Podcast News

 

Did you know we run not one but two Podcasts?  Yes we do! If you head over to Anchor you can find  

Haddingtonshire Histories brought to you by the amazing local history centre and East Lothian Libraries Podcast Shoosh Read onto find out more about our foray in to the world of Podcasts.

 

 Haddingtonshire Histories – Local History Podcast

Haddingtonshire Histories, is a monthly podcast which first aired in April 2021 and produced by Local History Service. The Podcast features conversations with expert guests on a variety of East Lothian history topics. The y speak to Museum officers, Archivists, and Archaeologists in East Lothian Council’s heritage services.  Dr Hanita Ritchie is your podcast host and our Acting Local History Officer based at the John Gray Centre in Haddington. Hanita loves listening to other history, film, and literature podcast so created Haddingtonshire Histories to highlight the many fascinating aspects of East Lothian’s own rich history and culture.

There are 3 episodes to date. The first, “Who Is John Gray?” is a discussion with Museum Officer Debbie Chalmers-Turnbull. Hanita & Debbie discuss the founding father of Scotland’s public libraries and the namesake of the John Gray Centre itself. Dr David Anderson pops in to chat for episode 2 about the “The Inns and Oots of Dunbar” The old inns and ale-houses in Dunbar make for some interesting stories! 

The latest Episode focuses on family history and some of the fascinating tales encountered when helping customers with family history research over the years. We know how much customers love researching family history so we hope you enjoy this Podcast as much as Hanita enjoyed creating it. Former East Lothian Local History Officer Bill Wilson and Craig Statham, author and a Manager at National Library of Scotland Map Rooms reminisce about their days as History Officers.

Listen out for future topics which will include ‘Witches in East Lothian’, ‘Treasures in the Archives’ , ‘Stones, Bones & Dynamic Digs’, ‘A Night at the Museum’, ‘Crimes and Misdemeanours’, ‘Powerful Prestongrange’ and ‘Lost Places of East Lothian’

 

You can listen to Haddingtonshire Histories on Anchor or via Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.

 

Shoosh! from East Lothian Libraries

Shoosh! is our library Podcast hosted by one of our wonderful local librarians Louise! , She is joined by a variety of co-hosts and guests and we will be talking about all subjects library related. Which is basically just books isn’t it? Not it is not!

 

Louise and guests talk about a variety of interesting subjects… including books. Louise told us “The podcasts chat about books and collections that the service offers, including our latest Staycation collection” In the three episodes to date Louise and her guests have discussed some very special Bookbug goings on recently, there has been an interesting chat about the impact on Covid on the libraries, Staycations and whether people will continue to holiday at home post Pandemic.

 

Shoosh! is aimed at everyone who uses East Lothian Libraries and perhaps many who don’t, we hope everyone will like it and are open to ideas for what you would like to hear about.

 

Louise also told us she is really enjoying hosting the Podcast, “I like talking! So this is a perfect role for me. At first I wouldn’t have thought I’d enjoy it but after being a guest on another podcast I realised how much fun it was and I enjoy talking about the varied subjects.” In her spare time Louise enjoys Podcasts on Real-life crime and loved the Line of Duty podcast!  

 

You can catch up with Louise and guests on Shoosh hosted by anchor

Hopes and Dreams - Creative Writing Competition Winners

Today we are pleased to bring you the second place entry in our Hopes and Dreams creative writing competition. We all loved this entry, it is such a touching story. 

Once again we would like to thank everyone who entered this competition. The standard of writing by our East Lothian residents is extremely high which made choosing our winners very difficult! 

A Mother's Dreams

by Alexandra Davey

We are to choose a headstone for the grave. A lump of stone to mark where he is not. Dreary grey granite, cold black marble; neat, embossed words in a language he never spoke. Words that won’t say what I want to make known: the world is a better place because he was in it. He was my teacher, guide, comfort and motivation. He spoke truths without words and moved mountains from his chair. He is safe now; he need fight no more. 

That night I dream I am lost in a landscape of boulders, stumbling in the mist, cutting and bruising my shins every time I fall.

*

For the first time in two weeks I can see the stars. The clear sky means cooler air, and it’s unusually still for the east coast. Calm and silent, the night smells of damp grass and the faint tang of the sea. 

His star is there! Still the brightest, and the first to catch the eye above the silhouetted line of the kitchen roof. I mutter a prayer of thanks that I can find it after a fortnight of cloud. I need to track its nightly progress across the sky.

