About North Shields Library Club
North Shields Library Club was formed in 1995 by the Community Librarian based at North Shields Library to provide an opportunity for older people to meet together. Since then the club has gone from strength to strength, with a lively membership and a regular attendance of over 20 at each meeting.
Library Club members meet monthly for 10 months of the year at North Shields Library. The programme of events include a wide variety of speakers and activities. The annual trip is always an enjoyable event and at Christmas there is always entertainment. This year we have visited Newby Hall, on a glorious summer day, been the guests for South Tyneside Library Service for a ‘Spanning the Tyne’ event and visited Sunderland Winter Gardens. Speakers have covered subjects such as; The Paintings of Winslow Homer, Reflections on Mauratania, Big Band Sounds and The History of Cookery Books.
About Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future Project
In 1997 the members of NSLC applied to the Kellet Fund, administered by the Community Foundation for funding to create a project entitled “Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future”. The application was successful and the project commenced on 1 June 1998. The aims and objectives are as follows :
- to record and preserve memories of the North East for future generations
- display those memories on the Internet and invite additional contributions
- to enable people aged 50+ to become competent and confident in the use of computers and accessing the Internet
- to encourage older people to establish links with others, in residential care or in the wider community, to combat social isolation
- to create a valuable local history resource for generations to come and to fulfil the need for local knowledge for school children and college students.
Since that time the project has developed into a significant local history resource, with over 400 memories of life in North Tyneside available on its website. Currently the project is funded by The Northern Rock Foundation, Community Foundation and Awards for All, with support from North Tyneside Library Service. The project is managed by Library Club members, through a Steering Group and employs a project co-ordinator, Kath Smith to look after day to day work.
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We also have a strong Working Group, made up of volunteers who have a particular interest in collecting memories. Each of the people in this group have skills that make it possible for the website to be maintained and for memories to be collected, edited and published. They also work hard at promoting the project’s work and have ended up in some pretty unusual places, doing some pretty unusual things, for the greater good of the project!