We are packing up and moving to the Mitchell Library over the next couple of weeks. The library office at Parnie Street is now closed to visitors while we pack boxes and get ready to move. We will open our doors at the new Glasgow Women’s Library at 15 Berkeley Street (the old Anderston Library space at the Mitchell) on Monday 6th September 2010.

Supporters of the library will know that we have been fundraising to renovate the new space. The (rather abrupt) shift in our moving date means that we are moving into the Mitchell before the renovations are carried out, and our fundraising will continue. Indeed, we are stepping up our fundraising with the upcoming Auction of Pleasures on Friday 17th September at St Andrew’s in the Square, which promises to be a spectacular evening.

And believe it or not in amongst organising the move we still have produced a full and fantastic programme of lifelong learning events kicking off in our new home in the Autumn! Take a look at our calendar: from fantastic films and singular stories to our the latest in our ever-popular Women’s Heritage Walks, there’s sure to be something for you.

GWL @ the Mitchell

Our new address is: 15 Berkeley Street, Glasgow G3 7BW and our new telephone number is 0141 248 9969

View Glasgow Women’s Library in a larger map

We’ll be getting a new telephone number from next week, but at the moment you can still contact us on 0141 552 8345

You can now contact us on our new telephone number 0141 248 9969 or by calling our new mobile number 07783 975 044 during office hours. You can, of course, always contact us through the website or via email at info[at]womenslibrary.org.uk. We’re also on Facebook and Twitter – come by and say hello online while we’re closed offline!

Bear with us while we move – and we hope to see you at the Mitchell when we reopen on 6th September!

The Blue Spine installation at the Mitchell Library on Saturday 19th June 2010

On Saturday 19th June, Shauna McMullan presented her Blue Spine installation at the Mitchell Library. Over 500 books spanned the Jeffrey room, each with a blue spine, written by a woman and donated by women from across Scotland.

Visitors to the Blue Spine installation

The books made a fascinating and illuminating display, covering a whole range of subjects, with fiction, non-fiction and poetry – choices both popular and obscure, and very often personal. A list of the books, and those who contributed, is available to download:

Download: Blue Spine Book List (pdf)
Download: Blue Spine Contributors (pdf)

Many of the contributors were able to take part in a photograph of the exhibit in the afternoon.

Blue Spine contributers at the installation

More images of the Blue Spine installation are available on Flickr, or you can watch a slideshow below.

Shauna spoke to Radio Scotland’s Book Cafe about the Blue Spine project – broadcast on 28th June, it’s available for listening on the BBC iPlayer until the end of this week.

Photographs by Alan Dimmick.

Blue Spine is a collective project, involving contributions from hundreds of women across Scotland. If you would like more information, please follow this link: http://makingspace.womenslibrary.org.uk/2010/03/31/blue-spine-invite/

This is a free event and booking is not necessary, but we would appreciate if you could let us know if you are coming, either by phone (0141 552 8345) or email (info@womenslibrary.org.uk). Thank you.

Thursday 17 June 2010, 4pm to 5pm at The Mitchell Library

There will also be a chance to buy copies of the readers work and have them signed.

Louise Welsh
After a sell out event at Aye Write in March this is a great opportunity to hear Louise reading some of her short story work about Polish migrants coming to Scotland, included in the anothology Shattered (polygon) which was published in support of Victim Support Glasgow, written and published in 2009. Louise Welsh is a writer living and working in Glasgow. She is the author of three novels: The Cutting Room (2002), The Bullet Trick (2006) and Naming the Bones (March 2010), and one novella Tamburlaine Must Die (2004) all published by Canongate Books. She’s also produced many short stories and articles and written for radio and the stage including a libretto for opera.

Leela Soma
Have you read a book about Glasgow seen through the eyes of first generation Indians? Leela Soma’s novel `Twice Born’ does just that. The novel peels away the layers and presents the simmering progress of a young couple from India’s life in Glasgow. Straddling the two cultures, putting down their roots while not forgetting their liberal family values steeped in an ancient culture is a delicate balance for them.

Joyce Ito and Sarah Ward
Joyce and Sarah worked on a community anthology called “Words About Whiteinch” which included stories from female asylum seekers and is the culmination of a year of hard work gathering and editing stories in partnership with The Whiteinch Centre. The book is beautifully illustrated by artist Annabel Wright.

