Saturday 4 February was National Libraries Day and here in Newcastle we celebrated in style! At City Library the day began with a rousing performance from ‘Misspent Uke and Friends’ who played for a delighted audience who managed to escape the cold to tuck into tea, coffee and biscuits. At 1pm over twenty ‘little library lions’ sang songs, coloured pictures and made wonderful lion masks then later on in the afternoon more craft fanatics made valentines bookmarks and books to commemorate the day.
Author Matt Haig read from his brand new children’s book ‘To Be A Cat’ and talked to his audience about what it was like to be a writer. Throughout the day our digital champions were on hand to help customers with a huge range of computer and internet queries. We also had an exhibition on the history of the City Library and junior treasure hunters roamed the building searching for clues!
And don’t forget the branches! At Jesmond Library artist Bridget Jones unveiled the library’s reinstated stained glass panels that she originally designed over 20 years ago. Local residents and Councillors packed into the community room to celebrate with coffee and a specially commissioned cake. In the afternoon, local children took part in decorative glass workshops and created some fabulous pieces of original artwork.
At Moorside Library staff compiled a photographic display charting the changes that the library has undergone over the years, whilst on National Libraries Day itself local children made Chinese lanterns and every surface in the library was taken over with industrious folding, cutting and gluing! At Denton Burn, library visitors took part in collaborative story writing and created their very own work of fiction, whilst at Newburn Library a display of archive photographs evoked happy memories for local residents.
All in all it was a great day with a wonderful atmosphere and so many positive comments. A true celebration of all the varied things that happen across our city’s libraries and of what they mean to the people that use them!
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