» Information and Digital

Luke Burton blogs about the recent work he has been involved in below. We recently followed him for the day on Twitter too. If you missed out view the tweets here. Over to Luke…

It’s been nine months since we launched our ebooks service, offering fiction and non-fiction titles to download for free. So far we’ve had over 6000 downloads by nearly 1000 people. As well as buying titles from our supplier we added titles from our in-house publishers, Tyne Bridge Publishing.

Recently I was at a conference in Manchester where staff from Derby Libraries said they had been adding titles from their local history collection to their ebooks site so that people could borrow titles that would normally be too rare or valuable to lend. Immediately I thought this was an idea we could steal, I mean, that people in Newcastle would find interesting… so we set up a team to look at what titles we could add to our website and how we would go about digitising them.

As a result of our first meeting we decided to add some titles from our heritage collection about the early history of Newcastle as well as some titles from our in-house publishers which are out of print and cannot be bought anymore. In order to give this new digital collection a big launch (as well as giving us plenty of time to work on them!) we have decided to time its release to begin with Local History Month in May 2012.

Over the next couple of months we will be making a small number of titles available to download so people can get an idea of what we will be adding and so we can see how popular they are. At the moment there are three Tyne Bridge Publishing titles available for customers to download:

‘Beneath This Green and Pleasant Land’ by John Graham, a warm and often hard-hitting account of life as a North East miner and one of our most popular titles.

‘Bygone Walker’ and ‘Bygone Byker’ both pictorial histories, using old photographs to portray that past which has given each area such a distinctive character.

The more difficult part is going to be adding rare, valuable or old items from our heritage collection which we are looking to do soon. To begin with these will probably include early pamphlets on the history of Newcastle dating from the seventeenth century. We will also be adding some more Tyne Bridge titles soon.

Why not visit our eBooks site, download some of the titles and tell us what you think! Visit the Digital Collection.

Luke Burton
Information and Digital Team

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We’re continuing to refresh stock displays on level 1 of City Library. For those heading off for a bit of sunshine why not have a look at the Road Trip Reads or Comedy displays? There is also a Road Trip Reads ebook collection which is available to download.

If you have been into City Library over the past week you may have noticed the development of the Agencies Space as staff are working hard to create a business area.  This area will host relevant business and intellectual property information as well as other ‘start up’ materials, relevant magazines and newspapers.  There will be a skills swap board for customers, an events programme as well as details of one to one advice sessions. Access to business databases such as Corporate Researcher, Cobra and British Standards will be available via designated computers. Staff have been down to the British Library to learn more about workshops, newsletters and business advice delivery.  There will be a business launch in partnership with Science City on 5 September to promote our events which includes a visit from a well known contestant on The Apprentice. Find out more details about the launch event.

For those who have just left school and are wondering what to do next, join our work club which supports CV writing, interview techniques, job searching and application forms.  A number of participating customers have been successful with either finding jobs or gaining an interview.  There are various sessions throughout our community libraries and City Library. Just ask a member of staff for more details, phone 0191 2774100 or email information@newcastle.gov.uk.

Sharon Reeve
Information and Digital Service Manager

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Online resources are ideal for our constantly changing world as they can be updated instantly as events happen. The Encyclopaedia Britannica has created an entry on the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan which provides verified information as events happen. The Oxford English Dictionary has also been updated to include the words muffin top, WAG and abbreviations LOL and FYI. There are some videos on You Tube of the editor and other OED  lexicographers explaining the latest additions to the dictionary. Visit the OED’s You Tube channel.

We’ve been dotting the City Library with Quick Response (QR) codes. These are boxy looking barcodes that can be read with mobile phones that have internet access. We are using the codes to direct customers to our 24 hour online services such as ebooks, reference sources and our blog. The codes are also being used to create a treasure trail for the Late Shows in May. Follow the Tyne God Trail.

