Booker Prize winner announced

British author Hilary Mantel has been named winner of the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. Mantel's Wolf Hall is an historical novel about English king Henry VIII's advisor Thomas Cromwell.

One of the literary world's most prestigious awards, the annual Booker Prize goes to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. It comes with a winner's cheque for 50,000 pounds ($90,000) and all but guarantees worldwide readership and an upsurge in book sales.

Our library has a copy of this book.

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards: Winners & Shortlist 2009

The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
Winner
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Shortlist
* The Pages by Murray Bail
* Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
* The Boat by Nam Le
* The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
* Breath by Tim Winton

The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
Winner
The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island byChloe Hooper
Shortlist
* The City's Outback by Gillian Cowlishaw
* Arabesques by Robert Dessaix
* The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island by Chloe Hooper
* House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroger-Mann by Evelyn Juers
* Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman

Shortlist Man Booker Prize

The shortlisted works for the 2009 Man Booker Prize have been announced.

A.S. Byatt The Children's Book
J.M. Coetzee Summertime
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze
Hilary Mantell Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer The Glass Room
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger

Australian interest this year rests with J.M. Coetzee who will be vying for his third Man Booker Prize after winning for Life and Times of Michael K. in 1983 and Disgrace in 1999.

The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced on Tuesday 6th October.

New extended opening hours at Wallan

From Wednesday 12th August the Wallan library will be open longer hours:-
Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 1pm

Family history research

everyone has a story to tell… .
…… what’s your story?
…… who will you find?

ancestry ®
is now available for use within the library
FOR FREE.

It is ideal for the family historian.
Ancestry provides the most genealogical information available on-line, with more than 5 billion names in over 4,000 collections. It offers a wide and diverse variety of unique content to help users trace their family lineage or help historians access historical records that have previously not been available online. It is continuously expanding with new content added every business day.

Do-it-yourself loans from other Victorian public libraries

Members of Victorian public libraries can now search the catalogues of libraries across Victoria and request books from those libraries themselves. You can do this at home or in the library. There is a link on the catalogue page of the library’s website to LibraryLink. Please note a charge will apply when you request an inter-library loan $1.10 if the item comes from a public library, $15.20 from a university library. Requests are not taken for DVDs or Talking Books. There is a limit of 6 requested items. Requests take a minimum of 4 weeks to arrive.

School Safari Sculpture competition

To celebrate Children’s Book Week, Mitchell Library Service is excited to announce our School Safari Sculpture competition especially for primary school children in Mitchell Shire.

TO ENTER:
1. Create your Safari themed sculpture (out of paper mache, clay, playdough, icypole sticks, etc).
2. Deliver your creation to the catchment library by 21 August (see below to check which library you should deliver it to).
3. Complete an entry form.
4. Tell your family and friends to come in and vote between the 22-28 August.
5. A winner will be selected for each library branch based upon audience votes.
6. At each branch voting will take place between 22-28 August, with winners announced on 2 September.

If you attend school in Puckapunyal or Seymour your catchment Library is Seymour.
If you attend school in Broadford or Tallarook your catchment Library is Broadford.
If you attend school in Kilmore, Pyalong, Tooborac, Wandong or Willowmavin your catchment Library is Kilmore.
If you attend school in Wallan, Upper Plenty or Beveridge your catchment Library is Wallan.

Contact your local Library for more information.