Visitors to Edinburgh’s Central Library will be able to sample a special selection of Nordic noir, as well as sci-fi, history and poetry, thanks to a delivery by the Finnish Institute in London. Continue reading Library receives special consignment of Scandinavian stories
Partnership provides new opportunities for students, faculty and the wider campus community to maximise the value of their unwanted books
Better World Books, the award-winning, socially minded global bookseller, is delighted to announce a new partnership with the EAUC, the environmental and sustainability champion within Further and Higher Education in the UK, to drive sustainability and book reuse at university and college campuses across the UK.
The EAUC and Better World Books will work together to locate book banks which will provide students, staff and the wider community with a convenient and easy way to donate books that they no longer want. Books that are collected will be processed at the Better World Books distribution centre in Dunfermline and listed for sale on www.betterworldbooks.co.uk and other online marketplaces. A percentage of every book sold will support the EAUC’s mission. Any books that cannot be sold will be donated or recycled–no books ever become landfill. The book banks are supplied free of charge by Better World Books.
Better World Books successfully operates its book bank programme at various locations across the UK, including Fife. In Fife alone, almost one million books have been collected since 2013.
The EAUC leads and empowers the post-16 education sector to put sustainability at the heart of the way the world operates. The EAUC believes that both the issues of social, environmental and economic sustainability are interlinked as well as the solutions.
Iain Patton, EAUC CEO, said, “EAUC’s new partnership with Better World Books aims to help our members bridge the ‘learning gap’ and stop books being lost to landfill.”
Better World Books, as a founding member of the B Corp movement and the winner of the VIBES Circular Economy Award in 2015, shares similar goals of reuse and sustainability.
Martin Mullin, Head of Sales UK for Better World Books added, “This exciting partnership between the EAUC and Better World Books is a brilliant concept with sustainability at the very centre. Together we will work to place book banks across Universities and Colleges and collect books that would otherwise be going to landfills. The book banks are a very convenient way for everyone involved in campus life to participate. We’re really pleased to be working with an organisation that shares our environmental goals and values.”
BOOKBUG WEEK 15 – 21 MAY: Bookbug’s Big Giggle
Bookbug Week, an annual celebration of Scotland’s national book gifting programme, will take place between 15 and 21 May, with hundreds of free events for children and babies held across the country.
This year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Giggle – a fun and playful theme that encourages parents and carers to share playful songs and stories with their children in order to highlight that laughter is essential for well-being and for building bonds between carers and children.
Now in its seventh year, Bookbug Week 2017 will see free Big Giggle themed events taking place in every local authority in Scotland, with special appearances from some of the UK’s best-loved children’s authors and illustrators. Schools and nurseries across the country can also tune in to watch a fun-filled Authors Live event with Alex T Smith, streamed live at 11am on Wednesday 17 May.
Some fantastic Bookbug prizes will also be up for grabs in on-line competitions throughout the week. Families can find details of all Bookbug Week events taking place in their area by dropping in to their local library or by visiting the website at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/bookbugweek
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said: “Bookbug Week invites every family with young children to take part in the hundreds of free and fun-filled events across Scotland, to celebrate the joy that comes from sharing books and rhymes together. This year’s theme highlights how sharing these fun songs and stories can help with children’s confidence, development, connectivity and over-all well-being.
“Bookbug Week is also the perfect chance to find out more about the Bookbug programme. If you have never been to a Bookbug session this is a great opportunity to experience the fun.”
Bookbug sessions are free story, song and rhyme sessions run by libraries and other community venues across Scotland, with national audiences of over half a million in 2016-17. To celebrate Bookbug Week, Paisley Central Library is holding their very first Bookbug Gigglethon, a Bookbug Session relay starting at 9.30am and finishing at 4.30pm. Families can come along at any time during the day to experience some fun songs, rhymes and stories.
Flagship events to mark Bookbug Week will take place at Callendar House in Falkirk on Wednesday (17 May) between 10am and 2pm, and at the newly opened Carnegie Library in Dunfermline on Friday (19 May) between 10am and 2pm. These are free events, packed with activities and open to all parents, guardians and their babies and children. Illustrator Kasia Matyjaszek will be leading an arts workshop at both events.
Funded by the Scottish Government, Bookbug is Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years Programme. The Bookbug programme encourages mums, dads and carers to sing and share stories with their children from birth. It provides every child in Scotland with four free bags of books, gifting 720,000 books every year. Over 240,000 children in Scotland benefitted last year, with even more set to receive free books in 2017.
Bookbug also runs regular free story, song and rhyme events in libraries, shopping centres and other community venues which attracted audiences of over half a million parents and children in 2016-17.
A FAMILY-FRIENDLY BOOK EVENT
FRIDAY 12th MAY 2.30 – 3.30pm
Friday 12 May: 2.30 – 3.30pm
Carnegie UK Trust sets out five-point plan to boost public libraries
A report published today provides both cause for concern and reason for hope for the UK’s pressured public library service. Scotland has the highest level of public library use in the UK, according to the new research, with half of the 1,000 Scots surveyed saying they had visited a library within the past year. Continue reading We love our libraries!
A challenge designed to instil a love of reading in young people is being extended to reach an additional 173,000 children across Scotland. The First Minister’s Reading Challenge will now be open to children in Primary 1 to Primary 7, after the success of the initial scheme which was for primaries 4 – 7. Continue reading :’Happy readers make good learners’: reading challenge extended
Borders-based author Claire McFall has been named the winner of the very first Scottish Teenage Book Prize. Claire’s third novel, Black Cairn Point, garnered votes from young people (aged 12 – 16) across the country to beat off stiff competition from Keith Gray’s The Last Soldier and Joan Lennon’s Silver Skin. Continue reading Inaugural Scottish teenage book prize winner revealed
Author Nick Sharratt has been announced as the winner of the very first Bookbug Picture Book Prize for his picture book Shark in the Park on a Windy Day, published by Picture Corgi. Continue reading And the Bookbug Picture Book prizewinner is …
Edinburgh’s most borrowed books of 2016 have been published, revealing a penchant for crime and mystery amongst city readers. Psychological thriller The Girl on the Train topped the list of fiction books borrowed from the capital’s libraries last year, followed closely by Ian Rankin’s Even Dogs in the Wild and Peter May’s Coffin Road. Continue reading And Edinburgh’s most borrowed book in 2016 was …
