A few weeks ago. You heard from Maureen from the library, telling us a little bit about the upcoming events at the Vision Australia Library in 2025. Well, the time has come again for another library update, this time with the manager of the Vision Australia Library, Sarah Bloedorn, who I'm very pleased to be joined by right now. Sarah, welcome back to Talking Vision. Great to have you.

A few weeks ago. You heard from Maureen from the library, telling us a little bit about the upcoming events at the Vision Australia Library in 2025. Well, the time has come again for another library update, this time with the manager of the Vision Australia Library, Sarah Bloedorn, who I'm very pleased to be joined by right now. Sarah, welcome back to Talking Vision. Great to have you.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for having me.

Now today we're here as always to have a bit of a chat about the library. So let's start off with some exciting events that are coming up.

Now today we're here as always to have a bit of a chat about the library. So let's start off with some exciting events that are coming up.

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like every year we have more events and we've got lots of new things happening this year. So really excited about what the year will hold. And we certainly we have events for people who just love to read. And we also have events for those that might want to have a little try at writing something themselves. So kind of hope that everybody will find something they'd like to do with the library in 2025. Our first one is a new program for this year. It's called Book Chat with the Vision Australia Library. So each quarter we're going to hear our talented librarians provide a review of newly released books. I think I'm doing the February 1st, so I don't know how talented I will be. So it's an hour long session which will feature, um, recommendations from our librarians. I don't know about you, Sam, when you read, I love if somebody loved a book and they tell me to read it, I'm so grateful because, oh, absolutely. Yeah. If it's someone you know and you know that you like what they read, it's always going to be a good pick. So that's what we hope to do for everyone to be able to share those. But also we'd love to open it up and make it interactive. So at the second part of the event or of the hour, you'll have an opportunity to talk about what you've been reading. Um, so whatever that might be, you don't have to stick to a genre or talk about a popular book. It can just be what what you've picked up. Maybe you're reading it for the 10th time. Maybe it's something you've just enjoyed. We also love to hear about the books you haven't enjoyed because that's always interesting too. And the great thing about a book chat is that we often will disagree on whether we like a book or not, so this is a free online event. So wherever you are in Australia, please feel free to join. It's at 1 p.m. our first one is this Thursday the 20th of February. But don't worry if that's too soon because you can catch us every quarter and join in for our book chat. And then we have another great program for readers. So this is where you get to get a bit up close and personal with one of your favourite authors. So each quarter again we're going to invite one of our amazing authors might be an Australian or an international author. Our first one is on the 24th of March, 1230 to 130, and it's with New Zealand author Jacqueline Bublitz. So she's quite an incredible author. I don't know if you've heard of her, Sam. Um, she her debut novel, which is a crime thriller, Before You Knew My Name, has gone on to be one of the best selling books of the last few years. She's an absolute firecracker, and she's recently released her second novel. So Jacqueline will be coming along and she'll talk a little bit about how she writes and her processes, etc. but the really exciting bit about this is that Jacqueline is going to do a reading from her newest released novel, which is called Leave the Girl Behind for about 20 minutes. And I don't know about you, Sam, but I love being read to. There's something.

