Category Archives: One Card

Classic graphic

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Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: The Graphic Novel.
Campfire Graphic Novels. Adapted by Laurence Sach and illustrated by Rajesh Nagulakonda

Pride and Predjudice

Jane Austen;s Pride & Prejudice, The Graphic Novel

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if Jane Austen was alive today, she would be in possession of a sizeable fortune, derived from the sale of her novels, other works of literature based on her characters and film adaptations.

Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, the Graphic Novel is a worthy and modern adaptation of Austen’s popular novel designed to introduce new readers to the original classic. Or for those who already know Austen’s work, the graphic novel provides an opportunity to revisit and enjoy the memorable story of the Bennet family.

I can understand how challenging reading the novel can be for younger readers, after ploughing through the nineteenth century prose at sixteen, as part of the school curriculum. At that age it is easy to miss the humour that Austen puts into Pride and Prejudice, to not appreciate her cleverness and insight as a writer, and as one of my colleagues once commented, “To understand what Elizabeth and Darcy actually saw in each other”.

The story in the graphic novel stays true to the original work. All of the principle episodes and well-known lines are included. What impressed me about this adaption of Pride and Prejudice is the editing. The dialogue and plot unfold well, without the reader having to piece together the story in their minds from random episodes. Austen’s main characters come alive, as Laurence Sach effectively portrays their unique personality traits, in combination with Rajesh Nagulakonda’s illustrations.

The style of the illustrations is simplistic and they are painted in subtle tones of colour. However, I did like them. Characters have a waxy look to their faces but they really do display emotion. Backgrounds, interiors and furnishings are well drawn. Overall, the panels depict the look and feel of daily life for the landed gentry in the Regency period.
The graphic novel also gives readers a summary of Jane Austen’s life and her career as a writer.

You can reserve Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: The Graphic Novel through the One Card Network. Reserve it through the online catalogue or enquire at the Library.

In car entertainment for your driving holiday

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If you and the family are heading off on a driving holiday this summer, or even a day out, and want to ward off boredom and endless games of ‘I Spy’, take a look at the audio book collections in the Library.

Books on CD and MP3 are available for kids and adults, with titles ranging from Storytime with Peppa Pig to My Sporting Life: Sir Jackie Stewart. They can be borrowed for up to 4 weeks, so grab a few to have in the car and keep everyone amused.

audio booksAnd if you run out, you could always borrow more from the public library at your holiday destination, if they are part of the One Card network, and return them here when you get home!

Reading in a language other than English

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People often see reading as a part of their identity.
When asked to talk about who they are, they might describe themselves as avid readers or literature lovers.
As such it seems unsurprising that many people who are bilingual seek literature that allows them to indulge their cultural identity.
Whilst it is an almost impossible feat for libraries to stock an up-to-date and wide range of literature catering to the vast number of language groups living in South Australia,  the One-Card Network is overcoming some of these issues.

Reading books written in German is one of life’s little pleasures – for me at least. I enjoy the complex and almost militant structure of the language. I also love the change of atmosphere another language can lend to a story.

I am often found online spending my hard-earned cash downloading German novels. Whilst fun, this is an activity I can’t always afford. Subsequently, I am frequently scampering to the library in search of my next reading fix.

In the past this exercise has left me disappointed, due to the fact that my local library only has a small selection of German books, ninety percent of which I have already borrowed and read.

Nevertheless, through the One Card Network I am now but a few keys away from many German novels. Using the library catalogue I can peruse novels from all over South Australia and order them at my convenience. The best part is that I can visit this catalogue from home, sort of like free online shopping!

So if you are seeking books in a language other than English, your first stop doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be as simple as searching your local library catalogue!

On our online catalogue we have titles in German, Italian, Chinese, Russian and many more – for more information ask a friendly staff member.

New smartphone app for library catalogue access!

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As a member of the One Card network we now have the BookMyne smartphone app available to our users, offering access to all the participating library services.
The app is available free for iPhone and Android and can be downloaded from the relevant app stores by searching for Bookmyne.

What you can do using BookMyne

  • find libraries, their locations and opening hours
  • search the library catalogues via keyword, author, title subject or barcode
  • place holds and cancel holds
  • access your account details
  • access best seller lists and reading recommendations from Goodreads
  • get assistance using the inbuilt user guide with full instructions on all features
  • use the camera in your mobile to scan barcodes on books in bookstores etc to check if the library stocks the item. (Only available with iOS devices with autofocus cameras ; iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, otherwise barcodes can be entered manually on all iOS devices.)

 Give this new app a try to access all these features and let us know what you think!

Upgrades to our catalogue this weekend

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Our System Administrators will be making some important upgrades to our Library catalogue from 5pm on Saturday 28 July.
While this is happening you will be able to search for items, but you won’t be able to place any holds or login to access My Account.
Sorry if this causes any inconvenience but things should be back to normal on Monday 30 July with improved search results!

Record delivery of 16 boxes!

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We had a record delivery of 16 boxes full to the brim with books, CDs and DVDs from other One Card libraries yesterday.  It’s fantastic to see that so many of our customers are taking advantage of the new One Card Network and placing holds on titles from other libraries to collect at Tea Tree Gully library.

Why not take a look at our new catalogue and put a hold on that book you have been meaning to read for ages?

Happy Reading!

We’re a One Card library!

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It’s been an exciting day for staff and customers alike as we joined the One Card network. We got here bright and early to decorate the Library (complete with balloons, streamers and lollipops), test everything and make sure the system was ready to go when we opened at 10:00am.

Everything went according to plan, with all the training we’ve had over the last few months proving very useful. There’s still a lot to learn but the change has so far been a smooth one.

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So what’s the good news for you? You can now borrow up to 20 DVDs, place up to 30 items on hold, renew items twice and request items from any other network library on our brand new catalogue. All with your current library card! 

Please come and see us to find out more, or leave us a comment here.

We’re offline…

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… until Thursday. All this means is that whilst we transfer our database over to the new One Card system, we currently operate in a ‘bare bones’ mode. Unfortunately until we ‘go live’ on Thursday you are unable to log in to your account via the catalogue, place requests, or renew items online. However once we go live on Thursday you will be able to see the entire One Card network’s catalogue, request any items and renew your items twice!

Check out our roadside banner

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We’ve been promoting the upcoming ‘One Card’ network pretty heavily of late, with articles in the Messenger newspaper, our Facebook, Off the Shelf blog, posters around the Library, Civic Centre and in our Community Centres.

However nothing says we’re serious about letting everyone know more than a five metre long roadside banner!


The banner is on North East Road, opposite Tea Tree Plaza along with our National Year of Reading 2012 banner.

One more week…

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We’re making our final preparations for joining the One Card network, and we can’t wait. It’s very exciting to be at this stage in a project that’s been years in the making.

In one week’s time, on Thursday 21 June, we’ll start using the new system that we’ve been learning as much as possible about. We are still learning though, and we’ll be wearing our Learner plates for the first few days to remind everyone! Don’t let that put you off from visiting us on the day – we’ll be decorating the Library and making it lots of fun for staff and borrowers alike.

Don’t forget that from Monday to Wednesday next week we’ll have a few of our services limited while all of our information is being transferred to the new system – see our previous blog posts for more information. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these few days.