 The Staffordshire History Festival has only just begun!
The Staffordshire History Festival is Staffordshire Library and Arts’ and Archive and Heritage’s two-month celebration of our local history and cultural heritage in Staffordshire and beyond.
Explore what is going on by using the hashtag #StaffsHistFest on social media
Highlights in October include the Perton Library History Fair on 7th October, Their Finest Hour Digital Collection Days at Perton Library on 19th October and Burton Library on 21st October. Explore a display of discoveries made by metal detectorist Geoff Banks at Stone Library, discover Haunted Staffordshire in a display at Stafford Library, join a History Hunters session at Cannock or Rugeley Library and much more!
We will continue with history eBook and eAudio recommendations for titles that can be borrowed from the eLibrary, including titles for Black History Month.
Visit our eLibrary for more information or to start borrowing!
Find all of our events
Have you attended a library event or visited an exhibition during this year's Staffordshire History Festival? We would love to hear from you if you can spare a couple of minutes to complete this simple survey
 Celebrate Your Library this Libraries Week
Libraries Week is an annual showcase and celebration of the best that libraries have to offer. Each year we pick a theme and explore the innovative and surprising things that libraries are doing to support their communities.
In 2023, Libraries Week becomes Green Libraries Week! Between the 2nd and 8th October, libraries nationwide are celebrating the work going on in libraries across the UK focused on sustainability and climate change.
Find out more or visit your local library.
Test your knowledge of libraries with this fun quiz!
Family History - Online Basics
Why not join a FREE online session and begin your journey to discover your past.
Thursday 19th October 7:30pm - 9:00pm
This session will cover
- basic guidance on carrying out and organising your research
- records available online through Ancestry.com and hints and tips for making the most of what you find
- other online sources of records and information
If you have already started your research and have any questions, there will be some time for those at the end of the session.
The session will be delivered on Microsoft Teams
After booking, a link will be provided in the Order Confirmation email.
The link can be accessed through an internet browser or via the Teams app which can be downloaded free through Google Play or the Apple App Store on your device.
Find out more and reserve a place
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 Explore Black History this October
October is Black History Month in the UK. This national celebration aims to promote and celebrate Black contributions to British society, and to foster an understanding of Black history in general.
Its origins go back to the 1920s in the United States with a week of celebrations. This evolved into Black History Month and was marked every February, the month being chosen because of the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass, the African American social reformer and Abraham Lincoln, the president who ‘freed the slaves'. In the UK it was launched in the 1980s in London and was largely the result of local community activism challenging racism in general in British society and the Eurocentric version of history that dominated the state school system.
To find out more please visit https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/ or @BhmUK on Twitter or @blackhistorymonthuk on Facebook.
Why not try out our specially created quiz on Staffordshire's Black History
Explore the history displays on your next visit to your local library or visit the Borrowbox App or eLibrary
 It takes just one poem...
National Poetry Day is the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends. Each year we come together because voices, words and stories help to bridge understanding in our community.
This year, National Poetry Day is on Thursday 5 October 2023.
The theme is Refuge.
Why not have a browse of your local library's poetry collection when you visit next or find out more about National Poetry Day.
 Their Finest Hour Digital Collection Days
Perton Library Thursday 19 October 2:30pm-6pm
Burton Library Saturday 21 October 10:00am - 3:00pm
Do you have any items related to the Second World War? Would you like to share and preserve these objects and stories for future generations?
Bring your diaries, letters, photographs, memoirs, objects or stories about your family’s experience in the war to Perton Library on 19th October or Burton Library on 21st October to be recorded and added to our freely-available, online archive.
Volunteers will be on hand to welcome you and help record your story and photograph your objects.
The event is part of a nationwide campaign organised by Their Finest Hour, a team based at the University of Oxford and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which is collecting and preserving the everyday stories and objects of the Second World War.
The Perton Library event is an open drop-in, but booking is required to attend the Burton day. Please book here
If you have any questions about the event, please contact perton.library@staffordshire.gov.uk or burton.library@staffordshire.gov.uk
For more information about the project, please visit the project website (theirfinesthour.org).
 Local History Study Day
Saturday 18 November 10am – 3pm Chasewater Innovation Centre, Chasewater Country Park, WV8 7NL
This free event will feature a packed programme of speakers, family history workshops and displays from local history societies, museums and heritage sites.
Join the Archives and Heritage Service and Staffordshire Library Service for a delve into the history of our county. The day will include workshops supporting family history research and we will be joined by local history societies and museums who will be on hand to chat about their work and sites.
Refreshments will be available in the Chasewater Innovation Centre cafe. Ample parking is available (charges apply).
To book please follow the link to our Eventbrite page.
