Library Service Consultation

Just a couple of days left to have your say!

Derbyshire residents are invited to have their say on a number of proposals which aim to keep library buildings open, as well as creating a modern, agile, family-friendly and sustainable service across the county. The proposals can be found in the library service’s new draft strategy 'A Modern Library Service for Derbyshire’ and can be found here

The proposals are aimed at meeting necessary budget savings and reflecting changing patterns of library use while ensuring the service remains as accessible, efficient and cost-effective as possible.

Complete the Derbyshire Public Library Service Consultation Survey here or ask for a paper copy in your local library. The closing date for responses is Saturday 2 November 2024. 

If you have any questions about the consultation please email publiclibrary.consultation@derbyshire.gov.uk 

Adult Events in November

Come along to a variety of events and health information for adults in libraries:

• Saturday 9th November - Ashbourne Library - Ashbourne Reborn -  series of drop in sessions showing plans for the development of the town centre - 9:30am-12 noon -  01629 533950 - Also on these dates - Thursday 14th November 9:30-12 - Tuesday 26th November 5pm-6pm - Thursday 28th November - 10:30am-1pm
• Thursday 14th November - Heanor Library - Live Life Better Body MOTs - health advice including blood pressure checks - 10am-12noon - 01629 533795 - drop in
• Friday 15th November - Dronfield Library - Pension Credit take up session, (offering benefit checks for those over retirement age) - 10am-1pm - 01629 533450 - drop in
• Saturday 16th November - Ashbourne Library - Time Swap - get together for volunteers - 10:00am-12noon - 01629 533950
• Tuesday 26th November - Ashbourne Library - Crime writers in conversation - 3 local crime writers Steven Dunne, Mark Eklid and Jane Bettany in conversation with Sue Wall - 2:30-4:30pm - free but please contact Ashbourne Library for tickets - 01629 533950
• Tuesday 26th November - Belper Library - Board Game Club - 4pm-7pm - Fun and welcoming to all ages - classic and modern games - support from our volunteer to get you started! - 01629 533192
• 1st-30th November - Belper Library - National Novel Writing Month - during library opening hours - join in writing a collaborative story throughout the month and pick up one of our staff recommended novels - 01629 533192
• Thursday 5th December - Chesterfield Library - Join Danielle Burton for a local history talk at 10 am - 'Anthony Babington and the Babington Plot' - free event, no booking is necessary - 01629 533400
• Friday 6th December - Borrowash Library - Borrowash Wellbeing Walk In - 10am-12:30pm - free health and wellbeing advice and blood pressure check-ups from Live Life Better Derbyshire - 01629 533448

November Activities for Families

Regular activities for children can be found on our website. Look out also for the following:

• Saturday 2nd November - Belper Library - Family craft drop in session - 10am-3pm - try a selection of fun, suitable crafts for children aged four and over - 01629 533912
• Saturday 2nd November - Swadlincote Library - Lego Challenge - Can you and your family complete this month’s LEGO challenge? - 10am-12noon - equipment provided, just bring your imagination - 01629 533013 - drop in
• Monday 11th November - Heanor Library - World Nursery Rhyme week themed story and rhyme time - 2pm-2:30pm - 01629 533795 - drop in
• Tuesday 12th November - Ashbourne Library - special Story Time to celebrate World Nursery Rhyme Week - 10:15-10:45am - 01629 533950 - drop in
• Wednesday 13th November to 23rd December - Borrowash Library - Christmas Colouring Activity Raffle - 01629 533448 - collect and complete a colouring worksheet, and return it to the library to be entered into a free raffle
• Thursday 14th November - Heanor Library - World Nursery Rhyme week themed story and rhyme time - 11am-11:30am - 01629 533795 - drop in
• Friday 15th November - New Mills Library - Nursery Rhyme Week Rhyme Time - Join in the fun! Sing along to nursery rhymes and listen to stories for half an hour - 2:15pm-2:45pm - 01629 533195 - drop in, suitable for children under 5
• Friday 15th November - Swadlincote Library - Nursery Rhyme Time - (World Nursery Rhyme Week) - a special session of nursery rhymes using picture books, puppets and rhymes - 10am-10:30am - suitable for babies, toddlers and children under 5 - 01629 533013 - drop in
• Saturday 23rd November - Heanor Library - Winter themed crafts for all - 10:30am-12:30pm 01629 533795 - drop in
• Thursday 28th November - Pinxton Library - after school crafts - 3pm-4:30pm - 01629 535 815 - drop in, suitable for children 4 and over - accompanied by an adult
• Saturday 30th November - Ashbourne Library - Christmas crafts - 10:30am-12:30pm - 01629 533950 -  drop in craft session for children of all ages

