National Volunteers’ Week 2022

This week (1-7 June) is Volunteers’ Week and we’re taking this opportunity both to thank our current volunteers and launch some new heritage volunteering opportunities Firstly a huge thanks to A, C, J and R for being excellent heritage volunteers. They all began pre Covid but have stuck with us through lockdowns and closures and…

The Other Project: Chapter Three

The Other Project, co-ordinated by Third Year Fine Art student Mia Ferullo, is a collaboration between Leeds Central Library and York St John University’s second year students. The students were divided into four groups, each being given an issue of the Leeds Other Paper. With a combination of Fine Art, Photography and Illustration students, this…

The Other Project: Chapter Two

The Other Project, co-ordinated by Third Year Fine Art student Mia Ferullo, is a collaboration between Leeds Central Library and York St John University’s second year students. The students were divided into four groups, each being given an issue of the Leeds Other Paper. With a combination of Fine Art, Photography and Illustration students, this…

Exploring Leeds Central Library – The Basement

Over the next few weeks we’re going to take you around Leeds Central Library, down into the deep dark depths of the basement and up to the lofty glazed ceilings of the top floor.  Because when you have your very own 137 year old building it would be a shame not to explore it to…

National Libraries Week 2020: Mobile Libraries

OUR FOUR-WHEELED, BOOK-CARRYING, BEHEMOTHS… The final in our series of articles for National Libraries Week 2020, celebrating the history of the Leeds Library Service – a short history of Mobile Libraries in Leeds… ***** It’s not everywhere that we can build a branch library, and even if we could not everyone would be able to…

National Libraries Week 2020: The Staff of the Central Library

The penultimate piece in our week of articles celebrating the history of the Leeds Library Service – this time, taking a light-hearted look at anecdotes from staff who have called the Central Library home… ***** Library (noun) – ‘A place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (such as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films)…

National Libraries Week 2020: Headingley, Hunslet and Middleton Libraries

Headingley Library We continue our celebration of the local libraries across Leeds, with a trip to the north of the city. There has been a library presence in Headingley since 1884 when the first branch library opened on an evening in Bennett Road Board School (1882, now the Headingley Heart Community Centre), In 1892 it…