The book for today’s preschool story time (Thursdays at 10:30 a.m.) was Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, and the app used for the iPad was Play Tales Kid’s Interactive Books. The story also involved the moon but not a small cat and the app was free (they get you later on when you want more). The audience, both moms and children, were pleased with both formats and as engaged with the book as with the iPad screen. The iPad also had several interactive games that reinforced some of the concepts of the story as well as words and numbers. Another dimension has been added to storytelling and we are enjoying it immensely, as are the participants. One of the mothers called later to get the correct name for the app.
Still on computers, we had a call from the Girl Guides leader asking if her group could have their next meeting in the library and access the computers. One of the badges now available is a computer badge and our space and computer set up is ideal for them to work as a group. The request worked out better than expected as not only will they get use of the computers but they will also have the skill and expertise of our computer technician for a short workshop and that will include the audiovisual room. That is also quite timely as we have had a request from a Grade 7 student for a tutorial on the Garage Band program on the computer in the audiovisual room. We are putting a program together for the grade 7 and 8 age group to introduce them to programs their computers might not have.
We have just heard the news there will be a garden show this year featuring the work of local gardeners at seven different locations. It was one of the couples participating in the show who gave me the information, and coincidentally I was talking to them about a new DVD in our collection called Great Gardens of England. It features 58 quite amazing gardens in the U.K. shown on six DVDs. Unfortunately, it takes some time for some DVDs from the U.K. to be available to Canadian viewers and this set of DVDs is quite dated; however it’s only noticeable when the gardeners themselves are being interviewed. There are some very large glasses and some very interesting hairdos. The gardens themselves are quite timeless and every one of them memorable.
Carrying on with the garden theme, thanks to information from friends, I found the TV Ontario website and a huge variety of interesting documentaries available for viewing. I immediately honed in on the BBC production of Monty Don’s Italian Gardens and was captive for the 54 minutes of my tour of Baroque gardens in Northern Italy. If you go to the list of programs and then to the program page, you will see the four hour-long programs available for viewing. They have not adapted the DVD series for Canadian viewing yet nor Monty Don’s other series, Around the World in 80 Gardens. We have had our eye on that one for some time now. I have ordered both of the books for the library and we will maintain hope that DVDs will eventually be available in Canada. I suggest you hook your computer to your television screen to watch the videos from the website. You will never look at your own garden the same way again.
We just had a visitor in the library from Chilliwack, who, with his BC OneCard, borrowed several books in a series he was interested in reading. He will be dropping them off at his Chilliwack branch and they will get them back to us. With your Creston library card and a piece of picture ID, you can be added to any library system in B.C. and borrow any items their OneCard policy allows. Any of those items can be returned to any library in B.C., including ours, and they will be returned to the home library. The traffic of library items between our library and Cranbrook, as well as numerous other libraries, has steadily increased since the OneCard was introduced. The increased strength of library connections not only in the Kootenays but the entire province has become noticeable and very helpful as we are all faced with an interesting future.
Ann Day is the chief librarian at the Creston and District Public Library.