BOOKLINE VOLUME 16, ISSUE 6 July & August 2013 Newsletter of the Friends of the Tauranga City Libraries Incorporated President: Kate Clark Patron: Bill Holland

From the President’s Desk

Dear Friends

We have more new members to welcome to

the club – a big ‘Hi’ to Joy Rising and Mary

Rose. We look forward to getting to know

you.

In my last comment I discussed the three

functions of the club. But there is another

group who are equally as important. These

are our financial members who, for many

reasons, are not active actively involved.

Without their financial support we would

be unable to continue to function. Over the

years their subscriptions and donations

have helped pay for food for the reading

programme finales, the lighting in the

mobile library, and various items in our

libraries. We are indeed grateful and

thank these members.

Greerton Library is not proceeding this

year. The Councillors voted 7-4 against

approving the budget. It will be

reconsidered in the 2014-2015 Annual Plan.

In the Council letter dated 9th July

responding to our written submission the

reason given is that ‘The project is not a

priority for Council expenditure.’

This decision has been thoroughly

discussed at the four club meetings since

the decision on 4th June and at the

executive committee meeting in July.

Friends of the Library will be supporting

the community campaign for the Greerton

Library to proceed next year – no matter

what! The start of this will be a public

meeting in late August. More details as

they come to hand . . .

On a positive note, the Council Chamber is

having new microphones and additional

speakers installed ‘urgently’ so that

everyone in the gallery will be able to hear

what is being said!!!

I hope you are all keeping well in this

wintery weather. My cat, Mystique, is not a

cold morning cat. On frosty mornings she

is grumpy until the sun comes up and the

lounge is warm enough to sleep in!

Cheers, Kate

August Meetings

Friends of the Tauranga City Libraries Inc

28th Annual General Meeting

Monday 5th August 2013 at 7.30pm

Tauranga Central Library

AGENDA

1 Welcome

2 Apologies

3 Minutes of 2012 AGM

4 Matters Arising – Auditor

5 President’s Report & Adoption

6 Financial Report & Adoption

7 Appointment of Auditor

8 Election of Officers & Executive

Committee

9 Motions

10 General Business

11 Closing

Fiona Macnab from Papamoa Library will

then give a short talk on the joys of

working in a brand new library!

Saturday 10th August 2013,

Mount Library – starting at 1.30pm

Joy Edmonds – Genealogy & the Library

Joy has considerable experience in Genealogy and voluntarily tutors on the fantastic resources at our libraries. Health Warning: this talk could prove to be addictive!

Wednesday 14th August 2013,

Committee Meeting – starting at 11.00am

Meeting Room 1st Floor Tauranga Library

unless changed by AGM results

Wednesday 21st August 2013

Book Group

Papamoa Library – starting at 10.00am

Topic: Novels set before the 20th Century

Thursday 22nd August 2013, Chat Group

Zest Cafe, Chadwick Road, Greerton -

starting at 10.00am

Shirley Arabin talking about her recent indy published book

‘No petty people : the Arabin family’

September Meetings

Monday 2nd September 2013,

Tauranga Library – starting at 7.30pm

Sandra Simpson, Gardening Editor BOP

Times & Haiku Poet

Sandra will talk about some of the highlights of her career, her Haiku, and Spring.

Wednesday 11th September 2013,

Committee Meeting – starting at 11.00am

Meeting Room 1st Floor Tauranga Library

unless changed by AGM results

Saturday 14th September 2013,

Mount Library – starting at 1.30pm

Speaker / Theme: to be confirmed

Wednesday 18th September 2013 Book Group Papamoa Library – starting at 10.00am

Topic: Fiction - Fantasy / Supernatural

Thursday 26th September, 2013 Chat Group Zest Cafe, Chadwick Road, Greerton

starting at 10.00am

Wendy Mossop, Mossop’s Honey

Mossop’s Honey is a family business of 65 years. Come along and hear about working with bees and honey – an all natural product from a symbol of Spring.

Seattle Public Library

Haiku Hullabaloo Poetry Contest

I learned to knit

from a library book and now

I wear soft, warm hats.

Darcy McMurtery

Ballard Branch

Frayed man reads in easy

chair. Nobody's homeless

in a library.

Carol Gordon

Lake City Branch

What’s Been Happening

Wednesday 15th May 2013

Papamoa Book Group found ‘Fiction about

artists’ a testing topic but came up with some

interesting reads.

