Pride Month

Every June across the globe we celebrate Pride Month in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in New York City's Greenwich Village in June 1969 - a tipping point for the modern LGBTQ rights movement. There's never been a better time to explore diverse gender identities and sexualities, and making sure important stories and experiences are heard. From novels of budding romances and struggles with gender identity to personal memoirs and essays, along with finalists from this year's Lambda Literary Awards. BorrowBox have pulled together their 2020 selection of key LGBTQ+ titles, as must haves for your BorrowBox collection! To download these and other titles go to www.wrexham.gov.uk/libraries and follow the online services link.

PLR Scheme

The Public Lending Right (PLR) programme is a programme intended to compensate authors for the potential loss of sales from their works being available in public libraries, and is based on the number of time their books are borrowed from UK public libraries. The newly released annual public library loans figures, released by the PLR, has revealed the UK's most borrowed eBooks for the first time. There has been a huge growth in the number of eBook checkouts, and more recently during the lockdown demand has never been higher. We are pleased to be able to offer one of the biggest ranges of eBooks on the RBdigital platform with hundreds of thousands of titles available to add to your collection. To access and download these free of charge go to www.wrexham.gov.uk/libraries and follow the online services link.

Oxford Dictionaries English - online!

Every time you need to know the meaning or pronunciation of a word, how to translate it into another language, or whether you're using it correctly this should be your first point of reference. It includes English definitions and synonyms, English grammar and usage and dictionaries in other languages. There is also a series of videos for you to see via this link - https://www.youtube.com/user/OxfordDictionaries. This great resource is available to you at home using your library card, just visit our website www.wrexham.gov.uk/libraries and follow the online link. This is great too if you love playing Scrabble or doing crosswords.

Libraries of Sanctuary Resource Pack

The City of Sanctuary have recently published a pack aimed at library staff, frontline workers and volunteers to inspire and spread good practice, to provide a starting point for those seeking sanctuary. Their vision is for our nation to be a welcoming place of safety for all and to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution. Libraries have a long history of developing services for vulnerable groups, and Wrexham Library Service together with the Family and Information Service have been holding sessions for the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme in Wrexham town centre. The work undertaken by both organisations has been highlighted in this pack as an example of good working practices achieved by holding a series of bespoke 'story sessions' for Syrian parents and children. The families were also able to borrow these books to help them to familiarise/practise their English at home. A successful information session was given on library services and sessions were held in a room at the library initially to help people to become familiar with the library, the staff and its services. We look forward to working with these people again as soon as we're able too.

Temporary online membership

Did you know that you can get a temporary online membership that will give you access to all of our online ebooks free of charge? Go to www.wrexham.gov.uk/libraries - Online services and select Online Catalogue and Join the Library.

Meet the team

Julie works in Coedpoeth, Llay and Wrexham libraries.

What do you love about your job? I love the variety of my job, such as recommending books to borrowers, joining up new members to the library, assisting people when they need help with the computers.

And then there's the admin side of the job, such as answering emails and buying in new books. Working in three different libraries over the years I have met and got to know lots of lovely people and each day is different.

How can the library service help those in the community? Apart from giving access to our huge range of books the library offers many services to the community in a safe and welcoming environment.

We offer free use of computers and access to the internet, which is invaluable to those who don't have their own computer and need to get online for things such as job applications, or, for the younger members, getting homework done and printed off.

There are regular reading groups and craft sessions which are very popular, it's a chance for people to socialise and make new friends. For the younger members of the community we have craft sessions and fun activities such as treasure hunts.

Favourite childhood book? Babar the Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff

Book you would read over? My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell - I find this book uplifting and funny.

Favourite Author? At the moment it's Catherine Alliott.

Last book you read? On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming.

Any reading recommendations? The Snow Killer by Ross Greenwood - Book one of a new crime series, its a chilling read with a twist at the end!