I greet it first from the step outside the kitchen door, checking in at the day’s end as I used to check on him. I peep again from inside, parting the striped curtains at his bedroom window, whispering goodnight. Sleep tight, precious boy. Mummy loves you. Wait for me. 

That night I dream I am searching through thousands of stars to find one special one. They are diverse as snowflakes, yet none has the twinkle I seek. 

*

I go out to the Deer Park cemetery early, before the rest of the family is awake. May sunshine dazzles my eyes, rays bursting through the clouds onto a calm sea, waves breaking gently on the east beach. In three months I've not once been here in rain. Twin hornbeams guard the entrance: their leaves have doubled in size since last week. The hawthorn hedges are bursting with blossom, and the scent of wild garlic is rich on the breeze. 

His tiny tête-a-tête daffodils are nodding. I count the five paper butterflies, one for each of us. Someone has added a cheerful rainbow windmill. It will soon fade in the wind and sun. 

And the swifts are here, their energy seemingly boundless despite the long journey. They swoop and dart with incongruous revelry among the gravestones. Sometimes I also want to screech here, to sing, to run or to dance. I don't come to the Deer Park talk to him: he's not here, no more than he is anywhere else on earth. I come to notice the passing of the seasons: to remind myself that he is gone. I pray to God: keep him safe until I come.

That night I dream of flying with the swifts, but their reckless toing and froing frustrates me. I want to fly further, higher, faster, to where he is waiting.

*

We take a first, strange, family holiday without him: driving the breadth of the country, through bluebells and rainbows, to the west coast. The car seems too big: a conspicuous space on the rear seat; the boot piled high not with feeds, medications and equipment but with a paddleboard, bike helmets, beach games. Our itinerary is more relaxed now: unconstrained by the need for ramps and proximity to hospitals, we can go anywhere, do anything: catch a foot ferry to the islands, climb a mountain, stay out late. It feels like betrayal. A bright balloon in our holiday snaps is an Instagram-friendly way to fill an unfillable gap. A symbol that although we carry on without him, he is not forgotten. A reminder that we are five. Fly high little one, no longer tethered to this earth. 

That night I dream of orange balloons, drifting free above a sea of bluebells into a rainbow sky. 

*

I am collating all our photos of him. From tiny, peaceful babe, all cheeks and eyelashes, to strapping, tousle-haired seven-year-old. Photos with his little sister: uncomplaining as she climbs heedlessly over him and plants boisterous kisses on his face. Photos with his big sister: curled together on the bed, head to head, hand in hand. Pictures with Daddy, working hard on his sitting and standing, playing games or snoozing together in front of the TV. Not so many pictures with me – I’m usually behind the camera; mostly hospital selfies taken to send home with a report of the day’s progress. A few, precious, family photos; even fewer where I don’t look distracted, and the littlest is not pulling a face. I’m sorry I didn’t take more, when we had the time. 

That night I dream we are five again. I awake to find his sisters have sneaked into bed with us, and are hugging me tight. 

*

We agree to turn his bedroom into a playroom. The walls will stay orange, the curtains still candy-striped, but the hospital bed has gone and with it the machines and medicines. There are his fluffy cushions and snuggly blankets, alongside the girls’ jigsaw puzzles and Lego. His suncatcher still hangs in the window, sending sparkles around the room on fine mornings. The walls are crowded with his artworks: sunflowers, snowmen, a vivid Chinese dragon. Soon there will be copies of those family photos, too. A room for us to remember and celebrate our little boy. A room to laugh and a room to love. We all still call it The Benji Room. 

That night I dream he is watching his sisters play together. Sparkles of light dart around the room, alighting momentarily, like butterflies, on each one of us that remains. 

Summer Reading with #StreamMyStory

  

Scottish Public Libraries host #StreamMyStory author events online for children to enjoy in the summer holidays. 

Local Public Libraries across Scotland launch a new series of children’s digital events for the end of term and summer holidays, entitled #StreamMyStory, bringing together authors, illustrators, storytellers and libraries from across all 32 local authorities.   

In response to the challenges Covid-19 poses to services, an initial programme of 16 events for all ages and stages from early years up to S3 is delivered thanks to funding by Creative Scotland and produced by Scotland’s public library services.

During the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, when young readers have been denied the vibrant, inspiring mix of author visits, activities and sessions that local libraries usually offer, Scottish public librarians have worked together (virtually, of course!) to devise the best way of delivering entertaining, intuitive content for children online during such a difficult time for library services, schools, children and parents alike.