 New Borrowbox titles, with no queuing, for you this Autumn
Available from 1st October
Borrow, download & enjoy instant ebooks & eAudios with @BorrowBox – your library in one app. New titles with no queues, including
Find them Dead by Peter James
Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk
The Girl on he 88 Bus by Freya Sampson
Use the Borrowbox App or visit our eLibrary
 Touring Exhibitions to visit this October in Staffordshire
Libraries and other venues are hosting a wide range of exhibitions this Autumn, many in partnership with the Archives and Heritage Team.
All are available to view during normal open hours.
Great Haywood, Past and Present, People and Places
Rugeley Library 7 September to 12 October
Keeping the Lights On – A history of Rugeley Power Station
Cannock Library 1 September - 13 October
Rugeley Library 13 October – 24 November
Our County, Our Climate - Exploring The Historical Impact Of Climate Change On Staffordshire People
Tamworth Library 5 September – 3 October
Rugeley Library 3 October – 7 November
A Case for the Ordinary – the patient experience at Staffordshire’s Asylums
Ancient High House, Stafford 9 September – 12 December
NHS Retirement Fellowship Heritage Exhibition
Stafford Library 2 October (for 1 week)
Cannock Library 9 October (for 1 week)
Newcastle Library 16 October (for 1 week)
Biddulph Library 23 October (for 1 week)
Perton Library 13 November (for 1 week)
 Dig into History this October
Discover history at your library and on Borrowbox. We have lots of new and interesting titles from leading historians and the best in historical fiction.
Explore the history displays on your next visit to your local library or visit the Borrowbox App or eLibrary
Introduction to Family History
A Community Learning 5 Week Online Course
On this online genealogy course, you will learn how to trace your Family History via the Internet, access various websites and construct a family tree. You will gain an understanding of basic techniques and discover what the records can tell us, piecing together information from different sources.
Starting 6th November 7pm-8pm
For more information or to book please visit the online booking form or e-mail communitylearning@staffordshire.gov.uk
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 The Wolfson History Prize 2023
The six books shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, the UK's most prestigious history writing prize, have been announced, celebrating the best historical non-fiction books from the past year.
Bringing new stories from history to light, and challenging readers to rethink accepted historical narratives, the topical Wolfson History Prize shortlist explores themes that are pertinent to current world events.
Spanning centuries and continents, political and personal histories, the Wolfson History Prize 2023 shortlist takes readers from the plague-ridden streets of fourteenth-century Europe to the densely populated alleyways of Dickensian London, travels to the court of eighteenth-century China and the underground resistance
movements of Nazi-occupied Europe, and journeys through the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain, via the history of the book itself.
Celebrating books that combine excellent research with readability, the books shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2023 are:
• African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History by Hakim Adi (Allen Lane)
• The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich (Princeton University Press)
• The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire by Henrietta Harrison (Princeton University Press)
• Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth Century London by Oskar Jensen (Duckworth Books)
• Resistance: The Underground War in Europe 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski (Allen Lane)
• Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith (Allen Lane).
You can borrow or reserve the books from your library. Some are also available to borrow or reserve on the Borrowbox App.
To learn more about the Wolfson History Prize, please visit www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk/ or connect on Twitter via @WolfsonHistory / #WolfsonHistoryPrize.
Get Online Week
16-22 October
Get Online Week is an annual campaign run by leading digital inclusion charity Good Things Foundation, who power the National Device Bank, National Databank, Learn My Way and the National Digital Inclusion Network.
10.2 million people in the UK lack the basic digital skills needed to use the internet (1), with millions still living without access to a device or data to get connected. Unable to connect with loved ones, job and training opportunities and everyday services moving online, people are experiencing digital exclusion and are being left behind. This has caused a digital divide between those connected and those disconnected.
Good Things Foundation are on a mission to fix the digital divide, increasing awareness of digital exclusion and the pillars to tackle it: access to devices, data and digital skills training.
Every year Get Online Week enabled digitally excluded people to learn the essential digital skills needed to get online through free, friendly and fun local events.
Staffordshire Libraries, working with partners across Staffordshire, are here to help.
- Free access to computers in all of our libraries
- Printing and scanning facilities available
- Free WiFi
- A range of useful online resources and links to reliable websites
- Online Library catalogue & eLibrary
- Staff and IT Buddies to help on site
- Courses, many run by our friends in the Staffordshire Community Learning Team, and work clubs to support people with digital skills at some libraries
- Libraries support the Donate IT scheme in Staffordshire helping get devices to those who need them
- And much more...just ask us…
Find out more about Get Online Week or search for @GetOnlineWeek on Twitter or search for the hashtags #GetOnlineWeek and #TryOneThing on social media.
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Get Digital in Staffordshire for FREE with a Community Learning course!
Whether you’re an absolute beginner or have some existing digital skills, we have a range of courses to suit.
Learn new skills in a community venue near you, find out more: https://staffordshirecommunitylearning.org.uk
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