The Role of Librarians in Preserving Endangered Crafts

Post by Laura Ryan, Assistant Librarian, Special Collections & Archives, DCU Library.

All librarians, and in particular Special Collections librarians, have long played a role in preserving history. Through outreach programmes, genealogy, recording oral history, or simply in our long-term care for books – we play a role in ensuring the history of a place, a community or craft continues long after we have retired. We generally also love books – the smell, the feeling of paper, leather bindings and of course the contents. It puts us in a unique place. We have an appreciation and often an in-depth understanding of the craft of books, as well as access to them and their care. 

The UK charity Heritage Crafts has released its 2023 edition of the Red List of Endangered Crafts.
Funded by The Pilgrim Trust with additional sponsorship from The Royal Mint, Heritage Crafts undertake enormous research to rank traditional crafts in the UK by the likelihood they would survive into the next generation. There is no equivalent for the Republic of Ireland but the report includes data from Northern Ireland. Unsurprisingly, included on the list are many of the crafts which together created the physical books that line our Special Collections stores. 

There are four categories of risk within the report: Extinct, Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Currently Viable. Many criteria decide the ranking, from the number of those employed in the craft, to trainees, to serious amateur makers and leisure makers. The viability of making a living while practising a craft, market issues including supply, industrialisation of the process, and cost of machinery or tools, public awareness of the craft, as well as many more factors are represented in the report. 

Pertaining to book craft only, here are the following crafts now Extinct, Critically Endangered, or Endangered in the UK:

Extinct

Gold-beating 

The process of beating gold until it is thin gold leaf. For book craft, this is used to gold tool bindings or to illuminate manuscripts. Beaten gold is still available – though done now by machine and imported. 

Critically Endangered

Fore-edge Painting

The application of an image onto the fore-edge of a book. Usually applied while the pages are fanned out at an angle, the process means that if covered in gold, the image will completely disappear when the book is closed. For an example of this in an Irish collection, see “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”  from UCD’s Cultural Heritage blog.

Paper making (commercial handmade)

Thqe process of hand-forming paper, using a mould and deckle to gather and form the sheet of paper. Paper made this way is generally formed of cotton and linen flax. The report also notes that the manufacturing of the mould and deckle no longer takes place in the UK.

Parchment and Vellum Making

Parchment is made of sheep and goatskin, while vellum is made of calfskin. Both have made up our manuscripts and books for several centuries. The report notes that much of the public does not understand what vellum is in particular which is part of the decline. Vellum is more flexible than paper and survives far longer over time than modern conventional paper. Many of our books from the 1400s and 1500s made of these materials are in far greater condition than books from the 1980s. 

Endangered

Illumination 

Embellishment of a manuscript with gold leaf on a gesso base, as well as decoration with colouring. We may be most familiar with historiated initials: illuminated capitals which begin a book or section. The report notes that there is very little demand for this type of illumination these days.

Letterpress

Printing using hand-setting and a variety of presses. This is the form of printing developed by Johannes Gutenberg and was the primary form of printing of books from the 15th to 20th centuries. This craft is maintained currently by artisan or fine art printers.

Paper Marbling

A form of aqueous surface design, this is the process of floating inks on mixture of water and surfactant, creating designs within that floating ink and transferring it onto paper. This is traditionally applied to endpapers but became common on outer bindings when leather became more expensive. It can also be applied to fore-edges. To read more on marbled paper in Ireland, see “Marbled Paper: History of an Endangered Bookcraft”.

Tanning

The process of using vegetable tannins to convert raw hide into leather. This is used for the exterior bindings of books. Due to some processes within the creation of leather, it can degrade over centuries and crumble. It is often subject to an issue referred to as ‘red rot’. Conservation of this is difficult and binding with leather has become much rarer. 

What now for librarians?

Why does it matter to us as librarians? Quite simply, the books that we are charged with preserving and conserving require the sustained existence of the craft  so that conservators can source materials (now and into the future) that match the process and materials of the book being conserved. 

