Visiting authors at this year's book festival include Chrissie Gittins - an excellent poet and one of our Bards in the Bog! Shetland Library will be there in Room 12 and you can pop in between events to read this year's Young Writer winners or find out more about the Library. The Young Writer presentation takes place at 10am on Saturday.

We're having our next Library book sale in the morning instead of the afternoon -

Saturday 4th September, 10 am - 12 noon in the Old Library Centre.

Lots of withdrawn Library books, only 10p a book - so come along with plenty of change and an empty car boot.

Now every month! What better way to spend a lightsome evening? Held on the comfortable library mezzanine: just bring your makkin along, and chat with like-minded folk. Hot drinks available. First Monday of every month from 6pm - 8pm (clewin up time 7.50pm). The next Makkin & Yakkin evening is on Monday 6th September.

The Tesco Bank Summer Read is supported by Scottish Libraries and the Herald newspaper. Readers have been voting for their favourite from 20 of the best new Scottish books and the winner will be announced soon.. Borrow the books from this library and visit the website to learn more.

Help Yourself to Health is an award-winning joint project run by Shetland Library and NHS Shetland. We promote health and wellbeing books in the library, including recommended stock from the NHS. This month NHS Shetland is promoting the new NHS inform one-stop website.

Bards in the Bog continues with a Hamefarin special. In Spring 2010 we invited poems loosely based on the Hamefarin theme - poems that will be a delight to vistors to Shetland when they discover them in unexpected places. Full details on the Bards in the Bog web page - and the selected poems can be viewed in a toilet near you!. You can still buy the famous Bards in the Bog book from the Library, and just now you get three copies for £10 (normal price £5 per copy). We'll also throw in a free supplement leaflet of the six extra Hamefarin poems that were selected for the this Summer.

In September the group is reading On the Beach by Nevil Shute. Upcoming reads: The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee and The Girl on the landing by Paul Torday.

The next book group meeting is on Tuesday 28 September 2010, at the Old Library Centre. New members are welcome at the Book Group: just contact Karen or Morag here at the library if you want to join.

Bookbug has replaced Bookstart as the gifting programme for the under fours. Shetland Library, in partnership with NHS Shetland, provides three stages of packs to encourage a love of books and reading. Packs 1 and 2 can be collected from your Health Visitor at 7 week and 18 month checks, or from the library. Pack 3 is available from the library for every 3 year old.

Sign up to the Bookbug Email Alert system at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/bookbug/signup to find out when your baby, toddler or three year old will receive their free Bookbug packs. For further information on Bookbug, please contact Morag Nicolson, Young People's Services Librarian on 01595 743864.

Bookbug Sessions for 2010

The Summer Reading Challenge 2010 - 'Space Hop' this year - has been as popular as ever - hundreds of young readers signed up to read six Library books over the summer and collect stickers and free gifts each week. Space Hop reached it's grand finale on Saturday 14th August with a fancy dress medal ceremony in the Library. Log onto the www.spacehop.org.uk for more Space Hop fun.

July 2010: The long-awaited Shetland Archives online catalogue has been launched. You can now search for Archive documents online http://www.calmview.eu/ShetlandArchive/CalmView.

You can also browse the photo archive and much more at Shetland Museum and Archives website.

David Anthony Durham, acclaimed author of the Acacia fantasy trilogy and the historical novel Hannibal, Pride of Carthage, gave a talk and signed books at the Library on Thursday 29th July. Thanks to David for a very absorbing talk and a lively discussion afterwards. The audience very much enjoyed the event. davidanthonydurham.com

 This year's competition has now closed, and the winners will be presented with their prizes at Wordplay in September. This annual competition is open to all young writers between the ages of 7 and 17. Previous years' winning entries are available on our Young Shetland Writer page.

On Tuesday 15th June we celebrated the Hamefarin with a very special night of readings from the best of Shetland Literature. The readers were Laureen Johnson, Mary Blance, Barbara Fraser, Aubrey Jamieson, Morag Nicolson, Laurie Goodlad and James Sinclair. Music was by Trevor, Clive and Aubrey Jamieson. The quality of poetry, prose and music was superb, and we'd like to thank all our perfromers, and our appreciative audience.

Congratulations to Annette Shewan, Mobile Library Assistant / Driver, on her ‘Highly Commended’ Award from the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals in their national Mobile Library Champion 2010 Award. Jointly nominated by the Library and customers, Annette was judged to be making a real difference to  the lives of people in the North Mainland and Isles who use the Mobile Library. North Isles Councillor Laura Baisley said” this is very well deserved – Annette provides an excellent service, particularly for elderly people and those without transport. I don’t know what we would do without the Mobile Library”. Annette is pictured receiving her award from Helen Budge, Head of Schools in Shetland.

Thanks to all who entered the Star Wars competition. The winners were - Under 16's Character Quiz: James Phillips; Over 16's Anagram Quiz: Yolanda Bruce. The answers are... Star Wars Character Quiz Answers and Star Wars Anagram Quiz Answers

'Meet the Library' - we ran special short introductory tours from 15th to 21st May for Adult Learners' week. For anyone not sure about setting foot in the Library, this was a chance to have a good look round and get questions answered.

The Library hosted a special occasion on Wednesday, 5th May. Ann Cleeves celebrated the launch of her fourth Shetland crime novel, Blue Lighting, and was accompanied by internationally acclaimed Shetland fiddler Chris Stout. A full house at the library was enthralled by extracts from Ann’s Shetland series and Chris’s evocative playing.  All profits from the evening went to the Vaila Harvey Fund.

It's not big, it's not clever, but sometimes only a swear word is the right word. On the 28th of April we held a Bad Language Night in the Library. Thank you to our wonderful performers who did readings from some of the very best swearword-scattered poetry and prose. Thanks also to the brave audience, who seemed to really enjoy the selection! Bad Language Night featured in Poetry Issues, the Scottish Poetry Library's online magazine.

As an extra service to our customers, we regularly open up the library basement so that you can have look at some of our reserve stock - lots and lots of extra books for you to browse. (Please note that children under eight must be accompanied by an adult.) Watch this space for the next Basement Browsing..

The mobile library now comes to Staney Hill once a week. You can find it every Friday afternoon from 2-3pm, outside the Staney Hill Hall. Just bring your library card along to borrow books or CDs from the library. If you're not yet a member you can join on the van.