Thursday 23rd May 2013

Peter Cramond was a delightful and inspiring

speaker sharing details of his life, parenting

with a physical disability, and his sketchbooks.

The weather was not delightful.

Tuesday 4th June 2013

Council Annual Plan Meeting

6 members of Friends braved one of the coldest days of winter to hear the news that the Greerton library was not going to be built. It was no longer considered appropriate after the flooding in parts of the city 6 weeks earlier.

Saturday 8th June 2013

Jo Blennerhassett was unable to make the

meeting so interesting discussions took place

around two questions posed by Kate. The first

question was, ‘What is your earliest

recollection or most memorable recollection of

food in books?’ and the second was ‘What is

your favourite meal?’ Joan produced

irrevocable evidence that Alice ate or drank her

way through Wonderland! To start the meeting

Kate read ‘The King’s Breakfast’ and, as most

people seemed to love rice pudding she

finished it by reading ‘Rice Pudding’, both

poems from ‘The World of Christopher Robin’.

Wednesday 19th June 2013

Family Sagas is the theme for the June and July

meetings. This month's meeting was spent in

lively discussion as the various books were

introduced, with some recognised from past

reading or discovered as new publications.

Non-fiction and fiction both presented plenty

of enjoyment. A great variety ranged from

New Zealand's Gluckman family history,

‘Postcards from Tukums : a family detective

story ‘ by Ann Gluckman to ‘Life, Death and

Vanilla Slices’ by Jenny Eclair and John

Galsworthy’s English classic ‘The Foryste Saga’

in both hardback and audio book format plus

‘The Foxes of Harrow’ by Frank Yerby.

Sunday 23rd June 2013

Grandparents Get Down at the Library

Another chance to work with our dynamic librarians and enjoy some junior library users. After Amanda and Penny had read several NZ Post Book Award children’s stories we then made wind trains from Barbara Else’s new book, ‘The Queen & the Nobody Boy’. Over afternoon tea Penny told us the story of ‘Sparky’ and how he saved the passenger train from disaster – I remember this one from the radio. Much fun was had by all.

Thursday 27th June 2013

Terry Molloy talked to 15 of us about the Greerton Library decision. He stated it was an emotional decision. Bill Holland, our Patron was also there. With a dedicated $1.8m of development contributions, Bill’s advice is to make this a local body election issue. Candidates register in August, we get to meet them in September, and elections are in October 2013.

Monday 1st July 2013

Stephanie Smith, Specialist Information Librarian: NZ Room brought down her 10 favourite things from the collections’ controlled environment room. Treasure! The first item was a first edition of magical, exceptional New Zealand ‘Buller’s Book of Birds’. What a treat!

Wednesday 10th July 2013

The committee have agreed to support campaigns for the expansion of Greerton Library, to apply for a grant for the summer reading programmes 2013/2014, and to apply for a grant to assist pay the bus fares of school children coming to visit the library through the Artbus scheme. At the moment the Art Gallery fundraises the $45,000 needed for this scheme. Our input would probably be around $3,000 - $4,000.

Saturday 13th July 2013

Bev Hodges ran a fun and informative introduction to Facebook called ‘Who’s afraid of the big, bad Facebook’. By the end of the session the attendees were more confident of its uses and their ability to control their personal security. They also had an understanding of the importance of Facebook in running clubs and certainly in running campaigns such as support for a new Greerton library.

Book Reviews

Life, Death and Vanilla Slices Author: Jenny Eclair

Publisher: Sphere

Jean Collins is in a coma. She stepped out

into the middle of the road without looking

and was run over by a motorbike. But what

had distracted her? And why was she

carrying a box of vanilla slices - the cream

cakes she only ever bought for special

celebrations? For Jean's daughter Anne, these questions are the least of her

concern. Travelling back up north to visit

her mother, Anne frets about leaving her

two sons behind in London - boys who are

rapidly becoming men, and not very

pleasant ones at that. And there are

secrets waiting for Anne, back in the

house where she grew up. Secrets she

doesn't want to think about - that she

buried a long time ago...Award-winning

comedian Jenny Eclair is celebrated for

her unflinching black humour and brilliantly

sharp observations. In her extraordinary

new novel she has also created a compelling

and heartbreaking family drama that feels

as rich and honest as real life.

