Betty's Reading Room

Phot by Alison Miller 

Regular listeners to BBC Radio 4 may have heard Orkney being mentioned on last week's Saturday Live show,  when the programme included a piece on Betty's Reading Room. A derelict bothy at Tingwall has been converted into a cosy reading space by Craig Mollison and Jane Spiers in memory of their good friend, Betty Prictor.

You can still listen to last week's edition of Saturday Live here on BBC iPlayerRadio and if you  can't make it to Tingwall you can watch the BBC Scotland report filmed earlier this year. 

Our very own Reader in Residence, Alison Miller, has also blogged about her visit to Betty's Reading Room and you can read about her visit and enjoy her lovely photos on her Reader in Residence Blog.

Photo by Alison Miller http://readerinresidenceorkneylibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/bettys-reading-room.html

Library events

It's going to be a busy week for the library, we'll give you more details tomorrow, but today here are three events which you can add to your diary and which are all FREE but need to be booked.


On Monday 2 September James Oswald will give a reading at 7.00 pm in the McGillivray Room at Orkney Library & Archive.

Then on Wednesday 4 September Ron Butlin will read at 7.00 pm again in the 
MacGillivray Room at Orkney Library & Archive.

Both events are  FREE but TICKETED so please contact the Kirkwall library to book your place 
Phone: 01856 873166
E-mail:general.enquiries@orkneylibrary.org.uk

More details about both authors and events on Reader in Residence Alison Miller's blog:
http://readerinresidenceorkneylibrary.blogspot.co.uk/


Then on Saturday 7th September The Gunnie Moberg Archive project worker Rebecca Marr will hold  a workshop at Stromness Library and out in the streets and shores of the town. The workshop is titled VIEW FROM THIS SIDE, a reference to the instructions printed on the slides but also an indication of Gunnie Moberg’s artistic approach. 

No experience necessary, just bring your enthusiasm and a camera! The workshop will run here in Stromness Library 1pm to 5pm. For more details please visit  The Gunnie Moberg Archive blog 

Places are free but limited so please book by contacting Rebecca Marr at the Orkney Library and Archive on 01856 873166, via the project blog or by phoning us here at Stromness Library on 01856 850 907.

Orkney Nature Festival

Today is the first day of the Orkney Nature Festival , a nine day celebration of Orkney's wonderful wildlife and rich natural history. You can see the full programme of festival events here and our Reader in Residence, Alison Miller, has blogged about the Orkney Library and Archive's involvement in the festival.

Festival events take place all over the islands, with a number of events based in Stromness. Friday 17th May there will be 'Something Fishy at the RSPB' office in Stromness, when between 11am and 5pm you can drop in to see an Orkney beach:

 – in the middle of the RSPB Orkney office! Find a wealth of marine treasure – and some things a bit less precious – as well as learning more from seashell expert Alastair Skene. You’ll see everything from the geriatric Arctic Cyprine, who may have been filtering seawater when John Rae was setting sail to the Arctic, to the microscopic components that make up shell sand. We’ll have a display of whale bones and strandline material and if you have a mystery marine object that you’d like identified, please bring it along. There’s also a big message from Orkney school children about the perils facing the world’s oceans and our Orkney beaches from marine litter... you’re sure to ‘pick up 3 pieces’ when you’ve heard what they have to say.

Then from 2.30pm - 4.3-pm you can find out about Crustacean conservation and enjoy a crabby buffet at The Ferry Inn. Tickets for this event cost £10 and can be booked through The Ferry Inn, by calling 01856 850280 or email info@ferryinn.com.

 The day finishes with a real treat when former Storyteller-in -Residence, Ian Stephen returns to Stromness for an evening of poetry and tales of his adventures sailing around Orkney and other Scottish islands. We are delighted to see Ian back in Stromness for this event, which takes place at Stromness Academy in the Upper Library at 7pm, and are looking forward to hearing more from this talented poet and storyteller.

GMB on the BBC

Yesterday we alerted you to a book launch and today we have a radio program we think you should know about. For tomorrow (Sunday 28th April) at 7.45pm on BBC Radio Four you can hear Claire Knight read George Mackay Brown's story 'The Wireless Set'.

This will be the first of three stories to be broadcast over the coming weeks from GMB's second volume of short stories A Time to Keep which has recently been reprinted by Birlinn - the other stories to be broadcast are 'The Five of Spades' and 'The Masked Fisherman'.

As part of the BBC publicity around the series our very own Reader in Residence Alison Miller was asked to write a blog post for the BBC Radio 4 blog, and you can read more about the broadcasts  and Alison's BBC blogging on her Reader in Residence blog.

So tune in tomorrow to hear 'The Wireless Set' and listen out for the opening music which will be "Shapinsay Polka" by Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley, taken from their album Mither O' The Sea. 

