By work experience student and digital poet Alfie Wilson.
If you ask people what a Library means to them, first of all they will probably look at you like you’re a crazy person before proceeding to tell you that libraries are old, boring and – of course – quiet. While Libraries are hardly the noisiest places on Earth, doing work experience across Bradford Libraries I have realised that Libraries are loud and boisterous in there own ways: they are the heart of our communities.
Last Saturday in celebration of the National Year of Reading and The Summer Reading Challenge, the cascade of books at Keighley Library were amped up and brought to life as the 120 year old Library was transformed into a blaring wrestling ring. Over 200 people came to watch wrestlers enact classic stories: kids cheered as Theseus brought the Minotour crashing to the ground, laughed as David (Ben Angel – aged 13) ‘kneed’ the giant Goliath in the face and (most importantly) had their imaginations sparked as they saw the stories they love brought to life.
While it isn’t everyday you see people battling it out by the geography section, the way we interact with books and the role Libraries play in our communities is always changing to meet its community where they’re at. From loaning major-title ebooks for free on our BorrowBox app to running rapping workshops to get kids reading for The Summer Reading Challenge, Libraries are (and always have been) a place for stories and wonder – and if the way that looks is starting to change that just makes things even more exciting!
This doesn’t just stop with activities for children though – Libraries are constantly evolving to get more adults involved with their local Library too. Shipley Library has been running outdoor workshops to make the most of its beautiful garden space, bringing together adults every month to get outside, connect with nature and meet new people from their community by coming into the Library. This week the group had a go at Hapa-zome, a Japanese technique of hammering leaves and flowers to extract their natural dyes and patterns, to transfer the vibrant colours and textures of our garden onto pieces of cloth (have a look at some of the designs they made below!).
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Shipley Business Hub – VR poetry tours – the UK’s first wrestling match in a Library: Bradford Libraries are leading the way for what Libraries CAN look like.
Yes, a Library will always be a semi-old building filled with books – but why does that have to be a bad thing? Spending the week seeing behind the scenes and working with different teams to see how they turn their wacky ideas into a reality, it is clear to me that all Libraries are mines of potential just waiting to be turned into a wrestling ring, or a centre for local business, or whatever the community needs it to be.
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