To All West Berkshire Libraries Customers
We hope that this email finds you safe and well.
As you are aware, all West Berkshire libraries remain closed to the public in line with Government guidelines. This situation is likely to continue until early July. We are making plans to restore the library to the public in phases, but in the meantime we wanted to contact you with an update about all the work that is taking place ‘behind the scenes’ to ensure that we can still offer a range of exciting online activities and resources for all ages.
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West Berkshire Libraries have been working hard to meet the needs of our customers while the buildings have been closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We’re pleased to say that our ‘At Home’ service is now back up and running, delivering books to 58 of our housebound customers who were already registered users.
This service is a vital link for customers who previously weren’t able to visit the libraries due to age, disability or other special circumstance. We are now planning for ways to expand the service to others who are vulnerable and self-isolating and hope to have further news about this soon.
We hope you have enjoyed the digital resources that we have created so far. Thank you to everyone who has shared a book review on West Berks Reads, our new Facebook group, or a photo of your child’s craft, or joined us for storytime on YouTube. It is wonderful that we are able to keep connected at this time through our love of books.
We are delighted to be able to tell you about some of our online library activities coming up in June, including a very exciting digital Summer Reading Challenge. From books and crafts to pets, there really is something for everyone! Here are some of the highlights:
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Summer Reading Challenge for primary school children – starts 5 June and continues throughout the summer months. This year children can sign up to take part online and unlock digital rewards, activities and video content as incentives for their reading – all for FREE!
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Storytimes for under 4s – these are now available every Friday at 11am
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Book-related craft activities for children – new ideas for you every Saturday
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Young Adults’ Book Week – plenty of inspiration for what to read next, 7-13 June
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Pets Week - 21-27 June (more details coming soon!)
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West Berks Reads discussion of this month’s ‘read together’ title, The wife between us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen – 26 June
Many of the groups who normally meet in our libraries are also running activities online. Look out for the Tuesday and Friday chair yoga sessions run by Neeta Madahar, meetings of the Newbury and Thatcham Nintendo Club and events run by The Real Business Club.
Also this month, look out for the release of several new ‘instant access’ titles from our e-library supplier BorrowBox, which you can borrow immediately without needing to reserve them or join a waiting list. June’s titles will include Good Friday by Lynda La Plante (e-book); Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White and Life after life by Kate Atkinson (both e-audiobooks). Similarly, we’ll have simultaneous access through Libby to e-book The Darwin affair by Tim Mason, available 22 June-13 July as part of the ‘Big Library Read’.
Finally, why not join in the UK’s National Reading Day on 20 June, when there will be a Facebook discussion hosted by The Reading Agency of Christy Lefteri’s popular novel The beekeeper of Aleppo? You don’t need to be a member of a library reading group to join in.
For more information about any of these, follow WBerksLibraries on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Don’t forget that we have a variety of popular digital resources which are available 24/7 and you can find details about all of these on our website: http://info.westberks.gov.uk/elibrary.
We’re particularly pleased to tell you that access to the leading family history resource Ancestry has been temporarily expanded to library members working remotely during this time, courtesy of our supplier ProQuest and its partner Ancestry. Access this using your library card number and, as always with any of our e-resources, if you have any difficulties please email us at library@westberks.gov.uk. We’ll be happy to help if we can.
Customers who are not already a member of the library can join online, giving you free, instant access to our e-library. For details visit www.westberks.gov.uk/libraries.
If you are already a member and have forgotten your library PIN this can also be reset on the website: https://westberks.spydus.co.uk/PIN. But during the temporary closures we would like to reassure you that no fines will be charged and you can continue to enjoy your library loans until the buildings reopen. If you do want to return your loans, our bookdrops/letterboxes are now open, but please note that items returned will not be removed from your account for at least 72 hours because of the required quarantine period.
In accordance with government guidelines, public libraries in England may be able to resume some other services in July. We very much look forward to welcoming you back into our libraries, but until then we hope you enjoy the online resources. Please keep in touch for all the latest news and events from West Berkshire Libraries:
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