The result, now launched as #StreamMyStory, is an online hub where teachers, parents and carers will find quality videos from much-loved authors from Scotland and beyond to help encourage young readers in their passion for books.

Authors included in the diverse line-up of events include: poet and children’s author Joseph Coelho sharing a reading for early primary-aged children from his much-loved Luna Loves series, this time Luna Loves Art; Tom Morgan Jones and Mairi Kidd inspiring older primary school children in their lofty ambitions to become Great Scots as they present -- using draw-alongs, science experiments, discussion and much silliness and fun -- Strong Brave True: Great Scots who Changed the World; for secondary-aged children, Phil Earle and Michael Wagg discussing the inspiration for their powerful story of an unbreakable friendship in Edgar and Adolf; writer and illustrator Debi Gliori in an important and timely discussion for teenagers about depression, through the metaphor of her dragons, in the powerful visual account, Night Shift; and an exclusive interview with Anthony McGowan and Patrice Lawrence about their books Rat and I Am the Minotaur in which they discuss why they are drawn to writing about teens, what it is about ‘outsider’ characters that attracts them, and what they hope young readers take from their books; as well as talks and readings by library favourites Vivian French, Alan Windram, Peter Brown and Pamela Butchart.

Bestselling children’s author, Debi Gliori said:

“#StreamMyStory is a brilliant way to connect writers and illustrators with readers. #StreamMyStory is all about stories, on tap, when you want them, read for you by the people who wrote them. Here’s to a great summer of readings and stories. Enjoy!”

Introduced by Cressida Cowell, UK Children’s Laureate, #StreamMyStory is available now, free to view on the dedicated You Tube Channel here, until the end of August. 

Alan Bett, Head of Literature and Publishing at Creative Scotland, said:

“This exciting and innovative approach connecting young readers with authors, illustrators and storytellers through local public libraries, is perfectly timed as we head into school summer holidays. Congratulations to librarians across the country for bringing this inspiring programme to life, and to all those looking forward to taking part, enjoy a great summer's reading activities.”

Andrew Olney, Chair of the Association for Public Libraries Scotland, said:

“We’re delighted to have received this funding from Creative Scotland to support the necessary development of the Scotland wide public library workforce to be able to support our customers access vital children’s reading and literacy programmes online. These funds have supported the collective library authority teams being able to work in an effective way to co-design and collaborate with children’s authors and illustrators to enable a vibrant, fun and entertaining programme of events through #StreamMyStory to connect with some of our most important readers – children, families and educators. This learning will no doubt lead to even more collaborative working that will support our customer needs right across Scotland.”

Gillian Hunt on behalf of the Library Services’ collaborative working group, said:

“Librarians across Scotland came together to see what we could do to keep engaging with children and families and inspire them to keep reading, at a time when it wasn’t possible to hold events and activities in our libraries.  We are very proud of the #StreamMyStory programme and grateful to everyone who has assisted, including all the authors and storytellers who agreed to take part.    We hope families will enjoy watching the videos online and look forward to welcoming everyone back to the library during the summer holidays!”   

A celebration of the pleasure of reading and the power of imagination, #StreamMyStory runs alongside this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, Wild World Heroes, which is delivered in partnership with The Reading Agency.  Schools and nurseries are invited to log on during the final few weeks of term, and libraries will be promoting the author events through the #StreamMyStory social channels and via their own library channels: 

https://mobile.twitter.com/StreamAStory1

Stream My Story | Facebook

Stream MyStory (@streammystory) • Instagram photos and videos

Summer Reading Challenge 2021

 

The summer holidays are almost upon us and you know what that means? It’s time for the East Lothian Libraries Summer Reading Challenge! This year we’ll take part in the national challenge created by The Reading Agency. The theme is Wild World Heroes and we couldn’t be more excited to get started. Hopefully your children will enjoy the activities and prizes we have planned. Read on to see what we’re particularly excited about!

• With some libraries still closed, we have added more places for children to join the challenge! This will make it so much easier for them to get involved. Libraries have teamed with our local museums to allow children to join while visiting their sites and our pop up libraries will also be accepting sign ups. Keep an eye on our social media pages for more information

• The challenge, as always, is to read six books over the summer break. This seems like a silly thing to be excited about but we do love our books! And seeing children choose books and then coming into the library to tell us all about them once they’ve finished is one of the truly joyous parts of our job! This year, children are able to borrow books, read their own books at home or read books online to complete the challenge.

