Pentlands Book Festival 2020 online

The Pentlands Book Festival kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday 13 October

Tales of One City

The Pentlands Book Festival kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday 13 October with the War Poets Memorial lecture given by Dr Jane Potter. She will talk about Wilfred Owen’s letters which served as his “only diary” and now also his autobiography.

Dr Potter’s talk will premiere on YouTube on Tuesday 13 October at 7.30pm.

The festival also includes virtual sessions with Jackie Kay, the art of illustration by Metaphrog, local history, local authors and a community writing project.

To see the full programme and get involved, visit the Pentlands Book Festival online.

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All of Us: Advice and Support for Families

Tales of One City

We invited Carla, NSPCC Scotland campaigns manager, to tell us about a new campaign, All of Us being run with Edinburgh Child Protection Committee.

NSPCC Scotland campaigns manager Carla (Left) and Sheena, Children and Families, Social Worker in Edinburgh, at All of Us community events

Looking after a child can be a challenge for all parents at times but even more so in recent months with social-distancing measures put in place to contain Covid-19.

The lack of respite from children’s needs or relationship strains will have taken their toll on many parents; some will have lost their jobs and be experiencing financial difficulties and there will be those who have suffered illness and bereavement.

These pressures and anxieties will have been intensified by the fact that families were having to cope without access to their usual support networks.

Many children have now returned to school and people are able to…

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Reading towards an anti-racist world

#BlackLivesMatter

Tales of One City

Today, our blog is handed over to Roshni who works in the Library Resource Management Team.

“I’m a Library Adviser for Edinburgh Libraries as well as a poet and a writer. I’m also a Woman of Colour and a member of an Edinburgh-based Women of Colour (WOC) Reading group. This past week there has been an increase in the discussion over how to combat racism in our communities. This comes in response to a history of anti-Black racism and racial injustice – most recently the murder of George Floyd in the US and the race hate attack on Belly Mujinga in the UK. Working in a library, I know that books are a great tool to educate and affect positive change in the world. Under lockdown I have found myself with more time to read and I have been making use of Edinburgh Libraries’ digital collection. I have had several…

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Access library services from home

Tales of One City

Many of us will be staying indoors over the coming months due to the current health crisis. Edinburgh Libraries provide a range of online services that you can access from home that can help keep you occupied and entertained during these difficult times.

Library2go provides a fantastic range of free ebooks, audiobooks, newspapers and magazines that you can use on your tablet, smart phone or computer. Sign in using your Edinburgh Libraries membership number and PIN. Forgotten your PIN? Use our PIN Reset service. Not a library member? Use our online Join the Library service.

Newspapers – get access to your daily newspaper without leaving the house. You can get 250 UK newspapers including the Edinburgh Evening news, The Scotsman, The Herald, Scottish Daily Mail, The Guardian and the Daily Record on our PressReader service.

eBooks – thousands of best-selling books for adults, teens and kids can be found…

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Green Pencil Award 2019

Tales of One City

There were smiles all round on 28th November at Central Reference Library when finalists in the Green Pencil Award collected their prizes watched by their families and teachers, at a ceremony hosted by Councillor Donald Wilson, Convener of Culture and Communities.

The environmentally-themed creative writing competition, funded by Edinburgh Libraries, has been running for 11 years and is open to P4-S3 pupils attending City of Edinburgh Council and independent schools across Edinburgh, as well as home-schooled children. This year’s theme was ’Going, Going, Gone-Scottish Wildlife in Danger?’ The competition was launched in August at Blackhall Library by children’s author Vivian French, who led a writing workshop for P6 pupils from Davidson’s Mains Primary.

There was a record number of over 1200 entries, from which 20 finalists and an overall winner were selected by a judging panel whose members came from the Scottish Book Trust, Edinburgh International Book Festival, National Trust…

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Green fingers at Oxgangs Library

Books and trees at Oxgangs Library

Tales of One City

For the past year here at Oxgangs Library we have been working hard to improve the green spaces around the library. This has been done with the help of the community, especially the local children who have played a pivotal role in getting things done!

Initially the kids seemed unsure, can gardening really be that exciting? Well it turns out… it can!

Our first project involved planting some lovely pollinator friendly bulbs at the front of the library, these were a mix of snowdrops, crocus and snakes head fritillary. Although the local earthworm population might be a bit disgruntled, it turns out they have played a key role in getting the kids involved. Who can find the biggest earthworm providing all the motivation needed to get stuck in do some digging.

We then set our sights on bigger goals! Our attention was brought to the wonderful Free Trees scheme by…

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24 Doors of Advent

Taking place from 1st to 24th December 2019 – Explore Edinburgh’s hidden gems through the doors of a real-life Advent Calendar. Each day a unique Edinburgh location will open its doors to the public. Discover bookish locations such as: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh Printmakers, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre.

Full details can be found here

Librarians Uncorked meeting – Thursday 14th November

Librarians Uncorked

The Ghosts of Librarians Past: Decolonising Library Collections and Classifying Dewey as Cancelled

Thursday 14th November 5.30 – 7.00 pm, Brewhemia Prosecco Bar, Edinburgh

Librarians Uncorked is back and in this session we will be discussing what role libraries should be playing in the decolonisation of knowledge, through diversifying collections and by becoming a more inclusive profession: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/10/04/how-to-decolonise-the-library/

What are the ethical implications for libraries in addressing unnerving revelations that classification titan Melvil Dewey held a collection of unsavoury views on subjects of race, women’s roles and religion? Recently this spooked the American Library Association into changing the name of one of its top leadership honours: https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/melvil-dewey-american-library-association-award-name-change.html

Is it the role of librarians to exorcise our haunting legacy issues or should we accept it would take something supernatural to transform established collecting habits?

Unlike some of our librarian forefathers, we welcome all interested parties! Librarians Uncorked is a safe space where opinions can be aired, library issues worked through and professional connections made.

Mailing-list updates

I know that not everyone who’d like to follow ELISA is able to access the blog (for whatever reason). I am also aware that our new, post-GDPR mailing-list has been somewhat underused so far. However, I think I’ve got a solution to both of those issues.

I did a bit of investigating this week and (I hope) I’ve found a way to push new blog posts out via the Mailchimp list!

I don’t want to overwhelm or annoy anyone with multi-mails, therefore I’ve opted for a weekly mailing which should include any new posts from the previous week (if there are no new posts there should not be any emails…as far as I can tell).

The first update should be in your inboxes tomorrow morning (Friday). I’d welcome any feedback or comments on this idea. I am always open to change and adaptation.

If you would prefer to receive your ELISA updates in this way, you can sign up to the mailing list here 

Happy Blogiversary!

 

5 years old today!

Five years ago, on the 24th September 2014, the very first post was published on ELISA’s shiny new blog.

Happy Blogiversary ELISA peeps!