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like every year we have more events and we've got lots of new things happening this year. So really excited about what the year will hold. And we certainly we have events for people who just love to read. And we also have events for those that might want to have a little try at writing something themselves. So kind of hope that everybody will find something they'd like to do with the library in 2025. Our first one is a new program for this year. It's called Book Chat with the Vision Australia Library. So each quarter we're going to hear our talented librarians provide a review of newly released books. I think I'm doing the February 1st, so I don't know how talented I will be. So it's an hour long session which will feature, um, recommendations from our librarians. I don't know about you, Sam, when you read, I love if somebody loved a book and they tell me to read it, I'm so grateful because, oh, absolutely. Yeah. If it's someone you know and you know that you like what they read, it's always going to be a good pick. So that's what we hope to do for everyone to be able to share those. But also we'd love to open it up and make it interactive. So at the second part of the event or of the hour, you'll have an opportunity to talk about what you've been reading. Um, so whatever that might be, you don't have to stick to a genre or talk about a popular book. It can just be what what you've picked up. Maybe you're reading it for the 10th time. Maybe it's something you've just enjoyed. We also love to hear about the books you haven't enjoyed because that's always interesting too. And the great thing about a book chat is that we often will disagree on whether we like a book or not, so this is a free online event. So wherever you are in Australia, please feel free to join. It's at 1 p.m. our first one is this Thursday the 20th of February. But don't worry if that's too soon because you can catch us every quarter and join in for our book chat. And then we have another great program for readers. So this is where you get to get a bit up close and personal with one of your favourite authors. So each quarter again we're going to invite one of our amazing authors might be an Australian or an international author. Our first one is on the 24th of March, 1230 to 130, and it's with New Zealand author Jacqueline Bublitz. So she's quite an incredible author. I don't know if you've heard of her, Sam. Um, she her debut novel, which is a crime thriller, Before You Knew My Name, has gone on to be one of the best selling books of the last few years. She's an absolute firecracker, and she's recently released her second novel. So Jacqueline will be coming along and she'll talk a little bit about how she writes and her processes, etc. but the really exciting bit about this is that Jacqueline is going to do a reading from her newest released novel, which is called Leave the Girl Behind for about 20 minutes. And I don't know about you, Sam, but I love being read to. There's something.

So. Oh, absolutely about it.

So. Oh, absolutely about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For sure.

For sure.

Absolutely. And, you know, to hear it from the author is so special. And then there's also an opportunity to ask Jacqueline questions. So if you want to know about her books, if you want to get some plot points, or maybe you want to know about what it's like to write a novel, she will be available to answer questions. So we're really excited about that one. And then the third one I wanted to mention is a course for our writers or hoping to be writers. So it's called Let's Get Creative with Writing Fiction. Now it's just a short course, but I'll just note that throughout the year we have so many writing courses. So if you come along to this one and you're completely inspired, please sign up for another one. There's no limit on how many you do. And of course, with all things with the library, there's no cost at all to you. So please feel free to join up. They're also all online, and the reason we do that, it means that if you're in Perth or in you're in South Australia or Tasmania, you can join in and not miss out on all the amazing programs. So this program is with Andrea Rowe, who is an amazing author. So we invite our budding writers to join us on a journey of creating fiction. In this course, you will learn how to develop your own personal writer's toolbox, and it's a fantastic opportunity to equip yourself with the tools to embark on your own creative writing journey. So it's actually a four week program. It kicks off in March, but it will go over four weeks, an hour and a half each time. So lovely to take that time out of your day, if you can, to commit to doing something. Maybe that's on your 2025 New Years resolutions.

Absolutely. And, you know, to hear it from the author is so special. And then there's also an opportunity to ask Jacqueline questions. So if you want to know about her books, if you want to get some plot points, or maybe you want to know about what it's like to write a novel, she will be available to answer questions. So we're really excited about that one. And then the third one I wanted to mention is a course for our writers or hoping to be writers. So it's called Let's Get Creative with Writing Fiction. Now it's just a short course, but I'll just note that throughout the year we have so many writing courses. So if you come along to this one and you're completely inspired, please sign up for another one. There's no limit on how many you do. And of course, with all things with the library, there's no cost at all to you. So please feel free to join up. They're also all online, and the reason we do that, it means that if you're in Perth or in you're in South Australia or Tasmania, you can join in and not miss out on all the amazing programs. So this program is with Andrea Rowe, who is an amazing author. So we invite our budding writers to join us on a journey of creating fiction. In this course, you will learn how to develop your own personal writer's toolbox, and it's a fantastic opportunity to equip yourself with the tools to embark on your own creative writing journey. So it's actually a four week program. It kicks off in March, but it will go over four weeks, an hour and a half each time. So lovely to take that time out of your day, if you can, to commit to doing something. Maybe that's on your 2025 New Years resolutions.