Chesterfield Library Café

As visitors to Chesterfield Library know, the library café has been closed for some time, but we are hoping to make the facility available again in the New Year!

Applications to operate the café are being invited from interested parties - closing date 12 noon on Friday 29th November.

For further information look here - and scroll down to find the details for 'Chesterfield library cafe'.

Viewings are strictly by appointment only.

For further information or to arrange a viewing please contact Antony Constantine, email antony.constantine@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 537143

Belper Art Group Exhibition

Visit Belper Library to see the latest work by local artists from the Belper Art Group as part of this month-long exhibition, 1^st - 30^th November - during opening hours.

Further information from Belper Library -  tel 01629 533192

Libby - Big Library Read 

Libby is one of our eaudio apps, and they are due to offer a Big Library Read title in November, for you to download via Libby. From November 7th to November 21st, 'Montgomery and the case of the golden key', a mystery for children by Tracy Occomy Crowder will be available to borrow via Libby, as an eaudio or ebook. If you haven't already downloaded the Libby app, it's easy to do - look here. There is also a competition through the app for children under 12.

Derbyshire Record Office

Free talk: The Importance of Research for a World Heritage Site

On Thursday 28 November at 10:30am join Adrian Farmer, Heritage Coordinator for the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, at the Record Office as he looks at how research has changed the way we understand and appreciate this historically significant area, and how World Heritage Status has helped in the search for artefacts and documents.

See our blog for how to book a place. If you’re interested in the talk but are unable to attend, Adrian will be making a version of his talk available on his YouTube channel, so do sign up for notifications here.

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery 

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery is temporarily closed, but you can still see fascinating objects and paintings from their collections online. Be sure to follow their Facebook and Twitter pages to see what they're showing you next!

You can also find out general information here and follow their blog here. 

Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service (DACES)

Celebrating Lifelong Learning Week, Monday 4 November to Friday 8 November 2024

Embracing lifelong learning can enrich your life in many ways. Whether you are looking to build your confidence, brush up on your IT skills, or gain new qualifications, there are lots of options available to you.

DACES offers a wide variety of courses tailored to help you achieve your goals. With friendly centres across the county and many online courses available, now is the perfect time to take the step back into learning.

Visit DACES website to book

Tel: 01629 531241 

Email: adult.education@derbyshire.gov.uk

Derby Book Festival

Derby Book Festival's Autumn Edition will be held from 14 - 19 November with 25 events including authors Jonathan Coe, Cecelia Ahern, Janice Hallett and Sarah Ward. Historical buffs can enjoy Afternoon Tea with Sam Leith on The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, Lucy Hughes-Hallett on The Scapegoat, which is a fascinating profile of the first Duke of Buckingham, Julie Summers on British Vogue: Biography of an Icon and Julia A Hickey on A Little History of Derbyshire.

If you are interested in politics, David Torrance will be talking about The Wild Men: The Remarkable Story of Britain's First Labour Party and political journalist Tom Baldwin on Keir Starmer: The Biography. Football fans can enjoy journalist Marcus Alton in conversation with former BBC Radio Derby commentator, Colin Gibson on Brian Clough.

Full details and booking links can be found here.

How will your town look in 2040?

Would you like to get involved in a day looking at ways of creating a more sustainable future for your town?

If so, this groundbreaking event may be right up your street. The "Town Anywhere"  day of creativity helps explore how you’d like your town to look and feel in 2040.

