New Chapter

Strange Happenings In the Library

There have indeed been some strange and exciting happenings over the past 24 hours, and not all of them in the library. 

However the excitement hasn't ended yet, as tomorrow the Wirdsmit group will be holding a creative writing workshop in Kirkwall Library led by Amber Connolly.

The title of the workshop is 'Strange Happenings in the Library' and will explore 'tales of the unexpected, strange and surreal that don't come off the shelf', and is open to all young writers aged 8-12 years. 

The workshop is a free event and to book a place please call Amber Connolly on 01856 811313.

 

24 Islands/ 24 Hours

There is great excitement in Kirkwall library today as the special guests start to arrive for tomorrow's 24 Islands/24 Hours events. 

You can download the full programme of events from the Orkney Library website  and keep up to date with all the fun on the Orkney Library and Archive Facebook page.

One event that our Yap and Yarn members might be interested in is 'Flotta in Print: an evening of knitting, war, oil & art', when local knitting designer Elizabeth Lovick speaks about her new book Centenary Stitches, and Rebecca Marr, from the Gunnie Moberg Archive will read from Flotta related literature accompanied by Gunnie Moberg images of the terminal. 

image:Gunnie Moberg Flotta oil terminal dated by the artist December 1976

This event takes place in the Flotta community centre starting at 7.30pm. The ferry will leave Houton at 6.15pm and arrive back at 10pm. 

Science Festival

Tonight the 24th Orkney International Science Festival begins here in Stromness with the event 'Hope's Beautiful Daughters' an evening of songs, music, and storytelling with Slovenian singer-songwriter Katarina Juvancic, jazz guitarist Dejan Lapanja, and local storyteller Tom Muir. The performance takes place at the Stromness Town Hall from 7.30pm-9pm. 

You can pick up a full programme of festival events here at the library, or you can view the programme on the festival website . 

To celebrate we have created our own mini Orkney Science Festival display of books, from Orkney Shore by Robert Rendall to the intriguingly titled Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison. 

Events for young scientists include the excitement of Saturday's Family Day in the King Street Halls, as well as Science with Wizard IV tomorrow in the Kirkwall Town Hall from 5-6pm, and Ten Ways to Explain the Universe (in your kitchen) on Wednesday 10th September from 5.15pm-6.15pm in the King Street Halls.

Should you feel inspired to try your own kitchen experiments we have a range of science experiment books to keep junior scientists safely entertained. 

Shows Over

Here we are, the week after the Shows and the weather already thinks it is winter. Our feelings could perhaps be summed up by this Giddy Limit strip by Alex Leonard.

No.207. The Orcadian 13th August 2009   http://www.giddy-limit.com/Year4Archive/no.207.html

But with a week to go before the schools go back we are determined to squeeze ever last drop of fun out of the summer, so even if the weather is less than sunny you'll still get a warm welcome at the library. 

There is still time to complete  the Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge, so get reading and come along to the library to exchange your returned books for stickers, a bookmark, wristband and fortune teller. All those who complete the challenge will also get an invite to our award event, which will take place in Kirkwall library on Saturday 23rd August with special guest, local writer and storyteller Fran Flett Hollinrake, and a presentation of certificates and medals. 

We also still have our holiday reading display up, with books to keep you and your little ones entertained, whatever the weather.

Show Season

Here we are in August already, and in the words of George Mackay Brown*, 'The "Show Season" is on us once more. How quickly the cycle of the year turns!'.

Stromness Library will be closed on Thursday 7th August for the annual public holiday for the Dounby Show. As ever the hope is that the weather will be kind. 

Writing forty years ago, in The Orcadian , George Mackay Brown was both looking forward to the delights of 'The Show Season' and reflecting on memories of Dounby Shows past:

...may the Dounby Show be blessed this year with sunshine and tumultuous crowds. Here, if anywhere, it is possible to see, gathered into one small field, a swatch of the typical Orkney - laird, merchant, farmer, seaman, countrywoman, student, bairn...

If I try to think of any one happy Dounby Show out of the past, it is almost impossible, for all those August days unfold like a single fan covered with gay patterns. Even when the gate is finally closed in the show park, and the patient beasts are loaded for home, the day keeps an afterglow. 

Whatever the weather may bring on Thursday we hope your day out at the Dounby Show is full of happy memories.



* quotes from George Mackay Brown, 'The Show Season, 8.8.1974' in Letters from Hamnavoe, 2002,Steve Savage Publishers Ltd, p.166. 

The Knitter Scientific

It's been a wonderful week of weather here in Orkney, with visitors and residents alike enjoying sunny strolls along the street in Stromness. We've enjoyed meeting those who have taken a break from the sun to visit the library, both new visitors and familiar faces. 

It was particularly nice to get chatting to a regular visitor who turns out to be a fellow knitter and Ravelry member Westendangela from Dundee. Combining her job as a biochemist with her passion for all things woolly she has been using knitting to bring her research to life. 

Her most recent project,  as part of the Women in Science Festival, involved creating a knitted display for her local yarn shop representing the human  blood stream when dealing with the sleeping sickness (her area of research) , with knitted red blood cells, white cells, Trypanosomes, the flu virus, and the DNA helix. 

knitted Trypanosome being attacked by antibodies

We are hoping Anglea might be able to join us at Yap and Yarn on a future visit to Orkney, but in the meantime she has very kindly left us a knitted Trypanosome of our very own. 

While researchers like Angela are studying the behaviour of the Trypanosome parasites, in the hope of developing more effective drug treatments, charity MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is responsible for supplying and distributing the drugs currently used to treat Sleeping Sickness, the disease caused by the Trypanosome parasite.

Sleeping Sickness is a devastating disease spread by the Tsetse fly, which  poses a risk to 60 million people in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. To find out more about Sleeping Sickness and the role of the Trypanosome parasites visit the MSF website, where you can also donate to support the work of MSF in offering treatment to those suffering from this, and other, neglected tropical diseases.