We had a brilliant turn out at our local history talks evening on 16th October, with 60 people joining us at St Cecilia's Club to hear from our speakers.

First up was Dr Oriel Prizeman from Cardiff University who has been investigating surviving Carnegie libraries, both in the UK and the USA, to see how they're being used today. Oriel gave us a fascinating insight into the similar design features of many of these libraries, which were built to reflect the environmental challenges of the time, and explained how she has been using laser scanning software to map the buildings in greater detail. As Lister Steps & The Old Library are one of the partners in her ongoing research project, we're looking forward to seeing how this work progresses over the next few years.

We then heard from Katie Taylor, one of our research volunteers, who told us about the impact of the public library movement on children, the kind of books they might have read in the early days of the Lister Drive Library and the strict rules that they had to follow!

During the break, we were able to look at some of the finds from our archaeological dig back in June which were brought along by Vanessa Oakden, Curator of Community Archaeology at the Museum of Liverpool. Vanessa talked us through the process of the dig - including when we had to reschedule it due to heavy rain! - which led to the discovery of 582 finds and the foundations of 19th century Brook Cottage, which stood on The Old Library site in the1800s.

Next up was Susan Bennett, another of our research volunteers, who has been looking into the history of the three local streets - Russian Drive, Kremlin Drive & Moscow Drive. This is a huge task which involves going back through each house to see who has lived there since the 1860s, generating a spreadsheet with over 4000 entries! It's shown us a really interesting picture of the diversity of our local neighbourhood through the years, the huge range of occupations & the varied lives people have lived right on the doorstep of the library.

We finished off with Kate Deegan-Munro, also a member of the volunteer team, who entertained us with a fictional account of the day in the life of a boy-runner, based on her research into the people who used to work in Liverpool's public libraries when they first opened.

A huge thank you to our speakers for putting so much time and effort into their presentations and giving up their evening to share their work with our community. It was a really enjoyable event and it was great to meet so many people who are interested in the history of the local area. With such a positive response, we're looking forward to putting on similar events when we're up and running in the library!

Wow, we've had some fantastic entries for our September photo competition theme 'Liverpool's Heritage'. It's been great to see people's creative shots of The Old Library after our Heritage Open Days but also to see images from across our city which has so much history and so many interesting stories to tell.

However, as always there can only be one winner and this month we've chosen Jim Burrows' shot of the ceiling of the Princes Road Synagogue. We love the light and rich colours brought to life in this image, as well as how it reflects the diversity of Liverpool's culture and heritage. Congratulations Jim! You can see more of the stunning images we received this month in our gallery below.

Now that the days are getting a little darker and colder, we've decided that the theme for October will be COLOURS to cheer us all up. We've left this open to interpretation so are looking forward to seeing lots of creative shots from across our vibrant city and we love seeing photos from L13 and surrounding areas. To enter, send your entries to info@old-library.co.uk by 25th October for the chance to be our next winner.

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Macmillan Coffee morning and baked, bought & cake. We had a lovely morning meeting old friends and new, plus we raised around £120 for a fantastic cause! 

Right, what has fifteen legs and makes great videos? The answer, of course, is the six Community Journalists who, thanks to Lister Steps and Jon and Paul from Periscope Productions, have been transformed from ardent amateurs to, well, if not quite the Steven Spielbergs of this parish, to a group who have acquired the necessary skills to put together a series of short videos charting the progress of the Lister Steps Project to be uploaded to the likes of Facebook.
 
We were quite a diverse band, ranging from an A-Level student to a grey haired old codger whose refusal to enter the 21st century was evident by his initial enquiry as to where does the roll of film go in a digital camera (the Periscope lads knew they had a job on with this dinosaur – I’ll own up, it was me).
 
But, over six three-hour sessions in July and August (the first four at our very own Lister Steps and the remaining two at Periscope’s state of the art studios in Bootle) , we were taught how to interview people; camera techniques; lighting principles; video and audio editing; and how to upload the finished product to the relevant social media platform.
 
Special thanks must go to Jon and Paul from Periscope whose enthusiasm was so contagious that each three hour session flew by – and this from a man who hurls abuse at the inanimate objects such as traffic lights which have been on red for more than three seconds. Honestly, they could convert the world to a planet of Marmite lovers if they put their minds to it.
 
And thanks to the fabulous Lister Steps for facilitating this course. Seriously, we enjoyed every single minute of it and, from a personal perspective, I met a great bunch of people, so thanks to you as well.
 
