Advent Quiz - Day 22

Question 22

While Stromness Public Library has been in Hellihole road for 108 years the Orkney Library has been on the go a peedie bit longer - can you tell us the year it was founded?

(hint - have a look at the library logo)

Post your answer as a comment below. 
Entries close on 31st December.
Answers will be published and the winner announced on 5th January 2015.

Answer: 1683

Strange Happenings In the Library

There have indeed been some strange and exciting happenings over the past 24 hours, and not all of them in the library. 

However the excitement hasn't ended yet, as tomorrow the Wirdsmit group will be holding a creative writing workshop in Kirkwall Library led by Amber Connolly.

The title of the workshop is 'Strange Happenings in the Library' and will explore 'tales of the unexpected, strange and surreal that don't come off the shelf', and is open to all young writers aged 8-12 years. 

The workshop is a free event and to book a place please call Amber Connolly on 01856 811313.

 

Shows Over

Here we are, the week after the Shows and the weather already thinks it is winter. Our feelings could perhaps be summed up by this Giddy Limit strip by Alex Leonard.

No.207. The Orcadian 13th August 2009   http://www.giddy-limit.com/Year4Archive/no.207.html

But with a week to go before the schools go back we are determined to squeeze ever last drop of fun out of the summer, so even if the weather is less than sunny you'll still get a warm welcome at the library. 

There is still time to complete  the Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge, so get reading and come along to the library to exchange your returned books for stickers, a bookmark, wristband and fortune teller. All those who complete the challenge will also get an invite to our award event, which will take place in Kirkwall library on Saturday 23rd August with special guest, local writer and storyteller Fran Flett Hollinrake, and a presentation of certificates and medals. 

We also still have our holiday reading display up, with books to keep you and your little ones entertained, whatever the weather.

Binary Bonsai

The 2013 Orkney International Science Festival starts tomorrow, Thursday 5th September and as usual the programme is packed with interesting events to suit all ages and interests. You can see a full list of events on the Festival website, but the library Yap and Yarn group members are getting involved in one event which takes place as part of the Family Day on Saturday 7th September in the King Street Halls in Kirkwall.

The project  Botanica Mathematica is the brainchild of Madeleine Shepherd and Julia Collins who came up with it as a celebration of the year of Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013. The project's Ravelry Group page explains the nature of the project and its aims:

Botanica Mathematica is an exploration of mathematical structures arising in botanical forms, using generative instructions and textile techniques to create a sculptural installation. Simple algorithms applied to embroidery, patchwork, knitting and crochet generate elegant structures, rich textures and fascinating patterns.The aim of the project is to create an ever-growing textile herbarium of plant like forms generated by the application of algorithmic processed to craftwork of all sorts.

Madelaine contacted knitters in Orkney to encourgage them to create their own trees to add to the knitted bonsai forest and there is a free pattern for the binary bonsai tree available on Ravelry. It's not too late to knit your own bit of nature, if you can't get along to see Madeleine and Julia on the day then you can drop off your tree(s) at either Stromness or Kirkwall library and we will pass them on. As well as a chance to see the forest on the day of the event there will be kits of pattern and yarn to take away and make later.

Trees have  started to spring up in the libraries already. Kirkwall library has this very lovely specamin:

While the Stromness tree has a distincly Orcadian character with its lean away from the prevailing wind!

No Knitting Tonight...

...At least not at Stromness Library.

Unfortunately due to the pretty dreadful forecast for storm force winds coming our way later today we've decided to cancel tonight's Yap and Yarn meeting.


A night at home in front of the fire with the knitting needles sounds like a good way to stay safe and warm in this weather.

 from Orkney Beachcombing https://www.facebook.com/OrkneyBeachcombing

But you can still share your knitting triumphs and disasters on our Yap and Yarn Facebook page. Share your photos, tips and advice, and we'll keep an eye out for anyone needing help.

The Kirkwall Yap and Yarn group meets next Monday 11th February and we'll meet again in Stromness on 18th February - weather permitting. You'll find a full list of dates on the Yap and Yarn page of the Orkney Library website.