Well, there's a lot of fantastic events there. And as Sarah's mentioned, they're all free and that's an amazing aspect of them as always. But also, you know, that flexibility. You can head along to the library or you can join online. So lots of options out there for people. And Sarah, we were talking about crime thrillers before. And that's a sure thing really in the library. It's an absolute winner. There's a lot of very popular crime, thriller and mystery novels that people out there love to access through the Vision Australia library in various formats, and we'll get back to those formats right at the end. But before we do that, let's have a bit of a chat about some new releases that have come through, not only in, you know, those mystery genres, but you know, a couple of other things as well. Some other things that might be a bit outside the box and a bit new, a bit different.

Well, there's a lot of fantastic events there. And as Sarah's mentioned, they're all free and that's an amazing aspect of them as always. But also, you know, that flexibility. You can head along to the library or you can join online. So lots of options out there for people. And Sarah, we were talking about crime thrillers before. And that's a sure thing really in the library. It's an absolute winner. There's a lot of very popular crime, thriller and mystery novels that people out there love to access through the Vision Australia library in various formats, and we'll get back to those formats right at the end. But before we do that, let's have a bit of a chat about some new releases that have come through, not only in, you know, those mystery genres, but you know, a couple of other things as well. Some other things that might be a bit outside the box and a bit new, a bit different.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's exciting to think about what the writing world will look like this year. As you've noted, crime is always popular, so we're looking forward to new releases from kind of our popular American crime authors like James Patterson and Lee Childs. And we're also continuing to see an absolute rise and celebration of Australian crime writers, which I think is super exciting. So we have writers like Jane Harper who writes like a rural noir. We also have Chris Hammer, who's now become a real feature of that genre in Australia, and Benjamin Stevenson, who is a bit more of a funny, I guess. Yeah, a funny writer, but again, very clever and great Australian stories. But there's another genre that's really come to the fore, and I would love to know if you've heard of this genre. Sam. It's called Romantici.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's exciting to think about what the writing world will look like this year. As you've noted, crime is always popular, so we're looking forward to new releases from kind of our popular American crime authors like James Patterson and Lee Childs. And we're also continuing to see an absolute rise and celebration of Australian crime writers, which I think is super exciting. So we have writers like Jane Harper who writes like a rural noir. We also have Chris Hammer, who's now become a real feature of that genre in Australia, and Benjamin Stevenson, who is a bit more of a funny, I guess. Yeah, a funny writer, but again, very clever and great Australian stories. But there's another genre that's really come to the fore, and I would love to know if you've heard of this genre. Sam. It's called Romantici.

I have heard of that. Yeah. Yeah, it's sort of taking off. It's quite a bit of a new kind of thing which people are really enjoying. It's fantasy with a bit of a romantic flavor, a bit of a love interest, a bit of a, you know, couples going on adventures and the relationship blossoming and or, you know, things going rocky and it's yeah, it's really cool, really interesting.

I have heard of that. Yeah. Yeah, it's sort of taking off. It's quite a bit of a new kind of thing which people are really enjoying. It's fantasy with a bit of a romantic flavor, a bit of a love interest, a bit of a, you know, couples going on adventures and the relationship blossoming and or, you know, things going rocky and it's yeah, it's really cool, really interesting.

And it's just taken off. It's taken the world by storm. So I thought I should talk about it. And you've nailed it. It's exactly that. So it's your romance story set in a fantasy world. So it's kind of a bit of both. It's all the best of both worlds, and it's one of those genres I think that really appeals to both men and women, because the fantasy aspect can be a little bit kind of Lord of the rings, and people love the adventure, but it's lovely to have a bit of romance, too. So a couple of the really big authors in that space, if you're interested in reading this, Sarah J. Maas. So she has a series which is just blown up, I believe there's quite a number of them. I think there's over ten in her series now. So if you want to start from the beginning, that will keep you going for a while. And another one is Laura Thalassa. So we've recently got her series in. And again, it's kind of quite a large series. It should come with a warning that they can get a little bit saucy. So that's, you know, up to you if you enjoy that. But certainly it's kind of what everybody's talking about and a lot of fun ultimate escapism. So that's another thing I think we'll see featuring heavily this year.