It goes without saying of course that copies of both A Time to Keep and Mither O' The Sea are available for loan from Stromness Library.

A Week of Words

We hope you had a restful weekend because this week is full of exciting literary events for your enjoyment.

On Wednesday 10th April, Reader in Residence Alison Miller will lead The Poem's the Thing - an informal poetry reading group open to all who want to discover new poems and share old favourites - there will be a session in Kirkwall Library between 1pm-2pm and here in Stromness Library from 6pm- 7pm.

Then on Thursday 11th April the Orkney Book Festival 2013 begins with a Film night hosted by West Side Cinema at 7.30pm when they will be showing That Now by Sarah Forrest, who was the first Margaret Tait resident in 2012. This will be followed by a showing of Blue Black Permanent by Margaret Tait.

A full list of events during the four day festival can be found on the George Mackay Brown Fellowship website , or pick up a programme from the library, but we would like to draw your attention to the events being held in Stromness on Sunday 14th April.

At 11am here at Stromness Library, Bryce Wilson will give a talk on 'Stromness and John Rae'; then in the afternoon from 2-4pm Ian Macpherson will be running a Workshop on comedy writing - if you would like to sign up for this workshop please email pamela.beasant@virgin.net

Still in Stromness on Sunday evening starting at 7.30pm in the Stromness Hotel Ian Macpherson and Magi Gibson will host an evening of entertainment entitled 'Bemused'.

Entry to all events costs £5 (£4 concessions) at the door, with a Whole Festival Pass costing £20  available in advance from Orkney Library in Kirkwall, or on the door at events.

After all that excitement you may need a peedie sit down with a good book, so don't forget there will be a book sale running in Orkney Library, Kirkwall on Friday and Saturday, while here in Stromness we have our own small selection of sale books at the bargain price of 5p per title,  with the offer that, should you buy 5 books we will give you a 6th for free.

It's going to be a busy week!

Stromness Treasure

Gunnie Moberg. (© Alistair Peebles, 1996)

We are delighted to share the news that the Orkney Library and Archive has secured the funding necessary to purchase the archive of Gunnie Moberg (1941-2007) - photographer, painter, designer and much loved Stromnessian.

The Heritage Lottery Fund award will allow the purchase, cataloguing, conservation and digitization of the archive, which includes Gunnie's works, notebooks, photographic negatives and transparencies, reference prints, exhibition prints and manuscripts. 

Alison Miller has written a lovely piece on her Reader in Residence blog, giving more details about the  archive project, and sharing some wonderful images from one of Gunnie's collaborations with George Mackay Brown - a book of photos and poems entitled Stone.

What a wonderful treasure for future generations to have access to Gunnie's archive, and how fitting that this precious resource will be staying in the islands, which were both inspiration and home to this unique talent.

The Poem's the Thing

Tonight sees the first meeting of our new poetry reading group - The Poem's the Thing -  led by Reader in Residence Alison Miller.

The group will meet on the second Wednesday of every month from 6pm - 7pm in the Stromness Library exhibition room - the Kirkwall group will meet on the same dates from 1pm-2pm in the Kirkwall Library. Come along to share your favourite poets and poems and discover new ones.

This week also sees the launch of  2013 Young Orkney Writers’ Prize for poetry run by Orkney Library and Archive and the George Mackay Brown Fellowship. 

The theme this year is Adventure and poems will be judged in two age groups, 8-11 years, and 12-15 years. Entry forms are available from both libraries or can be downloaded from the Orkney Library and Archive website. 

The closing date for entries is 16th March 2013 - so get writing!

Readers and Books

We were delighted to welcome Orkney Library's Scottish Book Trust Reader in Residence, Alison Miller, to Stromness Library for a visit this week. Over coffee and biscuits we talked about the different kinds of reading experiences library users are looking for, and have hatched plans for possible new reading promotions -  so watch this space!

Alison Miller

Alison has started her own blog about her residency, and we would highly recommend adding it to your reading list, to keep up with all her news and insights into reading, books, and the authors who write them.

You can also keep up with Alison through her Twitter and Facebook accounts  - she is very keen to hear folk's thoughts on Libraries, books and reading, so do drop by and say hello.

While we are on the subject of Libraries and social media we will be in trouble if we don't remind you that the (in)famous OrkneyLibrary twitterer has been nominated in a number of  categories of the  GoldenTwit awards.

You have until 28th November to vote for OrkneyLibrary in the Information Service, Humour, Public Service and Customer Service categories; the shortlists will then be announced on 3rd December, when voting will commence in earnest with the winners being announced on 14th December. Needless to say we have everything crossed in anticipation, and celebratory/commiseratory biscuits at the ready.