http://www.goodreads.com

Postcards from Tukums : a family detective story

Author: Ann Gluckman Publisher: David Bateman

After finding a collection of hidden postcards in the attic in their house in Remuera where the Gluckman's had lived for three generations, Ann Gluckman has them put in order and translated from the original Yiddish/Russian/Latvian to discover what life was like for her grandparents before and after they moved to New Zealand in 1904. A fascinating story is revealed and 'the old country' on the edge of revolution much better understood. Packed with illustrations of the postcards and photos of friends and family Ann has created a family history to be proud of.

http://www.arcadiabookshop.co.nz/review

The Secret Life of Bees Author: Sue Monk Kidd Publisher: Penguin Books The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the story of Lily, a teenager on a peach farm

in South Carolina whose mother died when she was young and whose father is abusive. In practice, Lily is raised by the black housekeeper, Rosaleen. When Rosaleen gets in a fight with some white men while she is going into town to register to vote, Lily and

Rosaleen decide to take off together. They end up in a unique community that is the perfect place for Lily to look for her mother

and learn to love herself. The descriptions, characters and plot mix together to make The Secret Life of Bees a

honey-sweet reading treat. Southern summer nights come alive in this novel, and you can almost taste the Coke with peanuts floating in it. The characters are well developed and interesting. There is enough suspense to keep The Secret Life of Bees from becoming too introspective as well.

Race issues run through the novel. Lily's relationships with black women and men and the town's willingness to ignore them are not entirely realistic; however, The Secret Life of Bees does a good job of conveying the

underlying tension and inequalities that existed in the South in the 1960s. The Secret Life of Bees also explores feminine spirituality. While this was not the strongest thread in the book, it worked well enough with the characters and events not to be a

serious weakness. This is a wonderful debut novel that makes a quick and thoughtful weekend read.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/fictionreviews

AGM Detail

As noted on the front page, our AGM is

on Monday 5th August 2013, starting at

7.30pm. It is to be held at the Tauranga

Library and after the formalities there

will be a speaker and then supper. Last

year’s meeting was very convivial.

Speaker

Fiona Macnab will delight us with stories,

distilled from all the Papamoa staff,

about working in a brand new library.

Notice of Motion

There is one Notice of Motion to be

voted on correcting an anomaly in the

Club Rules. (Copies of the Rules will be

available at the AGM.)

Clause 3.3 refers to ‘Honorary Life

Members’. The motion is to change the

wording to read ‘Honorary Members or

Life Members’ with the words ‘Members

or’ being added.

A Life Membership is awarded to a

member who has given admirable service

to the club and has since retired

(generally) from active club life. As a

Life Member they retain full voting

rights and do not have to a pay

membership subscription.

An Honorary Membership is awarded to

someone who provides a service to the

club, for example a Patron, and does not

have voting rights unless they pay

membership subscription.

Quorum

With a membership of 94 we need at

least 19 members present.

Situations Vacant

Secretary ) refer to Clause 11

Vice President ) on next page

Another 2 committee members

The President (Kate Clark) and

Treasurer (Bob Parry) and all committee

members are standing for re-election.

For the last year we have not had a Vice

President and for several years we have

not had a Secretary.

Clause 11 of the Club Rules states:

‘Management of the Society shall

be in the hands of an Executive not

exceeding twelve in number which

will comprise of the following

officers: Chairperson, Deputy

Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer,

and not less than two and not more

than eight members.’

Nomination Forms

Enclosed with this Bookline is a

nomination form – we hope to have lots

of these filled in and returned on the

night!

Who’s Who in Our World

JILL BEST MANAGER : LIBRARIES

The importance of the position of the Manager of the Library and Information Services cannot be over-rated!

Jill Best, the Manager of Tauranga City Library and Information Services, unlike many librarians who have come into the service as a second choice, has always been committed in her desire to pursue Librarianship as her chosen career.

After completing her B.A. in Languages, she passed her Diploma in Librarianship, to be followed later by a Business Diploma, with a Masterate in Public Management in 2001. Jill is also a Registered Professional Member of LIANZA, (Library & Information Association of New Zealand) for which she had to keep a five-year diary to record training and researching to show she was keeping herself up-to-date. Fifty items were expected. Jill recorded 120 items!

