Your Library Needs You!

Calling all Friends of the Barossa Library!  Please consider getting yourself actively involved in the Committee.  Our Annual General Meeting will be held at Nuriootpa library on Thursday 22nd August at 7 pm, when the new Committee for 2013/14 will be elected.  All positions are open for nomination:  President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and 6 Committee members.  Most of our committee have served for many years and it would be great to see some fresh ideas.

Nomination form available at any library branch:

FRIENDS OF THE BAROSSA LIBRARY

I …………………………………………………………………………………..(Print  Name)

of …………………………………………………………………………………(Contact Details)

…………………………………………………………………………………

nominate for the position of………………………………………………………………..

on the 2014/15 Friends of the Barossa Library Committee.

……………………………………………………………………………………….(Signature)

Nominated by…………………………………………………………………..(Name & signature)

Seconded by …………………………………………………………………….(Name & signature)

Date………………………………………….

Meeting starts at 7 pm, followed by guest speaker Nicole Hodgson on “Seppeltsfield, Past, Present and Future” and then some convivial refreshment and supper.

A highlight of the Story Book Picnic was the presentation of prizes to the winners of the Young Writers’ Competition 2014 by Barossa Council Mayor Brian Hurn and Councillor Michael Seager:  First prize in each section was a Kobo e-reader donated by The Co-Op and minor prizes some beautiful books donated by Vinpac International.  In addition the prize of “A Reporter for a Day” was a presented by The Barossa and Light Herald, while a special prize of a Commendation for Poetry was donated by the Friends of the Barossa Library.

Winners were:  Aged up to 8 Years:  1st Samantha Lane of Hewwett, “Once There Was”; 2nd Alysha Seager of Mount Pleasant “the Lion Sisters”; and 3rd Jed Laycock of Lyndoch “The Old Ogre”.

9 to 12 years:  1st Elisheba Gore of Williamstown “Caught In the Back Paddock”; 2nd Laura Emms of Lyndoch “Dark Waters”; 3rd Eleanor Linke of Rowland Flat “A Day In the Life of Gyp”

13 to 15 years: 1st  Rhiana Broadwood of Tanunda “The Immortal Legend”;  2nd Lillian Fryer of Lyndoch “Dark Waters”; 3rd Isabella Bristow of Lyndoch “My Life Without Her” .

16 to 20 years:  1st Georgia Lawrie of Tanunda “The Promise”; 2nd Kate Wendt-dearlove of Nuriootpa “Haumnted”; and 3rd Gemma Schrapel of Nuriootpa “The Angel”

Reporter For a Day Award:  Georgia Lawrie

Special Commendation:  Caitlin Heppner of Nuriootpa.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Great day at Story Book Picnic on Sunday 13th April.  Perfect autumn weather and about 300 people enjoyed the beautiful setting at Seppeltsfield Winery with so many activities organised by the library staff, two concerts by Ticklish Allsorts, face painters, balloon artists, clowns, story-reading, Smokey the Bear with the Greenock CFS and so much more.

Friends of the Library and the Barossa Library are very proud of organising and presenting such an excellent community day – it is not often that such events are oriented to the family, but this ticked all the boxes.  We showed that books and literature can be fun!

Great day of family entertainment with FREE entry, but in order to assist us in getting an idea of numbers, FREE tickets are available at library branches now.  Hand in your ticket as you enter and you will be in the draw for a door prize of a basket of Easter goodies.

The schedule of activities:

11 am Opening – clowns, story reading, badge -making etc

11.30 am First concert Ticklish All Sort

12.00 Parade and judging and prize-giving for story character dress up competition

12.30 lunch

1.00 Announcement of winners of Young Writer’s Competition

1.30 Second concert by Ticklish All Sorts

2.00 Family races – egg-and-spoon, 3-legged, sack races

2.30 Final entertainment

3.00 Close.

The 2014 Story Book Picnic will be held in the beautiful grounds of Seppeltsfield Winery on Sunday 13th April.  Friends of the Barossa Library and the Barossa Council Library Service have decided to make it a FREE entry event, to create a family-friendly affair to thank all the people who support the libraries in the Barossa.  Starting at 11 am, there will be entertainment from Ticklish AllSorts, clowns, face-painting,family races, a dress-up competition, story reading, balloon sculptures, and the announcement of the winners of the Young Writers’ Competition.  Families are encouraged to bring a picnic and a rug, but there will be a sausage-sizzle from the Greenock CFS and doughnuts from Tanunda Lutheran School, and of course Benno’s kiosk will be open for drinks and refreshments.  Winding up about 3 pm, this will be a great day for families to get together.

