Piece together the past

October 29, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

…. with a little help from Edinburgh Libraries. Join us at Central Library on Saturday 17th November for our Local and Family History Day and find out everything you need to know about investigating your local and family history.

Attend a workshop on how to get the most out of our fantastic free e-resources, discover the incredible hidden treasures from our collections, and take a look at some specially curated exhibitions.

Throughout the day (from 11am till 3pm) you’ll be able to talk to the experts who’ll be able to answer all your family history queries and questions on the history of Edinburgh. The following organisations will be on hand to offer advice and inspiration:

Edinburgh City Archives

Edinburgh Libraries

Edinburgh Museums and Galleries

Edinburgh’s War

Living Memory Association

Lothians Family History Society

Old Edinburgh Club

SCRAN

The Scottish Genealogy Society

Take a look at our Local and Family History Day programme for a full rundown of the day’s events.

If you’d like to know more contact informationdigital@edinburgh.gov.uk.

James Valentine: Photographs of Scottish Scenery

October 22, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

Taken from the library’s metaphorical attic and now Capital Collections newest exhibition is this wonderful album of photographs from the 19^th century photographer and publisher, James Valentine. James Valentine’s album is far removed from the traditional photo album with crumpled pictures of Great Uncle Charles and Granny with her army of spaniels; these pictures capture some of Scotland’s most fantastic scenery, landmarks and historical sites.

Valentine’s album contains photographs covering all areas of Scotland and all aspects of Scottish life. Photographs of ancient castles, of hills filled with folklore of fairies and magic, photographs of Burns cottage in Alloway and Sir Walter Scott’s mansion Abbotsford, and historical images of Scotland’s biggest cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Browse the full album online at Capital Collections.

Life in a box: focus on Luca

October 15, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

Within Whose Town? you’ll find the fascinating story of Luca Scappaticcio. It is a name you might not recognise, but turn it around and shorten it a little, and it may seem a bit more familiar. Luca is the man behind S. Luca’s ice-cream business of Musselburgh.

When Luca came to Edinburgh at the turn of the 20th Century from rural Southern Italy he initially found work at the newly built North British Hotel as a hotel porter. We have a striking photograph of the half-built hotel, today recognisable as the Balmoral, taken in 1901 from North Bridge. Luca worked his way up to the position of pastry chef and in Luca’s Life in a Box, you can see pictures of the extravagant dining and grill rooms from the time. Luca lived in the Grassmarket where he met and married his wife Anastasia. There’s even have a copy of their entry in the marriage register for you to discover. Shortly afterwards, Luca and Anastasia set up their tea-room in Musselburgh selling ice-cream and then moved out of Edinburgh.

We were delighted that Luca’s descendents who are now at the helm of the ice-cream business, were happy to share family stories, and images and ephemera from their own archive to help us tell Luca’s story. Here is a picture of Luca and Anastasia (and dog) taken outside their shop and tearooms. You’ll see the name has changed over the years.

And if a field trip to the ice-cream parlour is out of the question, take a look at our video showing how ice-cream is made in S.Luca’s factory.

Investigate Luca’s Life in a Box, and build up the story of his life in Whose Town?

Answers with authority

October 8, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

Let’s be honest. When you want to find something out sometimes a quick google or wikipedia search is all you need. We all do it often enough. But what about when you need authoritative facts and figures – information you know you can trust?

Like teachers, librarians care about where our ‘facts’ come from. Which is why over the past few days we’ve been spending a lot of time exploring the brand new updated Oxford Reference site (one of many sites available for free to anyone with an Edinburgh Library card), and it’s an impressive undertaking.

With bitesize chunks and longer essays taken from over 200 books, this really is an ideal starting point for anyone who’s serious about learning and reseach; whether it’s for work, study or personal interest.

This is stuff that’s been written and checked by the experts, world leaders in their fields. Oxford Reference covers just about any topic under the sun. We’ve found fascinating stuff on The history of documentary photography, The rowan tree in Celtic mythology and The origin of British place names.

Don’t miss the incredibly useful and labour-saving timelines section, which are browsable not only by date but by subject too.

What will you learn? Log in free with your library card and start exploring today.

No pens Wednesday is coming…

October 1, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

Last year’s No Pens Wednesday, the first of its kind, was so successful that The Communication Trust are supporting another this year on October 10th. The day encourages schools to put down their pens and run a day of speaking and listening activities.

