Archive in a Pandemic A-Z: L is for...

 LONESOME (AND LATE) TEA BREAKS

Look at this picture readers. You may think it is a store-cupboard but no, this has been the archive staff tea-room for the duration of the pandemic.

No longer permitted to use the staff room downstairs, we sit one at a time with the piles of chairs and tables which were removed from the main area of the library to make social distancing easier.

Gone are the merry days of inter-departmental chats over a cuppa accompanied by sticky home bakes all taken from a communal plate. The library staff are are still using the downstairs staff room but with limited numbers. We sit alone over our lonesome cups of tea and, alone, we stare out at the car park and, if we go on our tip-toes, the supermarkets. Sometimes we play our harmonicas to while away the minutes. (We are not very good.)

Also, the desk staff are quite often trapped in our perspex bubble for the mornings and so have to take a tea-break in the afternoon. I know! 10.30am has been tea-time for many years and hot drinks just make us snoozy in the afternoons.

Thank goodness for the atrium over the lending area. We can press ourselves against the glass and still see our dear librarian colleagues. The above photo also shows that L is for Looooooong way out. Archive visitors still use the same staircase to enter the search room but, upon exiting, they are requested to follow a series of arrows right to the end of the corridor, down the Western staircase, and out the fire exit.

Fingers crossed that 2021 sees the return of sociable tea-times.

French Knittin' In the USA, French Knittin' in the USA-hey!

Last week the archive staff had one of our legendary nights out. We chugged cups of tea, slammed  some veggie burgers and nailed a bunch of  homebakes before staggering home way, way, way, past nine o'clock. Say, tennish?


We talked shop, we talked Bake Off, we set the world of carrot cakes to rights (walnuts or no? Discuss...) until, as it invariably does when one is 'partying hard', the conversation ended up at the topic of French knitting.


It turned out every one of us had spent vast swathes of our youth bent over a wooden doll with a tube through her middle and four pins in her head, tongues firmly between our teeth as we 'knitted' great big worms of wool which protruded from the dolly's nether regions and coiled down to the floor. For what and for why we asked ourselves? What was the purpose of this bizarre pursuit? Who needs boxes of woollen worms and what could anyone ever do with such things?


The Orcadian (as usual) came to the rescue:

Taken from a 1926 copy of the Orcadian. Ten years of looking through these things and the casual use of a word like 'cripple' is still really jarring.

The next week's issue offered readers the opportunity to make a fabric version of a cat who's just remembered that he's not done something really, really important:

Crying for County Show Cakes

We like cakes and we like the County Show.




Imagine our delight therefore, when we found a copy of James Flett & Sons' bakery production list for the 1979 show.




We are very noble at Orkney Archive and, although it is every member of staff's dearest wish to spend tomorrow whirling about in a tea-cup, drunk, with cream and jam all over our faces, in the company of tractors, two of us will be manning the archive desk.




Just... manning the desk. With no cakes. No booze. No tea cups. No tractors. Just crying.


We may have complained about this before...




Orkney Archive Reference D122/6/1

Farewell Patsy!

Today is the sad day of our Bookbug coordinator Patsy's departure. Patsy has spent over a decade singing, dressing up and crafting with the babies and toddlers of Orkney and, more importantly, making fantastic homebakes for our tea room.




Join us in a weep as Patsy pulls on her spangly Christmas tree hat, grabs her broom, straps on her pirate pantaloons and sails off to pastures new...

We have added a cup of tea and a bun to this lovely pic of Patsy as everyone loves a cup of tea and a bun (RIGHT?) and she must be pretty thirsty after all that singing.

We'll miss you Patsy!

County Show Woe

We are pretty good to our customers really. While the rest of the county is drunk and 'tasting' cakes in Bignold park, we valiantly maintain our posts at the archive desk just in case someone gets tired of a field full of home-brew, home-bakes and waltzers.

It is County Show day again in Orkney and, whilst we would normally be crying into our documents because we're not eating a cake next to a pony, we feel slightly less short-changed today. Because it is raining. Lots.

