“Sharing the holiday spirit” is what your neighbourhood library will be doing over the next few weeks as we head into December. Come and join in various activities of our seasonal Christmas open houses including holiday crafting, live seasonal music by local artists, including a number of our own multi talented staff, and scrumptious treats to enjoy. Stamford Branch library celebrates on Saturday, November 20th 2 - 4 pm, the Community Centre library will be the place to be on Saturday, November 27th 1:30 - 4 pm, the Victoria Avenue library on Sunday, December 5th, from 1:30 - 4 pm and the Chippawa Branch library on Monday, December 6th from 6 - 8 pm. These open houses have become a highlight on our library calendar and we invite one and all to join us. Your friendly library staff looks forward to welcoming you! Sugar Plum Story Time is a one day seasonal program of stories, crafts, songs and a film...

2010 Giller Prize It’s that time of year when literary book awards are in the news. This week the 2010 Giller Prize has been awarded to Johanna Skibsrud, a young and largely unknown Montreal based author and poet, and is the story of the intricate relationship between a father and daughter. Interestingly, this title was published by a small publishing company in Nova Scotia, who initially only produced 800 copies. Since the book was announced as a Giller finalist in September, they have been working flat out to print about 1000 copies a week, which is the maximum they can handle. It has not kept up with the demand, and with the announcement this week that it has won, this will be an interesting “story” to follow considering the instant boon to sales the prize generates. Public libraries like ours make a point to keep tabs on the prize lists, certainly the Canadian content lists, and make sure we have them available for loan. Unfortunately, this is one we are going to have to wait for, along with thousands...

“To keep the stories alive for future generations” The Ontario Veterans Archive is an online collection (www.ontarioveteranarchive.ca) of stories, pictures and documents, which record the unique experiences of Ontario veterans. The Archive is run by the The Historica-Dominion Institute, who's mandate is to build active and informed citizens through a greater knowledge and appreciation of the history, heritage and stories of Canada. The Library will be assisting the Archive by gathering the stories, photographing and scanning documents, medals, and other memorabilia of Niagara Falls veterans. In addition to being added to the Archives, this material will also be made available on the Historic Niagara Digital Collections, a set of online databases hosted by the Niagara Falls Public Library. Veterans of any age, conflict, peacekeeping operation, or other mission are invited to come to the library on Saturday, November the 13th from 1-5 p.m. to have their story recorded for posterity. Volunteers are also needed...