You can now check in to all of our branches using Foursquare. Foursquare is a social networking application for mobile phones and members can check in to locations and earn badges. New York Public Libraries are offering a badge to celebrate their 150^th anniversary to all people who visit 5 or more branches. We are currently thinking about what badges we can offer.

New iTea and Biscuits groups have been set up at Gosforth and Kenton Libraries. The groups are aimed at over 55s who want to find out more about using computers with the added incentive of free tea and biscuits! One member of the Gosforth group enjoyed herself so much she has decided to buy herself a PC. Please contact Gosforth Library (0191 2771811) or Kenton Library (0191 2774310) if you would like to join a group.

Kerry Bossons
Service Manager
The Information and Digital Team

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During January we supported the UK Online Centres’ ‘Go ON – get more out of life’ campaign with a series of taster sessions to encourage people to use the internet. Highlights have included helping someone with visual impairment get on to a computer and be able to use his digital camera using special software that is available in most libraries. A group of all ages took part in a social networking session where they learned how to protect their privacy, or how to expand their horizons by moving into other social networks such as Twitter, showing that everyone can learn something new. The next campaign we will be supporting is Age UK’s ‘My Friend Online Week’ from Monday 21 to Sunday 27 March. So keep an eye out for events or book yourself a taster session.

To celebrate the Evolving English campaign the Information and Digital Team have been working with Newcastle Scrabble Club who will be in residence at City Library  from Monday 21 to Saturday 26 February, to challenge the public to Scrabble matches. Club members canbe found on level 1 of the City Library. On level 2 there will be the chance to play Scrabble using a Wii (not the same because your opponent can see your tiles!) and you can use digital grafitti to record your favourite words. View a full  programme of the Evolving English events including an evening with Simon Donald (him off of the Viz).

We launched our new ebook service on 24 January and already one third of the ebooks have been borrowed. So far we have heard from a mother borrowing audiobooks to play to her children from an iPhone, and a reader with arthritis who finds ebooks easier to handle than heavy books. Let us know where you have been reading your ebooks and what you have been reading them on – to paraphrase the old adverts for Crème Eggs, how do you read yours!

Kerry Bossons
Information and Digital Team Service Manager

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December was a busy month for the Information and Digital Team – firstly we had a new team member, Luke Burton, to welcome. We also had a Christmassy meeting with our itea and biscuits group and continued to provide our regular services to customers such as internet taster sessions (read our internet guides online) and patent advice meetings. We saw some great events in the library, including a performance in the City Library atrium by the Caedmon Choir and an exhibition by the Victorian Society in the Bewick Hall.

The team is planning plenty for the New Year, including our support of a campaign called Go On: Get More Out of Life Online, which aims to help people get online and increase their confidence using computers and the internet during January and February. We will be running events at City Library – look out for more details soon. We hope that these sessions will help people meet some of their New Year’s resolutions, such as using the computer or digital camera that was bought as a Christmas present (last year!), or contacting that distant relative using email or social networks for the first time. Using computers or websites requires some knowledge of how they work, but often it is also simply a matter of gaining confidence and this is where we can help too.

I’m terrible at keeping New Year resolutions (I ate chocolate after one week of resolve last year) but if you’re thinking about keeping New Year’s resolutions more effectively than me, your library service can help you with this too. We have books to accommodate every area of self-improvement, and I’ve highlighted a few here; perhaps this will inspire you to read more about the activity you want to try, the achievement you want to reach, or the habit you want to break.

Resolving to save money in the New Year? – we can help:

Want to break a habit? – we have the books for you:

Want to be more active? – take a look at our books on health in the library, and visit our health and wellbeing page.

Thinking of learning to drive next year? – take a look at Theory Test Pro on the 24 Hour Library – a fantastic introduction to the hazard perception test and highway code.

Whatever you choose to do that’s new and exciting for 2011, we wish all our customers a peaceful New Year.

Nick Stopforth
Service Manager
Information and Digital Team

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