Libraries Restricted Opening Times and Services
Following national lockdown restrictions announced 4th January, libraries are following government guidance and have temporarily reduced the range of services.
Libraries still have a huge range of online services, including e-books, digital magazines and newspapers, virtual story-times and craft sessions available to you 24/7. Please check the Libraries page on the MCC website for more details.
Knitting with Christmas Spirit for MacMillan
For many years now at Christmas time, Barbera one of the coffee morning volunteers at Gorton Library has brought in some beautifully knitted Santa's for the MacMillan team to raffle for charity. These charming creations are knitted by a lady called Jean who is a long-term friend of Barbera's. Jean knits several of these Santa's through the year in preparation for Christmas ready for the raffle, showing the true meaning of Christmas! This year, Sue from Gorton library delivered Jeans creations to Debbie from Macmillan, based at Wythenshawe Hospital where they can raise funds as well as spread joy to those who get to take their very own knitted Santa home.
Manchester - A UNESCO City of Literature
Our friends at Manchester City of Literature have shared a video about why Manchester deserves the UNESCO designation of City of Literature, and libraries are a key part of this. Watch here! They also have a new website with a 'What's On' listing for events, readings and activities in Manchester.
Reaching out to Library Customers in Northenden
Library staff have been keeping in touch with vulnerable customers who have been unable to visit the libraries for various reasons. As some libraries such as Northenden Library remained closed during December, staff arranged a home-delivery service, some have commented on the new ways of working and compared this to how things used to be before the internet. "Do you remember the old days when we didn't have Internet, only letters and the telephone? It was like travelling on a time machine for me".
Kind feedback and appreciation from customers has been very rewarding, staff have explained how reaching out in these new ways has sometime caused initial misunderstanding and suspicion on the other side of the line. However, resulting in lot's of satisfaction knowing that more people can benefit from reading books during the pandemic and know that they have not been forgotten.
Twisted Christmas Tales with Gav Cross
Christmas celebrations with schools took place in December with extraordinary storyteller Gav Cross performing his online Twisted Christmas Tales sessions. Demand for these sessions from schools was unprecedented, with schools wanting multiple classes to attend. As it was Christmas staff invited them all! 19 different schools attended (some to all 3 sessions) with a total of 1,350 children from 45 classes. The session consisted of silly festive stories with a twist and children from different classrooms joined in with the fun online by acting out characters in the stories resulting in lots of silliness, chaos and laughs. There was time at the end to ask questions ranging from: How old is Father Christmas? What's the silliest Christmas fable? to What books can be borrowed from Manchester Libraries?
Some feedback from the children: "I liked that it was interactive". "He was really funny". "I liked how the stories were linked together and how he explained the links between the traditions". "I thought it was cool when he was making faces and noises to go with the stories" "His stories were really interesting"
Supporting Businesses during the Pandemic
As the Reset. Restart programme continues to support businesses through the difficult period of Covid-19 one of the very popular sessions has been with Social Media Strategist Lisa Maynard-Atem (who built the social media portfolio for Harrods). Lisa returned for her third workshop ‘Build Your Brand on Social Media. In this one hour session Lisa talked attendees through the steps they need to think about and do when it comes to creating content and being social online. This was a very interactive session and Lisa also answered lot's of questions at the end.
Upcoming workshops include support in developing entrepreneurs knowledge and skills about branding, finance and protecting their intellectual property. Keep an eye out on the Business & IP Centres Eventbrite page for the latest events including a much needed panel event which Manchester and Leeds BIPC have organised to support people in the music industry: Live Music in 2021, Where do we go from here?
Manchester Youth Council's Reading Group
Following a successful pilot with Manchester Youth Council in November and December, a new Young Peoples Reading Group for ages 13 - 18 years launches this month. Meetings will take place on Zoom on the third Thursday of each month, 7-8pm. At each session young people will be encouraged to share their love of reading with their peers. They will have the opportunity to share their favourite titles and authors by writing book reviews and book recommendations and join in with online discussions about their latest reads.
Prior to the session in December, Community Engagement Officer Siobhan O'Connor and Youth Engagement Officer Jo Aungier delivered Christmas packages to each member of YPRG/MYC containing pamper kits, free books from the Big Book Giveaway and library reading material to cover them over the holiday period. Alex said, "This is a life saver, I'm so happy I've got reading material to cover me over Christmas". Each member was also encouraged to gift the free books to another person in their household. Shahid said, "I gave the joke book to my younger brother, he absolutely loved it". From the partnership with the Youth Engagement Team, another added bonus of joining the reading group is access to Kloodle, the Skills for Life app, where young people can record new skills, complete tasks such as book reviews and much more.
Donated old smart phones to help vulnerable people
Do you have an old smartphone that you don’t need anymore? You can donate it at your local library to help vulnerable people in Manchester. O2, Hubbub and Manchester City Council are working with local organisations across the region, to reduce the digital divide and help people get connected. Read more at the Manchester Libraries blog.
Winter Wellbeing with Brunswick Parish Church
In December Archives+ delivered a local history Zoom session with members of the Brunswick community to celebrate and share memories of Brunswick and Ardwick. During the session library staff shared archive images of the surrounding areas, which did trigger some fond memories of living in these areas. Looking through a 1969 edition of the Kelly's Directory, the participants enjoyed learning who lived in their homes back in 1969 and recalled neighbours long forgotten. This session was part of a series of online Winter Wellbeing sessions in partnership with Brunswick Parish Church, Positive Steps, S4B and BUZZ. Just before the Christmas holidays Archives+ assisted in producing a Winter Wellbeing Lockdown Guide with top tips for getting through the winter lockdown, which contained contributions from the community, artists involved in the project and the partners.
North Manchester libraries
Lot's of families and regular customers at the libraries in North Manchester have all collected their Winter Activity Bags for children. Each branch had 50 packs to give away filled with great craft activities plus a free gift of a book to choose, it was definitely first come, first served as they went flying out of the doors. Parents also said how impressive the activity bags were because they were packed with lots of great things to do and make.
Also, just to show that especially at Christmas, library staff and our communities just wanna have fun, Avenue Library staff decided to challenge Strictly to its own game with their very own Age-Friendly Strictly dance sequence. Avenue Library has never looked so glamorous, there were disco lights, the glitter ball and a star-studded cast of Library staff strutted their funky stuff to show that our Libraries are all Age-Friendly and that, with the right attitude, being older just means that you get to have more fun than ever!
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