This week on the Secret Library we are delighted to hear once more from Andy Armstrong, one of our heritage volunteers, on a significant piece of cataloguing work we’ve asked him to help us with. In this piece, Andy turns his attentions to the various utilities once managed by the Council on behalf of the people…
Category: Child Friendly
The Final Whistle: Voice of the Fans is over
We said farewell to the Voice of the Fans exhibition on August 10 – hopefully you were able to visit our Central Library to see this free exhibition exploring the past, present, and future of football fanzine culture during its run. A Leeds Libraries and British Library co-production, Voice of the Fans was seen by…
The mystery of Leeds United’s first colours
This week we welcome back guest author Pete Slater. Pete is one of a small team of volunteers working with us for the joint Leeds Libraries/British Libraries Voice of the Fans exhibition celebrating football fanzines and football fan culture. One of Pete’s roles has been research using our microfilmed local newspaper collection – this article…
Happy Volunteers’ Week!
It’s Volunteers’ Week 2025 (June 2 – June 8): a chance to celebrate the amazing achievements of our current team of heritage volunteers. Read on for some highlights from the last 12-months! Print collectionSeveral of our heritage volunteers, a student placement and a Duke of Edinburgh volunteer have all been busy working on our print…
Unearthing Spark: A Student Archivist’s Experience at Leeds Central Library
This week we hear from guest author Lauren Stead, who has been investigating in more detail one of our Central Library’s major collections… As a history student, I believe the most exciting element of research is working with primary sources. By looking at material created by and for people in the past, a deeper understanding…
Municipal Bedrooms
This week Antony Ramm takes a brief tour around the bedrooms of Leeds… I was recently playing around with the Pot Luck feature on our Leodis image archive (www.leodis.net) to find inspiration for a blog article. (Do try the Pot Luck tool if you’ve not used it before!) One image that instantly stood out of…
Why The Golden Beam?
This week we welcome back Library and Digital Assistant Jan Pinder, who finds the answer to a question in the artistry of a local legend… Why was the newest Wetherspoons in Leeds named The Golden Beam? Opened on June 8 2021 it seems a curious name choice for a pub, particularly considering that many of…
The mountain, the logbook, and the wickedest man in the world: early days of the climbing scene
This week we welcome back Library and Digital Assistant Joey Talbot, who explores the fascinating history of climbing in the Leeds Libraries collections… During April, we’re holding a display of climbing and mountaineering related materials in the Local and Family History Library, and to tie into that I’m bringing you a little taste of the…
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