Reconnecting with Dundee Libraries

Published

9th October 2020

One of the things we have missed most over recent months has been the opportunity to connect in person with our library users. When we were able to take the first careful steps to restoring library services we launched our new Reconnect & Connect Service, providing a selection of books chosen by library staff according to your reading preferences for collection by appointment. 

This popular service has opened access to the physical books you so missed while ensuring our library buildings were safe for staff and visitors. We now have a rolling programme of library reopenings across the city with regular updates added to our website here.

The Reconnect & Collect Service also continues at Central, Broughty Ferry, Blackness and Lochee Libraries for the time being. If you haven’t already visited we look forward to welcoming you back to one of our libraries soon.

If you have concerns about travelling to the library, our Outreach Service may be able to help. Call 01382 431539 during advertised opening hours and someone from their team will advise

 

 

 

 

NEW DUNDEE LIBRARIES APP


While our libraries were closed the library app you may have used in the past to renew your books or check your loans was discontinued.

We now have a new replacement, the Spydus Mobile App available to download free from the usual app providers. Once you have it installed choose Dundee Libraries to access your account.

And in other app news…


Ebook and Eaudiobook providers RBDigital and Overdrive are in the process of merging. This means  that soon all of our adult ebook and eaudiobook content will be available for download together in the Libby app.

Both companies are keeping us updated on their progress and full migration is expected to happen by the end of the year. We will keep you posted.

 

 

 

 

LIBRARY USER SURVEY


As part of a review of the public libraries’ strategy in Scotland 2015-2020, the Scottish Library & Iinformation Council have launched a survey for library users. This will provide crucial feedback to help evaluate the where the strategy has been successful and where it could be improved, and respondents can enter a prize draw to win £100 book tokens. 

They are also looking for library users to take part in interviews and group discussions (which will take place remotely by telephone or online) and everyone who takes part in an interview or group discussion will receive a £10 gift voucher.

The library survey will be available to complete online until Monday 26 October at https://tinyurl.com/SLIC2020

 

 

 

SPOOKY STORIES FOR KIDS

 

Get ready for the spooky season with some of our favourite children's books for Halloween.

 

 

DOLL BONES
by HOLLY BLACK
AGES 9-11


Twelve-year-old Zach is too old to play with toys, or so his father thinks. He stops playing with his action figures and hanging out with his friends. The only toy he has left is a doll made from the bones of a dead girl! A chilling ghost story for older children.

 

A WORLD FULL OF SPOOKY STORIES
by ANGELA MCALLISTER
AGES 5-8

A spine-tingling collection of stories from around the world. The witch Baba Yaga from Russia, the weird Bunyip from Australia, the rescue of Tam Lin from the Queen of the fairies from Scotland and lots more spooky tales to read at bedtime, if you dare...

 

 

MRS BLACKHAT
by CHLOE & MICK INKPEN
AGES 3-5


Mrs Blackhat is a witch who likes everything to be black, except her cat is ginger! How on earth can she change him? A fun rhyming story to share at Halloween.

 

PETER RABBIT TALES - A PUMPKIN FOR PETER
AGES 1-3


It's Halloween and time for Peter Rabbit and his family to collect a pumpkin from Mr Bunny, but the woods are a bit dark, a bit cold and a bit spooky.

 

 

 

WATCH IT - READ IT

 

As “staying in” increasingly becomes the new “going out” many of us have been anticipating the new season's TV releases – and it seems many are based on really great books! Why not revisit the original story next time you visit the library and see how it compares?

 

 

US
by DAVID NICHOLLS
BBC1


Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home. He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together.

So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son.

One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again. The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed. What could possibly go wrong?

 

LETHAL WHITE
by ROBERT GALBRAITH
BBC1


When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

 

 

RATCHED (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST)
by KEN KESEY
NETFLIX


Nurse Ratched or “Big Nurse” from he classic story of Randle Patick McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity and is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse has been reborn in the origin story Ratched on Netflix.

The series follows nurse Ratched's time at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind.

 

REBECCA
by DAPHNE DU MAURIER
NETFLIX


On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of Rebecca falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him. But as they arrive at her husband's home, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread.

Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, and the new Mrs de Winter walks in her shadow.

 

 

 

ESCAPING LOCKDOWN

 

During tough times we all know the power of a great story can really help. Here a few Central Library staff share the books that helped get them through. Look out for them next time you browse the library shelves.

 

 

Dr Ruth Galloway Series by Elly Griffiths

I really did think Lockdown would be the ideal opportunity to read those books I had always been meaning to but had never quite found the time. As the days passed I found it harder and harder to concentrate so took refuge in the familiar and began re reading some of my favourite mystery series.

One of these is the Dr Ruth Galloway series of novels by Elly Griffiths. Ruth is an archaeologist based in north Norfolk who specialises in identifying and dating bones and we first meet her in The Crossing Places when she is called upon by Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson to examine a child’s bones found near an ancient site she excavated ten years earlier.

 

This is their first encounter and their relationship develops through the next twelve novels as they get involved in many intriguing murders, some ancient but mostly from the more recent past.


Even though I had read all the novels before, I didn’t always remember who dunnit, so it was a real treat to wrap myself in the world of some of my favourite characters.

-Shona

 

 

 

 

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

I’m not a big reader of non-fiction but I kept reading great reviews of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn and thought maybe I should give it a try. It’s a tale of how in one devasting week Raynor and husband Moth lost everything – their farm, their home of 20 years and, with a terminal diagnosis for Moth, their future hopes and dreams. Not so cheery so far!

With no roof over their heads they decided to walk the South West Coast Path and from there on in I was captivated. While in my life lockdown restrictions were closing in around me this book took me on their fascinating, challenging journey which was sometimes sad, very often funny but always captivating.

 

 

Reading this book renewed my faith in human nature and gave me a real sense of empathy for the struggles others were facing everywhere rather than allowing myself to focus on my own. Just the escape I needed at the time.


-Tanya

Leisure & Culture Dundee

Leisure and Culture Dundee is a company based out of 50 North Lindsay Street, Dundee, Scotland

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