The last stop

The first Wimmera regional Library bookmobile

The bookmobile was officially opened in Birchip and Donald on 22^nd June 1967 by the State Librarian Mr Kenneth A.R. Horn.

The Official Opening

The mobile started operation in July 1967, in the shires of Birchip, Donald and Karkarooc, covering an area of 3,331 square miles. It travelled up to stops at Patchewollock in Karkarooc, and Watchupga in Birchip Shire.

The class of 1968 at Donald Primary School

 In 1984, Birchip changed from a Mobile site to a joint-use branch library at the Birchip P-12 College, with Margaret Glen and Andrew Rossner working together.

The Mobile at Donald Primary

The vehicle was a Bedford TK KEL 3D. It carried 3,500 books. The first operator/driver was Mr Jack Klowss, he was on the road from Tuesday to Saturday, staying away 3 nights a week.

Jack Klowss on the mobile

Move forward 50 odd years, and the Mobile Library is making its final visit to Donald. After 3 new vehicles and even more operator/drivers, Paul will drive up Woods Street and park outside the Post Office for the last time tomorrow.

The Bedford parked outside the Donald Post Office site

Wimmera...Way Back When milestone

This blog reached a milestone overnight, when it ticked over one hundred thousand visits.
From rather humble beginnings back in January 2011, there has now been 100,097 pageviews.
For a blog devoted to the history of the Wimmera, as expected most pageviews come from Australia (54,768), but hopefully the 2,297 Ukrainian, 926 Chinese and 505 Turkish visitors also got something from the posts too.
The most popular themes continue to be railways.
So thanks to you all.

A place in the Wimmera

Explore the history of the Wimmera and Southern Mallee region at the launch of the online book 'Place-names of the Wimmera' - an alphabetical list of place names of localities & towns, parishes & counties, lakes & streams, hills and mountains in the area covered by the Wimmera Regional Library. It includes Aboriginal and historic etymology of place names.
The online book will be accessible on the Wimmera Regional Library's website. 

The launch includes a presentation showing how explorers and surveyors named specific places and landmarks across the region.

The 'Place-names of the Wimmera' launch will be held at the Horsham Library on Wednesday 25th May from 7:00 to 8:30pm. It is a free event and bookings are essential by either visiting the library or phoning 53825707.

The launch of the 'Place-names of the Wimmera' book, is a part of the National Trust Heritage Festival for 2016.

Check out other Heritage Festival events at the National Trust website

A walk on the dark side

Come along to our heritage walk - 'Secrets of Horsham's laneways'.

Uncover the stories behind Horsham city's network of laneways - the haunt of the night-cart man. Once important & busy thoroughfares, they are now largely forgotten. 

A guided loop walk will trek around Horsham's central business district commencing from the foyer of the Mibus Centre. 

Commentary along the way will reveal facts and stories about the people and the businesses that frequented the alleys and lanes over the years. 

Refreshments will be available after the walk.

The walk will be held  on Saturday 14th May from 2:00 to 3:30pm. It is a free event and bookings are essential by either visiting the library or phoning 53825707.

Those attending need to wear sensible walking shoes for uneven and rough surfaces.

If wet a virtual tour will be held at the Horsham Library in the Mibus Centre.

'Secrets of Horsham's laneways' is part of Discovery & re-discoveries - the National Trust Heritage Festival for 2016.

Stay tuned for more events during May.

Crafting books

As part of the National Trust Heritage Festival for 2016, the Library is conducting a number of events.

 
The first is 'Crafting your own books'
Need ideas on composing your story? Have the material and want to know how to present it?

 'Crafting Your Own Books' can assist you with examples of handcrafted stories, anecdotes and verse, showcasing how bits n' pieces, scrap, memory objects etc. can create a unique look for the cover and make-up of your book, journal or album.

This is an encore presentation by Christine Gerdtz. Last year Christine enthused an audience with ideas and examples of what can be created from scrap pieces to frame handmade books and albums.

'Crafting your own books' will be held at the Horsham Library on Tuesday 10th May from 1:30 to 2:30. It is a free event and bookings are essential by either visiting the library or phoning 53825707.

Searching by ScanPro

Access to the Library's microfilm and fiche collection has improved with the purchase of the new ScanPro 2000. The buzz is for its ability to search via OCR.
With OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology it is possible to convert a microform image to word searchable text, to edit the image, and to save it to any output process. By selecting the Word-Search button and typing in your term in the box, the software will search for, and highlight that word where ever it occurs on that page, scroll forward and perform the search on subsequent pages with a single click.

The giant LCD 24" sized pivot screen - in portrait mode - allows you to read an entire newspaper page in a single view.

You can select information on the image and copy it to a clipboard as text for pasting into a document. It can also convert a microfilm image to a word searchable PDF document. There are a  range of available file formats to output to - PDF, JEG or TIFF.

There are the standard controls for - focus, brightness, contrast, straightening, and cropping. It also features automatic image adjustment, live editing of selected image areas, and an on-screen magnifier to inspect text or image detail at up to 500%.

The ScanPro 2000 is available at the Horsham Branch, and the ScanPro 1000 is at the Stawell Branch.

Changing traffic

A piece of Horsham and library history has disappeared with the removal of the Lions Club's Traffic School, which stood at the corner of Park Drive and Natimuk Road for many years.
Generations of children have learnt their road rules by cycling around its mini-streets.
In the past the Wimmera Regional Library Service ran Traffic Schools as part of their Childrens Holiday Activity Program (CHAPs). It was a fun activity for the kids, and for the staff manning the signal controls as well.

Childrens Librarian Michael Hogan directing traffic in the early 80s

The small triangular recreation reserve owned by the Horsham Rural City is currently under development, as the Council employs Millers Contractors to realign Park Drive, to off-set the road intersection with Gardenia Street. HRCC will be constructing a carpark between this road and the Skate Park to provide all-day parking spaces.
This work is occurring at the same time as construction begins at the allotment next door on the new Target shopping development, though work may slow down in the current wet conditions.