Community groups – partnership projects
The National Library of Scotland has been involved in partnership projects with a number of community groups since 2005. If you have an idea for a partnership project, please contact the Education and Outreach Officer.
Hidden Histories
For several years, the Trondra Local History Group from Glasgow have been researching the history of Greater Easterhouse. Working with John Wheatley College, they have already created a touring exhibition and website in partnership with Glasgow Museums.
Their latest venture, which the National Library is supporting, is a publication, 'Hidden History: Greater Easterhouse, More Than Just a Scheme', completed in 2005. Together, we tell the story of the area's ancient people, royal connections, industrial past, local heroes, and much, much more.Following the publication, the group is creating an education resource pack for local schools.
The Book of me
The Book of Me was a partnership project between NLS, the Outreach Far and Wide scheme and Women's Aid. Four families took part, all of whom were victims of domestic violence.
The group first came together to learn how to create a book, from making their own paper and binding the pages to photography and illustration. They then took part in a resdential creative writing course, which taught them the skills they needed to tell their own stories. Not only did this bring them together as families and as a group, but allowed them to put the taboo subject of domestic abuse out into the open.
'Our Time Together' is the book they made, which has now become part of NLS collections. It's a beautiful item, full of images, poems and stories which highlight the bravery and creativity of the mums and their children.
For more information, contact the Education and Outreach Officer.
A Women's Place
A Women's Place was a partnership project with Napier University based on the NLS 'Sale of the centuries' exhibition.
Over the course of four weeks, the Edinburgh Adult Learning Parnership's A Fayre for Women group joined lecturer Elaine Thomson and artist Nancy Conley Pinkerton to explore the issue of gender in advertising.
The Wallace 2005
2005 marked the 700th anniversary of the execution of William Wallace. The National Library of Scotland invited schools from around the country to take part in this project to commemorate the life of Scotland's greatest hero.
Children from Benarty, Carlibar, Kinglassie and St Mary's Bo'ness primary schools all visited NLS to see the only surviving original copy of Blind Harry's epic poem 'The Wallace'. Then working with traditional storyteller Paraig MacNeil, they created their own works based on the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Their poems have been bound into a new book - 'The Wallace 2005'. Each school has its own copy to keep, and, of course, one has remained in the collections of NLS to take its place in telling the story of Braveheart for the future!