Follow the footprints......

We are celebrating Children's Book Week - the longest running children's festival in Australia, celebrating its 64th birthday in 2009. The theme in 2009 is... Book Safari. Come and follow the animal footprints to see the 2009 Children's Book Council of Australia Award winning books on display along with lots of toy jungle animals to delight children.

The Book of the Year for Older Readers is Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, and the Book of the Year for Younger Readers is Perry Angel's Suitcase by Glenda Millard and illustrated by Stephen Michael King and the Picture Book of the Year is Collecting Colour by Kylie Dunstan. For a full list of award winning books please visit the Children's Book Council of Australia website www.cbc.org.au And don't miss local author Charlotte Calder reading her book Stuck! at Storytime tomorrow at 11am and launching her book at 6pm.

One of the most heavily utilised areas of the Orange City Library's collection is the "true crime" section. As an acknowledgment of the popularity of this genre an eye catching display has been created. The new police station was visited and the police generously donated some crime tape and stickers which state that "Cops are Tops". For those of you who read true crime, some new titles have been fast tracked through the system and are available for you to borrow direct from the display. You will also note that there is the outline of a body on the floor (reminiscent of The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie). Question of the week has been "Is that the boss ?" Our lips are sealed on the answer!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words then we have ..well too many to count. Come along and see a large display of black and white and colour photos as part of the Western Districts Photo Competition supported by the Orange Camera Club. All the winning entries are highlighted and the exhibition takes up a huge area at the back of the Orange Library. So spend some time, be inspired by these images and select your favourites. On show until the end of the month and free.

Did you know that alcohol is the most widely used drug in Australia? That alcohol kills more Australians under the age of 35 than any other drug? or, that the annual cost of alcohol-related absenteeism to the Australian economy is 7.5 million working days? This week is national Drug Action Week, we are highlighting our drug info @ your library resources. Drug info @ your library, a partnership between the State Library of NSW and NSW Health, provides access to the latest and most reliable information about alcohol and other drugs through a dedicated website www.druginfo.sl.nsw.gov.au and maintains, throughout NSW Public Libraries, collections of drug and alcohol books, pamphlets and fact sheets, designed to raise awareness of the harm caused by misuse and the enormous cost to the community. In keeping with the Drug Action Week theme - Alcohol is a drug TOO! - the Library's display focuses on safe alcohol consumption and safe drinking practices. Come in and check it out.

And the winners of the World Environment Day Community Arts Competition are Primary – Freya Hawke; Primary – Elizabeth Bilton – Highly Commended; Primary Group – Orange Public School 6J (Penguins - see picture); Primary Group – Orange Public School 3N – Highly Commended; Secondary – Ayla Manwaring; Adult – Stephen Nugent and Adult – Yvette Black – Highly Commended. Entries were judged by Orange Art Gallery Director Alan Sisley and Orange City Librarian Elizabeth Barry. The competition is an initiative of ECCO (Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Orange) and Orange City Council. Come and see all the entries on display at Orange City Library for the next week. There are landscapes, poems, stories, a globe, robots, collages, drawings and lots of recycled materials put to artistic use. Freya Hawke was excited to learn she had won for her work called Environmental Helpers. She demonstrated how it works and the environmental tip I received was "to help save petrol walk or ride instead of taking the car". I think I can do that. And a tip from the Library is to splurge $1 on a Library Bag and you'll never have to use a plastic bag again.

More than 85 people enjoyed the Books on the Menu: Australian cookbooks event hosted by Orange City Library on Wednesday night as part of F.O.O.D Week with special guest State Library of NSW curator Pat Turner (pictured) talking about and displaying rare cookbooks. Pat said the first known Australian cookbook broke away from the traditional English fare with a mix of some wonderful localised dishes with ingredients like black swan, emu, kangaroo and wombat. Cookbooks provide a fantastic social record of the time and document the impact of food on war, celebrations, the Great Depression, migration and new technology. For example, war cookbooks had recipes for meatless dishes because of meat rationing, and during the Depression cookbooks focused on preserving fruit and making jams because people were growing fruit in their own backyard (sounds like a good idea now). Guests at the event were able to put on white gloves and handle the rare cookbooks - some with colourful images and see an ANZAC Day commemoration menu from 1916. Other books on display included The Antipodean Cookbook (1897), the War Chest Cookery Book published in 1917 to raise money for the war efforts and Cooking the Chinese Way (1948) by Roy Geechoun – the first Australian book devoted to Chinese cooking. Guests also enjoyed local produce including figs, cheese, hummus dip, pumpkin and rosemary dip, blue cheese and pistachio dip, sausages, breads and a delicious country terrine. Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a fantastic night. The Australian cookbooks State Library of NSW exhibition panels are on show during F.O.O.D. Week. Stay tuned for recipes from local foodies Libby West, Marcus Richards, Robert Thornberry and Maureen Pilcher who also spoke on the night.

Join Paul Brunton, Senior Curator, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW as he reveals the fascinating history of longitude. Learn about English clockmaker John Harrison who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time allowing navigators to accurately pin-point a ship's position. See three rare books published in 1763, 1765 and 1767 tracing Harrison's battles to have his amazing invention accepted. These books have been recently purchased by the State Library of NSW and go on public display for the first time.

Orange City Library Thurs 26 February 12pm-1pm BYO Lunch Refreshments served

Orange City Library Thurs 26 February 5.30pm for 6pm-7pm Refreshments served

Please RSVP to 6393 8132.

Cowra Library Friday 27 February 12pm – 1pm BYO lunch Refreshments served Please RSVP to 6340 2180.

Can you name the item pictured? It is a chronometer - John Harrison's invention.