Warning: graphic content follows

I’m sneakily inserting a kind of advertorial into the blog here, and purely for personal reasons, too.

See, it’s like this:  I’m currently working at the new Central South City, and while there’s a few gaps in the shelves, there’s ONE area that is a smidgeon overstocked.  Oddly, it’s an area that at old Central was full-on and flat-out all the time, and we couldn’t keep stuff ON the shelf, and all I can think is that you guys don’t realise it’s HERE now …

It’s the graphic novel section (see what I did with the title?).

To be frank, I need some space.  Also, my poor old knees aren’t what they used to be, and all that kneeling down to shelve things is making me creaky.

And the payoff for you guys is that you get to come to a cool new library, see all the shiny shiny new titles we’ve got, and all of this before anyone else realises that there’s a bunch of graphic novels sitting here that no-one else knows about …

Popular magazines: quick reads on cold winter nights.

With the Central Library currently out-of-bounds, we do not have the same access to magazines that we once had. I have found a way around this though – and you don’t even have to leave the warmth of home. Popular magazines is an electronic resource that contains the full-text of over 1,000 magazines covering current events, sports, science, health and more. From this resource you can explore a variety of interests from:

• Redecorating your home;
• Keeping up with the latest news;
• Researching investment opportunities;
• Reading the latest celebrity gossip;
• Finding exercise and dieting information;
• Upgrading your computer.

Time, National Geographic, Newsweek and Fortune, to Vanity Fair, Men’s Health and Sports Illustrated are just some of the titles covered! View the full title list here [XML]

Popular magazines and many other useful electronic resources can be found in the Source. Access this from home with your library card number and PIN, or at our open community libraries.

Get ya geek on: Really useful resources for NCEA Spanish

Learning Spanish doesn’t have to be difficult – these resources will help you speak and understand the language like you were born in Spain … or Mexico … or any other Spanish-speaking country!

• Borrow a Spanish language multimedia set from one of our community libraries now open so you can practice anywhere;
• We also have Spanish dictionaries (including one you can access online from home!) and books about Spain;
• One of the best ways to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it – read books and magazine articles written in Spanish, watch Spanish films, and listen to Spanish music;
• Find articles about places in Spain, as well as Spanish history and culture, at StudentResourceCenter;
• Learn about notable Spanish people and more at WorldBook Online InfoFinder;
• Explore travel and tourism websites – we’ve brought all the best ones together in one place to make it easy for you;
• Earn an excellence in NCEA Spanish with help from NZQA;
• The BBC makes learning Spanish easy;
• Make learning Spanish fun – play games at Digital Dialects;
• Keen to visit or live in Spain or another Spanish-speaking country for a while? Win yourself a student-exchange scholarship;
• GoAbroad.com and Youth For Understanding also offer travel opportunities for high school students;
• Get travel tips from Lonely Planet;
• Challenge yourself at StudySpanish.com.

Want some more really useful resources for another NCEA subject? Go to The Pulse, the library’s website for teens.