Our 2009 BookStart Christmas parties took place on 11th December. Santa turned up and gave out presents to 110 babies and toddlers.

Thank you to Santa and his elf - and a very happy Christmas to all our customers!

There was a poetry event at the Library on 10th November 2009 in memory of poet Adrian Mitchell, who died last Christmas. Adrian Mitchell was a Writer in Residence here in autumn 2008. Organised by Shetland Arts, the evening was also a Shetland launch for a book of poems dedicated to Adrian's memory, and featured contributions from John Hudson, Donald Anderson, James McKenzie, James Sinclair and Mary Blance.

Well done to our admin assistant Denise Irvine (pictured left) who in October 2009 did a sponsored walk along the Great Wall of China. The walk, in aid of the CLAN appeal, raised over £1,800. Back home, other library staff did their bit for charity by baking and eating cake for Macmillan cancer support. The Library's 'coffee morning' lasted two weeks and raised £171. Staff are now dieting.

The performance by Seckou Keita and Shetland children was such a success it was too big for the library! We moved it to Islesburgh to fit in the crowds, and the performance enthralled adults and children alike. A huge thanks to organiser Joy Duncan and to Seckou himself for a superstar performance in Shetland. Black History Month continued throughout October 2009 - with displays of the best of black literature in the library and reading lists.

Seckou Keita's website

On Friday 16th October 2009 the Reverend Charles Greig launched his book of Shetland dialect bible translations in the library. There were readings, music, song and mountains of homebakes to entertain a packed house. Charles Greig is pictured left, with the Shetland Times Shop staff who came to sell copies of the new book.

Saturday, 17th October 2009: Orkney's poet partner Pam Beasant, here as the guest of Shetland's poet partner Jen Hadfield, gave a lunchtime reading in the library. This event was the last of the Poet Partner project, which has run for three years and given the library some nice opportunities to work with Jen Hadfield. But look out for a special event and publication to mark the end of the Bards in the Bog project, coming soon!

Friday 9th October 2009 was National BookStart Day, and a great crowd of babies turned out for our two BookStart sessions, which had a special nursery rhyme theme. Staff entered into the spirit of the occasion as usual, dressing as a variety of nursery rhyme characters, including Jack Sprat and his wife, Mary Mary Quite Contrary and Humpty Dumpty!

For National Poetry Day on the 8th of October we held a fabulous poetry reading in the library with Gordon Dargie, Laureen Johnson and James Sinclair. Laureen wrote a special poem inspired by the occasion: Poetry for Lunch!

Listen to Shetland Poetry on our website.

The Questseekers Summer Reading Challenge for children finished on Saturday 15 August 2009, with a grand closing ceremony at the library. Medals and certificates were handed out to this year's readers. We hope you all enjoyed the Challenge - and well done for completing it.

Shetland Library out and about: in summer 2009 we took the mobile library out to some places it isn't normally seen - Sandveien, Staney Hill and the Cunningsburgh Show. It gave us a chance to meet more folk and tell them about the library. We also brought Hamish the BookStart bear with us!

Rhubarbaria: the name of a great new food book, and of it's launch event at Shetland Library on Friday, 7th August 2009. The audience enjoyed talks by Rhubarbaria author Mary Prior and by local food writers Ann Prior and Charlie Simpson. There were rhubarb snacks and a rhubarb drink to try, and the word premiere of The Rhubarb & Almond Tart Song (audio clip), peformed by library staff! Thanks to all who came and to the speakers and singers who made this a splendid and only slightly wierd occasion.

Another brand new book was launched at Shetland Library on Saturday 15th August, 2009. School Days is by Shetlander Gordon B. Smith, author of Varangian. The author now stays in New Zealand, but was back home for his book launch. He talked about some of the photos in the book, and delivered a presentation on the Clunies Ross family.

Dagger in the Library, one of the Crime Writers' Association annual awards, is the only literary award nominated by libraries and judged by librarians. Karen Fraser from Shetland Library is on the judging panel, and this year's winner was Colin Cotterill, whose engaging and witty hero is a coroner in 1970s Laos. He is pictured (second from left) with Dagger judges Cheney Gardner, Karen Fraser and Mark Benjamin. Colin Cotterill website

On the 24th of April 2009 we held a successful local history evening. There was a slide show of old photos, and a talk about some of the local history materials available locally - from the Museum, Archives, Registrars and Family History Society. The library has a big collection of books and old newspapers to browse on microfilm, as well as access to family history websites such as Scotland's People (we can offer discounted rates for this website).

Thanks to everyone who entered our Banned Books quiz and our Publisher Logo quiz. Just click the links to view answers and winners.

To find out more about banned and censored books, try these links:

Wikipedia; Freedom to Read; Borders; University of California

Ann Cleeves launched her new book, Red Bones, in the Library on Tuesday, 10th March 2009. A packed house saw Shetland archaelogist Val Turner - who plays herself in the book - gave a talk on Murder and Archaeology. Music was provided by the fabulous AestaeWast (Val also performed with them!) Ann also announced that the charity auction for the Vaila Harvey fund had raised over £4,000, and that her Shetland series may be coming to TV! Ann Cleeves website

February 2009 was LGBT History Month. The Shetland Library marked it by showcasing a selection of books with an LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual) theme. We updated our booklists and publicized new LGBT stock. LGBT History Month website

The Stonewall website gives LGBT information and advice.

Over 40 people gathered on 13th March 2009 to hear a range of stimulating national and international speakers, interspersed with Aetaewast’s drumming, traditional fiddle and piano music and moving singing and guitar music.

Speaking on the them of ‘Make a world of difference’ Scottish Interfaith’s Maureen Sier (pictured) opened the debate, with Philadelphia Temple University’s Dr Racelle Weiman and keynote speaker professor Leonard Swidler arguing for improved dialogue in the world. http://www.scottishinterfaithcouncil.org/

In January 2009 we got a new microfilm reader and printer. This is part of our 'Welcome2' project, promoting accessibilty in the library, and was funded by the Scottish Government's Public Library Quality Improvement Fund. You can look at old copies of the Shetland News and Shetland Times from as far back as the 1870s. You can print articles for a charge of 25p a sheet. Why not have a look at what was 'front page news' on the day you were born?

New Year...New Year's resolutions. In January 2009 we promoted our nineteenth century novels, and formed a lunchtime book group for those folk who'd always meant to get round to reading them, but needed a bit of moral support! The group meets weekly to read classics together. Spaces on this group are all filled, but let us know if you're interested in helping to form new book groups.

A Poet Partner Open Mike night with Jen Hadfield on the 18th of Feburary 2009 was a lovely event. It marked the official launch of Bards in the Bog - fiddler Ian Williamson kicked off the project by playing Chadwick's Bog, a tune written in honour of a Shetland toilet!

On Friday 20th February, we also played host to a Shetland Arts poetry night where James Robertson and Gordon Dargie launched new poetry pamphlets.

Tuesday 3rd of February - a packed house at the library as over 70 nursery bairns came along for a session with writer Vivian French. Many thanks to Vivian, who delighted her audience with stories, song and drawings. Thanks also to Shetland Arts for helping to arrange the session.

Click photo to enlarge

Library staff Pat, Morag, Thelma, Bruce and Milford visited the Staney Hill toddlers' group on the Wednesday before Up Helly Aa 2009 and entertained them with some seasonal songs.

Click photo to enlarge

Donald Silk (pictured second from left, with staff and volunteers) retired from his job on the mobile library ten years ago. But since then he has been doing volunteer work for us every Friday, recording the Shetland Times for our talking newspaper service. On the 23rd January 2009 he finally retired from that job also. Thanks to Donald for over 40 years with the library.

2009: for the second year in a row, we have won a Gold at the Tidy Business awards. This is very much a team effort from the Library, Community office and Adult Learning teams. It reflects not only our care over recycling and waste disposal, but our high level of community involvement.

Books of local interest dominated Shetland Library's Most Borrowed Books of 2008. Ann Cleeves took first and second place, and local writers Chrissie Sandison and Karen Inkster got fourth and tenth places respectively. Sharon Bolton's Shetland-based thriller Sacrifice came in at number six. Three more books in the top ten only took us as far as Aberdeen: they were the gory thrillers of Stuart MacBride. Khaled Hosseini provided the only two top ten books from the wider world!

Santa came to visit all the BookStart bairns at the Christmas party! The Library provided helpful elves and Christmas music. There are so many BookStart babies that we have to have two parties so there's room for everyone.

Every day from Monday 15th December to Friday 19th December 2008 we held children's activites in the library. There were storytimes for pre-school bairns and snowflake making workshops for ages 8-12. For Up Helly Aa 2009,we gave away our popular build your own galley kits. Look out for them again next year! Here's how to make a paper snowflake.

We marked Halloween 2009 with A Night of the Utmost Awfulness: ghostly tales, spooky readings and hellish music in the library. Thanks to all our readers, and to our audience who entered into the spirit of things. For the bairns, we also had a Winnie the Witch storytime during the day. Halloween Photos and original ghost story

Thanks to all who filled in our 2008 Customer Satisfaction Survey. You gave us an overall satisfaction rating of 88.4%, up from 85.5% last year. We are always trying to improve our service and value all your comments.

November 2008: Shetland Library staff trained with AbilityNet to improve our understanding of adaptive, alternative and assistive technology. If you are looking for help in using computer hardware or software, check out the AbilityNet website.

Friday, 29th August - we welcomed the Grassroots Theatre Development Group from Zimbabwe, who gave an afternoon music and dance performance to a packed library - it was standing room only, and everyone there was blown away. We want to thank Grassroots for a fantastic performance. Photos

The Young Shetland Writer Prize 2008 was awarded at Wordplay. Run by the Library with Shetland Museum and Archives, this annual competition attracts the best of new talent. This year the theme was The Future, and the four category winners were: Iona Leask (6-9 yrs); Charlotte Verdcourt-Lawrence (10-13 yr); Lucy Grundon (14-17 yrs) and Caitlin Watt (Dialect Prize). They are pictured left with Morag Nicolson from the Library, judges Jen Hadfield and Mary Blance, and writer Robert Alan Jamieson who presented the prizes.

October the 10th was National Bookstart Day 2008. Well over 100 babies, toddlers and parents attended two special story and song sessions in the Old Library Centre. Library staff donned pirate gear and Milford and Margaret sang pirate songs - a really special occasion.

LOTS at the Library for National Poetry Day on the 9th of October! We had a Lunchtime Reading with poets Rachel Eunson, Gordon Dargie and Jennifer Perry. Next day came Purple Poetry, an Open Mike Poetry Night. £64 was raised for the CLAN appeal and there were prizes of signed books by Adrian Mitchell and John Hegley. Thanks to all who read or just came to listen. We also had a bairns' poetry competition to win a signed Adrian Mitchell book. Read the best entries

There was an Open Public Consultation meeting about the redevelopment of Lerwick Library on the 4th September. Thanks to the people who came along to hear about the plans an contributed to an interesting discussion. Library redevelopment meeting - summary

Shetland Libray was inspected in Summer 2008 by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). In a favourable report, inspectors praised the hard work by library staff to deliver a range of services to the community. Full library inspection report

We hope you enjoyed Shetland Library's space at the Wordplay Book Festival on the 6th and 7th of September.

We had Shetland books to browse, 'The Muckle Gravit' to knit and competitions to win Shetland classics, all in a crofthouse themed room! A huge thank you to Islesburgh Exhibition Committee for letting us borrow their wonderful crofthouse props.

September 2008: The Sock monkey, a unique toy sent to us by our 'Sister Library' in Michigan, USA, has been won by Sarah Anderson, age 6, of Gulberwick. We were sent a lot of children's books by Michigan authors, and asked local children to read and review them. Runners up prizes of fossils from Michigan went to Sula Brooks of Baltasound and Morag Haswell of Walls. We will send all the reviews off the the Michigan Library. More... List of books by Michigan authors

Saturday 16th August 2008- Staff geared up for the Team Read closing ceremony. Children who had completed the reading challenge packed the library to pick up their certificates and medals. There were prizes for the best dressed! Well done to everyone who completed the reading challenge.

Team Read Website

Tuesday 29th July, 2008 - thanks to the Musuem and Archives, who showed this full length library documentary for us, and thanks for everyone who attended. Some library staff dressed Hollywood-style for the occasion! Photos

This is an annual award given by the Crime Writers Association - nominated by libraries and judged by librarians. Karen Fraser from the Shetland Library is one of the six national judges. The 2008 winner, announced at an awards dinner in London on the 10th of July, is Craig Russell. Craig is Scottish but his Jan Fabel novels are set in Hamburg, and were highly praised by the panel for tension, pace, memorable characters and convincing settings.

Shetland ForWirds and the RSPB put on an excellent poetry and music evening on 8th July 2008 as part of the Shetland Nature Festival. Mary Blance, Laureen Johnson, Dorothy Stove, James Sinclair and Aubrey Jamieson read poems inspired by nature. Ryan Couper and Adam Johnson provided excellent musical interludes, and Robert Sim sang 'Seine Netters', Jack Peterson's poem set to music.

In preparation for summer 2008 play events, some of the library staff got trained in the art of face painting, which livened up the library offices no end!

June 2008: Congratulations to our Mobile Library drivers Elizabeth Robertson and Annette Shewan, who have just scooped the CILIP President's Shield for Best Small Mobile Library. They were attending the 'Mobilemeet' at Aintree. Ian Stringer of CILIP said that the award reflects not just on the physical build of the vehicle but the whole concept of the service and its emphasis on social inclusion. "Your staff gave us a vivid account of life on Shetland and this was one of the main reasons for giving the award."

19th - 24th of May was a celebration of International Shetland, and the Library took the chance to publicize our Welcome collection of books in other languages. We hosted an Adult Learning event for 'Cultural Diversity Day' on the 21st, and also held dual-language story times during the week. Bells Brae nursery bairns were surprised to hear French, German and Norwegian versions of their stories, read by Librarian Morag Nicolson.

Ann Cleeves, author of Raven Black and new book White Nights, did a series of events for Shetland Library between the 12th and 16th of May 2008. The Lerwick event included a talk by Archivist Brian Smith about an awful family massacre that took place in Lerwick in 1858. £100 was raised from ticket sales, and this will be donated to Cancer Research. Photos

As part of the Welcome project funding in 2007/8 we were able to buy a Returns Point. It's the big bin outside the door that says Books on it! Just put your returns in there if you arrive when the library is shut.

Remember, you can also browse our catalogue and renew or request books 24 hours a day. Just click the My Account or Library Catalogue tabs at the top of the page.

Over 80 readers signed up for the Six Book Challenge between January and May 2008. Readers reported that the Challenge encouraged them to read more widely, and some discovered the joys of the library for the first time. Thanks to all who took part, and thanks to the Peerie Shop Cafe for sponsoring the Challenge with free coffee vouchers.

Over 60 people crammed into the library for a double treat at a special event on Friday, 14th March 2008. Local poet Jen Hadfield launched her new book, Nigh No Place, and read from her work. The second part of the night was 'open mike', when members of the audience came armed with some favourite poems to share. We enjoyed a huge variety - everything from toilet humour to W.B. Yeats; a poem to mark the 5th year anniversary of war in Iraq and another in memory of John Graham; some dialect poetry and - last but not least - some beautiful singing. Thanks to all who took part.

On Monday 3rd March 2008, First Minsiter Alex Salmond visited the library to launch our Welcome Project. This project, which is being funded with a Scottish Government grant, is providing the library with a self-issue machine, out-of-hours return point, and a collection of materials to better serve key groups like migrant workers. The First Minister spent 40 minutes in the library talking to staff and customers, and said "I am glad to see projects offering library support to groups such as young people and migrant workers – this is where great results will be achieved".

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History

“A magisterial work....as encyclopedic as you could possibly hope for. The eclectic subject matter is admirable....pick any page here and there is something to grab the attention. Once you start delving it is devilishly difficult to stop. For the true nautical buff...this is an indispensable reference work."--Navy News

The reference room is upstairs in the library. This is just one of the many classic reference works you can browse there.

A feasibilty study was carried out in 2007 into better library facilities in Lerwick. There have been public surveys and wide consultation. Read a review of the feedback here. You can find out more about public library building projects by visiting the Designing Libraries website.

Following a report to Council, a decision has been made to remodel both St Ringans and the old library to provide better library facilities. There will be more opportunities for public consultation once the design process gets going. Thanks for all your input so far.

This year is the 100th Anniversary of Mills and Boon. To celebrate this great occasion, we invited customers to write up to 250 words which distilled the essence of a good Mills and Boon. The writing competition was judged by Elaine Fulton, Director of the Scottish Library and Information Council. Here she presents the prize of a Scottish Libraries jute bag and a Shetland poetry book to winner Barbara Fraser (pictured left).

Read some of the best entries here.

Thanks to everyone who filled in our customer satisfaction survey at the end of 2007. We were pleased that you gave the library an 85.5% satisfaction rating overall. Of those expressing an opinion about different aspects of our service, nearly 90% rated these 'good' or 'excellent' overall. The biggest area of dissatisfaction centred round space and layout, and this is an area we are working hard to address. Full survey results.

Shetland Library's most borrowed book of 2007 was Whitethorn Woods by the ever-popular Maeve Binchy. Topping our favourite childrens' reads for the second year running came Garfield the cat, beating the new Harry Potter into second place. Looking at the top 10 most-borrowed books overall, what is most striking is the popularity of local publications. Karen Inkster's book about North Roe - Voices From the Past - is the third most popular - equal with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Altogether there are five local publications is the top 10, including Ann Cleeves' Raven Black and Ethel Hofman's Mackerel at Midnight, which make it for the second year running. Read the full list

November 2007 - at last, what our customers have long been waiting for: a comfortable leather sofa and chairs where you can settle down with your book or magazine. Librarian Morag Nicolson was quick off the mark, grabbing a seat to catch up with Heat magazine.

There is now a coffee machine in the library and you can buy a selection of hot drinks for 80p.

Awarded in recognition of our efforts to maintain our premises to a satisfactory standard of cleanliness and our commitment to waste minimisation, recycling and local community enhancement, we were one of some 16 local businesses or organisations to receive the Gold Standard in December 2007. Particular thanks to Librarian Douglas Garden (left), for his sterling re-cycling efforts, both in terms of our own materials and equipment and the promotion of re-cycling in all our buildings.

Fifty babies and their Mums or Dads came to our Bookstart Christmas party on Friday 14th December 2007. Santa paid a visit and handed out presents to them all. As you can see it was quite a crowded room!

Bookstart sessions are held once a month at the library, and are a fun way for babies to get used to books, and to enjoy songs and rhymes.

On Wednesday 12th December 2007 we ran another successful lunchtime poetry event with readings from Mary Blance and Christian Tait. Thanks to our own library staff Margaret Cheriyan and Milford Georgeson who provided the seasonal music. Later that day, we were delighted to welcome the New Shetlander for their Yule Evening of poetry and music, featuring Laureen Johnson, Jim Mainland, Mary Blance, Donald Murray and Miriam Brett (Young Fiddler of the Year). Non-alcoholic Mulled Wine Recipe

26th October 2007: library staff Wear it Pink for the Breast Cancer Campaign.

Workers at the library embrace opportunites to support charities, and most popular in the staff room seem to be campaigns involving cake: Shetland MS Society's Cake Day and the Macmillan Coffee Morning are enthusiastically supported!

Shetland Library held a jungle party in the Old Library Centre to mark National Bookstart Day on the 5th of October. Children brought along their favourite jungle toy and at the end of the rhyme and story session, everyone received a jungle goody bag.

From the 1st to the 20th of October, the upper mezzanine of the library was turned into a drawing room! This was to celebrate The Big Draw, a campaign run nationally every year to promote the enjoyment of drawing.

Visiting artist Tim Chamberlain showed his sculpture exhibition bound to remember - 'a curious collection of found bound altered and inscribed objects' and paper and pencils were avaiable for anyone who wanted to sit and sketch. Thanks to Tim for a very interesting exhibition, and to everyone who visited.

The Young Writer Award is run every year by Shetland Library. This year's theme was The Forgotten Room. Winners were all presented with their prizes on the 8 September by children's writer Debi Gliori.

We hope you enjoyed our 'poetry salon' at the Wordplay Book Festival (8th and 9th September). We had fun creating a lovely room for folk to relax and browse our poetry books: a huge thank you to Islesburgh Drama Group for the furniture, and the staff at Islesburgh for all their help.

Writers who were at Wordplay 2007: Iain Banks, Denise Mina, Kevin McNeill, Debi Gliori, Fred Normandale, Kieth Gray.

We have produced a booklet explaining how former United Free Church, St Ringan's became the new Shetland Library. This has been done in response to numerous enquiries (from visitors to Shetland in particular) who are keen to find out more about the building's history. The booklet is now available from the front desk of the library for £2.50, or online through the links below.

The Sanctuary

St Ringans History

St Ringans Now

List of Illustrations and Bibliography

Extra pictures

Our Open Mike Poetry Night on 1st August 2007 was a huge success. A happy audience greatly enjoyed the night and almost half of them provided the entertainment by stepping up to read poems or sing songs.

Thanks to: June Ross-Smith, Leslie Butler, Laureen Johnson, James Sinclair, Nat Hall, Barbara Fraser, Laurence of Mar, Lisa Ward, Christian Tait, Caroline Pepper, Susan Laurenson, Milford Georgeson, Margaret Cheriyan, Mary Blance, Doug Forrest and our poet partner Jen Hadfield.

The Goudie Collection has been part of the Library's local collection since 1950 but in 2007 it moved to Hay's Dock to join the Archives. The collection remains in the Library's catalogue but benefits from the superb facilities in the new Museum and Archives. read the Shetland Amentity Trust's press release here...

Thanks to all who attended - and performed at - our evening event with Aberdeen crime writer Stuart MacBride on the 23rd of May 2007. Stuart, delighted the audience with readings of his work and much witty repartee. Local writers Kathy Hubbard and Donald MacDonald also read from their work, and music was provided by our very own in-house team - Margaret Cheriyan, Trevor Jamieson and Milford Georgeson, who were joined by Margaret's daughter Rebecca and Trevor's brother Clive. You can borrow Stuart's novels - Cold Granite, Dying Light and Broken Skin -from the library, or check out his website at www.stuartmacbride.com

In summer 2007 the library invested in a major reference work: the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. We are lucky enough to have some very musical staff, so they got first chance to browse our new aquisition. Pirctured with the books are senior library assistant Milford Georgeson who is guitarist with The Peatles; library assistant Margaret Cheriyan, a talented soprano, and our Graduate Placement student Trevor Jamieson, a legendary local singer and musician. Margaret and Trevor have previously combined their musical talents to entertain the BookStart babies and listeners to our talking newspaper. You can browse Grove Music in the library's reference section.

Spring 2007: Now available exclusively at Shetland Library: our eco-friendly re-usable tote bags. The bags have been made specially for us by Baggy Drawers, the local young enterprise company, and are on sale at the library and learning centre. Ably modelled here by library staff Katrina Williamson and Trevor Jamieson, they are just the thing to take your books home in style! Only £3.50 each.

Imagine being stranded on a desert island. No TV, no radios, no computers. All you have are the ten books in your suitcase, the ten books that have shaped your life and character. The ten books you know you could not live without. What books would they be? This is the question World Book Day 2007 put to the nation. We had a local competition at the library to find out the Top Tens of our customers, and Gordon Oliver won the book token for the most interesting list . Have a look at the local lists in the 'Book of Ideas' (reader's recommenations folder') in the library.

