Any future derby girl or referee worth their skates has to first cut their teeth on 35 pages of essential rules reading before they can even think about hitting the flat track. At CRDL we believe that reading is one of the most enjoyable and essential skills for children and adults to learn, love and embrace.

Ambassadors from the Canberra Roller Derby League with ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher via Libraries ACT on Flickr (for bonus points, pick which Roller Girl is also a librarian!)

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Make sure you check out the full list of national and state ambassadors and get involved with your local community in 2012 to spread the love of reading!

The full instructions are available in Polish here (and easily translatable via your favourite online translator), along with a few videos of the construction.

Fastest rising searches

Read them all and weep at: http://google-au.blogspot.com/2011/12/year-of-curiosities-australias-top.html

Unsurprisingly for respondents to a privacy survey, from a privacy organisation speaking to privacy enthusiasts it shows people are concerned about what social networks do with your posted data.

Why are people concerned about adverts appearing to them based on their content? It happens already in your searches, it happens in email, why are social networking adverts such a worry?

the number of children who do not own a book is increasing. Seven years ago 1 child in 10 did not have a book of their own while today the figure stands at a startling 1 child in 3.

The figure of 1 in 3 UK children without a book of their own equates to approximately 3.8 million children.

The findings of the study suggest a clear linkage between a child’s reading ability and receiving and owning books of their own but, alarmingly,

about a fifth of children [surveyed] said they had never been to a book shop or a library.

I suppose it’s not too surprising given the high number of UK library closures and the current state of the publishing industry, but it certainly is sobering.

The National Literacy Trust is currently raising money to purchase books for disadvantaged (bookless!) children. You can support their efforts by donating online and receiving a lovely children’s book illustrator’s Christmas card in return. You could also buy someone small you know a book for Christmas.

The opening of this new library, at a cost of £14.1m, is at the heart of Southwark Council’s investment in the libraries service, which is being protected despite cuts in central government funding.

In a first for London, visitors to the library will not only get their fix of some 40,000 books, music CDs & films but will also be able to:

• Enjoy day and night time theatre performances, run by the Albany , Deptford’s renowned performing arts venue, in the 150 seater theatre and culture space.
• Have a coffee at the Waters Edge Café on the ground floor
• Attend meetings at the same theatre space which converts into an open floor area of 150 m².
• Take in an early evening class in one of the three separate learning spaces
• Log on to free internet at one of the library’s 79 computers
• Use the tube station whose exit and entrance is incorporated into the building, checking real time train times on the library plasma screens
• Access council services such as benefits and council tax help, from January
• Take in amazing views of the historic Canada Water basin, which it overhangs

The library’s wi-fi network, with nearly 30 laptops available for hire, reflects the growing trend towards the ‘library as living room’ ethos. Across Southwark’s libraries members currently clock up more than 10,000 hours of internet use each month on their wi-fi network alone.

Cllr Veronica Ward, cabinet member for culture, leisure, sport and the Olympics at Southwark Council, said:

“I’m so proud to be unveiling this amazing building. It’s an incredible, breath-taking use of space, both inside and out, and has all that you could need under one roof. You could find yourself learning in the morning, listening to a poetry performance at lunchtime, studying in the afternoon, watching first class theatre at night, and then relaxing in the cafe after that.

We’re definitely leading the way in London with our libraries - first the iconic Peckham Library, then our refit of John Harvard Library resulting in visitor number records beaten, and next year two more brand new libraries for the borough.

And now with this new ‘super’ library, we aim to put Southwark on the map as a forward-thinking, pioneering borough with libraries right at our heart.”

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/article/564/first_super_library_opens_in_london_as_southwark_council_looks_to_the_future
 

“Communications Alliance and five of Australia’s largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) today unveiled a ground-breaking proposed scheme to combat the growing problem of online copyright infringement.

The scheme is designed to encourage a sustained and positive change in the behaviour of internet users who engage in online activity that may be an infringement of copyright laws and potentially illegal under the Copyright Act 1968, typically via peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing or unauthorised content downloads.”

Essentially it’s three warnings and then we inform on you to http://www.afact.org.au or some other litigious entity.

We shall how the scheme develops, if it does commence.