Readers and Books

We were delighted to welcome Orkney Library's Scottish Book Trust Reader in Residence, Alison Miller, to Stromness Library for a visit this week. Over coffee and biscuits we talked about the different kinds of reading experiences library users are looking for, and have hatched plans for possible new reading promotions -  so watch this space!

Alison Miller

Alison has started her own blog about her residency, and we would highly recommend adding it to your reading list, to keep up with all her news and insights into reading, books, and the authors who write them.

You can also keep up with Alison through her Twitter and Facebook accounts  - she is very keen to hear folk's thoughts on Libraries, books and reading, so do drop by and say hello.

While we are on the subject of Libraries and social media we will be in trouble if we don't remind you that the (in)famous OrkneyLibrary twitterer has been nominated in a number of  categories of the  GoldenTwit awards.

You have until 28th November to vote for OrkneyLibrary in the Information Service, Humour, Public Service and Customer Service categories; the shortlists will then be announced on 3rd December, when voting will commence in earnest with the winners being announced on 14th December. Needless to say we have everything crossed in anticipation, and celebratory/commiseratory biscuits at the ready.

Internet Access

picture courtesy of  http://cynfulcreationscanada.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/intermittent-internet-access.html 

Well the good news is, we are getting a shiny new  upgrade to our computer system next week -  the bad news is, this means there will be no internet access available for two days.

The dates for your diary are Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th September, when there will be no internet access available in either Stromness or Kirkwall Libraries. The WiFi connection will not be affected. 

Apologies for any inconvenience this disruption to our usual service may cause. Please don't worry though, you can still come and see us and we'll lend you some books instead! 

Orcrime 2012 - Crime Fiction Competition

This year Orkney will add a new festival to its calendar when the first Orkney crime writing festival - Orcrime 2012 - will run from October 11-13. Organised by Orkney Library and Archive and sponsored by the Orcadian Bookshop the festival will feature appearances from renowned crime novelists Lin Anderson, Ann Cleeves and Denise Mina, as well as crime historian and true crime author Paul Harrison, and Orkney storyteller Tom Muir.

We will bring you more details of the events nearer to the time but something you need to know about now is the chance to enter the first Orkney Crime Fiction Short Story Competition!

The competition will form part of  Orcrime 2012 and is being run by Orkney Library and Archive and the George Mackay Brown Fellowship.

Library assistant Stewart Bain explains the motivation behind the new competition: “Crime fiction has always been popular with our readers, but other than Allan Guthrie and J Storer Clouston, there haven’t been many Orcadian authors known for writing crime fiction. We hope this competition might change that and that one day we might be lending books by the winning author.”

Lucy Gibbon, of the George Mackay Brown Fellowship, is also hoping the competition will tap into the rich vein of creative writing talent in the islands:  “We are very pleased to launch this competition in partnership with the Orkney Library and Archive. We hope that it will encourage people to put pen to paper and come up with fresh angles on the theme of crime.”

The competition is open to anyone over the age of 16 and the judges are looking for a fictional story of no more than 2000 words which has not been published before. There is an entry fee of £2 per story.

A shortlist of five entries will be decided by a panel of local judges, representing the George Mackay Brown Fellowship, the Orkney Library and Archive, and Living Orkney, from which the winners will be chosen by award winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, author of the popular Shetland Quartet. There are cash prizes of £100, £50 and £25 for the top three entries and the first prize winner will have their story published in a future edition of Living Orkney magazine.

The closing date for entries is 20th September  and the winner will be announced during the Orcrime Festival. For more information on how to enter you can download the entry guidelines as a pdf.

Happiness...

...is living in Orkney, at least according to the results of the first annual Subjective Well-being Annual Population Survey (APS)  released  by the Office for National Statistics earlier this week.

Orkney was grouped together with Shetland and the Western Isles to give the required sample size, and 82.9 per cent of respondents in the three island groups rated their happiness as High (scoring 7-10) compared with the UK value of 71.1 per cent. The least happy place in the UK is apparently Blackpool, where only 63.4 per cent of respondents rated their happiness as High.

The Office for National Statistics website has a helpful interactive map so you can see how feelings of happiness, satisfaction, worthwhileness, and anxiety vary across the UK.

There are of course many reasons why folk living in Orkney are in general pretty happy, but we like to think that the Orkney library service may have a small part to play.