Youth
Parkes Shire Library celebrated National Youth Week with a Short story writing competition!
We had a great response from local youth, with quite a bit of competition.
In Category A (12-15 years), the judges ruled Rachel Westcott's colourful story "Mr Soprano" winner. Nicole Tarlano won Category B (16-18 years) for her insightful short story "My View". These winners received a prize package including two movie tickets, a $50 gift voucher and the opportunity to have their stories published in the Champion Post.
Twelve-year-old Angel Millet was given an encouragement award for her untitled story about a girl who takes control of a nasty situation in order to solve her own problems. Special mention goes to Baeden Faint for keeping the judges in suspense with an unpredictable plot and use of original descriptive language, and Melissa Beddie for her humour piece on phobias and friendships.
The library thanks the young writers who took the time to submit their stories and they look forward to even more entries in 2011.
Click here for the two winning entrants' stories.
Internet Access
Parkes and Peak Hill libraries have computers available for Internet use. A $2.00 per half hour charge applies for email and chat, all other surfing, gaming and research is free. Parkes Library is also a FREE WiFi Zone.
Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint
Is available at a cost of $3.00 per unlimited session at Parkes and Peak Hill libraries. You are welcome to bring your USB drives, but please be aware they will be checked for viruses.
Printing is available at a cost of $0.30 per double sided page.
Collections
Youth fiction, non-fiction, talking books, music, magazines and graphic novels can be borrowed for a month. DVDs can be borrowed for two weeks.
Student Help
Parkes Shire Library provides book, audio-visual and online resources to help students of all ages with their studies.
Excel Guides: A complete range of Excel HSC resources are held in the Parkes Library Reference collection.
Non-Fiction: Titles for all ages and a wide range of topics is held by all Parkes Shire Library branches.
ANZ Reference Centre - This is a general database of Australian and international content with articles in health, current affairs, science, social science, business and literature.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online - Find information quickly and easily by searching Britannica's four encyclopedias, magazines and journals, the Web's Best Sites, images and their collection of videos
MasterFILE Premier - This database provides full text for more than 2,100 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975.
Consumer Health Complete - Contains full text articles covering all areas of health and wellness from mainstream medicine to many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated medicine.
Science Reference Center - Provides easy access to a multitude of full text science oriented content. Contains full text for 640 science encyclopaedias, reference books, periodicals.
Literary Reference Center - Provides full text information on authors and their works from a combination of sources. Includes plot summaries, critical essays, reviews, poems and author biographies.
Learning Online History - a major history and reference website containing major titles adapted for online use and extensive searching capability.
Searching for Kids - sites designed specially for kids - AOL at School, AskJeeves for Kids, CyberSleuth Kids, KidsClick!
Country Women's Association country of the year - Information on Scotland.
HSC Help
Belonging - The State Library of NSW has tagged some useful resource lists for the HSC English topic "belonging".
http://www.e-rudite.net/ - Offers a range of free online resources for students studying the HSC in Enlgish 2009.
Excel Guides - A full range of Excel HSC Guides are held at Parkes Library. These resources can only be used within the Library to ensure every student has access to them.
Study Room
A quiet study room is available for use at Parkes Library. Bookings can be made for regular use, or it can be used only when you need it.