Booking is essential. For more information or to book your place click here to send us an email or you can call us on 0141 552 8345

Blue Spine is a collective project, involving contributions from hundreds of women across Scotland. If you would like more information, please follow this link: http://makingspace.womenslibrary.org.uk/2010/03/31/blue-spine-invite/

This is a free event and booking is not necessary, but we would appreciate if you could let us know if you are coming, either by phone (0141 552 8345) or email (info@womenslibrary.org.uk). Thank you.

One Small Step is a free national event for women across Scotland, hosted by Glasgow Women’s Library and Paths For All.

This event offers an informative and inspirational day for those who want to find out more about developing walks for women. The aim of the day is to inspire the development of new and existing walking groups; and to encourage the involvement of women of all ages and backgrounds, particularly women from BME and other hard-to-reach communities.

Walking is increasingly being recognised as an inclusive and cost effective way to increase confidence and social contacts and improve physical and mental health.

Glasgow Women’s Library have organised a number of successful women’s heritage walks in Glasgow and now support groups across Scotland in developing women’s heritage walks. They also offer a unique lifelong learning programme to women in Glasgow and across Scotland.

Paths For All is the national charity promoting walking for health and the development of a multi-use path network in Scotland. It is the leading national organisation promoting the health benefits of walking and supporting people in walking for health.

10am-4pm, Tuesday 23rd March 2010, Mitchell Library, Glasgow

If you are interested in this event, please download the forms below. Once you have completed the Booking Form and the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form, please send it to info@womenslibrary.org.uk. Or you can send it by post to 81 Parnie Street, Glasgow, G1 5HW. If you would like any more information about the event, please call us on 0141 552 8345.

Places are limited, so book soon to avoid disappointment!

Download: One Small Step Conference Information

Download: One Small Step Booking Form

Download: Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form

Drop in and browse, pick up a few books for the beach (or the commute!) and help us raise money to renovate the old Anderston Library space for the future Women’s Library.

Thursday, 25 June, 12-6pm
in the future Women’s Library at The Mitchell Library, Berkeley Street

Please come along, and if you want to find out what we are raising the funds for then why not join in our Moving On Up event.

Nothing can stop us – but you can help!
Glasgow Women’s Library will be moving to the Mitchell in 2010, and we want your help to make the new library as fun, friendly and accessible as possible.

We’d like to invite you to our Transition Cafe at the new space, where we’ll be sharing our ideas for the future, and asking you what you’d like to see, hear and feel in the new Women’s Library.

We want your answers to these and other questions.

Thursday, 25 June in the future Women’s Library
at The Mitchell Library, Berkeley Street
Lunchtime Session: 12-1.30pm
Evening Session: 6-7.30pm

Please let us know if you would like to come to either session. Call us on 0141 552 8345 or contact us through the website.

Now there is more exciting news and more success. The Robertson Trust has awarded us £75,000 towards building costs to construct our education / lifelong learning floor in the Mitchell premises. Thank you Robertson Trust! It is no easy feat to secure this level of funding from this highly respected giver of grants, and we are overjoyed.

That’s £300,000 secured – quite a few noughts still to go but it’s looking good!

In the meantime – Women on the Shelf! Check out this new fundraising initiative and invest your support. Every penny goes towards the building fund. For as little as a tenner you will be part of history in the new Women’s Library of Scotland.

On with the work (after a cup of tea – oh, there goes a Twitter).

Volunteer role: New Neighbourhood Research Assistant
Type of work: Networking, administration, information and data gathering, promotional
Supervision: Creative Development Manager
Average weekly hours required: 7 hours, daytime
Minimum period of volunteering required: 3 months

Volunteer tasks description:

This volunteering opportunity will be involved working on a recently developed project that will enable the organisation to get to know its future new neighbourhood in a One Mile radius around the Mitchell Library. Tasks will include getting to know the whole Library team and their work, keeping accurate records, making contact with a very wide range of different groups, individuals and organisations and helping promote the Library’s work to a broad range of new potential partners, learners and service users.

Essential skills and qualities required:

• Confidence with computer programmes
• Database entry and management and web searching
• Confident and friendly telephone manner
• Confident and capable of working independently
• Eagerness to learn
• Willingness to adapt (GWL is a busy working environment with no dedicated reception staff, all staff currently share in tasks including welcoming learners, keeping the space tidy and answering the phone)

If you are interested in this Volunteer Post, please download and fill in the GWL Volunteer Application Form and send the completed form back to: Glasgow Women’s Library, 2nd Floor, 81 Parnie Street, Glasgow, G1 5RH.