 A royally good time to celebrate The Queen's jubilee
We have so much going on in our libraries to mark The Queen's 70 years of service!
Meredith Towne is celebrating the jubilee in style by hosting a costume presentation at Wokingham Library on Wednesday 18 May.
You can join her from 2pm to 3.30pm, although pre-booking is essential and it costs £6 to attend. If you are coming, pay on the day at the library. You can find out more and book your place online.
Join us to discuss your memories of jubilees in times past. The first of these sessions is at Lower Earley Library on Monday 23 May from 10.30am to 12 noon and the second is at Wokingham Library on Monday 30 May from 2pm to 3pm.
Enjoy a chat with some tea or coffee and cake and tell us what you remember about royal celebrations in years gone by.
Rosemary Everritt from the Berkshire Record Office is giving an online talk that celebrates The Queen's long connection with the Royal County on Tuesday 24 May.
The talk 'HM Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal County of Berkshire' will cover local events held for the Queen's coronation, previous jubilees and other visits. This free event will be held on Microsoft Teams and joining information and a link will be sent out the day before the talk. You can find out more and book your place online.
This coincides with a new exhibition 'Happy and Glorious' held at the Berkshire Record Office in Reading from Thursday 26 May to Friday 26 August.
Visit our libraries in May and June and enjoy our displays about the Big Jubilee Read, which celebrates authors from the Commonwealth over the past seven decades.
You can visit our news website to read all about the events we're running to celebrate The Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
It is also possible to play your part in the celebrations through our Engage website, where you can:
 Activities for children running across our libraries
Very much on theme for the jubilee, the Platinum Fairy will tell you all about the royal spring ball, before you get the chance to make your own wand.
These storytelling and craft sessions are taking place at Woodley Library from 11am to 12 noon and at Wokingham Library from 1pm to 2pm on Monday 30 May.
Get arty with royal-themed crafting for children aged four to nine. Sessions are taking place at libraries across the borough on the following days:
For all of the above activities, places must be booked in advance and the cost is £1 per child, which can be paid on the day. You can find out more about our library events online.
 Acclaimed author to give talk on royal way of life
Royal biographer Matthew Dennison is helping to boost our jubilee celebrations by joining us for a digital talk next month.
This is part of our Authors Online series and his talk is being held on Wednesday 8 June, from 7pm to 8pm.
The critically-acclaimed author published his first biography, The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter, in 2007.
His latest book The Queen, which is a comprehensive account of The Queen's life, will be released in paperback next month.
He is a regular for the Telegraph and Country Life and he also contributed to ‘Queen Victoria’s Children’ and ‘Royal Cousins at War’ for BBC Two and ‘The Queen’s Longest Reign’ for BBC One.
This is a free online session taking place on Microsoft Teams. Attendees will be sent joining information and a link the day before the event. You can find out more and book by visiting the libraries webpages.
 Sculptor asking for your thoughts on arc-work
Sculptor Nicola Anthony is hosting two creative workshops to capture your thoughts for her public sculpture. Known as The Arc, the sculpture will sit in front of the new Carnival Hub in Wokingham, which includes a large leisure centre, library and cultural use.
The first of these interactive events is being held at Wokingham Library on Saturday 21 May from 9.30am to 11.30am. The second session runs from 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
During these free workshops, she will also help you learn about pattern making, drawing and how to be more creative in your day-to-day life.
Anyone who wants their story told through her work is welcome to share it, or they can do so anonymously afterwards. You can find out more and book by visiting the libraries webpages.
Image provided by Nicola Anthony
Virtual talk: Future looking bright for women in art
Join visual artist Chris Holley on Thursday 19 May for the third and final installment of her Women in Art series. This time, she is focussing on 'new kids on the block' and the future for women in art.
The illustrated talk will run from 2pm to 3pm and it is free to attend. This is a virtual session and will take place on Microsoft Teams. Information on how to join will be sent to your email the day before the event.
You can find out more and book by visiting the libraries webpages.
 Learn about history of Wokingham with guided walk
Join us for a guided heritage walk around Wokingham town centre as Peter Must from the Wokingham Society shares some fascinating facts.
Those taking part should meet at the café at Wokingham Library at 10.30am on Wednesday 25 May. This is a free event and will run until 12 noon.
You can find out more and book by visiting the libraries webpages.
Read all about it: Access newspaper archives
You can now access the British Newspaper Archive on the computers in any of our libraries.
This resource contains more than 50 million scanned newspaper pages from almost 2,000 local and national newspaper titles, with issues dating from the 1700s to the 2000s.
Using a library computer, you can set up an account and then login and search the database. You can search by keyword, name, location, date and title. You are then able to save your results, login and view them at home, but you will have to use the library computers to carry out any further searches.
You can find out more about the service on our website.
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