• We’re hosting a photography competition! We will split this into two age categories: 5 - 8yrs and 9 - 12yrs. The theme of the reading challenge is Wildlife Heroes and so we are proposing a theme of “East Lothian Wildlife”. Children can submit their entries by email, post or hand into their local library, please make sure they have added their name and contact details to their entry. We’ve got an independent judge lined up to make the final decisions! We look forward to seeing all of the entries! Bugs, animals, birds, insects – all are welcome!!

• Our branches will be planning their own craft/activity sessions to take place over the summer break. We’ve been hearing some of the ideas being floated already and there’s some good ones out there! When these are finalised, they will be announced by the branches via posters and on our social media pages. Places will most likely still be limited so please watch out for booking information.

• Finally, the best bit! Every child who completes the challenge will be entitled to a fantastic certificate! If they have taken part wholly online using their own books, without visiting a library branch, they will be able to print this certificate off at home. Children taking part through the libraries - using library stock online or physical borrowing – will receive their certificate at school once they return from the break.

 

The challenge runs from Friday 18^th June to Saturday 28^th August and children are welcome to sign up at any point. There will be prizes available for library participants and lots of fun activities to take part in throughout the summer holidays. We look forward to seeing families come back into our branches! We are currently still open for browsing by appointment so please call ahead on 01620 827827 and ask for your relevant library to book a slot.

Hopes and Dreams - Creative Writing Competition Winners

Back in March we launched our first East Lothian Libraries Creative Writing Competition with the themes 'Hopes and Dreams.' It has been such a strange and difficult 18 months we wanted to hear about your hopes for the future or how your dreams have perhaps changed because of recent events. We knew for certain that the incredible writing talent of East Lothian would interpret this theme in such different ways but maybe we were not quite prepared for how you would pull at our hearts and make us fall in love with your writing. 

A huge thank you to everyone who entered, we enjoyed reading all the entries and were able to compile a very tough shortlist. From this, an even tougher decision of three winners. Congratulations to everyone. The winner ‘Dandelion Wishes’ is posted below. We hope you love it. We do!

First: Fern Adams, 'Dandelion Wishes,'

Second: Alexandra Davey, 'A Mothers Dream' 

Third:  Sadie Maskery 'Hopes & Dreams'

Dandelion Wishes

I look, this Spring, at the dandelion flowers as they spring up in amongst the grass blades. They are yellow now, like small spiky suns. Soon they will change and turn into dandelion clocks. From clocks they will become wishes. Wishes blown into the air to carry our hopes and dreams away into the future. They will settle on the earth somewhere and then some, next year, will poke up amongst the soil, yellow heads bobbing and bowing in the sunshine. Others won’t make it. They will fail to take root. In the same way some of those wishes will fly and come to life and others will fall by the wayside. I like to think the yellow flowers we see next year are the wishes that did not come to pass and that the ones that will never form a new life have not failed in their mission but instead become the hopes and dreams that have come true, that each goes onto fulfil something. That nothing is wasted.

When I was three I sent dandelion wishes floating up into the air sending hopes with them that I would soon be five. When you are five, I thought, you are fully grown up. You can move out at five into your own flat. You can eat pizza every night. You can go to bed when you want even after the moon has reached its arc in the sky. You can do all this at five because, being grown up, there will be nobody to tell you otherwise.

When I was five, I decided to wait to grow up a bit more and stay at home for longer. Instead I spent the summer wishing on dandelions for something grander. I wanted the skies and the stars. I dreamed of being an astronaut. I emailed NASA and let them know that was my plan and I would be free in about ten years’ time to help.

Ten years later, at fifteen, the wishes of dandelion clocks seemed childish. Space seemed so far away. Magic was a thing to be scorned, nature was largely ignored, science held no more purpose than an exam sheet to study for. Still on summer nights we made hopes and dreams and planned for elaborate futures. We wished our hopes through dandelion seeds in secret, hoping despite our outward denial in them, they would still take root. At fifteen I wished to be an adult, to know everything there could be to know.

As an adult I realised that I knew nothing at all. That everything was so vast and that each piece of knowledge led to more questions, queries and things I wanted to learn about. I no longer cared about being too old for dandelion wishes and was young enough once more make new hopes and dreams and believe in them. I made elaborate five and ten year plans, had it all mapped out ahead like a stem leading onwards and upwards and reaching to the sky.

