Christmas & New Year Opening Times

Our libraries will close on 31st January at 5pm and open with their usual hours again on Tuesday 4th January. You can check your local library opening hours here.

We'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year from everyone at Derbyshire Libraries, and we'll see you in 2022!

Home Library Service

We provide a free home delivery service to Derbyshire residents who are unable to visit a library due to:

• disability
• limited mobility
• illness
• caring responsibilities

When you apply for the Home Library Service, we'll contact you to talk about your needs, and find out what you like to listen to or read. One of our Home Library Assistants will then visit you once every 4 weeks. We can deliver to people in their own homes, care homes or sheltered accommodation.

Alternatively, if you have a friend, relative, or carer who could visit the library on your behalf to select and collect items, we can provide a Friends and Family library card.

The Friends and Family card provides:

• Up to 24 items
• Free requests
• No charges on overdue books
• An 8 week loan period rather than the usual 3 weeks

For further information click here, email ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk, or call 01629 533444

National Poetry Day Competition

We were delighted with the quality of entries we received for our National Poetry Day Competition! The theme was 'Choice', and the winner of the bottle of Laureate Sherry (kindly donated by the 21st Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage), was Prue Potiphar with 'The Choice', which you can read by clicking on the above link. We'd also like to give a special mention to our runners up, ‘The Sale’ by Arnie Rainbow, ‘Therefore, I am’ by Rebecca Summerscale, and ‘CHOICE?’ by Philippa Young.

All 29 entries are being compiled into an eBook to be made available on BorrowBox in the New Year. Congratulations to our winner and to all those who entered!

New Devices

Have you received a new device for Christmas and need some help with using it to access our eLending platforms? We have guides to all four of our eLending platforms available here, and further support can be found by contacting the Library Information Service on 01629 533444 or ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk

Book-Off

It's a new year, and that means it's BOOK-OFF TIME! Yes, we couldn't kick-off 2022 without at least 2022 (well...32, really) reasons for excitement, and this time we're going to be sending *REDACTED* your way as a choice of Book-Off theme. Be sure to look out early on the morning of 1st January for our first match to appear on Facebook, and get ready for a month of extraordinary fun and close calls!

Cooking Books – Get Cooking

January is a food lovers delight! The whole month is classed by some as Veganuary, as well as including National Cheese Lover’s Day on the 20^th, and International Hot and Spicy Food Day on the 16^th. With all this in mind, why not be inspired to try out some new recipes this year? Search our online catalogue to see what physical books we hold, or take a look at the eMagazines on PressReader and Libby.

Winter Mini Challenge

To help keep children's reading up over the Winter, the Reading Agency are once again running their Winter Mini Challenge! As a shorter version of the Summer Reading Challenge and continuing the Wild World Heroes theme, children need to read three or more books of ANY type they choose between 1st December and 16th January. 

Contact ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk for more information.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Thursday 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day, and to mark the occasion we will be sharing several videos from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust throughout the day on our social media platforms. We will also be having book displays at many of our libraries, and you can search our catalogue here for all the materials we hold on the subject. For more information on Holocaust Memorial Day you can visit the official website.

National Storytelling Week

National Storytelling Week takes place this year from 30th January to 6th February. We'll have more details soon, but if you have a talented young storyteller in your house then you might want to keep an eye on our website and social media pages then there might be an exciting storytelling competition coming their way soon...

eAudiobooks on Libby

Have you met Libby? Libby is one of our new eAudiobook platforms full to bursting with downloadable books to listen and enjoy. No matter what you like to listen to, we guarantee Libby can help. Throughout the month we are highlighting some treasures we have found to inspire you. If you need any help accessing Libby, we can help with that too! Email the Library Information Service on ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk and we can arrange a 1-2-1 session to talk you through the process.

Derbyshire Record Office

Join us on Thursday 27^th January 7-8pm for our ever popular ‘Introduction to the Record Office’: find out who we are and the services we offer, the collections we hold and how you can access them, whether in person or remotely. And on Wednesday 2^nd February 2-3pm it’s all about ‘Preserving Your Past’. Most of us have photos, letters, diaries or other documents that we treasure and want to keep safe for the future. Find out from our Conservation Team what causes damage to these precious possessions and how best to look after them.

A third talk is on Wednesday 2^nd March 7-8pm, ‘Derbyshire Coal Mining Records for Local and Family History’. Do you have a coalminer in your family tree?  Would you like to find out more about collieries in your local area?  This talk will cover what is held in the archives of the National Coal Board (NCB) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Derbyshire Area. Find out how you can use these archives to help you with your research.

For more information, and to book a free place, visit the record office blog https://recordoffice.wordpress.com/ Further events will be listed in the coming weeks so sign up to our blog to receive notifications of what’s coming up. 

Fresh new courses for 2022 

New year, new skill!

Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service has many new courses starting in 2022 face to face in adult community education centres and online!

Joining courses online means that you can learn new skills in the comfort of your own home whilst meeting people from around Derbyshire and, of course, being supported by our friendly, knowledgeable tutors. There are lots to choose from, including: murder mystery, aromatherapy, wine tasting and creative courses, all of which you can do whilst wearing your slippers and with a hot drink (made just the way you like it!). To see what online courses are available, visit our Eventbrite page. 

If you are looking to meet new people in one of our adult community education centres, which are all following COVID-19 Safety Measures, visit Find an adult education course - Derbyshire County Council.

Learn a new skill with Learning for Leisure courses - search by centre to see what's on near you, from pottery to tap dancing! And if you've resolved to become more sustainable, check out our courses at Derbyshire Eco Centre to see how you can live a little lighter on the earth.

Our Qualifications and Skills courses are perfect if you are thinking about changing your career. There are also opportunities to gain basic maths or English qualifications, or even upskill for the digital world.

Sign up to Derbyshire Adult Community Education News mailing list.

Buxton Museum & Art Gallery

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery will be open on Friday 31st December from 10am to 4pm before being closed on Saturday 1st January for the New Year. It will re-open at 10am on Tuesday 4th January as usual.

New Adult Books Coming in January

There are plenty of new adult titles to choose from in January. You can reserve them on our online catalogue. Start your new year of reading with one of our three suggestions below.

Our first choice is by Derby author, Jane Bettany: ‘Without a Trace’. Ruth returns home to find a man lying on her bed with a knife in his chest. She says she doesn’t know him. Then she disappears – is she the killer or a victim? Set in the fictional Derbyshire town of Bainbridge, Detective Isabel Blood investigates in this second book in the series.

Why not try a historical novel? ‘The Queen’s Lady’ by Joanna Hickson is set in Tudor times during the reign of Henry VII. Joan of Guildford, Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth, is plunged into the heart of a political storm when the Prince of Wales dies and Prince Henry becomes heir to the throne.

Or try a romance to warm a cold winter’s evening. Jill Mansell’s latest novel: ‘Should I Tell You?’  follows Amber, Lachlan and Raffaele as their lives, feelings and secrets entwine. They met as fostered teenagers and have remained close ever since.

Multi-Use Titles

Every month we get a new selection of titles on our BorrowBox app of both eBooks and eAudiobooks that can be taken out by multiple users at one time. These stay multi-use for 60 days, so if you have a book club and you're looking for your next title then one of these could be your next choice! 

You can find these titles on the main BorrowBox page, identified as a collection with 'No Waiting!' or 'Available Now!'. Titles available from January are:

In eBook and eAudiobook format

• The Windsor Knot by S J Bennett
• The First Mistake by Sandie Jones
• Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston

In eAudiobook format only

• House at Seas End by Elly Griffiths
• Speak Your Truth by Fearne Cotton
• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

This Month We Recommend You Read...

There are some excellent new books coming out in January for children, which you can reserve on our online library catalogue right now. Here's three to look forward to:

First off, for junior readers, it's When the War Came Home by Lesley Parr. The First World War has ended, but it hasn't gone away. When Natty has to move to a new village, she meets two young soldiers who are still battling the effects of war. Huw can't forget the terrible things he's seen, but Johnny doesn't even remember who he is. As Natty tries to keep a secret and unravel a mystery, she finds her own way to fight for what she believes in - and learns that some things should never be forgotten.

Our second pick is The Ship of Cloud and Stars by Amy Raphael. In 1815, twelve-year-old Nico Cloud is obsessed with science and maps. Her parents have no time for her outlandish opinions - after all, a girl's work is embroidery. After overhearing that her parents plan to send her away to boarding school, Nico goes in search of her aunt Ruth, a famous scientist who has a life she can only dream of. Nico climbs aboard her ship, Anthos to take a quick look. Then the ship moves, and Nico is still on it. If she is to stay on the great ship destined for voyage and discovery, she must help her aunt with important research. But there are male scientists on their tail. With the help of cabin boy, Matteo, and a kitten called Astra, can Nico outsmart them? Can Nico guide Anthos to victory - can she change the world?

Our non-fiction choice today is the next in Usborne's excellent 'For Beginners' series, Physics for Beginners, written by Darran Stobbart, Rachel Firth, and Minna Lacey, and illustrated by Ramon Primo. Rather than explaining details about how to do physics, this book focusses on explaining what different branches of physics are about, how we know about them, and what mysteries remain for budding physicists to uncover. It doesn't shy away from the hard stuff, tackling black holes, quantum mechanics and even Einstein's theories of relativity.

Need a further suggestion? We're always delighted to suggest a story! Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, or ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk and we'll do our best to find you something fantastic!

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