SA Public Libraries: Coomandook joins in

(This was originally posted on 21 August, but with the update by Jessie below it has skewed the date to be 6 September)

One of our smaller libraries - Coomandook went live this morning. Coomandook is part of the Coorong Council, so is utilising the Coorong Enterprise site which I mentioned last week when commenting on Meningie joining the consortium. This Enterprise site is here.

The Coorong Council has four School Community Libraries and a depot. The remaining two libraries, Tintinara and Tailem Bend as well as the depot at Coonalpyn will join the network in coming weeks.

On the Council's Enterprise site each of the 4 libraries has a picture which illustrates their part of the council - from the Coorong Lakes at Meningie to a harvester in operation for Coomandook, the Murray River for Tailem Bend and an iconic windmill for Tintinara. Each of these pictures is a "click through" to information about each of the libraries - opening hours, contact details and some with additional pictures of their library. This use of the Enterprise software to provide additional "pages" for each library is great to see.

Jessie Cameron, a Year 11 student at Coomandook wrote the following report of the opening event.

On the 21^st August the Coomandook School Community Library went live with the new ‘One Card’ system. Over 130 public libraries across South Australia are now connected on this system. It allows you to borrow and return books at any library involved and all you need is your One Card library card.

The library board members provided a great morning tea and the library staff gave out free raffle tickets at the door and had book prizes for the winners. Approximately 50 people attended the launch including community members, teachers, school staff, Library board members, SRC executive, senior students and special guests.

Amongst our special guests were:

Barb Williams, Library Board President, was excellent as MC for the day

Roger Strother; Mayor of the Coorong & Districts Council, who cut the ribbon to officially launched OneCard at our Library

Paul Simmons; Community Representative and the official cake cutter, the Simmons family has been a part of this library for many years and Paul is the son of the library buildings name sake Maxine Simmons.

Council Representative; Councillor Bob Simcock and Nat Traeger, Nat has also published pictures from the morning tea on the Councils Facebook page.

Principal Kath Macalister presented Library staff; Helen Bowering, Michelle Cameron, Julie Barrie and Belinda Keatley (Library Manager) with gifts to thank them for all the hard work that they had done in preparation for the new system.

Staff of the Library also had a bit of fun on the day, wearing ‘L’ plates, this enjoyment and relaxed attitude made the morning tea be very successful.

Photos relating to each of these groups or individuals are provided below.