Sutherland Shire Libraries News

A change is coming to the Library's Wireless Hotspot Service. For some time now customers of Sutherland Library have been able to access the Internet using their own devices, eg. laptops and web enabled mobile phones, using our Wi-Fi hotspot.

Our current hotspot service, which has been providing free access, will be replaced in November with an improved service covering both levels of Sutherland Library. In addition, the Wi-Fi service is being extended to other locations across the Council's library network.

To take advantage of this facility customers will be able to purchase cards for wireless Internet access. There will be a choice of either a $5 card for 24 hour access or a $2 card for 2 hour access over a 1 week period.

Sutherland Shire Council is implementing this option as a low-cost alternative for library customers.

Visit our web site for more detail about the Library's Wireless Hotspot Service or pick up a brochure at any branch library.

The day was sunny. After a hectic month, calm descended on the staff of Cronulla Library. All was ready for the opening of the bright new library.

Eager customers waited outside for the doors to open.

Then.....the race was on.

HSC students led the way and quickly occupied most of the tables. Children made a beeline for the children's area. Newspapers were snapped up. Others wandered around taking in the colour and looking for their favourite authors.
Bookatoo was pursuaded to make a guest appearance much to the delight of the children - young and a little older.

Didn't get there for the opening? See photos of the opening on flickr

We look forward to you visiting Cronulla Library.

The library is in Cronulla Central.

Enter from Cronulla Plaza, Croydon Street or via the lifts from the Croydon Street Carpark.

The Library's term 4 Internet Training program is now available. We are running basic Internet & Email courses for absolute beginners. If you would like to learn a bit more about the Internet or you know someone who does telephone the Library on 9710 0351 or pick up a brochure from any of our branch libraries.

Of course all the information is available from the Internet Course Information page on our web site and the dates and times are listed on our Events Calendar as well.

A few spots are available for the course beginning, Tuesday 20th October. Ring today to secure your place.

World Book Online Public Library Edition, is now available at home to any Sutherland Shire Library member!
Use it as a starting point for assignments... as a reliable benchmark to judge Wikipedia results against...or just for fun!

There are three products in one:
- World Book Online for Kids - especially for younger kids it includes engaging multimedia, games, science projects, interactive tools, and activities.

- World Book Online Info Finder - designed for school-aged patrons’ homework and research needs and based on the World Book Encyclopedia.

- World Book Online Reference Center - a reference tool for advanced researchers and information seekers, there are e-books, tens of thousands of articles, and hundreds of thousands of primary source documents.

Each section can be keyword searched or you can be guided through menu options towards your goal. Your results can be saved in an individual account within the site giving you the ability to create and save your own content features, including research results from World Book and external sources, timelines, and citations.

Besides providing much information within it’s pages, World Book Online also provides links to quality websites, freely available articles and interactive map links related to the subject of your choice. These resources are outside the World Book website and you are informed of such as you leave.

Although doing a search and getting results is easy, there is so much that can be done within the World Book website, that customer training options are available to alert you to the full features of this product. Once logged in to World Book Online, look at the bottom of the screen for the Online Tutorial and/or Customer Training Guide.

All you need to do to have this powerful tool at your fingertips is follow the link above, click on the picture of the library card and enter your library card number.

To see all the information sources available to you from home go to Sutherland Shire Libraries home page, highlight Web Resources from the top menu, click on Online Databases, then click on the dropdown menu beside the heading Databases by Title. World Book is listed here along with many other free products, your membership entitles you to access.

Sutherland Shire Libraries hold a range of resources to assist HSC students with their studies. Study guides such as those by Excel, Macquarie, Get Smart, Top Notes and Success One : Student Answers published by the Board of Studies; past HSC examination papers and Infocus articles from the State Library of NSW, are all available for use within the libraries.

Sutherland, Caringbah, Engadine, Cronulla (reopens Monday the 19th October), Menai and Miranda libraries have separate HSC lending collections consisting of study guides, support material, Hot Topics for legal studies students and the series Issues in Society.

Students, who are members of the library, can search the online catalogue and access online databases from home, to locate articles and other up-to-date information on a wide range of topics. The library webpage includes links specifically for HSC students.

The first exam is on Tuesday 20th October, and study space in our libraries is at a premium. So if you are coming in for quiet study space, be early!