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)…
Category: Leeds Public Libraries
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…
National Libraries Week 2020: Compton Road, Crossgates and Garforth Libraries
PESKY KIDS, ESCAPES FROM TINY TERRACES AND ECHOING FOOTSTEPS… Compton Road Library Compton Road Library opened in 1927 at a cost of £11,332 most of this met with money from the Carnegie Trust, and just like Bramley it has a very similar layout and was built with identical materials. The building was designed to adapt…
National Libraries Week 2020: Armley, Beeston and Bramley Libraries
CLEAN HANDS, A LOVE OF STAMPS, AND ONE FUTURE PRIME MINISTER… Armley Library To begin our celebration of local Leeds Libraries during National Libraries Week, we need to go back to 1868 when the Public Libraries act was adopted by Leeds; it didn’t take long to get organised and by 1870 branch libraries began opening…
National Libraries Week 2020
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…
Family History Resources: Historical Trade Directories
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Local and Family History’s Josh Flint, who will be exploring the excellent family history resource, historical trade directories. This article will help family history researchers understand what trade directories are, how they can be useful for family history research and finally where to find them. This…
Keep on Keeping On: Running a Library Department in a Crisis
This week, Antony Ramm, Librarian-Manager for the Local and Family History (LFH) department at Leeds Central Library, explains the steps staff have taken to continue operating a specialist public library department in these unprecedented times… As previously announced on the Secret Library, the Central Library in Leeds shut its doors to staff and the public…
Working-Class Women in Early Twentieth Century Leeds
On Wednesday the 11th March we have a talk on ‘Working-Class Women’s Autobiographies and the History of Everyday Life.’ This talk will be given by Dr Claire Martin, a Lecturer at The University of Leeds. This article will highlight interesting items from the Leeds Libraries Collection that detail the everyday life of working-class women and…
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