Glasgow Women’s Library today announced plans to take their Library, Museum and Archive to new heights with the launch of their Space Outpost Mission. The Mission, which will see a team of five GWL Astronauts sent into space, will establish the first off-Earth lending library. Residents of the International Space Station will be amongst the first visitors but it is hoped that the general public will be able to visit the Space Outpost by 2025.
Daisy Faropoll, newly appointed Director of Flight Operations, laid out plans for the next five years of the mission:
“We’re so excited to get started with the Glasgow Women’s Library Space Outpost Mission. GWL has grown from the grassroots and we’ve achieved so much with relatively few resources in our 27 year history – why not take all that learning and apply it to a new challenge? We’ll be working with the brightest women working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) as well as running a programme to inspire future generations of astronauts, engineers, off-Earth librarians and more.”
The first stages of the mission will include an innovative new space shuttle design with storage space for the capsule collection of books by women writers, as well as touring temporary exhibitions that will examine women’s history and historical and contemporary inequality.
“We think it’s important to get all the details right before we take any of the shuttles up but we’re confident that we can deliver this project within the five year timescale. Having a GWL Space Outpost will mean that the sky is no longer the limit for our organisation! We also want to reassure borrowers that our policy of no library fines will continue at the Outpost and anyone making their way through the bitter cold of outer space will of course be offered a warm welcome and a cup of tea.”
Further details about the Space Outpost Mission will be published as the project progresses. In the meantime, take a look at these titles from the GWL lending library collection that tell the amazing stories of women in space.
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