The same thing happened in 1950:

 

 

 

Psssst, winter is coming...

Winter Is Coming...

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The Orkney County Show is a wonderful thing. Taking place at the beginning of August each year, it is usually a balmy delight of farmyard animals, fairground rides, stalls brimming with local produce and, most importantly, home bakes. Yet there is always a cold shadow to be felt behind the warm joys of craft tents, crab - meat baps, 'refreshed' teenagers and wee lasses on their be-ribboned ponies..
.

If you listen closely enough you can hear the whispers: 'County Show... then winter!'.

"Rubbish" You think to yourself every single year as you eat your third ice-cream and decide which of the roosters looks most psychopathic. "There's at least six weeks left of Summer time. My washing's out and everything. I'm only wearing one fleece for Pete's sake!".

And yet every year the old wives are proven right. The day after County show always has a nip in the air and a distinctly autumnal smell. It is September now and the sunny show season is but a distant memory.

Winter is coming...

Bagsy we're Ned Stark.

Hoorah For Alison and Her Archive!

Pictured above is the latest edition of the New Orkney Antiquarian Journal. This particular edition is a very special one to all of us here at the Orkney Library and Archive as it was written as a tribute to our former Principal Archivist, Alison Fraser, who retired last October and is a very big miss.

The journal begins with a tribute to Alison written by former Assistant Archivist Phil Astley. His piece is then followed by essays by archive staff members (both current and those who have moved on) and users of the archive.

The book is an excellent overview of the history of the service and of Alison's career in Orkney.

There was a small presentation on Monday night which is pictured below. A few speeches were made and chit chat was had. There was also a delightful buffet comprising of sandwiches, home bakes and a platter of fruit. That last detail may seem irrelevant, but we do like a good buffet here.

Alison receives her copy of the journal from Leslie Burgher of the Orkney Heritage Society as library and archive staff and journal contributors look on. (Photo: Orkney Media Group.)

Save Our Libraries Day

Today is save our libraries day and I had planned to post scans of our collection of old library cards, application forms and stamps etc. but the computer connected to my scanner has died! Booooooooooooooooooo.

I expect that downstairs is a heaving throng of sweaty activists who are emptying the shelves of books, using the computers and picking the brains of our gorgeous and impossibly well-informed library assistants.

You can keep up to date with the various events taking place across the country here and there is still over an hour left to pay us a visit.

Anyone who thinks that libraries are not relevant in the digital age should remember that it is not just the books on offer but a sense of community, a quiet place to study, a shelter from the rain, free internet access as well as free computer/internet tuition, expert advice on books/archives/local knowledge, the occasional home bake, an excellent opportunity to ogle comely librarians, magazines, cds, dvds and space to explore your interests and stumble upon new culture.

SOL! SOL! SOL!

Totaliser

Our happy customers have exited the building with chocolate-smeared faces and considerably lighter purses.

Our grand charity total for today is £210, which is fantastic. Thank you to everyone who made a contribution. The serving wenches are all wrung out and are sitting in a row in the staff room, their feet in buckets and cold compresses on their foreheads.

A Closer Look At The Delights For All Who Were Undecided.

It's Homebakes Time Again...

Hey, coooo-eee, lookey lookey what we have here for you! Yet more lovely homebaking... This time the worthy cause is Children In Need, so bring your money and your fat jeans to the library foyer from 10.30am - 3.30pm.

The Aftermath...

Orkney Library and Archive was a shameful sight yesterday morning. The corridors were strewn with burst balloon skins, torn streamers and empty wine bottles, two members of staff were discovered passed out amongst the Mills and Boons and a sad pair of underpants swung slowly from a light fitting.

At least that would be the case if we were not nerdy librarian/archivists who did most of their tidying up on Saturday night. It was Alison's leaving do and the staff gathered to eat, drink and make merry. Homebakes were produced, speeches were made and gifts were presented.

It was a very pleasant, if emotional, evening. Anyone who claims they didn't feel a little moist around the eyes during Alison's speech was either crying a river inside, has a heart of cold, cold steel or is a liar.

