This week, as part of our 10th birthday celebrations, we hear from Tony Scaife, regular guest contributor to the blog, who offers his thoughts about the last decade of research and writing for the Secret Library…

As just one of many guest contributors it is gratifying to be asked to write a post for the tenth anniversary of the Secret Library Blog. Over the years I have written some fourteen posts and other pieces about individual items and collections in the Local and Family History Library. (LFH). And enjoyed doing each one of them. I suppose a reflective post should reflect on why I do it and what I have learned, about myself, from doing it.   

Why do I do it? The superficial answer is because I can and was encouraged to do so. I began as a Library Volunteer and was using the library’s collection of The Palm the school magazine of the Central High School to identify names to add to the Local and Family History data base. 

But I defy anyone looking through old newspapers and magazines not to get side tracked into reading interesting stories. That’s how I first met Sydney Errington – then a twenty-year-old ex Central High School pupil – who played the violin on some of the earliest radio (wireless) broadcasts from Leeds. Sidney went to have a lifelong career with the Halle Orchestra. Talking to (boring) one of the LFH librarians about my amazing find of a detailed story of very early broadcasting he shut me up by suggesting that write up the tale of Sidney Errington and 2LS for the Secret Library. The rest is part of my history and my minuscule legacy to the city. 

But that is only the mundane answer as to why I write posts for the Secret Library. A deeper, more honest reason speaks, I think, to the symbiotic relationship been the library reader (user) and a professionally managed public library service. A service that is dedicated to making the library’s collections and services as available as possible.  The deal is simple. If you engage with the library collections and the librarians, they will engage with you. There exists an explicit contract to enable users to achieve their goals.  

In the case of The Secret Library blog, as with all the best contracts, it is a win: win   The more items in the collections are used the more blogs can be produced.  And each blog adds another facet to the Leeds story that the Local and Family History library tells. Though even that high minded explanation masks a more selfish reason for writing. 

Now, I have not the remotest connection with his genius. But I do subscribe to George Orwell’s four reasons for writing.  He said he wrote firstly for: sheer egotism “… it is … humbug to pretend this is not a motive.”. Secondly for aesthetic enthusiasm “… the arrangement of words in their right order. Thirdly for historical impulse “…to store true facts… for the use of posterity”. Fourthly for political purpose “…a desire to push the world in a certain direction”. 

So, I write for the thrill of seeing my words published. Retirement is a two-edged sword. The work that might have given you creative opportunities is gone. But so are the demands work makes on your time.  You have time choose new creative outlets. 

High falutin though it sounds writing for the Secret Library does challenge me to arrange my words in what I see as their right order. I find telling the stories that are hiding in plain sight within in the library’s collections a very creative process. An antidote to the everyday, often post truth, babble of that can appear so dominant. 

Every item in the library’s collection is a true fact in its own right. If I can highlight one or two by telling their story to potential readers of the Secret Library. Then I can hope that I have made a contribution to posterity. Perhaps even encouraged others to add their unique voice to the evolving story of Leeds. But what of writing with a political purpose “of pushing the world in a certain direction”? 

The Secret Library is, small p, political by its very nature. Its existence is a counter to those neo vandals who argue that Googling, algorithms and AI have made libraries redundant. Vast through Google’s data bases is it is not a curated collection amassed exclusively for the public good. Of course, online tools have a valuable role to play in making libraries and their collections more accessible. But the digital tool is not the reality of the collection. The LFH collections are an essential part of the immutable reality of the history of Leeds. Ready, free for all to discover and with trained librarians to help navigate anyone find what they want. 

Why I Write

Thanks to Tony for this article – you can read all his Secret Library Leeds articles on the blog