Within Whose Town? in the Teaching ideas section in the Resource Bank, you’ll find a couple of really helpful documents giving hints and ideas about how to introduce and talk about different types of archival material. There’s one called ‘Handling Audio’ which can be used with Whose Town? material or for other activities where children are assessing audio and video material. Watching and listening to the fascinating oral testimonies within Whose Town? can help develop their listening skills and critical literacy. There are downloadable transcripts of all the testimonies to help understanding. There’s even a step by step guide to Creating your own soundscape. Imagine the kind of educational fun your school groups could have with producing their own atmospheric soundtracks – maybe a life in the day of your class or school, or the soundscape that represents your part of town?

Why not take the challenge and see how different life in the classroom can be when everyone puts down their pen and starts to talk.

Victorian bridge building

September 24, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

A new exhibition on Capital Collections showcases a fantastic collection of Victorian photographs which document the engineering feats constructed to realise the aim of opening up Scotland’s Highlands to rail travel. The Inverness and Perth railway was built to provide the quickest means possible of getting between Inverness, Central Scotland and further south into England. However, between Inverness and Perth lay mountain ranges and river valleys which would have to be traversed.

Civil engineer Joseph Mitchell and his partner Murdoch Paterson were tasked with the job and they have left a remarkable and enduring legacy. They were responsible for engineering the vast majority of the canal, road and railway infrastructure that took place in the Central and Northern Highlands in the 19th Century. Many of their bridges and viaducts are still in regular use by passenger trains today whilst others are still standing but with changed use. One notable exception is the Ness Viaduct at Inverness. It stood for over one hundred years, but was washed away in a heavy downpour and ensuing flood water in 1989.

Calling all young writers!

September 17, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

The Green Pencil Award competition launched earlier this month and this year’s theme is ‘Birds & Beasties’. We’d like entrants to write about the wildlife they’ve encountered – at the bottom of the garden, in the local park, on a woodland walk, at the top of a munro – wherever inspiration and the great outdoors collides!

The competition is open to all Primary 4 to 7 aged children in Edinburgh. Budding writers are asked to submit a piece of creative writing – a story or poem – no more than one side of A4 paper in length. Entries can come from schools or individuals and should be handed in at libraries.

The closing date is 12th October 2012 and more information can be found on our council web pages.

“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men”

September 10, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

…. and women and children. In fact, what human bean can resist Roald Dahl’s way with words? On 13th September, celebrate Roald Dahl day with perhaps some of his lesser-known treasures. Search our catalogue and find something you’ve not read before. Have you experienced The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar or the love triangle of Esio Trot ? Or download your favourite from our Library2go ebook service.

With his cast of memorable and remarkable characters and fantastical stories, many of Roald Dahl’s stories have become modern classics. There are not many authors out there who can capture the imagination and induce laugh out loud moments in quite the same way. So where do you go next when you’ve read the adventures of Matilda, The Twits, Sophie, Charlie Bucket and George? Well you could try Who next…? our fabulous online guide to children’s authors. Search for Roald Dahl or search by genre and you’ll get loads of reading suggestions for that next favourite book. So simple, but so effective, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without Who next…?

Brand new e-resources helping children and teenagers back to school

August 21, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

We’ve just added two fabulous online learning resources to Your Library – Mathletics and Spellzone.

Mathletics covers all areas of maths and has over 1000 different learning activities for students aged 5-18 years. Make maths exciting and encourage pupils to compete against others users from countries all over the world in live maths games of speed and skill. Mathletics offers the opportunity to set up classroom activities such as organising inter-school maths competitions and is perfect for using with homework clubs. All you need is an Edinburgh City Libraries membership to register online and get running with Mathletics.

Spellzone is an interactive online spelling course for children aged 10 and up. Spellzone is suitable for helping children and adults with dyslexia and is also useful for learning English Spellzone contains tests and games as well as a vocabulary ‘word list of the day’. And how about this for synergistic learning – today’s word list is all about maths shapes!

Access both these e-resources from the library or from home via yourlibrary.edinburgh.gov.uk/kidszone.

What did you do for your summer holidays?

August 14, 2012 Ms Padgett Leave a comment

Florence Morham, a schoolgirl from the Victorian era in Whose Town? used to spend her summer holidays at the East Lothian seaside. From a privileged background, Florence’s family and her Uncle’s family would rent holiday cottages next door to each other at West Pans. They would stay away from the city during the summer months enjoying the fresh sea air and outdoors.

She would have indulged in all the familiar seaside activities – donkey rides, sandcastle making, exploring rock pools. Although even after the dreary summer we’ve had it’s unlikely any of your class would have been quite so wrapped up for a day at the beach.

They probably didn’t travel to their holiday destination by horse-drawn railway bus either …