Saturday 4 February 2012 is National Libraries Day – a nationwide celebration of libraries, library users, staff and supporters which aims to showcase all that libraries have to offer and to encourage non-members to join.
On National Libraries Day we will welcome award-winning author Matt Haig, there will be prizes on offer for children in the Great National Libraries Day Treasure Hunt and a storytime with songs for Little Lions (under 5s). Plus digital experts will be on hand to answer you questions on topics such as ebooks and online shopping.
An exhibition of photographs will chart the history of City Library from 1880 to the present day will be on display between 28 January – 27 February. Several community libraries will also be sharing photographic displays of their past.
Monday 23 April 2012 is World Book Night. A million books will be given away across the UK, Ireland and the USA as part of an evening of events to celebrate books and reading nationwide. Twenty thousand people will be recruited to distribute twenty four free copies of their chosen book.
Newcastle Libraries can accommodate approximately 100 book givers to hand out books across the city, which is much more than last year. Help to make this year’s event even more successful!
To apply to be a book giver visit the World Book Night website. The closing date is 31 January 2012 and successful applicants will be notified by February 2012.
The Designer Bookbinders UK exhibition opens on Friday 20 January in the Newcastle Collection showcase on level 6 of City Library. The exhibition highlights the skill of the hand-bound book with some outstanding examples of the bookbinder’s art.
The exhibition has been organised by Designer Bookbinders UK, a society devoted to the art and craft of the hand-bound book, and will show how the cover of a book can tell its own story. This inspiring show aims to represent the best of British bookbinding and includes bindings by some of the most respected practitioners working today.
Some of the works on show feature leather-bound volumes, those made using silk as well as items which have been created with precious metals and semi-precious stones.
This is the first major British exhibition the Society has mounted for some time and has been shown at venues across the country including the Bodleian Library in Oxford, The Schneideman Gallery in London and the John Rylands Library in Manchester.
As part of our budget proposals for 2012/13 we are suggesting a number of measures to achieve some significant savings for the library service. We would be very interested to hear your views on our proposals. There are public consultations on the following topics, please click on them to view more information.
You can also get involved online by registering on the Let’s Talk Newcastle forums. Visit Let’s Talk Newcastle.
Consultation on the council’s draft budget will be open until 15 February 2012.
This note is the first stage of our consultation programme. We will also be organising visits to individual libraries and we would like you to get in touch with us if you have any specific concerns about these proposals or if you would like more details.
Newcastle Libraries are hosting a number of special events to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day including:
Anne Frank Exhibition Friday 27 January – Thursday 2 February 2012
Gosforth Library
Exhibition provided by the Anne Frank Trust and will be available for customers to view as part of our commemorative programme for Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Artefacts Exhibition
Monday 9 January – Wednesday 29 February 2012 Level 2, City Library
Come and see this fascinating exhibition of wartime artefacts compiled by Professor John Sadler.
Photograph Exhibition Monday 9 January – Wednesday 29 February 2012
Level 1, City Library
A series of images by local photographer Reed Ingram Weir.
Film Screening
Monday 23 January – Friday 27 January
City Library
A DVD of past Holocaust Memorial Day events held in Newcastle. Free and open to all.
Srebrenica – A Drama
Saturday 28 January
3:30pm – 5pm
City Library
A drama-documentary tracing the attempted Serbian genocide of Bosnian Moslems within the nominally UN held ‘enclave’ of Srebrenica. This dramatised account uses the words of those who were present and is factually accurate, dramatically intense and compelling. Phone 0191 2774100 or email information@newcastle.gov.uk to book or find out more.
Living Library
Tuesday 31 January
10am – 12noon
City Library
People in the human library become ‘books’ and can be borrowed for a short time for one to one informal conversation regarding personal life experiences. Sessions are in blocks of 20 minutes and must be booked in advance. Phone 0191 2774100 or email information@newcastle.gov.uk to book or find out more.
Polish Music Performances
Listen to a live performance of music by Polish musicians Ania Wrona and Malgorzata Danilowska-Starzak.
Saturday 28 January, 11am – 12noon
Level 1, City Library No need to book. Just come along and enjoy.
Tuesday 31 January, 6pm – 7pm Level 2, City Library
A repeat performance in the Bewick Hall at City Library. Free tickets must be booked in advance by phoning 0191 2774100, emailing information@newcastle.gov.uk or ask at your local library.