So what can we as Special Collections librarians do about this issue? We can’t fix the issue ourselves and many factors are far beyond our control or remit: economics, supply issues, traineeships, loss of skilled people to pass on the craft, etc. However, the report mentions several factors that librarians do have an impact on. 

Cataloguing 

Creating accurate 563 fields (binding notes) which use consistent and accessible terminology so that the crafts involved can be found through catalogue searches and tracked through collections. This means that we have to be knowledgeable about the crafts in order to adequately describe them. Research into understanding how things are made must be part of our role so that we can best understand how to preserve them. 

Outreach

Recently, someone mentioned to me that ‘materiality of the book’ had been overdone, because the research exists. This does not negate the sharing of that knowledge and research. The report mentions a lack of public awareness of the crafts. Librarians are both keepers of and speakers for these books. It is important that when we do outreach sessions, talks, seminars, blogs or tweets that we include descriptions of and information about the processes behind the books. We need to share our knowledge and understanding to generate interest in those processes. Few of those people will ever follow up on becoming a professional in the craft, but they may pursue it as a leisure maker and generate business for a craftsperson to run classes and make a livelihood. In doing so, we also further the memory and preserve the history of the craft. We, too, create historical records in our research output and outreach efforts. 

Acquisition

Very few of us, especially here in Ireland, have significant funding for purchasing. When we do purchase, due to the nature of our existing holdings, we often look to older collections on sale or available from donors. We spend much of our time delving into the past. It is time to look at the present, as a gateway to future collections. There are local craftspeople using all of the above techniques in Ireland. Specialist publishers, binders and fine art printers, from Stoney Road Press to The Salvage Press are current creators of specialist limited edition publications that keep alive these crafts in Ireland, but also publish works to match our interests in Irish literature and culture holdings. 

What librarians can do may affect only a small part of the ongoing legacy of book crafts, however  it is pertinent that we adequately understand the process of these crafts and their history, to contribute to their ongoing maintenance while supporting current local businesses and craftspeople where possible. 

---

Laura Ryan in an Assistant Librarian in Special Collections & Archives at Dublin City University. With a background in Art History, she has a particular interest in the book as an object, and the continuation of book craft practices.

Read More

Library Outreach via Volunteering at Irish Secondary Schools

Ray at IFLA #WLIC2022

Guest post by Ray Gainford. Ray is a Library Assistant with Louth Library Service.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of working with Junior Achievement Ireland and volunteering with a Transition Year class at a secondary school in County Louth. 

Junior Achievement Ireland (JAI) is a member of one of the world’s largest educational non-profit organisations, helping prepare young people for their futures by delivering hands-on, experiential learning in entrepreneurship, employability, financial literacy and the value of STEM. JAI was established in Ireland in 1996 and since then has built up a strong demand from schools throughout the country and created successful partnerships with 180 leading organisations.

An email was circulated to staff in Louth County Council asking if anyone would be interested in volunteering with JAI. Some colleagues of mine in Louth Library Service had previously volunteered with them and greatly enjoyed the experience, so I was very happy to put my name forward. 

I will admit that I was a bit nervous at the thought of teaching a class, but the training from JAI put me at ease. I first had a video call with a liaison officer at JAI named Elaine, which enabled me to get a clearer vision of what volunteering would entail. Elaine explained to me that JAI can find it more difficult to find volunteers willing to teach secondary school students, as people may feel nervous about teaching teenagers rather than younger children. There was an opening in their programme for a volunteer to teach the Career Success module to a Transition Year class at Coláiste Rís in Dundalk. Thinking of how helpful a module like this could have been to me when I was a Transition Year student many moons ago, I agreed to volunteer with this class. It was a full circle moment getting to teach a TY class myself!

Training was arranged for me soon after. It took place virtually with two facilitators from JAI, and a number of participants from various career paths. I was impressed with the variety of careers among the participants, as it showed the wide reach that JAI has. The training was excellent and boosted my confidence. We were given a chance to practice delivering some course content to the rest of the group, and received helpful feedback. Following the training, I received the content for the entire module, so I had plenty of time to familiarise myself with the various lesson plans and exercises. I also had to complete Garda Vetting in advance of the course. 

My classes with the Transition Year group went very well. Though I still had some nerves, the students were welcoming and well-behaved, and the teacher also stayed in the class at all times for support.  The module itself consisted of six weekly lessons, covering topics such as teamwork, communication, personal branding and interview skills. At the end of the module, I also held mock interviews with the students. I was really thrilled to see the students put all their learning from the past six weeks into action – it was such a fulfilling experience! 

We were encouraged to enhance the lessons with information from our own personal career paths, so I was able to show the students how realistic the course content was by relating it to real-life examples from my experience in librarianship. I was delighted to see that so many of the students were interested in what working in a public library is like. Some students told me afterwards that they enjoyed discovering more about careers in public service, as it wasn’t a career option that was immediately obvious to them. 

Volunteering with JAI benefitted both the students and Louth Library Service. The students received valuable knowledge about the world of work, and the library gained a class visit and new memberships from the students. This age group can be a difficult demographic to bring into the library, so it was fantastic to see this class so enthusiastic about their visit. It also helped the library service further identify the needs of young adults in libraries. 

Based on my work, Louth Library Service plans to build on the knowledge gained from this experience and provide further services to young adults and students. These include small steps, like increasing the amount of exam revision materials we have available in our library collection, to bigger projects such as furthering our outreach in DEIS schools in the locality and organising career guidance and CV clinics for students. 

I had such a great experience teaching this class, and was I eager to share what I had learned with other library staff. I submitted a poster proposal to present on this topic at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Dublin this summer. I was delighted to be selected as a presenter as part of the event’s poster sessions, with my poster titled “Library Outreach in Irish Secondary Schools via Junior Achievement Ireland”. This granted me the opportunity to tell librarians from a wide range of countries about the experience, and gain inspiration from other libraries who may have conducted similar programmes in their own countries. 

Junior Achievement Ireland always welcomes new volunteers, and I highly recommend giving it a go! It’s a fantastic learning experience for both the students and volunteer. Further information can be found at www.jai.ie.

Photo courtesy of author

Read More

Outreach Content Creation: How to Produce YouTube Videos and Podcasts

Libfocus is very happy to post the second of the joint second placed entries in this years CONUL Library Assistants Award. Congratulations David Rinehart,  Maynooth University Library

Introduction 

This blog post describes the processes and tools I have used to create YouTube video and podcast outreach content for Maynooth University’s Special Collections and Archives department. The central aim of the YouTube and podcast series was to expand our Library Treasures blog into the audio and visual platforms giving our collections greater visibility and discoverability, thus engaging a larger audience. I detail the tools used, collaboration, editing, and social media promotion. Further, I identify where improvements need to be made in addition to long-term goals. 

Screen shot from the second episode of Library Treasures video series 

Inspiration 

The inspiration for this project was sparked by the pandemic. Being a service that handles unique and rare materials, we tend to cater to patrons with specific interests or visitors keen on historical tourism. We were, thus, faced with the challenge of how to connect our patrons to these rare materials in some way. We took many measures to provide the service as best we could. The positive spin, however, is that we had the space to focus more on our virtual presence. While videos do not replace the in-house experience, it is still a way for us to remain connected to our public while giving the Russell Library space some life during a lonely time. 

Image of the Russell Library Reading Rooms taken by David Rinehart

Getting Started: 

YouTube series: 

Equipment: 

• Camera (Canon EOS 2000D)
• Tripod
• Microphone
• Computer

Software:

• Adobe Premiere Pro or Davinci Resolve (video editing)
• Canva (poster creation) 

Hosting Service:

• YouTube

    

Image taken by David Rinehart of Hardware Used for Podcast and Video Series Podcast Series: 

Equipment:

• Microphone 
• Computer 

Software: 

• Audacity (capturing audio)
• Adobe Premiere Pro (works well for audio editing too)

Hosting Service:

• SoundCloud

 

Collaboration 

One of the greater challenges in creating this kind of content is, as a relatively new employee, identifying the collections and content to showcase. Collaboration has been key for a large project like this and a fantastic way to learn more about the work my colleagues are doing. I have collaborated with three colleagues – an archivist, a conservator, and a library assistant for the first three videos. 

The work load has been divided up in the following way: I establish a timeline while my counterpart writes the script, records most of the video, and takes the necessary images. I then record the 

introduction and outro for continuity. Lastly, I take all of the raw footage and material and edit it into the final product, post it to YouTube, and advertise on social media. 

Image captured by David Rinehart from The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland (1842) for Adam Staunton’s blog post and episode 3 of the Library Treasures video series 

  

The editing process has been a steep learning curve. I have watched many YouTube videos and read many forums to learn about the techniques and tools available to me. For ease of editing, I have asked my collaborators to share the folders of images and videos with me via OneDrive in the order that they should appear in video, this makes it far easier to place the videos and still images along the timeline to sync up with the content being described. 

Social Media promotion is essential to get the content out to your target audience. It is important to think about which organization handles, individual handles, and hashtags would bring the content closest to your target audience. 

    

Screenshot of twitter post for Library Treasures Episode 2 

Results 

The first video has received 127 views since it was released on March 8th, 2021; the second video has received 48 views since its release on June 14th, 2021 and the third video has received 36 views since its release on July 9, 2021. The first video was created around the theme of women in the collections, e.g. Teresa Deevy, and released on International Women’s Day, which could account for the greater traction it picked up on social media. 

Reflection 

We have had team conversations about how to best get these videos to their target audiences and beyond. We made the decision to change the name of the YouTube series from Collections Spotlight to Library Treasures. We have had a blog of the same name running for years with many hundred followers. The video series and podcast are an expansion of this project and are meant to complement each other. Having the same name makes them more discoverable, as someone who has been following the blog may more easily search for or stumble across our podcast and video series. The three mediums will also have links to each other. 

Our long-term goal is to incorporate the blog posts, video and podcast episodes into LibGuides we are designing for our various collections showcased in Library Treasures posts. We are also developing a LibGuide exclusively for Library Treasures media, highlighting our more recent videos, podcasts, and blogs. This will greatly contribute to the lifespan and discoverability of the posts as they will have a permanent home instead of getting buried in a YouTube channel or deep down in a blog. 

Image created using Canva for third Library Treasures episode 

                

Read More

Reflecting on Kildare Library Service's Online Events in 2020

Photo courtesy of authors

Guest Post by Amye Quigley, Bridgette Rowland and Shona Thoma of Kildare Library Service

Amye Quigley is an Executive Librarian with Kildare Library Service. She coordinates Kildare Readers’ Festival as part of her role as the Kildare Right to Read coordinator.

Bridgette Rowland is an acting Executive Librarian with Kildare Library Service and helps coordinate the STEAM programme for primary schools as part of her role.

Shona Thoma is an Executive Librarian with Kildare Library Service, coordinating events for children and young people, including the annual Children's Book Festival 

In April 2020 it became apparent that the pandemic would curtail library events for a long time to come, even if we couldn’t have predicted how long the lockdowns and restrictions would last. 

At Kildare Library Service, programming across all areas from children’s activities to age friendly, and from local history to Grow it Forward are now delivering successful online events. In this blog post, we offer reflections from three perspectives on how we made the transition from being entirely location based, to developing a range of virtual events for all ages. 

Shona Thoma, coordinator of the Children’s Book Festival, reflects on the challenges of delivering a festival programme with limited resources. Bridgette Rowland, coordinator of the STEAM programme, highlights new potential when working with schools. Amye Quigley, coordinator of the Kildare Readers Festival, outlines the process which led to the first online programme for the festival, and what that means for the future. 

Kildare Young Readers Festival and Children’s Book Festival

Children's literacy and creativity are supported and celebrated by Kildare Libraries events throughout the year. Two festival periods, the Young Readers Festival in May and Children's Book Festival in October, bring a particular focus to author events and workshops, giving children the opportunity to meet writers and illustrators, and explore their creative abilities. In May 2020, amid pandemic disruptions and significant time constraints, all events were provided online, with 20 events scheduled from 16th to 22nd May. 

In March and April, many library staff had been redeployed to work on the Community Call helpline, and IT restrictions prevented most staff from accessing emails at home. Organisation of events and managing bookings was very challenging without the library team and access to branch emails. Despite this, we felt that the Young Readers Festival should still take place in some way, offering fun activities to children stuck at home, and continuing to work with artists at a very difficult time for live performers. 

Pre-recorded video content was commissioned from two artists: storyteller Niall de Búrca, and illustrator Tarsila Krüse. Working with existing suppliers reduced the need for paperwork which would have been particularly difficult to arrange amidst so many of the unknowns in the early days of the pandemic. Six live events took place online, requiring registration, and providing much valued interactive sessions with children and their parents, these included storytelling, Yo-Yo-Yoga, and craft workshops. The safety and privacy of attendees was a key consideration, with great care taken to gather parental consent and ensure their supervision, and again working with existing suppliers with valid Garda Vetting in place. 

Photo Courtesy of Authors

With schools closed, all events were available for open booking, quite a departure for the May festival, but something that worked out very well. Schools delivery has been crucial in the past to reaching a wider audience of children than regular library users. Without the ability to publicise events through library branches, we promoted the festival via our recently launched blog, social media and eNewsletter. 

Feedback showed excellent satisfaction and that these events reached a different audience than when taking place in libraries or schools, many parents attending library events with their children for the first time. 

“It engaged him and allowed him to interact with kids his age and made him feel part of something outside this house and that means a lot to our kids right now.” —Parent feedback, Young Readers Festival May 2020

In October 2020, a further 34 online workshops and author visits were scheduled for the Children’s Book Festival. These comprised of live and interactive online events taking place via videolink to classrooms throughout the county, and 10 events held during the mid-term for children and parents to enjoy at home together.

The opportunities and challenges that we have faced by providing online programming will be familiar to anyone operating in this environment, we have highlighted some of the most significant when working with children and schools in the list below. 

STEAM Programme

Overview of the Programme

The Kildare Libraries’ STEAM programme supports the primary school curriculum across the county through workshops and talks in the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. Popular workshops have included planetarium visits, Lego engineering workshops, CSI forensics workshops and robotics workshops, with the emphasis on a hands-on model making the children active participants in the learning. The programme is planned a year in advance and aligns with the main national STEAM festivals throughout the year, starting with Engineers’ Week in February and concluding with Science Week in November.

Adaptation Following Covid

In March 2020, when Ireland first entered a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, just nineteen workshops out of a total of 154 planned for the year had taken place and, with libraries and schools all closed, we found ourselves with neither a venue nor an audience. What we did have, however, was pre-booked facilitators many of whom were more tech savvy than average due to the subject of the workshops and who were keen to adapt and innovate. In addition, with the schools closed and both teachers and parents scrambling to navigate the home-schooling environment, we recognised that the STEAM programme could fulfil a need for high-quality educational supports.

Some facilitators chose to create pre-recorded content that we could use on our social media channels and which could be viewed at any time whilst others adapted their workshops for live delivery through Zoom and both deliveries had their advantages. For example, environmental scientist Nikita Coulter filmed a series of beautifully illustrated biodiversity videos talking children through the meaning of biodiversity and Ireland’s ecosystems. While Tech Create delivered live coding, digital design and 3D printing workshops to children using open-source software which the children could access for free.

When the schools reopened in September, the STEAM programme was reimagined again for online delivery to schools. With children no longer taking part from home on individual devices we had to work with facilitators on a format that would be suitable for whole-class delivery and, where possible, would still include a practical, hands-on element. This had to be balanced with ensuring the delivery was in line with Covid health and safety protocols in schools. To this end, many of our facilitators supplied resource packs to accompany the workshops, with a minimum of one pack per class pod, which allowed children to carry out activities in real time with the facilitator. 

The 2021 STEAM Programme and Beyond

With the pandemic and restrictions ongoing, the decision was made to retain the online delivery model for the STEAM 2021 programme. However, we have been able to capitalise this year on some of the key opportunities the online medium allows – chief amongst them being the potential for bigger events and for access to a larger variety of speakers. In March 2021 we held a hugely popular talk for families by Professor Luke O’Neill entitled ‘Vaccines, Viruses, and the Immune System: The Real Science Behind Covid-19’. In June, we also held a panel discussion with a range of speakers from STEAM backgrounds in partnership with Maynooth University. The convenience of the online model and the potential for larger audiences makes booking high-profile speakers more viable and schools get to engage directly with leading STEAM figures.

Opportunities and Challenges

The online delivery of children’s programmes at Kildare Libraries presented various opportunities and challenges:

Opportunities:

• Increased engagement – we had many schools engage with the programme for the first time based on the convenience of not needing to arrange costly transport into the library or permission slips from parents.
• Increased accessibility – we received feedback from parents and teachers that for children with particular additional needs the online delivery removed some of the anxieties they may have faced around visiting a new venue.
• Potential for larger events – we were no longer bound by limited capacities within libraries and could have multiple classes attend an online event.
• Increased choice of facilitators/speakers – we can potentially engage speakers from anywhere in Ireland or indeed abroad.

Challenges:

• Potential weakening of the library’s role – With the workshops no longer taking place within libraries, there was a risk of the visibility of the library’s role and our wider supports being diminished. To counteract this, we encouraged staff to introduce the workshops and to promote our other library supports and use the workshop as an opportunity to build their relationship with their local schools.
• Wi-Fi/technical problems – while this could not always be anticipated our staff and facilitators offered to do technical trial runs if a teacher was unsure of the technology or their internet connection.
• Adapting workshops for delivery online – not all of our 2021 facilitators were able to adapt their workshops and some have been postponed until such time as they can delivered in person again.
• Risk of school closures due to Covid – All of our facilitators offered a plan B where, in the event of a school closure, the workshop could still be delivered remotely to the children at home with the support of the class teacher.
• No shows – with the schools not having to travel to a venue, and despite frequent reminders, we have had the occasional incident of a school forgetting to log in on the day.

Kildare Readers Festival

Kildare Readers Festival has been held in Co. Kildare every year in October since 2010. It is programmed by a committee of Kildare library staff. The audience has a mixed age bracket with an unknown level of technical skills. It runs for a fortnight with events hosted in the seven main library branches, culminating in a weekend of events held in the Riverbank Arts Centre.  

Planning for the Kildare Readers Festival starts in January every year. When Ireland went into lockdown in March 2020 the committee put all planning for the festival on pause. As the pandemic restrictions extended, many other literary festivals were postponing, rescheduling, or cancelling their 2020 programmes. The decision was made in June 2020 that we would have to move the festival to an online platform if it was to go ahead. We started to plan for a reduced number of events over the festival weekend only, up to a maximum of six events. For contrast, in 2019 we held 27 events over a fortnight. 

The committee had no experience of bringing events online. We attended as many events as possible held by festivals that were going ahead to get an idea of what other organisations were producing. There was plenty to consider; how to hold the events, live, pre-recorded, on what software platform, would IT give us access to that platform, would we be able to manage it all ourselves, would we have to get outside expertise, how much would this cost, would technology let us down, would anyone attend, etc. We chose to go with pre-recorded content. 

We planned to record the events in our usual theatre venue. However, between the county specific lockdown for Kildare, Laois and Offaly, and availability of the Arts Centre, we had to quickly reassess, and plan to record events over Zoom. Staff did not have the software to do post-production on the videos recorded so this had to be outsourced to a production company. 

We then had to decide on what platform we wanted to present the festival. There were discussions around Facebook or YouTube, and whether events should be ticketed, or open to all. We decided to upload the events to Kildare Library’s recently launched Vimeo channel. They were password protected and “released” to the public on a scheduled date and time, to make it feel more like an event to be viewed together. Despite our initial plan to only hold six events over the weekend of the festival, we hosted 13 events over a week with just over 1,600 views of the events. 

What did an online festival allow us to do? 

It provided us with access to authors we would not have otherwise been able to invite to the festival due to budgetary constraints. We should have taken greater advantage of this in hindsight, but it allowed us to invite a poet and an author living in the US. 

It freed up budgets from transportation and accommodation costs, but this was counteracted by higher production and post-production costs so that the recorded events had the same look and feel to the branding. 

What would we do differently?

While we provided a set of guidelines to our authors/guests around ensuring their sound and cameras were clear, checking their internet connections, etc., more rigorous pre-checks would have helped deliver higher quality. We should have been clearer about the use of technology required, as a couple of recordings were made on phones and tablets which were being held by hand. We should have been more confident in our abilities as a committee, as we soon found that we managed live events with great success. 

The festival committee subsequently programmed our events for the national Ireland Reads Campaign in February 2021. We held eleven live online author events for various age groups using Zoom. We are now also using Eventbrite to manage the bookings. 

Based on the feedback received, being able to catch up on the events later was appreciated. Being able to attend from locations further afield than Kildare and its surrounding counties was a bonus for some. A hybrid approach of online and live events is planned for 2021, which will be dependent on Government guidelines closer to the time, frustrating the planning process once again this year. We realise that events that would normally be held in our libraries will more than likely have to be online again in 2021. We are looking at the possibility of using the Zoom webinar function instead of meetings, which is being tested with other library events this summer. Due to the availability of some guests we would like to invite to the festival this year, some events may have to be pre-recorded, but feel this blended approach will be successful. Bigger literary festivals than Kildare Readers Festival have gone with this model of live and recorded events in 2021. 

No going back! 

All events, but particularly those for adults, such as Kildare’s Parenting Programme and Toys, Technology and Training series have reached record numbers by being hosted online. The improved accessibility afforded by online events is the aspect most commented on now by the programming team in Kildare, with the knowledge that we won’t go backwards in this regard. We have developed the interactive element of our online events, which is important for giving a sense of occasion and sustaining community around our activities. Looking forward, post Covid, we hope to adopt a hybrid approach, with in-person workshops forming the core of programming but being complimented by online talks from international guests, and the broadcasting of in-person, in-Kildare, events to wider audiences. 

Read More

Libraries of Sanctuary: Supporting Migrant Communities

Guest post by Louise Cooke-Escapil  Louise works as a Library Assistant at Maynooth University Library. She is interested in the social impact of libraries.

Introduction 

The City of Sanctuary is a collection of groups across the UK and Ireland - including theatres, schools, colleges, universities, churches, and gardens - that aim to build a culture of inclusiveness for incoming migrants. Specific organizations involved include Places of Sanctuary Ireland and, as of June 2020, Libraries of Sanctuary. The Library of Sanctuary title is awarded to libraries working to fill gaps in provision of information and resources to refugees and asylum seekers. Libraries playing this role is not novel, however the introduction of this title is a welcome step towards further developing public library services for those who may otherwise be left unseen.

Proto-Library of Sanctuary

It was this aspect of libraries working as powerful regenerative educational institutions that first drew me into librarianship as a profession in 2015. My first paid library job was in the Public Information Library in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. This experience shaped how I think about libraries and showed me the important social role they can play in people’s lives. In 2015, a new wave of migration into Europe had reached an all-time high. I worked in the autodidactic section of the library, where patrons came to borrow materials to help them learn new skills, such as driving, study skills for secondary school exams, or, most frequently, learning a language. I found myself working in a library in France that had more resources on learning Irish than my local library had back home in Ireland. If people chose to, they could borrow materials on learning up to 250 languages, including Sámi, Zulu, and Navajo to name a few. This section of the library also had a huge variety of materials, from books to CDs, DVDs, computer programmes, newspapers, magazines, and TV channels from 11 different countries.

Photograph: Pixabay

During the year I worked in the library, I realised how necessary this service was to many of the patrons. Before taking up this post, I had experienced language learning in a very different context. Learning a language was something people did out of love of the language or to be able to travel with greater ease. Now, many of the patrons who regularly came to my desk came to learn French out of necessity. Often, patrons could not speak French or English and did not have the means to ask for what they were looking for in the library. Word must have travelled and as more patrons would come up to our desk we quickly learnt to adapt. Myself and my desk colleagues started to keep a list of languages at the desk, each language written in its own script. We would ask the patron to go through the list until they identified a language, be it Arabic, Pashtu, Urdu, Farsi, or any of the other dozen languages we had listed. Once we had determined the patron’s mother tongue, we would find language-learning materials for them and set them up at a work desk. Eventually, those who kept returning would be able to ask for the materials they wanted in French. It was so rewarding to see patrons’ progress month by month as they moved on to more difficult materials, grew more confident in their abilities, and became more fluent in French.

