For the Love of Books

For this week's episode of the For the Love of Books Podcast, our E-Services Librarian Chris is joined by two of North Lanarkshire's Library Resource Centre Managers aka School Librarians. We chat about what is popular in school libraries with teens, get some fantastic book recommendations by the School Librarians, and we think back to our youth and what we read at the time. You can also h...

To celebrate Libraries Week and to discuss his new book - Darkness Falls, our E-Services Librarian Chris is joined by Scottish crime writer Alex Knight. You might know him better as Mason Cross, creator of the Carter Blake series. In this episode, Alex chats about his new book Darkness Falls, the importance of libraries to him and also gives us an update on a fun personal running challenge he'...

With Black History Month coming next month, we thought we'd try to encourage people to tick off the Great Bookish Menu category 'Read a work of fiction by a BAME author' to round off the challenge. In this episode of the podcast, Chris Wilson - our E-Services Librarian explains a little more about the challenge and gets a couple of book recommendations from Alison Walsh - our Customer...

With Adult Learners' Week on the horizon, we decided to take a break from chatting about books and instead had a chat about family history. Chris Wilson - our E-Services Librarian, is joined by Liz Sharp and Evelyn Hutchison - two of our Open Learning Officers and our resident family history experts to give you some top tips and hints on how to start or continue your journey into discovering y...

It's always interesting to see what is popular with our library members, and this last year, in particular, piqued our interest. With the libraries being closed for a long spell, we wanted to find what people were desperate to get their hands on after such a large break. Our E-Services Librarian, Chris Wilson, is joined by Alison Walsh - our Customer Services Librarian from Coatbridge Library,...

Our podcast is back for Season 4 and we're kicking off with a celebration of most of our libraries now being reopened. Joining Chris Wilson, our E-Services Librarian, are Russell Brown - the Digital & Support Services Manager aka Boss and Drew Feeney - our Librarian at Airdrie Library. They discuss the challenges of getting the library service back up and running and look to a hopeful futu...

For our season end episode of our For the Love of Books Podcast, our E-Services Librarian Chris caught with the fantastic crime author Sarah Hilary to discuss her new book Fragile - due out Thursday 10 June. Sarah fills us in on the background of the story, all about the wonderful characters you can discover and how you'll be left twisting and turning throughout the book. You'll also be ab...

Bookbug is, without doubt, one of the libraries most favourite and popular activities. That is exactly why it was so important for us to find new ways to bring it to everyone over the last year.  For Bookbug Week, our children's team Gillian and Sarah have put together this special podcast to give a look back at how Bookbug has played a huge part in many people's lives during the pandemic....

Everyone loves a holiday and, for a lot, a book is an essential part of that. This year, we still don't know if we can jet off to the sun. So we decided to have a little thought about our pretend holiday beach reads for this summer. Our E-Services Librarian Chris is joined by Gillian and Judy who are both Customer Services Librarians. You'll hear their thoughts on why reading adds to a hol...

Friday 23 April is World Book Night. The theme this year is Books That Make You Smile. With that in mind, we collated a collection of soundbites from various staff members which showcase which books make them smile and recommend them to you. We hope everyone has a fantastic World Book Night and enjoy a great night of reading. Don't forget to wish Shakespeare a Happy Birthday too. Don't for...

With a brighter future (hopefully) on the horizon, Chris - our E-Services Librarian is joined on the podcast by Hilary - the Open Learning Officer for the Motherwell area and Alison - the Customer Services Librarian for the Coatbridge area.  Together they chat about exactly what's been happening over the last few months in libraries while we get through another lockdown and why the future is l...

Our recent reading challenge for adults is soon drawing to a close. We wanted to shine a bit of a spotlight on it to show why we ran the challenge in the first place and highlight the importance of regular reading for pleasure for your well-being. Our E-Services Librarian Chris explains the challenge in detail and shares a personal experience of one of our library members on why they signed up and...

