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Baby, Wobbler & Toddler Book Club - We’re Back!!!

Babies love booksWe’re back with new toys, new books, new members and a new book club dedicated to wobblers.  Having taken a break over the summer, Ballymun Library is delighted to host weekly book clubs for younger children again.  Attendance is free and no prior booking is required.  At each session, Maria (Library Staff Facilitator) reads a story and provides tips on reading to younger children.  A song or rhyme based on the theme of the story is covered.  Then toys are brought out so that the children have an opportunity to play and the grown ups have a chance to chat. 

Manuscript of the Month: Reformation 02

Francis TaylorAlderman Francis Taylor was a successful and well-respected member of the municipal government, the Dublin City Assembly.  He was born in Swords, Co. Dublin around 1550, at a time of religious controversy.  The Taylors remained loyal to Rome and did not subscribe to the 1536 Act of Supremacy which declared that Henry VIII and not the Pope was the supreme head of the Church.

Francis Taylor became a merchant and settled in Dublin City, where he had a house in Ram Lane.  He married Gennet Shelton, the daughter of a Dublin merchant, and the couple had five sons and a daughter.  Taylor entered municipal politics, was elected Sheriff of Dublin for the civic year 1586-7 and three years later he was elected Alderman on the City Assembly, a post which he held until his death in 1621.  Taylor was highly regarded for his honesty and financial ability and served as Dublin City Treasurer on seven occasions between 1593 and 1616.  The pinnacle of Taylor’s civic career came in 1595 when he was elected Mayor of Dublin.    As a senior member of the City Assembly, Taylor was asked to travel to London in April 1597, to present a petition on behalf of Dublin Corporation at the court of Elizabeth I.

Writer in Residence Position Available!

PenDublin City Council invites applications for a Writer in Residence, as part of its Culture and Creativity Plan under the Creative Ireland programme.  The residency runs for the period October 2017 to September 2018 and will be managed by the City's Library Service through the Director of Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and will be supported in kind by Irish Writers Centre.

The residency is open to published writers working in any genre of fiction for adults and attracts a fee of €10,000 per annum.

Dublin Festival of History 2017

Dublin Festival of History 2017The fifth annual Dublin Festival of History will take place from 29th September to 14th October in Dublin Castle and various venues across the city.  With over 90 free history events, this year's programme is the biggest and best yet! This specialist festival features Irish and international historians speaking on a myriad of historical topics as part of a jam-packed programme including lectures and discussions, film, exhibitions and walks. This year's speakers include Chris Patten, Janina Ramirez, Ian Kershaw and Robert Service. And this year the Festival takes over Richmond Barracks on 7th October for a history day for children; expect re-enactors, dressing-up, pop-up talks, craft, storytelling and lots to capture the interest of the young history lover.

Learning with Your Library this Autumn

Read, Learn, GrowAutumn is the perfect time to turn over a new leaf and try something new!

Why not start learning a new language, try a university course, develop your digital skills for work and/or leisure, pick from over 400 free online courses or enrol for the Lord Mayor's Certificate in Oral History. Here are just some of the learning opportunities available at your library this Autumn.

Creative writing success story!

Back of the HackWarmest congratulations to Kathleen Clifford, a member of Kevin Street Library creative writing group whose book 'Back of the Hack: Growing up in the Liberties' was recently published by A. & A. Farmar. On 24 July 2017, Kathleen was interviewed by George Hook on Newstalk's High Noon programme to discuss her book and becoming a first time published author in her sixties.  George enjoyed Back of the Hack so much, he read it cover to cover in one sitting! In the interview Kathleen tells George about the interesting people and places she encountered around Dublin 8 during her childhood and what life was like growing up in a tenement room in Bridge Street, Dublin 8 with only one cold tap and one toilet for up to 100 people!

You can borrow/reserve Back of the Hack from our catalogue and it is available to purchase at all good bookshops.

Listen back to Kathleen Clifford's interview with George Talk on Newstalk's High Noon (about half way into the programme).

Gardeners' World: Digital magazine of the month

Gardener's WorldGardeners' World is packed with practical advice from your favourite gardening experts.

Gardeners' World Magazine includes regular contributions and features from the top names in BBC gardening. In this month's issue design duo Joe Swift and Nick Bailey share their wisdom, to help us make our gardens - however small - spaces that we can enjoy all year round.

Download Free eMagazines with RBdigital

Zinio for Libraries is now RBdigital

Anne Kennedy Photograph Collection

AK0084 Children musicansAnne Kennedy was a notable poet, writer, and photographer. She was born Anne Spaulding on 19 March 1935 in Los Angeles, California to Beatrice Clarke and Easton Spaulding. She attended the prestigious Marlborough School in Beverley Hills as Anne Hoag after her mother’s marriage to her second husband, Hallack Hoag.  At age 16, Anne went to study English at Stanford University. In 1955, she married Donald Nealy, with whom she had two daughters, Allison (1956) and Catherine (1957). After her divorce from her first husband, Anne returned to Los Angeles where she met her second husband, Lewis Judd. They married in upstate New York in 1961 and had a daughter, Stephanie, in 1963, by which time they had moved back to Los Angeles. During the 1960s, Anne worked as a high school teacher and lived in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles. As a lifelong lover of jazz, together with her close friend and jazz trumpeter Rex Stewart, she interviewed many jazz musicians living in the L.A. area during this time. The oral material they gathered was contributed to the Duke Ellington archive at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. in 1993.

View Anne Kennedy Photographic Collection Image Gallery.

Evolution of the Computer: from mainframes to current technologies

boardAn evolution has occurred with bit / byte data that has transformed the IT world over the last 60 years. The logic of inputting a code to a system, processing that code and then producing a result, or the arithmetic / logical operation was the basic groundings for the first bit-serial binary computer in the late 1940s.

The first computing generation occurred from 1942 to 1955 with the Mainframe Computer, a machine which used vacuum tube technology to make electronic digital computers. The first bit-serial binary computer was the BINAC which was launched in 1949. It could calculate data in milliseconds. Next was the ‘ENIAC - a first electronic general-purpose computer which could solve ‘a large class of numerical problems’ through reprogramming. Other computer manufacturers followed suit.

Notes from Underground

Rathmines basement booksRathmines Library staff are digging deep to let their readers know about some of the great books hidden in the library basement! Readers may not be aware that there is a whole floor of books stored below the library – though they may have seen “Basement” marked in bright yellow letters on some of the books they have requested.

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