STOP-LOOK-LEARN #2

Could there be life on other planets?

New discovery by NASA just announced.

Are you an aspiring astronomer?

If the answer to this question is a resounding YES, then gain inspiration from a 15 year old Caulfield student.

Reported in last Saturday’s Age newspaper, Will Stamp, a Year 11 student at John Monash Science School, discovered a variable star using his home computer and an interstate telescope.

He kept a keen eye on his patch of sky for six months, during which time he studied more than 250 images. The amateur skywatcher was looking for stars with a fluctuating light intensity – the hallmark of stars that change in brightness, which are known as variable stars.”

Melbourne teen discovers star 300 times the size of Earth. (The Age, February 10th, 2017)

Pretty impressive for someone so young!  With a ‘can do’ attitude, we are positive that you too can reach for the stars!

The GFL receives hard copies of Melbourne’s newspapers daily which are available from the front desk.  Want to read these newspapers online but not sure how?  Ask the library staff for assistance.

Be informed.  Be knowledgeable. Get into the habit of reading what’s happening in our world on a daily basis.  Newspapers are a great resource for both local and international news!

Port Phillip Library – Kate McCaffrey

Award winning young adult writer, Kate McCaffrey discusses her controversial new young adult novel, Saving Jazz.

Jasmine Lovely has it all – the looks, the grades, the friends. But when a house party spins out of control, Jazz discovers what can happen when your mistakes go viral … We know teens are at risk of becoming victims of cyberbullying. But do we know how at risk they are of becoming perpetrators?

This challenging new novel tackles cyberbullying from a whole new perspective. Saving Jazz includes mature themes and may be confronting to younger readers.

This is a free event – bookings are essential via Eventbrite. A waiting list is available on Eventbrite if you are unable to secure a ticket. If you book and are unable to attend please let us know so that we can pass your ticket on to another patron.

Source: Port Phillip Library – Kate McCaffrey

Shortlist announced – 2016 Redgum Young Writers Award

“Have big dreams. You will grow into them.”

“Five young authors have been shortlisted in two award categories – Children’s Short Story and Children’s Picture Book – with the winners to be announced in the first week of March. The shortlisted authors represent both public and private schools from across the nation. New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, West Australia and the ACT are all represented in the short list. ”

You can see the shortlist HERE.

Books for boys and girls!

Don’t like the “Boys Books” and “Girls Books” labeling which gets slapped onto the front of books or on book shop displays?

One young girl in England got so annoyed that she decided to do something about it!

The result?

The move to scrap gender-labelling in children’s books is gaining momentum. In the UK, Scholastic has announced it will no longer use gender-labelling in its book titles after receiving a complaint from a young reader who argued that ‘no books should be “for girls” or “for boys”’. This follows a similar announcement from Penguin Random House children’s book imprint Ladybird in 2014.

Clip from Why ANZAC? with Sam Neill

NOTE: Only available internally at Mentone Grammar.

http://dvc.mentonegrammar.net/embed.php?id=38632&start=3454&end=3796

Inspiring a love of reading …..

It was one lunch time in August of last year that the staff of the GFL, in conjunction with the LOTE staff, ran a very successful Read Around the World program in the GFL.

It is quite exciting to see that an article about this event and other inspirational library programs run in the GFL has been included in the latest edition of INCITE – the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association.

Have a read of it here:
Inspiring a love of reading among senior school students

Safer Internet Day 2015

Today is Safer Internet Day, so it’s a good time to think about how we can better ‘stay safe online.’

Some of the ideas mentioned in an article in INCITE, the journal of the Australian Library and Information Association “Helping your community stay smart online” (INCITE, Volume 35, Issue 5 pages 12-13) mentions many valuable tips:

• internet browsers store information about passwords used and pages visited
• turn off the users’ option ‘save username and password’ to avoid accidental saving
• delete browsing history before logging out of a public computer
• avoid entering personal information or completing financial transactions online
• log off, even if leaving the computer for just a short time
• lock devices with passwords
• use strong passwords which are not easily identifiable
• don’t store passwords on devices
• change passwords often to avoid hacking
• download apps only from reputable publishers
• take care allowing apps to use personal information including location
• avoid using public Wi-Fi for online banking or shopping

Safer Internet Day is about making our world a safer place.  Be aware and share what you know!

Let’s create a better internet together!

Library Lovers Day 14th February 2015

To get into the spirit of Library Lovers Day/Valentines Day enter our ‘Love letter to a character’ competition. All you have to do is write a love letter to your favourite character, then write your name, year level and House – and the Title of the book this character appears in – and place it in the competition box on the front desk of the GFL by the end of the day on Thursday 12th February. The GFL staff will judge them and award the two best entries a Village Movie pass each, and the runner up, a Choc top voucher.  Good luck everyone.

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.