World Book “Day”??? We’ve been celebrating all week with a hat-trick of library visits from stand-up comedian, TV writer and best-selling author of the World of Norm series, the one and only Jonathan Meres.

According to the history books, British Rule in India ended in 1947 with Indian independence, but the reality for the battalions of Scots who manned the myriad of jute mills that lined the majestic Hooghly river in Bengal was somewhat different.

Our ESOL Chatabout reading groups are a great way to improve your English, make friends and have fun. These friendly, informal reading groups are ideal for adult students learning English as a Second Language, at Intermediate Level, and are most definitely NOT English classes!
Over the past few months we’ve been reading The Little One by Lynda la Plante: a creepy ghost story that makes you want to sleep with the light on.

Bernard is a rare, black-footed prairie ferret and he lives in Norfolk where he is a real one-off.  He has many adventures with his ferret friends Ferreta, Stinker and Zizz.

Time for a wee pictorial round-up of what’s been happening in libraries over the past few weeks.
Click to view slideshow.
Looking forward to the Olympics, Sighthill’s scarily talented Knit and Knatter Group have been busy knitting some famous Olympians. We’re loving this Cathy Freeman.
Olympic fever took hold over at Granton as well, which hosted its very own torch relay for some Olympians of the future.

A guest post today from Poet in Residence, Ryan Van Winkle.  Ryan ran a poetry workshop with the ESOL group who meet at McDonald Road Library.  Over to you, Ryan:

Edinburgh Libraries were host to a wide variety of activities, celebrating Adult Learners Week (May 14 – 18), and despite the unusually cold temperatures a good crowd joined Carol for a walking exploration of Robert Louis Stevenson country around Oxgangs Library.

Fountainbridge Library’s new Chatabout Book Group is looking for members.
If you or someone you know is learning English as a second language at intermediate level why not come along? We are a friendly informal group and by reading and sharing books together we build our confidence in reading, listening to and speaking English.
The group meets at 5pm on the first Wednesday of every month at Fountainbridge Library.

From next week we will be carrying out some work to improve the performance of the libraries’ Peoples’ Network computers. This means there may be no internet access in some libraries for up to two weeks.
There will be no internet access in any location from 14th – 16th  November. Internet access will be restored to libraries on a rolling basis thereafter. Wifi will also be affected.
We need to carry out this work in order to increase bandwidth and speed up the performance of these machines. This will improve response times for logging in and internet page loading.

We’re really looking forward (or do we mean backward?) to the fast-approaching Previously…Scotland’s Festival of History!