Home to Ireland

After my time in France, I worked for a short spell at King’s College London. That was cut short by COVID-19. In January of this year, I took up a post in Engagement and Information Services (EIS) at Maynooth University. Returning to Ireland, I was delighted to see similar work to that I had encountered in Paris. Last year, Maynooth University became a University of Sanctuary and we currently have three students who live in Direct Provision undertaking degrees.

Libraries of Sanctuary

New initiatives such as Libraries of Sanctuary are encouraging libraries across the UK and Ireland to strengthen their services to refugees and asylum seekers. Like the Public Information Library in Paris, Libraries of Sanctuary have identified a new need, particularly pronounced over the last few decades, to pay particular attention to emerging communities in their locale, as well as existing ones. A resource pack, created by John Vincent, was released in June 2020 which gives libraries interested in this initiative a roadmap towards being recognised as a Library of Sanctuary.

The first Irish library to qualify for this title was Portlaoise Library on the 10th of March 2020. Librarians worked with communities from the local Direct Provision Centre to foster a space where everyone in the community could find tools and resources which were tailored to them (City of Sanctuary, 2021). At the award ceremony, County Librarian Bernie Folan said on the day;

“Places of Sanctuary is a movement that seeks to promote a culture of welcome in every sphere of society, a network of places of sanctuary where refugees and migrants are welcomed and included. We know that newcomers have a lot to offer, and we believe that as barriers come down and connections are made, the whole of society benefits” (Kiernan, 2020)

Photograph: cityofsanctuary.org

Going Forward

Libraries are in a unique position in that they are situated in almost every village and town in Ireland. Library staff are reaching out to migrant communities in their area and provide much needed services. They are a bridge for new communities, providing services to all. The first library to be awarded this the title of Library of Sanctuary, Thimblemill Library in the West Midlands in England, offered a number of services to emerging communities in their area such as ESOL classes for those who wanted to improve their English, welfare and asylum sessions to help with the mental and physical impacts seeking asylum can cause, and “Welcome to Your Area” events that aim to introduce locals to each other and allow newcomers to feel welcome (Vincent & Clark, 2020). It’s exciting to see this work being recognised and encouraged in libraries. Over the next few years, I hope many more libraries all over Ireland will continue to develop their services for refugees and asylum seekers. Public libraries have a key role in creating an inclusive and welcoming society.

More information on moving forward with qualifying for the title of Library of Sanctuary can be found at the Irish City of Sanctuary group’s contact us page. The Library Association of Ireland’s Career Development Group will also be holding an information evening later this year where John Vincent, the creator of the Libraries of Sanctuary resource pack, along with other speakers, will discuss the process of qualifying for the Library of Sanctuary title. In order to be the first to hear about booking information for this event, be sure to sign up to the LAI’s Career Development Group’s mailing list, or follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

References

Kiernan, L., 2020. Launch: Multicultural Portlaoise to receive Library of Sanctuary award. [online] Leinsterexpress.ie. [Accessed 9 March 2021].

Places of Sanctuary Ireland. 2021. Portlaoise Celebrates Ireland’s First Library of Sanctuary. [online] [Accessed 9 March 2021].

Sinnott Solicitors. 2015. Direct Provision 'A Severe Violation of Human Rights' - Sinnott Solicitors. [online]  [Accessed 9 March 2021].

Vincent, J., 2020. Libraries of Sanctuary Resource Pack. [ebook] City of Sanctuary. Available at: [Accessed 9 March 2021].

Vincent, J. and Clark, B., 2020. Libraries of Sanctuary. Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues, 30(1), pp.6-7.

Read More