We Fear Our Hearts Shall Never 'Beat Again.'

Keen fans of the Orkney Archive shall know that we are closed to the public on a Wednesday. This is so that we can tend to our children (hem, I mean... the archives) by cataloguing, packaging and lovingly stroking them all day long.

We have always been glad of this time to organise our teetering piles of uncatalogued material but never more so than today.

Today the archive staff are all wearing black armbands and tear stained veils after receiving the devastating news that JLS are to split.

There is no way we could face the public today. Sniff. Sniff sniff... Sniff.

There shall be no cataloguing today, merely lying in nests of packaging material whilst weeping and gently singing 'One Shot' to each other.

You only get one sale, so make it count... You might never get this moment again.

It is the second day of Discovery week today and the library book sale has begun in the Marwick room.

Eager faces were pressed against the glass first thing this morning and, unfortunately, one staff member was crushed by the rabid tidalwave of book-fanciers who surged through the foyer like a tsunami.

The Marwick room is currently a writhing sea of books and book-lovers. Come join us if you enjoy books, photos (photographic prints from the archive are also for sale.) or crowd surfing. It's like a JLS concert down there... Right guys?