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Library News

• Peterborough's Library Strategy
• Refit for Central Library ground floor
• Poet Laureate
• Youth Laureate
• Children's Summer Activities  
• Watch a video clip of Doctor Who and Princess Diaries events
• National Year of Reading
• Poetry Anthology - The Place to Be
• Book Sales

Peterborough's Library Strategy

Peterborough is changing and the time has come to take stock of where our library service is.  The city's underlying driver "Growing the right way for a bigger better Peterborough" has resulted in the need to plan strategically for a service that will serve and assist Peterborough and its residents during this period of growth and beyond.

The Draft Library Strategy looks towards modernisation, growth and development, building on current strong foundations such as excellence in customer service and the positive role libraries play in local communities.

We would like to invite you to read the Draft Library Strategy and let us know what sort of Library Service you want in Peterborough.

Please e-mail your comments to heather.walton@peterborough.gov.uk.

The document below appears in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view it you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible.)   

Draft Library Strategy (758 KB, 28 pages)

Refit for Central Library ground floor

Poet Laureate

Peterborough City Council's Library Service begins the search for the next Poet Laureate to mark National Poetry Day on Thursday 9 October 2008.

As usual, entrants must be aged over 16 and live, work (including voluntary work) or study in Peterborough.  Each "would be" Laureate will be asked to submit no more than 30 lines of original poetry around the theme of 'Remembrance' and short-listed writers are invited to the final at 7pm on Monday 1 December 2008. Each poet will recite, read or perform their poem in front of a judging panel and audience. 

The competition gives poets a fantastic opportunity to express themselves. The Poet Laureate final evening is always great fun for the poetry community and their families and we are looking forward to meeting the entrants.

 

Prizes will be donated by Waterstone's.  Entry forms are available from your local library or downloaded below.

 

The documents below appear in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view them you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible.)  

 

  Poet Laureate application form

  (66 KB, 1 pages)

  

 

Poems and completed entry forms should be sent to:

Gill Benedikz at Peterborough Central Library, Broadway, Peterborough, PE1 1RX.

 

You can also email gill.benedikz@peterborough.gov.uk by 12 noon on Monday 17 November.

 

 

Youth Laureate

This year young writers will also be given the chance to shine in a bid to become Peterborough's first Youth Laureate with a

competition aimed at 11 to 18 year-olds. The young people are being asked to write no more than 20 lines of original work based

on Stand up to Hatred, the Holocaust Memorial Day theme for 2009.

 

Short listed entrants will be asked to be part of Peterborough's Holocaust Memorial Day civic commemoration on January 27 2009 and in libraries across the city during this period.  There will be a special performance workshop and final held in the John Clare Theatre in early February.

 

We are delighted to join with others across the city to commemorate the Holocaust.  And we are doubly glad that young

people 11-18 years old have been given the opportunity to contribute their voices to mark the occasion.  The theme "Stand up to Hatred" is

so strong we couldn't resist making this the inaugural competition for Peterborough's Youth Laureate. We feel the theme will resonate

with this generation, we are expecting very powerful poetry and rap."

 

Entry forms are available from your local library or downloaded below.

 

The documents below appear in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view them you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible.)

 

  Entry Form

  (66 KB, 1 pages)

 

 

Poems and completed entry forms should be sent to:

Gill Benedikz at Peterborough Central Library, Broadway, Peterborough, PE1 1RX.

 

You can also email gill.benedikz@peterborough.gov.uk by Monday 8^th Dec for the Youth Laureate Competition.

 

Children's Summer Activities

Team Read

We had a great time at the presentation ceremonies on Saturday 11th October and we hope everyone who came along enjoyed themselves too.

If you weren't able to make it, don't worry, you can collect your medal and certificate from your local library. 

Watch out for details of the Summer Reading Game 2009.  We're sure that it's going to be bigger and better than ever!

The Doctor Who Adventure video

During the Easter holidays we held a series of Doctor Who events. The participating children were encouraged to use their imaginations to change the surround library into an alien world. They scaled mountains, avoided deep pits, jumped over ravines, were chased by strange animals and eventually were confronted by a shape-shifter within their midst. The shape-shifter could paralyse with a look and kill with a touch.

The children then wrote about their adventure and illustrated it. Enjoy the trailer of the event.

Download the trailer  5,170kb, MP4 format

The Princess Diaries Makeover video

The Princess Diaries Makeover was held in association with Boots. In the Princess Diaries books, Mia is taught manners and etiquette and is made-over to be a Princess. In this event we aimed to give the girls the tools to become elegant young women who could succeed in any situation. Girls and their mums, grandmothers or aunties were shown a make-up demonstration by a Boots consultant and then the girls got the chance to practise on their grown-up. They were then taught the etiquette of fine dining, how to stand, sit and walk with poise, how to behave with grace regarding boys and how to hold a conversation with strangers.

Enjoy the trailer of the event.

Download the trailer  3,200kb, MP4 format

National Year of Reading

Peterborough Libraries celebrated the launch of the National Year of Reading on March 6th. The Libraries had a stand in Queensgate to promote the year and library events. There was a special storytime for local nurseries. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Waterstones and Woolworth's showed their support by announcing the launch in store. The Town Crier announced the Launch round the city centre.

 

As part of the day, Library staff gathered a list of favourite books from the public. If you are looking for something different here is what Peterborough Recommends:

 

The document below appears in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view it you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible.)  

 

  Peterborough Recommends

  (11 KB, 2 pages)

  

 

Poetry Anthology - The Place to Be

A selection of work from some of the city's best poets is revealed in a new book called The Place To Be - Poems from Peterborough 2007

 

It includes shortlisted entries from the Peterborough Poet Laureate competition and Peterborough's Young Poet of the Year; a selection of work written by 2007 poet laureate Patricia Higham; and entries from a poetry competition organised by Peterborough City Council's Read.WRITE.inspire team.

 

Proceeds from the book's sale will be donated to Sue Ryder Care at Thorpe Hall, Friends of Peterborough Hospitals and Help a Peterborough Youth - charities chosen by the Mayor of Peterborough, Councillor Marion Todd, to support during her year of office.

 

Copies of the book can be ordered from Upfront Publishing, call (01733) 237867.

 

Alternatively you can print out an order form here.

 

The document below appears in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view it you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible.)  

 

  Order form - A Place to Be

  (676 KB, 1 pages)

  

 

 

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Book Sales

Peterborough Libraries will no longer be supplying carrier bags for sales of withdrawn books. Instead we are encouraging readers to bring their own bags, a more environmentally friendly option.

Books will be priced as follows:

Sales are planned for the dates below: