Sutherland Shire Libraries News

Mark your diaries. Sutherland Library is holding the first Living Library for this year on Tuesday 24 March from 10am-12pm (more details).


Living Library gives you the chance to meet and talk with people who have had very different life experiences to you own. From dealing with diabetes as an athlete to making a new land home, from living without sight to how religious conversion affects relationships. The aim is to break down barriers and make our community more accepting.

Living books can be borrowed for conversations of up to 30 minutes and they will truthfully answer any questions they may be asked to the best of their ability.

We have a number of Living Books ready and waiting to share their stories. however, if you are interested in becoming a living book you can get hold of an expression of interest form from any of our branch libraries or request one by email.

The annual Clean Up Australia Day is on again this Sunday 1 March. If your want to help clean up your local environment and keep the Shire beautiful you can volunteer at one of the many sites in the Sutherland Shire.

You can search for a site to help out at by suburb or postcode on the Clean Up Australia Day web site. In fact a library staff member has volunteered to coordinate the clean up activities at the Old School Park in Gymea. Jeanette would be more than happy for you to come and help out, as I'm sure would the coordinators at all the other Clean Up sites.

Love and Libraries - it's a match made in Heaven

Library Lovers Day Wednesday 11th February 2009 is a fun way of celebrating a deep and enduring relationship between the Sutherland Shire community and their libraries. Visit your local library and help us to celebrate.

Join us at Sutherland Library on Wednesday when we will hand out chocolate treats and serve delicious hot chocolate. Whilst sipping your hot chocolate, why not check out our Romantic DVD, CD and book displays.

And don't forget to enter our Library Lovers raffle and have a chance to win a hamper full of pampering goodies. Entry is free.

Sutherland Shire branch libraries are also spreading the love with romantic displays, decorations and chocolates.

Sutherland Shire residents are definitely library lovers with over 74,389 members. During the 2007/2008 financial year 900,155 people visited the library and 1,724,768 loans were issued to the community. The Sutherland Library website continues to provide 24 hour access to a range of services such as the library catalogue, online renewals of customer loans, reservations of those new books that you see reviewed in the weekend newspapers, online newspapers and magazines, audio book downloads, information and more.

The Playaway audio digital book is a new format which is now available for borrowing.

The Playaway doesn’t require a separate player – it comes ready to listen. No multiple CDs and no downloads – one entire unabridged story in a compact unit. Just pop in one AAA battery and a set of earphones, press ‘play’ and listen straight away.

The Playaway is smaller than a pack of cards – so you can fit a whole book in your pocket. Great for travelling. It has digital quality sound and up to 80 hours of playing time. The Playaway can be used with most headphones, speakers and car adaptors. The time remaining and battery level will display on the LCD screen.

No technical knowledge is needed – Playaway’s friendly features mean you can bookmark you favourite points and control the speed of the narrator’s voice. It even remembers your place when it’s turned off.

So what titles can you get on Playaway? How about Down under by Bill Bryson, Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer or Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin ? Check out the full list of titles and reserve one today!

Happy Chinese New Year to all members of the Sutherland Shire Libraries. What better time to remind you that your Library has a permanent collection of Chinese language material (as well as Arabic and Greek material). Find out more about our services for people from diverse cultures...