The theme for International Women's Day this year was Choose to Challenge. So we challenged some of the women in our librarian team to highlight some of their favourite authors and characters and explain a little about why they would champion them for this special International Women's Day-themed episode of our podcast. Have a listen and you might be inspired to pick up a book from some of...

With World Book Day fast approaching on Thursday 4 March, our E-Services Librarian Chris took the opportunity this episode to catch up with children's author A. H. Proctor. Best known for her Thumble Tumble series featuring an extraordinary witch - A. H. a.ka. Angela tells more about the books, discusses how she's not letting Covid-19 get in the way of celebrating World Book Day, about her...

From the February 8 - 14, CultureNL Libraries are celebrating Love Life Love Libraries - a Health and Wellbeing Week. That's why for this episode of our podcast, Chris - our E-Services Librarian is joined by a fellow Librarian - Lynn who is tasked with developing health aspects of our service amongst other things. Join them for this episode to find out more about the health benefits of reading...

The CultureNL Libraries podcast, For the Love of Books, is back for season 3. We're kicking things off with a special guest appearance from well-known YouTuber SJ Strum. Best known for her YouTube content on parenting and baby name suggestions, SJ joined our E-Services Librarian Chris to chat about her favourite parenting books, some family favourites and what's been on her reading pile re...

It's almost the end of 2020. Doesn't it seem like it's been the longest year in history? There have definitely been some challenging times this year, but there have been some silver linings - like some great reads on our online Facebook book group which we've been able to keep going throughout the course of lockdown, reopening then the current level 4 measures. Join Chris, our E-Se...

Released during Book Week Scotland 2020, Chris - the E-Services Librarian is joined by writer and journalist Jane Graham for a look back at her time as CultureNL's Reader in Residence. Jane released a book recently called Letter To My Younger Self which is an emotion-filled personal insight from a who is who of the celebrity world. So we decided to take the concept on to this podcast too for h...

The night sky and Observatories might not be the first thing you associate with libraries, but Airdrie Library is a little different. The library holds a little hidden gem that not many people realise is there - Airdrie Observatory. A fantastic public Observatory that is run and maintained by Curators from Airdrie Astronomical Association on behalf of CultureNL. Today's episode sees Chris - th...

Libraries aren't always about borrowing books. We have some fantastic learning opportunities available too. Like with most things this year, we've had to change and adapt to challenging circumstances but this has also opened up new possibilities.  In this episode, Chris - the E-Services Librarian, is joined again by Hilary Petrie, one of our Open Learning Officers to chat about those changes, chal...

Released during Libraries Week 2020, this special episode of our For the Love of Books podcast features an interview with the fantastic crime writer Elizabeth Haynes. Join Chris, our E-Services Librarian and Elizabeth as they chat about the importance of libraries as both a library member and as an author too. Elizabeth gives us a little bit of an insight into her forthcoming book, You, Me & T...

With National Poetry Day on the horizon, Chris - our E-Services Librarian, met up virtually with award-winning Scottish poet Niall Campbell to chat about his fantastic poetry collections Moontide and Noctuary. Both collections are wonderful personal insights into life and Niall treats us to a couple of readings as well during the episode too. There's no better way to get ready for National Poetry...

It's been a strange old summer, hasn't it? There has been one constant though, there's always been a good book to read. In this episode, some of our staff join Chris, our E-Services Librarian, to give us a flavour what they have enjoyed throughout the summer of 2020.  Find out what has made the pages turn for Alison - our Customer Services Librarian at Coatbridge Library, Craig - our M...

Everyone has a soft spot for a good picture book right? Our E-Services Librarian, Chris recently caught up with the fantastic children's author Rachel Bright, author of Love Monster, The Lion Inside and many more wonderful picture books. Rachel gives us a brilliant insight into writing and creating picture books. She chats about her inspiration for her books, how her collaborations with illust...

During the last few months, our eLibrary service BorrowBox has become hugely important and popular. Join host Chris, our E-Services Librarian as he is joined by very special guests, Michelle and Devon from Bolinda, the company behind the fantastic BorrowBox service. In this episode, they'll discuss some of their favourites reads and listens, some trends in the digital book market and much more...