It’s National Libraries Week 2020 so we decided to celebrate ourselves and the libraries we have provided all the way back to the 1870s when our first ones opened.  Local Libraries hold a soft spot in the hearts of their borrowers (no, not the short folk living behind the skirting from Mary Norton’s classic work of fiction), but the name we once gave to the people who came through our highly polished doors with the aim of borrowing books.

During this week we will be trawling through the Leodis website, our online photographic archive, and curating some of our favourite memories from the public, later this week we will bring you memories and facts from the staff who’ve working behind the counters at the Central Library, and finally a post all about our fleet of mobile libraries, taking us all the way back to the 1960s.

Our first post in this series will be published later this morning, with a new instalment everyday this week; all the articles in the series will be listed below once published. Enjoy!

Armley, Beeston and Bramley Libraries

Compton Road, Crossgates and Garforth Libraries

Headingley, Hunslet and Middleton Libraries

The Staff of the Central Library

Mobile Libraries