HAY RIVER - Christine Gyapay was like a kid in a candy store this month, except her treats aren't chocolates or bon bons, they are books, CDs and videos.

A collection of new resource material -- nearly 1,000 items in all -- arrived in early January from NWT Public Library Services.

Alison Hopkins, the territorial librarian with NWT Library Services, stands beside some of the books from her organization at the NWT Centennial Library in Hay River. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The wave of material is just one of the rotations which go to NWT libraries every four months. After being returned, they are repackaged and sent to other communities.

Hay River librarian Christine Gyapay said more people come to the library and more books are signed out whenever a rotation arrives.

"People come right away and they look at the new books," she said.

This month's rotation is even more special because it is the first full one in about two years. Over that time, there have only been mini-rotations of a few hundred items as Library Services installed a new computer cataloguing system and made it fully operational.

The arrival of a rotation draws readers' attention to books they might not normally pick up.

"It's a way to discover new books and new types of books," said Suzanne Pellerin, a regular at NWT Centennial Library in Hay River.

So far, she has read two books from the latest rotation -- a thriller "Blow Out" and "Water for Elephants," a novel about circus life in the 1930s.

All the new books are displayed on tables at the library for the first couple of weeks after their arrival.

Gyapay said her library would not be able to buy as many books as the rotations provide. This month, exactly 996 items were received in the rotation, including hundreds of fiction and non-fiction books for young people and adults, plus music CDs and videos. NWT Library Services -- which is located in the same building as the Hay River library -- also sends rotations to Fort Smith, Inuvik, Norman Wells, Tulita, Fort Simpson and the Hay River Reserve.

Alison Hopkins, the territorial librarian with NWT Library Services, said people look forward to seeing the new material. "We certainly heard when there wasn't a rotation," she said.

Hopkins said such rotations are tailored to each library. "A smaller library would take fewer books."

A library can keep 10 per cent of the books when a rotation is returned.

Six new libraries, which are currently being supplied with books for their permanent collections, will be added to the rotation over the next couple of years. They are located in Aklavik, Deline, Holman, Fort Resolution, Fort McPherson, and Fort Good Hope.