So, we’ve got the journalists, all we need now is the community i.e. YOU! Happy to be filmed, giving your views, getting involved and helping us to record the rebirth of the library and the progress of the Project and the benefits it will bring to your community.
 
By the way I cheated – six people equals twelve legs I know; but I counted in the three legs of the camera tripod; an essential part of the team!
 
Steve Sneade, Community Journalist (yes, the grey haired dinosaur …)
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Our theme for August was the Great British Summer Time and we were very impressed that none of the entries included any rain, given the somewhat soggy summer we've had! Our chosen winner this month is Niall Cullen with this dreamy summer shot - congratulations Niall! You can check out some of the other entries below. All winners will feature in our 2020 calendar and be in with the chance of winning our overall prize of a camera at the end of the year.

The theme for September is 'Liverpool's Heritage' which conveniently coincides with the 2019 Heritage Open Days Festival and The Old Library tours on 14th & 15th September (click here to book your free tickets). Why not make the most of this opportunity to get up close to some of the fabulous historic sites offering free entry across the city? Send your snaps to info@old-library.co.uk by 25th September for the chance to be our next winner.

Throughout August, our Summer Holiday Playscheme children joined forces with our friends at Lister Drive Artists to create some inter-generational pieces of art. Lister Drive Artists are a talented bunch who meet every Monday at Stoneycroft Church, just next door to The Old Library, to paint and sketch in a range of different styles and mediums. You may have seen some of their work or even bought one of their prints at our Summer Fair!

Pat and Dot from Lister Drive Artists kindly offered to come and help run some group art sessions with the children at Lister Steps. During the first week, we thought about what community means and how it makes us feel, then everyone  painted their own tile to express their feelings. We also ran this activity at our Summer Fair so that we can put all these tiles together into a lovely mosaic on the hoardings around the library.

In the second week, we all worked together to create one big piece of art based on nature and the environment. For inspiration, Pat showed us a 5ft canvas that she spent 6 months working on and told us all about the different plants and animals that she had rec-created. We then used paints, stamps, pens and pencils to recreate our own piece of nature art - we only had one afternoon but it turned out to be fantastic! Take a look at the photos below to see the group in action.

Thank you to Lister Drive Artists for getting involved, we're looking forward to more arty adventures together in the future!

Despite the rain, our Summer Fair on Saturday 10th August was a great success! We had over 225 visitors to Lister Steps who got involved with face-painting, flower arranging, cupcake decorating, heritage & local history activities, raffle, tombola, our community art project, BBQ and the world's wettest dog show (everyone was a winner!) We also had stands from a range of local businesses and interest groups, including Liverpool Model Boat Club and Lister Drive Artists, so it was a great day community spirit & networking.

We raised almost £900 to support our work with local children & families so we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped out, including all our Lister Steps staff & volunteers, Liz the Community Champion from ASDA Breck Road who match-funded everything we raised on our tombola and the staff from Liverpool Adult Learning Services who ran some fabulous activities for us.

As we come to the end of the summer season, we're busy planning our autumn/winter events so watch this space for more ways you can get involved with Lister Steps & The Old Library project very soon!

Congratulations to Billy-Jo Todd who is only 13 but took this fantastic photography in Doric Park which we chose as the winning shot for this month's theme of 'A Place to Escape' - well done! We loved finding out more about people's secret spots to relax around our amazing city and had loads of brilliant entries - check some of them out below.

Our theme for August is the 'Great British Summertime' and with our summer fair coming up this Saturday, it's the perfect opportunity to get snapping! Send your entries to info@old-library.co.uk by Tuesday 27th August (we'll be nice and give you the bank holiday weekend too) for the chance to be our next winner.

We're right on the border of Old Swan & Tuebrook so we decided to take part in Old Swan in Bloom, a fantastic initiative from our local community magazine Old Swan Alive. On Saturday 13th July, we held a community planting session to plant up our lovely new pots and hanging baskets. Thanks to everyone who came along to help, we had a great morning getting stuck in and Lister Steps has never looked so good! Thanks also to B & Q Edge Lane for the kind donation of plants - all still alive so far!

The theme for our June photography competition winner was 'Childhood memories' and we had a really interesting mix of photographs from the past, as well as more recent shots. However, as always, there can only be one winner and this month we chose Barry Mackenzie for this summery shot of a rope swing in our local Newsham Park. Congratulations Barry! You can check out some of the other great entries we received below.

Our theme for July is 'A place to escape' so send your entries to info@old-library.co.uk by 25th July for your chance to be our next winner! All winning photographs will feature in our 2020 calendar and be in with the chance of being crowned our overall winner and being awarded a camera as top prize!