
His Dark Materials consists of Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (see also a short companion piece, Lyra's Oxford, containing items of interest and a short story, as well as the yet-unpublished prequel, The Book of Dust ).
The first volume of the trilogy, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995.
The Amber Spyglass, the last volume, was awarded both 2001 Whitbread Prize for best children's book and the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in January 2002, the first children's book to receive that award. The trilogy won popular acclaim in late 2003, taking third place in the BBC's Big Read poll.
In 2005 Pullman was announced as joint winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's literature.

We have the following Philip Pullman books in the library for you to borrow.
- Northern Lights
- The Subtle Knife
- The Amber Spyglass
- Count Karlstein
- The Ruby in the Smoke
- The Tin Princess
- The Shadow in the North
- The Firework-makers Daughter

Music Review

Artist: The Who
Album: The Who Sell Out

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The Who Sell Out is the most perfectly conceived album of the concept album era which ran from 1966 to 1976 approximately.
Their 3rd album, it took a satirical yet celebratory look at American Top 40 chart radio.
Chief songwriter, Pete Townshend thought it should be a document not only of his bands music but of the context in which that music could be heard.
That music is sensational ranging wildly within the theme of the album from the profound (Our Love Was) to the anthemic ( I Can See For Miles) to the whimsical (Tattoo) yet each of these categories could just as easily apply to the other tracks.
Interspersed between most of the songs are advertisements that stand on their own as fully realized recordings.
How many other albums from any era can that be said about?

Review by Declan Mannion
Library Staff

Children's Book Review

Children’s Book Review

Book: Midnight for Charlie Bone
Author: Jenny Nimmo

Published by Egmont Books Ltd., 2002

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Charlie Bone is just an ordinary boy until one day he has a very strange sensation; he discovers he can hear people in photographs talking. His horrible aunts are delighted when they discover his unusual gift and send him to a special school with him called Bloors Academy.
At Bloors a magical and sometimes dangerous world unfolds to him. He meets other children with strange gifts and with the help of his dog runnerbean, embarks on a quest to find a missing girl and discover the truth about his family.

With its magical setting and dark undertones this book is a thrilling read and a real page turner.

9/10

By Joseph Buckley
Library Member

Design A Logo

Primary schools all over Limerick City entered the competition to design a logo for the new InfoLink desk that is to be opened in the Library this October.
There can only be one winner, but all the entries were excellent.

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