Author Archives: wellingtonlibrary

Bali’s Books for Christmas Reading

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Calling all 3rd and 4th form

We are excited to announce that Bali Rai, writer of young adult books will be visiting us on Monday 25th February 2013. This seems a long way off now but it is the first day back after the half-term break so we need to be ready.

Bali writes thought-provoking, engrossing books and doesn’t shy away from controversial subjects. Many of his books are set in multicultural Britain. “Killing Honour” tackles the subject of honour killings and “Rani and Sukh” is an Asian version of Romeo and Juliet. His latest book “Fire City” is a very different style –  one for fantasy fans – a dystopian fantasy with teenage protaganists fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

We have a good selection of his books in the library so why not take a book out for the Christmas holidays? Who wants to get out of bed on a cold winter’s day when you could just reach out a hand, grab a book and stay warm and comfortable?

Have a browse of the pinterest board to see the range of his books and come and collect one from the library. We welcome feedback and if you enjoy the book why not request to attend one of his sessions in February and hear more about his work?

If anyone wants to help organise the event – show Bali around college, plan what you want out of the sessions, introduce our author please get in touch with Mrs Atherton in the library. library@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Of course I don’t approve of bribery but chocolate flows freely in the library at Christmastime! Celebrations! Celebrations! Celebrations!

 

Study Skills – Advice and Information for 6th formers

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University of Sussex Study Skills – This is an excellent website from the University of Sussex. Designed for University students it contains really useful advice for 6th formers.

It is clearly laid out with many useful sections covering:

More Study Skills Advice from Manchester University and Leeds University

University of Southampton Academic Skills This website has some incredibly informative and useful in depth guides to study skills.

 

 

Longlists announced for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals 2013

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5th November – Carnegie Longlist

The longlists for two of the most prestigious prizes in writing and illustrating for children were announced on 5th November. Awarded annually by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, the CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book for children and young people, while the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people.

The longlist for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2013 includes Anne Fine, who would be the first ever author to win the CILIP Carnegie Medal three times if Trouble in Toadpool triumphs. She is joined on the longlist by previous winners Melvin Burgess, Frank Cottrell Boyce, David Almond, Philip Reeve, Theresa Breslin, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Robert Swindells and Aidan Chambers who, if they win again, will join a seven-strong group of authors have been awarded the Medal twice – including last year’s winner, Patrick Ness. The 2013 longlist also includes a rare double nomination – for Sally Gardner’s Maggot Moon and The Double Shadow. Winners of the CILIP Carnegie Medal over the past eight decades reads like a who’s who of the best children’s writers in the past century including Meg Rosoff, Neil Gaiman, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman and Geraldine McCaughrean. (taken from the awards website)

There is some exciting reading on this longlist.  I can thoroughly recommend “Wonder” by R. J. Palacio and “15 Days without a Head” by Dave Cousins.

 

New e-resources: NewsVault – Historical electronic newspaper archive.

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News Vault

This vast electronic newspaper archive is an extensive collection covering over 400 years of content and comprising over 10 million digitized pages. You can cross-search the following databases or search them individually.

 

It includes:

  • Times Digital Archive
  • Sunday Times Digital Archive
  • Economist Historical Archive
  • Illustrated London News
  • The Picture Post
  • FT Historical Archive
  • Times Literary Supplement
  • 17th – 19th Century British newspapers
  • The Listener 1929 – 1991
  • 19th Century US newspapers

Access these excellent historical primary sources from the e-library on the Intranet.

The Week (also accessed from the e-library)

We’ve also recently obtained a site wide licence for the digital version of  “The Week” magazine. This is a very readable weekly news digest. You can read the latest edition or browse the archive dating back to 2009.

The archive is subject searchable which makes it a useful research tool.

MFL

We are in the process of developing our MFL resources on the iPads. Please let us know if there are newspapers/magazines you would like to read on the iPads in the Library.

You can read Le Monde online and we now have “Science et Vie” French magazine.

For students of the German language Ms Bushell recommends Tagesschau in 100 Sekunden (also available on the iPads). German news in 100 seconds with subtitles.

e-books in the News – an update

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There have been many developments in the e-book world over the last few months. In May 2012 Waterstones decided to start selling Amazon’s Kindle and on 31st August John Lewis announced its decision to sell Nook e-readers in all its stores.

Here are the latest developments in the world of e-books over the last week:

 

Researching House History in the Library

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This morning Dr Dunn’s 3rd form History class spent a productive lesson researching the History of their boarding houses. They used the big screens and iPads to search the online Dictionary of National Biography and scoured the historical book stock for references to Picton and Hill, Murray and Orange etc. See the photos in the post below.

Did you know that apparently Wellington called Picton:

“a rough, foul-mouthed devil as ever lived”

Griffiths, Arthur. Wellington his comrades and contemporaries.(George Allen, 1897), p319