With the Ashes series not very far away a book with the opening line: "The third wicket had fallen and England had scored exactly eight pitiful runs." may appeal to many readers.

The Test Match Murder, by Denzil Batchelor, was first published in 1936. Owen Brownlow investigates the murder of star English batsman John Franklyn. John dies in front of tens of thousands of spectators at the SCG - a poisoned dart in one of his cricket gloves bringing about his untimely end.

A great read for crime fiction fans as well as people interested in the world of sport or people who would just like an insight into what Sydney was like in the mid-1930s.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

At Coffs Harbour Library we will be having a Free Sausage Sizzle to Celebrate Library Lovers Day. We will have our specially designed "Library Lover Drink Holders" on sale as well as other merchandies including ALIA reading Journals and Southern Scene china mugs. Anyone using their library card, joining the library or renewing their membership on the day will receive a free library bag.
We will also have orientation tours of the library throughout the day, and staff on hand to promote the library service, including promotion of the Readers Advisory tools we use to assist people with their reading choices.
Our branch libraries at Toormina & Woolgoolga will have "coffee & Cake" and our wonderful volunteers will be on hand to assist.
... and of course, we will be well "red" on the day.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Ellen Crosby's Wine Country Mystery series might be good place to start. They each feature a murder (or two) in a vineyard as well as a particular type of wine and titles with some nice alliteration :) Some examples - The Merlot Murders, The Bordeaux Betrayal, The Chardonnay Charade - very light reading, setting is interesting and you learn a bit about the history and art of winemaking in the American South.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

How about Laura Childs' Tea Shop Mysteries series as a nice cosy choice to read while you drink your tea. There's lots of good information about types of teas, recipes and of course a good murder or two thrown in.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

According to Lovereading.co.uk, there is a growing demand for these books typified by true stories of personal tragedy.

I'll kick off with Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
Running with scissors - Augusten Burroughs

4  out of 4 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Show Last Reply

Another Group Discussion at the Seminar was about staff involvement in RA work – how do you get people involved and keep them keen?
Here is our Top Ten:
1. Value fiction reading – make it a priority to encourage a reading culture.
Do this by asking everyone at a weekly staff meeting – what are you reading?
Or take it in turns to review a book at each staff meeting.

2. Management support is required to encourage a culture of reading amongst staff. Managers should be leading by example talking about the books they are reading, asking staff what they are reading and being genuinely interested in the reply.

3. Have a borrowers competition and a staff competition – ie. Make a fun book title using an anagram of another title.

4. Do a display of suggested books on a different genre, eg, mystery, romance, crime etc Display books at the end each shelf.

5. Display books recommended by local identities eg. Local member, Mayor, sporting people, etc include their own books reviews.

6. Use Novelist to suggest books to borrowers, let them know about it.

7. Follow up with borrowers about their reading, when they return a book, ask did they enjoy or what did they think of it?

8. Encourage borrowers to write their own reviews – via website, or have cards for them to fill out or use thumbs up or thumbs down cards to put in books, have a display for public book reviews.

9. Promote what books are popular each month – on a noticeboard, newsletter, blog, website, flyer, local paper.

10. Read books yourself.

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Show Last Reply

For one of our Libraries Library lovers Day activiites we wrapped mystery books and invited customers to have a "date with a mystery book". Feedback from a customer last week, was that the lovely book we choose was beautiful and that it 'made her day" becuase ti was such a lovely surprise.
Made all the hard work preparing the display worthwhile.
RM

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Show Last Reply

The above was the topic our group discussed when the seminar broke up into small discussion groups.

We found that the lists used could be divided into three types.

1. Manual lists - usually linked to the collection. These were generated by public demand and generally were produced as genre lists, though best-seller lists and most popular titles were also produced. They usually came in the form of actual lists, or bookmarks. Genres could include romance, medieval mysteries, nautical, thrillers, legal, westerns, horror etc. The main problems with printed lists were the cost of production and the fact that they became out-of-date quickly.

2. Weblinks. Some are produced by the library. These are usually found via reading links that include genre lists; author/title lists/best seller lists/ latest releases/ junior and teen fiction all linked to the library's collection via their website; as well as links to external links on the web. "Amazon" was also useful for lists of other titles bought by people purchasing a particular title. Databases such as "Novelist" "Fiction Connection" and "Whichbook.net" as well as the ALIA and Readers Advisory sites were also mentioned. Some sites enable very detailed needs to be catered for such as specifying a particular setting etc. However, the main problem with databases and external links is that the authors and books suggested may not be in the library's own collection.

3. The library's own catalogue may have genre searching and special areas such as "Premier's Reading Challenge" may also be accessible via the catalogue.

Problems noted were finding out about new genres and sub-genres and the difficulties of categorizing many books initially into one particular genre, when they spanned several.

We found this an interesting discussion and it clarified the various options available.

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Genre lists as suggested by the E-list Group

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?