‘The Tin Ring’ Book Discussion Group
Tuesday 2 February
6pm – 8pm
City Library
Come along and join in an informal discussion about Zdenka Fantlova’s powerful and moving novel ‘The Tin Ring’. No need to book.
The Science of Innovation
Tuesday 24 January 2012
6:30pm – 9:30pm
City Library
Trevor Baylis, who shot to fame when he created the Clockwork Radio, will crank up the volume on innovation when he joins Professor James Hayton at the fourth inspirational event in the ‘Science of…’ series.
The events which merge science, business and personal development have proved a real winner with the region’s business community and this one promises to be a real highlight.
Trevor whose career is built on a lifetime interest in invention and innovation is well-known for his inspirational style encouraging people to ‘think outside of the square’. Working tirelessly to promote the cause of the lone inventor, he has been concerned about the neglect of invention, inventors, and intellectual property in the UK for many years.
Trevor will be joined on the evening by Professor James Hayton, the David Goldman Professor of Innovation & Enterprise at Newcastle University, who will focus on how the influences of intangible assets such as culture, human capital, and human resource management practices impact on the innovation process.
If you’ve always wanted to research your family tree, but didn’t know where to begin, then this session is the place to start. An absolute beginner’s guide to help you start piecing together your family history.
2:30pm – 4pm
Thursday 26 January 2012
City Library
To book your free place phone 0191 2774100, email information@newcastle.gov.uk or ask at your local library.
Join in the Wii Olympics challenge at Gosforth Library in the run up to the 2012 Olympics. Find out who can run the fastest, jump the highest and swim the furthest! No matter what age you are, everyone can join in the fun.
No booking necessary. Drop in to Gosforth Library from:
2:30pm – 3:30pm on Saturday 21 January
12:30pm – 1:30pm on Sunday 22 January
Author Hazel Osmond will be here to talk about writing fan fiction for the internet – her route into becoming a published author. Fan fiction or ‘fanfic’ is when fans of a television programme, book or film write backstories, alternative endings or new storylines for their favourite characters. Tickets for this event are free.
‘…while there are some weird stories getting written out there in fanfic land there are also plenty of great ones. Fanfic is a nice gentle way to try your hand at writing, whether it’s a short story or a many chaptered piece.” Visit Hazel Osmond’s website.
6:30pm
Thursday 19 January
Level 6, City Library
To book your place phone 0191 2774100, email information@newcastle.gov.uk or ask at your local Newcastle library.
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has visited and used any of our libraries in 2011. We were delighted to find that the City Library is currently the 4th busiest in the country and that Newcastle’s libraries are used by more residents than library services in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
We have had an action packed year! There have been some superb exhibitions, including Evolving English which looked at the development of the English language with a special emphasis on north-east dialect. Festivals included the Northern Children’s Book Festival, the Winter Book Festival and the Canny Comic Con(vention). Helped by the Mayor and Leader of the council, we also enjoyed giving out hundreds of books to residents on World Book Night. Amongst other titles, Tynebridge Publishing produced ‘Alright Now’ a look at Newcastle in the 1970s – we had a fantastic launch with huge flares and platform shoes (those were the days!).
Our Summer Reading Challenge for children at all our libraries was supported by over 50 young volunteers. We had a shadow Booker Prize Event (and no, we didn’t choose the same book as the national judges!) and we had some significant business events at the City Library as part of our bid to set up a new business and intellectual property centre. We’ve also had a whole range of author events at lots of our libraries.
This year has seen self-service machines installed at East End, Outer West, Blakelaw, Kenton and Jesmond Libraries (which also enjoyed a superb new facelift).
We were delighted to welcome comedian Alan Carr when he visited the City Library as part of the programme ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Sadly that section was left on the cutting room floor! Newcastle also became one of 8 regional centres to hold General Register Office Indexes enabling family history researchers at City Library to have access to the most up-to-date birth, death and marriage records after 2005, which is not available online. Our History Club also achieved a national award.
Although we will have a challenging year with budgets, we are already looking forward to 2012 with lots of plans. On behalf of all my colleagues in Newcastle Libraries, I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas with best wishes for 2012.
(The teenage reading group – George, Katie, Maria, Grace and Laura with member of staff Jane Baldwin (second from left) in Waterstones in Newcastle.)