The thing is the best of plans and dreams can become interrupted. We can be woken up from them with unexpected starts. Dandelion seeds caught up within the spider webs of reality that they are blown into. Coronavirus changed dreams for so many, me included. We found our hopes and dreams on hold, altered or questioned. We dreamed instead of a vaccine, of lock downs lifting, of shielding restrictions reaching an end. We hoped for simple things; a hug, a hair cut, a morning commute, a coffee with a friend. Dandelion wishes took on so many different shapes to how they had before. They took off in the breeze taking simpler hopes and dreams with them. Wishes that might be smaller in size but were heartfelt all the more for their authenticity and the need for connection behind them. We ardently hoped with the new spring they would have planted a change for us all.

That spring has now arrived and as I sit and look at dandelions coming up from the soil, as I see photos of sleeves rolled up as vaccination hopes take root- I think is it so silly to wish our dreams on dandelion seeds after all? Each year spring will occur and yellow flowers bloom, resilient from the cold frosts and muffling snow falls. They work away under the soil regardless of all that happens around them. They form deep roots and push up, up against gravity and the dark despair of the soil. They cannot see the sun but they know it is there. In their plant like way they have dreams of becoming flowers and hopes of seeing the sunlight. They do all this year after year and when they do emerge from the layers of underground toil they in turn bring us hope, reminding us we can plan again. That no matter what, the seasons continue and we will keep working towards the future throughout them.

This year, the first yellow leaves are starting to fall away, they unfurl in the sun and leave behind a trace of themselves in a halo of seeds. I pluck one from the ground and lift the stem, examining it closely. A hundred or more seeds connected together, waiting to float along in the breeze. A hundred or more chances at a new future. A hundred or more chances at the hopes and dreams I sail along with them to become true. I think about what I want most, what the world needs the most, what matters the most. Then I lift up the dandelion clock to my mouth and gently puff out air, watching it disperse into fragments, each piece carried gently away. I hope as the wind moves them along it will ventilate the dreams behind them, make them substantial and they will root themselves in the future. As for what I wished for this time… well… that is between me and the dandelion.

More than just books!

 

This Saturday the 12^th June will see our Haddington, Musselburgh, North Berwick and Dunbar branches open their doors on a Saturday for the first time in over a year; and we are excited! You may question why this is so exciting to us. Well it is something to do with so much more than books, it is about the community aspect of our libraries… and it’s about the books too. Read on to find out more:

 

Did you think that a visit to your local library was just about choosing a couple of books? If you did, you’d be wrong! Libraries now offer a whole range of services to our local communities. They are a hub of activity and considered a font of all knowledge to some!

 

Whether you are in need of a computer to print a document, Wi-Fi to download that next episode from Netflix onto your phone before you hop on a bus, an audiobook to help you drift off to sleep at night, dog bags, recycling box covers, local information or just a good old chat with someone outside of your own household – the library has it all! And, we’re not afraid of a bit of change.

 

Throughout the past year, our staff have proven just how adaptable we can be. They have helped other departments behind the scenes, made calls to shielding individuals, delivered food parcels, walked dogs and so much more. We had to change the way we supported our library services, we went fully digital! With the exception of our housebound individuals who continued to receive book deliveries, our readers were helped to log in to our online resources to give them access to free books via their phones/tablets/computers. We were unable to welcome people into branches due to government guidelines and so we had to communicate by phone and email. We introduced people to services they didn’t know we had! Online courses, eBooks, eAudiobooks, newspapers, magazines and comics – all free and available at the touch of a button!

 

Even as we slowly move into more “normal” levels of service again, we are maintaining the Click & Collect option that was brought in while the branches were completely closed. Customers have told us that they really appreciated this service while they were unable to pop in a pick themselves. Some have read books by authors they would never have chosen, or discovered a love of a new genre they hadn’t considered. We hope to continue this service while there is still a demand for it.

 

As one of only two council authorities that maintained a level of library service during the last lockdown, we are understandably proud of our staff. And we are so thankful to our customers who have adapted with us and understood the need for the constantly changing procedures. We are currently opening branches again but need to follow guidelines and allow for staffing and COVID social distancing – this means that not all branches can be opened quite yet. Where branches are closed, we are offering other services such as extra housebound deliveries, pop-up libraries and extending the coverage of the mobile library service.

 

So, while we hope the end is hopefully in sight for all of these restrictions, we are still adapting, still coming up with new ways of serving our customers and, most importantly,  still planning for the future.

 

We hope you will book an appointment to visit soon, like us on Facebook follow us on twitter or bookmark our blog. #Libraries #Community #Librarians