She has also been made a Fellow of LIANZA for her contribution to the library profession including her involvement at a national level with improving the collection of national statistics, set-up work on the Kotui project (software for all NZ public libraries) and the Epic project (negotiating for access for all NZ libraries to databases of journal and newspaper articles online), rewriting the Standards for NZ Public Libraries, rewriting the Strategic Framework for NZ Public Libraries, and many other national initiatives. Tauranga City Libraries have benefited from all of these, getting tools they could not afford on their own, with Kohui being the latest addition, anticipated in October 2013.

Council has approved the new Library Level of Service Policy and Jill’s aim is to "Provide the best possible service for our community, within the budget available."

Managing a staff of 50 who provide a wide range of services to the public, Jill has a most responsible job, but she still finds time to organise the ongoing Pacific Public Libraries Project.

Jill is just back on deck having spent six weeks in America catching up with family including both granddaughters.

We thank Jill for her commitment and for her time given for this interview.

Margaret Collin

Parking in Tauranga City

On 1 July 2013 parking in the city centre changed.

Time limits will be removed. If you need to stay longer you can – just pay for the parking you need.

There are three parking zones priced at $3, $2 and $1 per hour. The further away from the heart of the city that you park, the less you have to pay.

Parking charges on Saturdays are back for all on-street parks. Parking in the parking buildings and in the off-street car parks will still be free on Saturdays.

Please check the nearest pay and display machine for charges and times of operation.

On-street parking charges apply Monday – Friday 9am - 4pm and Saturdays from 9am – 1pm.

All parking is free on Sundays and public holidays.

Depending on your requirements, the Elizabeth Street and Spring Street parking buildings will usually be the best value and most convenient places if you want to park in the city centre but don't know how long you will stay.

Make sure you pick up a copy of this pamphlet

from your library - Kate

Let’s Laugh (ex BOP Times)

A vacuum cleaner salesman wormed his way into a home in a remote Welsh valley.

‘This machine is amazing,’ he enthused in his finest sales patter before tipping a bag of dirt over the lounge floor carpet. ‘Watch this. If this machine doesn’t remove every last speck of dirt, I’ll lick it off the carpet myself!’

‘Do you want ketchup on it?’ asks the woman. ‘We’re not connected to the electricity!’

One friend said to another: „Did you know that the shortest sentence in the

English language is “I am”?‟

„Really? What‟s the longest sentence?‟ his friend asks.

„I do.‟

When a woman discovered she was pregnant, her four-year-old son overheard his parents’ conversation. He didn’t say anything until a week later when a family friend asked him if he was excited about the prospect of a new brother or sister. ‘Yes,’ said the boy, ‘and if it is a girl we are going to call her Emily, and if it is a boy we are going to call it Quits.’

Subscriptions Due

Yes – subscriptions are due again. Our financial year started 1st July 2013. Thank you to the 35+ members who have already paid – your receipts should be with this Bookline.

If you haven’t, please fill out the YELLOW form enclosed with the May / June 2013 issue of Bookline and either post it to us or bring it along to the AGM or next meeting you attend.

Something you could write on the back of the form to help with running your club – speakers you would like us to try and get or topics you would like to hear about!

Also – please fill in your email address. When Council has a meeting about a library matter we are given a maximum of 7 working days notice. The best way to notify our members is by email.

Cheers, Kate

Seattle Public Library

More Haiku Hullabaloo Poetry Contest

Book falls off the shelf

Startles man at computer

All is silent now

Ian O. Age: 10

School: The Bush School

Magnolia Branch

books are full of words

libraries are full of books

books are awesome worlds

Cameron A. Age: 11

School: Pinehurst K-8

Northgate Branch

Bookline Sponsors

Bay Valuation, Registered Valuers Phone: 578 6456 Jones & Company, Funeral Services Phone: 578 4009 RHB Ltd, Chartered Accountants Phone: 571 6280 RPC Ltd, Registered Surveyors Phone: 575 4911

Executive Committee

President: Kate Clark 543 0483 Email: rainbowsforever@xtra.co.nz Address: 2 Hinton Place Pyes Pa Tauranga 3112

Treasurer: Bob Parry 574 2476

Committee Members: Joan Angell 574 9722 Geoff Cullen 544 1897 Heather King 571 3565 Gail Malecek 574 3376 Lorna Neame 576 9722

Library Representative: Di Taggart 577 7177

Postal Address: C/- DX Mail 342 Cameron Road Tauranga 3110

PATRON: Bill Holland