Newcastle City Library has launched a teenage reading group for young people aged 12 to 16 years old. The group meets once a month on Sunday afternoon to read and discuss a selected book.
Recently the group were welcomed at Waterstones book store in Newcastle where they had the opportunity to do a little Christmas shopping and were inspired to choose some new titles to read in 2012.
In the New Year the group will be reading ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen and the next meeting will be on Sunday 8 January at 2pm. If you’re interested in joining the teenage reading group we’d love to hear from you. Please email Jane Baldwin at information@newcastle.gov.uk.
We are delighted to have been nominated as a regional centre for the full set of General Register Office Indexes – dating from 1837 to 2010. We are one of only seven centres in the country to hold them; previously the nearest host centre was Manchester City Library.
The indexes are an important tool for family history researchers. They cover all civilly registered life events such as births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships as well as indexing adoptions and overseas life events back to 1761. The Indexes are in fiche format and can be viewed on level six of Newcastle City Library.
To introduce you to the full range of our new resource we will be working with staff from the General Register Office to hold a customer awareness session in the New Year. Look out for dates and further information in 2012. Find out more about the General Register Office Indexes.
We are looking forward to offering a selection of events in the New Year – these include a workshop for beginners who wish to trace their family tree and internet taster sessions giving you practical help with the free access we offer to the Ancestry and Find My Past website. Back by popular demand, local historian Mike Greatbatch will host five workshops on the social history of the Lower Ouseburn. Find out more about the Lower Ouseburn workshops.
Discover the social heritage of the Lower Ouseburn at five illustrated talks and workshops delivered by local historian Mike Greatbatch, entitled ‘Life, Leisure and Community in the Lower Ouseburn 1800 to 1940′.
All talks are from 2pm – 4pm on the days below.
Friday 20 January
1. ‘Roads, Streets, Quays and Yards; the Urbanisation of the Lower Ouseburn’
Friday 3 February
2. ‘Housing & Home Life’
Friday 17 February
3. ‘Pubs, Clubs & Leisure Activities’
Friday 2 March
4. ‘Churches, Missions & Burial Grounds’
Friday 16 March
5. ‘Documenting an Industrial Community’
Tickets are £4 per individual event (£15.00 if you book all five). To book a place phone 0191 2774100.
On Saturday 10 December City Library hosted the hugely successful Canny Comic Con – a convention to celebrate comics, sequential art and graphic novels. We had over 500 visitors of which 161 people attended the talks and nearly 100 children took part in workshops.
Some of the best creative talent from the region hosted talks and panels, including Simon Donald (Viz), Brian Talbot (Alice in Sunderland) and Doug Braithwaite (Marvel, 2000AD) but there were many, many more!. Judge Stewart was also on hand to distribute free copies of 2000AD and remind children of the importance of getting their books back on time!
Press and online coverage has been fantastic! There has been a full page feature in the Evening Chronicle, a review on the Forbidden Planet International website, several blog posts by the artists/writers who attended and too many positive Twitter comments to mention! If you use Twitter you can search for the hashtag #cannycc or follow @CannyComicCon.
We were very pleased to raise £123 for the NSPCC which is one of the Lord Mayor’s charities this year. Speakers and guests kindly donated prizes for the raffle including Viz memorabilia, vouchers from the local shops Travelling Man and Forbidden Planet, signed books, CDs, artwork and more!
Don’t worry if you missed it. Get involved by joining the graphic novel reading group ‘Readers of the Lost Art’ which is held at City Library every two weeks on a Tuesday. And watch this space for more exciting comic creating workshops in the future!
We had a bit of time during the jam packed day to interview Dr. Mel Gibson, Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot and Alex and Stace (the brains behind Canny Comic Con!). Listen to the interviews below or access them via iTunes.
Canny Comic Con 2011 was such an enjoyable day. Feedback from visitors has been overwhelmingly positive and we would like to thank everyone who was involved in the organisation and promotion of the event for making the day so brilliant!
His sumptuous pictures and funny plots will keep young readers captivated. With a vast Christmas collection he is the ideal author of the month for December. His books include ‘The Snowman’, ‘Father Christmas’ and ‘Fungus the Bogeyman’.
His sumptuous pictures and funny plots will keep young readers captivated. With a vast Christmas collection he is the ideal author of the month for December. His books include ‘The Snowman’, ‘Father Christmas’ and ‘Fungus the Bogeyman’.