And it's just taken off. It's taken the world by storm. So I thought I should talk about it. And you've nailed it. It's exactly that. So it's your romance story set in a fantasy world. So it's kind of a bit of both. It's all the best of both worlds, and it's one of those genres I think that really appeals to both men and women, because the fantasy aspect can be a little bit kind of Lord of the rings, and people love the adventure, but it's lovely to have a bit of romance, too. So a couple of the really big authors in that space, if you're interested in reading this, Sarah J. Maas. So she has a series which is just blown up, I believe there's quite a number of them. I think there's over ten in her series now. So if you want to start from the beginning, that will keep you going for a while. And another one is Laura Thalassa. So we've recently got her series in. And again, it's kind of quite a large series. It should come with a warning that they can get a little bit saucy. So that's, you know, up to you if you enjoy that. But certainly it's kind of what everybody's talking about and a lot of fun ultimate escapism. So that's another thing I think we'll see featuring heavily this year.

All right. That's really cool. Well, do you have any favorites that have just recently come out in, you know, other spots that we haven't covered? I know there's, you know, so many different little bits and pieces. What are you reading at the moment?

All right. That's really cool. Well, do you have any favorites that have just recently come out in, you know, other spots that we haven't covered? I know there's, you know, so many different little bits and pieces. What are you reading at the moment?

Yeah, well, I'm a big Australian fiction reader, and Tim Winton released a new book late last year, which we've recently acquired in the library. It's called juice. It's a big book. You could use it as a doorstop, very topical. It talks a lot about climate change and kind of what a future universe or not universe so much as world might look like. Should we kind of keep on this trajectory? So it's it's a really climate change novel, I guess. I really enjoyed it. I loved Tim Winton, and I've also recently been enjoying the Booker Prize winner from last year, which is Orbital. Have a look. It's a very small book, but a beautiful book about the International Space Station and some people up there. I love to read across a range of things, but lots of great books that have just come out and looking forward to lots this year.

Yeah, well, I'm a big Australian fiction reader, and Tim Winton released a new book late last year, which we've recently acquired in the library. It's called juice. It's a big book. You could use it as a doorstop, very topical. It talks a lot about climate change and kind of what a future universe or not universe so much as world might look like. Should we kind of keep on this trajectory? So it's it's a really climate change novel, I guess. I really enjoyed it. I loved Tim Winton, and I've also recently been enjoying the Booker Prize winner from last year, which is Orbital. Have a look. It's a very small book, but a beautiful book about the International Space Station and some people up there. I love to read across a range of things, but lots of great books that have just come out and looking forward to lots this year.

I've been into some nonfiction lately. I'm currently reading The Forever Wars by Nick Bryant, so it's covering all the history of the USA and all the machinations of the democracy there, and the questions about how it functions and all the pitfalls and all that sort of thing. It's a very interesting read and very topical.

I've been into some nonfiction lately. I'm currently reading The Forever Wars by Nick Bryant, so it's covering all the history of the USA and all the machinations of the democracy there, and the questions about how it functions and all the pitfalls and all that sort of thing. It's a very interesting read and very topical.

Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, and it's probably a good point of our chat to note that if you hear about something, a new book or even a book that's been around for a while, but you would love to have it in the library, please put a request in. So we will do our very best to get a book. It's very rare that we'll say no. Sometimes I'll be out of print, but we do our best to get it, so please let us know. Don't always assume that we know what people want. We try to get all the latest releases in the really popular books, but sometimes a real winner can kind of slip through the cracks, so please do let us know. You can do that either via email or our phone number, which I'll give at the end.

Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, and it's probably a good point of our chat to note that if you hear about something, a new book or even a book that's been around for a while, but you would love to have it in the library, please put a request in. So we will do our very best to get a book. It's very rare that we'll say no. Sometimes I'll be out of print, but we do our best to get it, so please let us know. Don't always assume that we know what people want. We try to get all the latest releases in the really popular books, but sometimes a real winner can kind of slip through the cracks, so please do let us know. You can do that either via email or our phone number, which I'll give at the end.

Okay, perfect. And before we grab those details, Sarah, let's just wrap up with a little bit of an overview of the formats for people out there in case they're wondering.