In Barcelona, they don’t celebrate St Valentine’s Day but instead Sant Jordi’s day on the 23rd of April. This is the big day for lovers - and they buy each other books. Streets are crowded as booksellers display their wares, and up to 400,000 books will be sold on the day as people seek out the perfect book for their loved one. But of course you don’t have to spend to make your loved one happy: on St Valentine's day we invited customers to borrow the perfect book for their loved one, we hope it impressed them! The winner of our Valentine's competition is John Harmer, who produced a splendidly flattering tribute to librarians, in beautiful calligraphy: he wins a copy of The Foy by Lawrence Tulloch.

There was a local bias to Shetland's most borrowed book of last year: the top-lending adult fiction book was Ann Cleeves' murder mystery Raven Black, which is set in Shetland. There is no end to the The Da Vinci Code phenomenon: Dan Brown's book still came in at number two. Ethel Hofman's memoir Mackerel at Midnight topped the loans for local history. Junior fiction loans, both in the school libraries and main library, were dominated by Jacqueline Wilson, though she did not take the top spots: Garfield the cat topped the list at Lerwick Library, and Roald Dahl's The Twits was the schools' choice. Most Borrowed Book List

Did you know that the Library produces talking newspapers? Every week, The Shetland Times is read onto tape by staff and volunteers, and posted out to customers who want it. This service is free, and we also tape Shetland Life and The New Shetlander. If you or someone you know would like this service, just ask. Customers had an unexpected extra this festive season, as we currently have some very musical people working at the library. Trevor Jamieson and Margarert Cheriyan sang 'Silent Night' at the end of the Christmas tape, and Trevor dragooned a chorus of staff into joining him for a seasonal offering on the New Year tape. Thanks to staff and volunteers who keep the talking newspaper going, and thanks to our customers who always show their appreciation.

Our Shetland Library Calendar 2007 Hidden Corners of Lerwick is now sold out: thanks to all who bought it and we hope you enjoyed it. In connection with the library’s current initiative to arouse increased interest in local history, this calendar illustrated how even in the last two decades there have been considerable alterations to Lerwick’s built environment and surrounding seascape. You can still see some of the photos here: Hidden Corners revealed

Thanks to writers Donald Murray, Laureen Johnson, Christian Tait and Mark Smith, who read their poetry and prose at the New Shetlander Yule Evening on the 6th of December 2006. Music was by Erin Sandison & Brian Nicolson and Alan Mackay & Robert Bennet, and the audience were delighted by another lovely evening of words and music in the library.

The winner of the 2006 Shetland Arts and New Shetlander Writing Prize was announced on National Poetry Day. The theme for this year was placenames. You can read the winning poems here:

Winner: Seein baith sides: Hoofield, Cunningsburgh by Christene de Luca

Runner-up: Living Legends by Tom Childs

And thanks to local poet Donald Murray, who wrote this wonderful library van poem for us!

September 2006: Shetland Library has been successful in maintaining the Investors in People Standard for a further three years. In his report, the national assessor 'found high levels of encouragement for staff to input and be involved in all aspects of the Library and its planning'. He also found an 'emphasis on the provision of a high quality service to their customers and the recognition that well trained staff are vital to the success of the library'.Commenting on the award, Silvija Crook, Library and Information Manager said 'we are all delighted at the outcome of the assessment. Our priority is to make our libraries as good as they can be, encouraging as many folk as possible to make use of the services available. It's good to have someone come in from the outside, look at what we are achieving and find it to be of a high quality'.

Thanks to all who entered our limerick competition for National Poetry Day 2006. We picked three winners: Barbara Fraser, Persephone Poulton and Kyle Rognaldsen. Read the winning limericks here.

On 26 June 2006 members of the local scrapbooking group, Shetland Scrapbookers, showed off their craft in the library, and Joanne from Shetland Archives also brought along some old scrapbooks of local interest.  It was a rare chance to see these precious collections which are normally stored in the archives.  A lovely contrast between the old and the new, and both activities were really enjoyed by the people who dropped in.  Just get in touch if you think you would like to demonstrate your craft or interest in the Library.