Way back when, Wednesdays

Diana lookalike

Have you ever tried to be like your favourite celebrity?

Never underestimate the popularity of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The Leader Messenger reported on the engagement of Juanita Steele and Jeffrey Smith, on page 11 of the edition dated 23 November, 1983. I was struck by the resemblance between Juanita and the late Princess Diana. Below you can view photographs of the happy couple and also of Princess Diana taken in 1983.

diana-lookalike

So why did women want to look like Diana and style their hair in the same fashion? If you don’t remember Diana, she was attractive and well dressed. However, she was more than just a fashion icon. The world media presented Diana as the young, innocent girl who had married her Prince Charming. Although born into the English aristocracy, she became known as ‘The People’s Princess’, a modern woman who was more accessible than the rest of the Royal Family. Diana wore party dresses and swimwear, she went out dancing and regularly visted a gym outside the Palace in her exercise clothing.

diana-in-pearls

It has been said that Diana could manipulate the media for her own purposes. Depending on your point of view, this can be viewed as clever or calculating. There are some that doubt Diana’s sincerity but her gentle nature appealed to ordinary people, who perceived her to be genuine and caring.

Diana never behaved snobbishly. She was always happy to stop and speak with people and children in the crowd. As part of her royal duties, Diana became interested in charitable causes and in a break with protocol she let young children touch and hug her. She supported children’s charities but she also took on topical issues, campaigning against landmines and promoting awareness of AIDS, a disease which was surrounded by fear, misinformation and controversy. Diana was compassionate and accepting of others. For example, she visited gay AIDS sufferers in hospices, holding their hands to dispel the myth that you could catch HIV through touch.

Diana was also loved for a role as a mum. Breaking with tradition, Diana refused to leave baby Prince William at home, bringing him along on the trip she made with Prince Charles to Australia in 1983. There are many photographs and camera footage of Diana enjoying time with her two sons, at home and on holidays, behaving naturally and showing them affection, which is in contrast to the restrained mood of the older promotional films, featuring the Queen and her children.

#waybackwhenwednesdays

Creating a Facebook page for your business or community group

Cafe owners with laptop 46982788_ml

When: Monday 18 July from 11:00 am – 12.15pm

Where:  City of Tea Tree Gully Library

Facebook logo It seems that everybody is on Facebook nowadays.

In addition to socialising online with your friends, Facebook can be a very effective vehicle to keep in regular contact with your business’s customers or members of your community group.

You can use your Facebook page to promote products and events, attract a new clientele and build relationships and goodwill with your existing customer or membership base.

If you are you interested in starting a Facebook Page for your business or community group, this free session will teach you the steps involved in creating a Facebook page and how to market to your audience.

Perhaps you have questions you want answered such as:

¨ Can I assign someone else to help manage my page?

¨ What is the best strategy to grow my page?

¨ Should I pay Facebook to advertise my business or community group?

Then this is the course for you!  Bookings are essential and can be made online.  Or telephone 8397 7333.

 

 

Happy Seventh birthday!

Today the Off the Shelf Library blog turns 7.

7th

It was August 28 2008 when we ventured into the world of social media and haven’t looked back.

However a significant date is a time to look back, so let’s have a gander at some of our blog stats over the years.

  • Our most popular day was October 24th 2011 when we had almost 900 page views. Oddly enough we didn’t post anything that day!
  • The most popular post this year has been about our Dyslexia Friendly collection.
  • The most popular post of all time is about the world’s oldest Library and is one of our early posts dating from March 2009.
  • The blog views dropped noticeably in mid 2011 when we started our Facebook account, illustrating the preferred format of our online audience. However the blog is still a well used format for information and is searchable via Google, unlike other forms of social media.
  • Australia tops the list of our audience view, which is no surprise at 64%, second is the USA with about 14% of views, the other 22% is made up of a number of countries, as far away and as varied as  the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, Morocco, Columbia, Mauritius and Nepal!
  • We’ve had over 210,000 post views since we started.Happy Blog Birthday to us!

Tonight’s Guilty Pleasure film – Amélie (M)

Amelie watercolourIn June and July we polled our Facebook audience what their guilty pleasure movie choices were, and now we are screening them throughout August!

Tonight we are showing Amélie (M –  2001)
Amelie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love.
August 12, 6.30pm – 8.10pm (approx.)

Popcorn is supplied! Bookings essential. Phone 8397 7333 or book online

Next week we will be showing the action adventure classic, Raiders of the Lost Ark (PG)

Tour Down Under Week

It’TDU pack1s Tour Down Under week! The annual Tour Down Under – Australia’s premier cycling event kicked off this week, with the first official stage winding its way through the through the recently blackened Adelaide Hills.

The Tour website has all of the details, including who’s competing when and where each stage is held and other entertainment at those venues.

You can also follow the tour on their official Facebook page, which is updated every 30 minutes!

TDU booksIf you’re feeling inspired to take up cycling, or maybe fix up your bike that’s been languishing in the shed, the library has a large collection of general cycling, and bicycle maintenance & repair books.

If you’re more of a spectator, we also have a range of resources on racing professionally on the world stage, as well as featuring famous and infamous cycling celebrities!