As a celebration of Volunteers Week 2024, running from next Monday (June 3) to the following Sunday (June 9), we asked freelance writer and one of our longstanding Heritage Volunteers, Tony Harcup, to tell us about about the research he has been doing with old newspaper stories about libraries. When Leeds Libraries appealed for help…
Category: Leeds Central Library
Fantasy: Realms of Imagination and Leeds Libraries Special Collections
On this week’s Secret Library Heritage Blog, we hear from Librarian Josh Flint who will be exploring a few of his favourite special collection items from the Leeds Central Library’s Fantasy exhibition which was inspired by The British Library’s Fantasy: Realms of Imagination. The exhibition will be ending on the 17th January so make sure…
Brigandines
This article is part of our series on the current Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, taking place at the Central Library until January 2024… There are lots of exciting things to discover in the Local and Family History department at any time, but if you visit during the Fantasy exhibition, it’s even more exciting! Amongst…
Heritage Open Days 2023
Every September we get very excited about the Heritage Open Days festival, which this year runs from 8th – 17th September. This sees thousands of staff and volunteers across England organise events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE…
Uncover Football’s Legacy: Join Our Volunteer Team!
Are you a football enthusiast with a passion for uncovering the rich history and vibrant fan culture surrounding the beautiful game? Leeds Libraries has an exciting opportunity for you to be part of an extraordinary long-term project. In this blog post, we’ll explore how you can join our volunteer team and embark on a journey…
The Arrest of Miss Winifred Virtue
As sometimes happens in Local and Family History, Library Assistant Becky Bavill fell down a rabbit hole the other day, lets join her on her adventure. While helping a customer find information about railway wagons our indexing system returned this result: I went and found the article and sure enough, there she was, in a…
Back-to-back houses in Harehills…the story continues
University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison has been working on an exciting project about the past, present and future of back-to-back houses and their communities in Harehills since 2014. A new exhibition, now at Leeds Central Library, provides the findings of her research. Joanne writes… Producing an exhibition at the end of my PhD…
Rare Book Round Up – Nature
Each week our Collections Manager Rhian, brings you our ‘Rare Book of the Week’ on social media. Too good to be lost in the daily deluge of tweets and instagrams we wanted to bring you a round-up of some of our favourites. The theme this time is nature. How stunning is this Granulated Cuttle illustration?…