Plenty of pictures were taken on the night but it is yet to be established whether they can ever be shown in public. Instead, this post is illustrated with two photos of a staff leaving do which took place just after the Second World War. These pictures were taken when the catering facilities at Lyness were closing so it was a leaving do for all of the staff.

It looks pretty similar to Saturday night's do except we didn't have any hats and they don't seem to have limbo dancing dogs as waiters.

Photographed by: J.W. Sinclair.

Totaliser Update

The final sum from Stromness is now in and our grand, final Jeans for Genes day total is:

£205.35

That is £80.17 more than last year.

Well done cake-bakers and cake-munchers both

Totaliser 2010

Our Jeans for Genes fundraising on Friday brought in £180.48, which is fantastic. It is £55.20 more than our efforts last year.

This result is particularly impressive when you take Friday's weather into account. Gales and rain did not stop our eager, cake-seeking visitors and we are very grateful to everyone who took part and gave generously.

Thank you!

Come in, Look what we have for you!

Jeans For Genes

Tomorrow it will be that special day again:  a fundraiser for Jeans For Genes, which provides care and support for children with genetic disorders.

Each year, Orkney Library and Archive staff slave over hot ovens on the last evening of September and festoon the staff room with delicious homebakes of great variety and deliciousness. These tasty treats are then grudgingly sold on to the library and archive visitors to raise money for the charity.

mmmmmmmmm.....

But wait, there's more. Not only will you have the opportunity to be served tea and cake if you visit us tommorrow, but you shall be served by staff wearing stylish, tight-fitting denim trousers which shall display the enviable figures that we keep under wraps all the rest of the year for fear of driving readers mad with lust.

Double mmmm.....

It's because 'jeans' sounds like 'genes' you see? We all pay £2 to wear our jeans and then that raises further funds.

So come along! Eat cake, drink tea, leer at library staff! It's all for a great cause...

TGI Friday... except we're working on Saturday...

Pictured above are two of the Orcadians who are to be included in our tie-in exhibition for the 2010 Orkney International Science Festival. We are hoping to have it up by Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning but anyone who could see the teetering piles of documents strewn haphazardly around the room would guess at an inauguration date closer to  September 2020.

It will be fine.

Other events of today have included:

Eating a slice of excellent iced gingerbread which was baked by an unknown member of staff.

Finding old 70s photographs of older staff members and asking them how they got their hair to do that.

Looking for the same missing estate map twice, emptying out the entire map drawer each time.

Taking it in turns to wrap our arms around the ankles of our departing staff member, allowing him to drag us around in his wake.

Watching the Bookbug toddler group to take turns in the lift. (Ours is the only publicly accessible lift in Orkney. Consequently it's quite a hit with the kids. I'm thinking of charging for gos on it.)

It's Friday and I'm tired. It's time for some invigorating East Kilbridey pop:

"County Show, then it's winter......"

There are cars parked all over the pavements and people are talking about "the dark nights drawing in". It must be County Show day.

Sadly, for the staff here, Orkney Library and Archive is open today and so we shall not be propping up the bar in the beer tent, munching on homebakes, vomiting on fairground rides or cooing at cute ponies. Life is cruel.

If any of you tire of having a brilliant time, then we hold County Show catalogues from 1936-1955 and 1965-1982 which you can read. You can also relive County Shows of yore by consulting our complete collection of both The Orcadian and the Orkney Herald.

Behold below two photos from our County Show file. First of all, an ace Shetland pony and, second of all, a tiny child in a kilt on a pony. You can find these images filed under 630, which is the dewey decimal number for 'almost unreasonably cute.'

Other dewey categories we use include 'dwindling chances', 'provocative foliage', ' butchers who are not averse to Eastenders', 'landscapes captured at prescisely 5.15pm' and 'ayyyye, but that's no the Orcadian way...'

We Are Closed!

We are all at the Dounby Show today, liquored up and full of homebakes. Normal service shall resume tomorrow.