And one is being hosted by Transition New Mills  at New Mills Town Hall on Saturday 23 November.

It's quite a coup for our county to get one as they are ‘hot off the press’, with only four having been held previously in Bristol, Hull, London and Strasbourg.

Open to all Derbyshire residents and those from further afield, it’s free and looking to attract local people but also interested people, decision makers and environmental shakers from far and wide. While New Mills will be the focal town for the day, there will be ideas and inspiration to take away and take countywide.

To find out more, look here.

Multi Use titles 

Every month we get a new selection of titles on our FREE 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 November are:

In Ebook & Eaudio:

• The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina
• Finding Hildasay by Christian Lewis
• Simply Lies by David Baldacci

In eBook only:

• The Dance Teacher of Paris by Suzanne Fortin

In eAudiobook only: 

• The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore
• Peanut Jones and the Illustrated City by Rob Biddulph

New Adult Books

We’ve chosen to highlight three books published recently for you to enjoy. You can reserve them via our online catalogue.

You all die tonight - Simon Kernick

Seven people wake up in a remote mansion. The doors are all locked. They have no idea where they are. Who brought them there. Or how to escape. Each knew the victims of a dreadful crime committed four years earlier but that's all that links them. Then a voice echoes through the house with a terrifying message. They've been poisoned - and have less than 12 hours to live. There's an antidote on hand: but only if someone admits to being a killer. And they all claim to be innocent. The time for confession is rapidly running out. How many - if any - of them will survive the night?

A backstage betrayal - Michael Ball

The second book in the 'Empire' series. 1926. Running a theatre may appear to be all about the showbiz, but times are hard at The Empire. Following a turbulent period Jack Treadwell, erstwhile proprietor, his mother Lillian, and his playwright wife Grace, know they need to get things back on track - and how better than with the annual pantomime, a new venture, and an all-singing all-dancing talent contest, showcasing the best performers around. As the talent contest draws closer, tragedy strikes. Amid the glitz and glamour there are strange goings on and a plot afoot. Is everything Jack and Grace have worked so hard for about to come crashing down? And could this be curtains for The Empire?

The last secret agent - Pippa Latour with Jude Dobson

In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war. This is the astounding true story of Phyllis "Pippa" Latour, one of the last female SOE agents to get out of France alive after its liberation in WWII. Born in 1921, Pippa's was an unusual childhood, followed by an even more extraordinary early adult life as she was parachuted into France aged 23. Incredibly brave, she travelled around the rural French countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once she came frighteningly close to being discovered. For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her story can be told in full.

Children's Book Recommendations

One of our favourite things to do is recommend amazing children's books to you! This month we recommend you check out these titles:

The Elephant who came to dinner - Steve Smallman (Author) and Joelle Dreidemy (Illustrator)

One starry night, the woods are filled with enchanting songs and beautiful sculptures. Whoever could have made them? Badger thinks he has all the answers: it has to be a spotty wood-warbler. So, Wolf, Hotpot and Omelette venture deeper into the woods with Badger to try to find the mystery singing-sculptor.

Alexander and the Horse - Mary Auld (Author) and Esther Hernando (Illustrator)

When Alexander the Great was just a boy, he met a horse that he longed to own. But the horse could not be ridden ...

The Hotel Balzaar - Kate DiCamillo (Author) and Julia Sarda (Illustrator)

At the Hotel Balzaar, Marta's mother rises before the sun, puts on her uniform and instructs her to roam as she will, but quietly - invisibly - like a mouse. While her mother cleans rooms, Marta slips down the back staircase to the grand lobby to chat with the bellman, study the painting of an angel's wing over the fireplace, and watch a cat chase a mouse around the face of the grandfather clock, all while dreaming of the return of her soldier father. One day, a mysterious countess with a parrot checks in, promising a story - in fact, seven stories in all. As the stories unfold, Marta begins to wonder: could the secret to her father's disappearance lie in the countess's tales?

You can reserve them via our online catalogue.