Many of the costs have been met by a great range of Barossa businesses and people, including the Co-Op, Vinpac International, Peter Lehmann Wines, Ravens Parlour Book shop, Margaret Lehmann, Magnus International, Seppeltsfield Wines, and the Herald, who we thank most sincerely.

Friends of the Barossa Library is offering some great prizes in its 2014 Young Writers’ Competition.  Thanks to the sponsorship of The Co-op, first prize in the four divisions is an e-reader valued at $149 along with a cover to the value of $30, making a total prize value of $179 for each winner.  These e-readers are compatible with the library system, so that books can be borrowed online.  Once again, Vinpac International has supported our cause by donating an impressive range of books as second and third prizes.

Barossa libraries now have a wide range of electronic books available to borrow and these readers are compatible with the library system.

President of the Friends, Bill Biscoe, said, “The Friends were formed to assist and enhance the work of the Barossa library service, for which we raise funds to purchase books or additional resources.  As part of these aims, we actively encourage literacy and a love of literature amongst all the people of Barossa, particularly our young people.  The Young Writers’ Competition offers incentives for young people to stretch their imaginations and practice the art of putting words together to make an interesting story.”

The competition is open to writers in the following divisions: up to 8 years (up to 200 words), 9 to 12 years (up to 500 words); 13 to 15 years (up to 700 words) and 16 to 20 years (up to 1,000 words).  Entries are now open and will close on 28^th March.  Winners will be announced at Story Book Picnic at Seppeltsfield Winery on Sunday 13^th April.

Entry forms and conditions are now available at any library branch and through schools in the Barossa region.

Cleaning up after the drawing of the Friends’ Christmas Raffle we discovered that there were a few bottles of wine and some books left over from the pool of prizes donated by our generous sponsors, so it was decided to draw two more prizes as consolations for those who missed out in the main draw.  The lucky winners were:  Antonia Sibbick and Christine Thomas, both of whom were surprised and delighted to receive the last minute gifts for Christmas.

Pictured above are Jan Biscoe, FOBL Secretary, and Sofie Kraft, winner of the first prize in our great 2013 Christmas Raffle.  The raffle was drawn at the Library at 3 pm on Friday 20th December.  Winners of other prizes were:  2, Margaret Lehmann; 3, Olive Goode; 4, Justin Saegenschnitter; 5, “anonymous” of Mt Pleasant; 6, Kath Waanders; 7, Lois Randall; 8, Sarah; 9, Sue Cramer; 10. Clara Kokegei.

The Friends thanks everybody who bought a ticket – all the proceeds will go towards library improvement projects.  Also, our sincere thanks to all the many generous donors in the Barossa, both individual and corporate, who continue to support the work we do.

The Friends Committee extends seasons greetings to all – have a great Christmas and  a happy and literary 2014!

The annual prizes for a local area history study by Year 9 students at Faith College in 2013 were presented at the Years 8,9 and 10 Presentation Night recently.  Judges Adelaide Abbott and Jill Stevens commented that it was particularly hard to pick the winners this year because of the very high standard of entries.  Friends President Bill Biscoe presented the prizes to: (from left to right above):  Claudia Jenkins (equal second, essay “Ivanhoe”); Daniel Grosser (first, essay “Narcoota Poll Merino Stud”); Julia Edwards (first, model “St Petri, Nuriootpa”); Bill Biscoe; Madeline Ellis (third, model “Ellis Ironmonger”); James Madden (equal second, essay “Tanunda Lutheran School”); Harrison Starick  (second, model “Manning House”).

Friends of the Barossa Library is delighted to be associated with this project which encourages our young people to find out more about the rich heritage of the Barossa region.

Those who were able to get to Fiona McIntosh’s address at Seppeltsfield had an hilarious and entertaining experience.  Fiona is one of the funniest speakers we have ever heard – if you can get her to talk about her sons’ 21st birthday celebrations on the escalator at David Jones while she was wearing a filmy French skirt – well, suffice to say most of us were rolling on the floor by the end of the tale.

Fiona has a phenomenal output of books – interestingly there was a recent documentary on Bryce Courtney who produced a book a year for over 20 years, and Fiona has the same discipline and burning desire to tell stories that will see her achieve the same volume..  She has a huge following for her fantasy epic books and now her historical romances are going straight to the top of the best-seller lists.

Check out her websites on http://www.mcintoshfantasy.com/ and http://www.fionamcintosh.com/

Above with Jill, Jan and Bill from the Friends of the Library and Julie from the Library staff.

Below she is with Julie, Sarah and Tania from the library staff.