Okay, perfect. And before we grab those details, Sarah, let's just wrap up with a little bit of an overview of the formats for people out there in case they're wondering.

Yeah, absolutely. So we have a lot of audio books. We have about 60,000 audio books, which I guess is the biggest collection that we have. And to access those, we have a few options. We have some accessible players, some that require internet and some don't. So really try to give everybody an option depending what you've got set up at home. We also have an app that you can put onto your smartphone or tablet. So lots of ways to access the library. And then for our Braille readers we have a couple of formats. So we have our traditional embossed braille. So if you like the feel of a physical book we can post those out to you. But some people use an E Braille device, so it's more convenient to receive the E Braille files So we can organize that for you too.

Yeah, absolutely. So we have a lot of audio books. We have about 60,000 audio books, which I guess is the biggest collection that we have. And to access those, we have a few options. We have some accessible players, some that require internet and some don't. So really try to give everybody an option depending what you've got set up at home. We also have an app that you can put onto your smartphone or tablet. So lots of ways to access the library. And then for our Braille readers we have a couple of formats. So we have our traditional embossed braille. So if you like the feel of a physical book we can post those out to you. But some people use an E Braille device, so it's more convenient to receive the E Braille files So we can organize that for you too.

That's right. There's people will be quite familiar out there with those big bulky Braille books. And sometimes they're not always the most portable things, but definitely great for keeping at home and all that sort of thing. But definitely lots of options out there if you love to read on the go. Now, Sarah, just finally, let's get some details about how people can get in touch with the library if they have any questions, recommendations, requests, anything like that.

That's right. There's people will be quite familiar out there with those big bulky Braille books. And sometimes they're not always the most portable things, but definitely great for keeping at home and all that sort of thing. But definitely lots of options out there if you love to read on the go. Now, Sarah, just finally, let's get some details about how people can get in touch with the library if they have any questions, recommendations, requests, anything like that.

Yeah, absolutely. So I would send you to our website first. That's where you're going to find all the information about the events we have. As I mentioned, they're all free, but they do require registration. So I'd encourage you to jump on to Vision Australia. Org slash library. You can see everything upcoming things that I haven't mentioned that are kind of further along in the year. Please register if any of those have interested you. If you'd like to call and speak to someone, please do. We open kind of for business hours Monday to Friday, and the number to call is 1300 654 656. I'll just say that one again one 306 54656. And the last kind of best way to get in touch is through our email. So that's the Vision Australia library at Vision australia.org. So please feel free to send us an email on any topic. If you'd rather email about a book request or just to have a chat with a librarian, we can also organise a call back. If you'd like to have a more in-depth chat about what you might like to read next.

Yeah, absolutely. So I would send you to our website first. That's where you're going to find all the information about the events we have. As I mentioned, they're all free, but they do require registration. So I'd encourage you to jump on to Vision Australia. Org slash library. You can see everything upcoming things that I haven't mentioned that are kind of further along in the year. Please register if any of those have interested you. If you'd like to call and speak to someone, please do. We open kind of for business hours Monday to Friday, and the number to call is 1300 654 656. I'll just say that one again one 306 54656. And the last kind of best way to get in touch is through our email. So that's the Vision Australia library at Vision australia.org. So please feel free to send us an email on any topic. If you'd rather email about a book request or just to have a chat with a librarian, we can also organise a call back. If you'd like to have a more in-depth chat about what you might like to read next.

And that email Vision Australia library at Vision australia.org. I've been speaking today with Sarah Bloedorn, manager of the Vision Australia Library, here to chat with me about some upcoming events and the latest releases from the library for people to look forward to. Sarah, thank you so much as always for catching up with me. It's been great to chat with you. Lovely.

And that email Vision Australia library at Vision australia.org. I've been speaking today with Sarah Bloedorn, manager of the Vision Australia Library, here to chat with me about some upcoming events and the latest releases from the library for people to look forward to. Sarah, thank you so much as always for catching up with me. It's been great to chat with you. Lovely.

Thank you.

Thank you.