Last week we were joined by thirteen volunteers, some old friends and some new faces from across the city, to kick off our local history research project. We’re really interested in learning more about the history of The Old Library & our local area by building up a picture of how it’s changed over the years using historic research and people’s memories of living in Tuebrook.  What we discover will generate community heritage activities, help us plan our archaeological dig, inform the historic displays inside the finished building and hopefully produce a local history book by the end of the project.

We ran two training days for our volunteers with Vanessa and colleagues from the Museum of Liverpool. On the first day we got together at Amber House on Green Lane, where we had a great view of The Old Library next door through the meeting room window, to start talking about the different topics people were interested in researching. Having such a big group is great as it means we can look into lots of different aspects of our local heritage over the next few months.

We also started looking at historic maps from the 1890s right up to present day to see how the landscape has changed over time. There’s definitely some interesting work to be done here and we’re keen to find out about things like street names, buildings that have appeared or disappeared and the people living in neighbouring roads who might have used the library over the years.

Our second training day kicked off at Central Library where we were given a fantastic tour by Roger who showed us all the different resources we can use such as maps, newspapers, census data and online databases – we were really impressed to have such an amazing facility in our city! We also saw behind the scenes of the archives rooms and Roger had kindly found some historic documents and photos relating to the library which we’ll be back to take a closer look at.

We then walked down to the Museum of Liverpool where Vanessa showed us some of the finds from the Pembroke Place archaeological dig before Liz Stewart, Curator of Archaeology & the Built Environment, gave us a tour of the Museum to explain how a combination of archaeological exploration has developed what’s on display in the museum. 

Finally, we looked round the Galkoff’s exhibition which is the culmination of a two year project involving almost 70 research volunteers. Although our display in The Old Library probably won’t be quite the same scale, it was really inspiring to hear about all the fascinating stories the volunteers had uncovered through their work and got us really excited for our own project.

Over the next few months, our volunteer team will start looking into their chosen topics and we’ll be meeting up again in February to see what we’ve learnt so far so watch this space for updates – who knows what we might find!

From 3rd-9th December, National Lottery players enjoyed free entry to a range of sites across the country to celebrate their support for Lottery funded projects. Although we can't open our doors just yet, we made this video to give you a sneak peek inside The Old Library and say thank you on behalf of all the people who will benefit from it.

#ThanksToYou we can bring this amazing building back to life in our community.

Wednesday 5th December was International Volunteer Day and we celebrated with some of our amazing volunteers over tea and cake. As we approach the end of the year, we wanted to look back and say thank you for all the help we’ve received in 2018:

•    Since June, we’ve received almost 200 hours in voluntary help and 20 new people have supported The Old Library project through activities such as clearing The Old Library grounds, recording graffiti on the back of the building & promoting the project at various events.

•    We also have five trustees who help to look after Lister Steps all year round, with two more applicant trustees in the pipeline. Two of our trustees have been with Lister Steps since the very start and have given so much in terms of their expertise and undying commitment.

•    One of our childcare volunteers, Victoria, has been with us for 17 years and was presented with an award last year to celebrate her amazing commitment and work ethic. We’re proud to welcome volunteers with all abilities and partner with North West Community services to allow adults with additional needs opportunities to gain valuable work experience.

•    With our volunteers’ help, we’ve reached almost 500 people through our project events & activities throughout 2018.

Construction work is due to start early next year and we’re looking forward to welcoming new faces to our volunteer team, helping us to reach more people in our local community and spreading the word about how everyone can get involved with The Old Library project.

If you’re looking for a new challenge in 2019 or want to meet new people and learn new skills, keep an eye on our volunteering page for opportunities throughout the year!