Boids

It is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend! Take an hour to count all the different birds that are in your garden and record them on the RSPB website. See here for details.

Don't worry about seeming uncool, birdwatching's totally in style right now! Camp out in your garden with a stool, sandwiches, notebook and wine box (what?) and you have the makings of a great afternoon. All the cool kids are doing it and birds are cute. We were terribly excited a couple of winters ago when some waxwings began to visit the back of the library to partake of the berries which grow beside the staff car park.

Yeah, you read right, we were excited by birds. We are librarian/archivists okay, whaddya expect?

Aaaagggh!!! They're so tame and cute!!

Below are some images taken from a book of Orkney postcards, each stamped, clearly dated and filed in a Stanley Gibbons folder. Other images shown include St Magnus Cathedral, The Churchilll Barriers, The Old Man Of Hoy, Dounby. Firth, Skara Brae, Stromness, The Standing Stones of Stenness and various other local scenes. The dates range from 1967 - 1971. Also included at the front of the album are four date stamps on squares of paper dating from 1848 and 1852.

I have also scanned a list of (stuffed?) Orkney birds which were being offered for sale by a Mr James Petrie in the latter years of the 19th century.

References:  Postcards- D1/1028, List - D1/321/9

The Wonder That Is A Library

We are lucky in Orkney that our wonderful, hard-working, nice-smelling, intellectually awe-inspiring, well-dressed, kind, sparkling-witted and drop dead gorgeous council are not threatening to do away with our libraries, but sadly this is not the case in many counties.

This speech by Philip Pullman is all over the internet at the moment and is well worth a read.

The Problem With Topical Comedy...

One of our latest acquisitions is this small bundle of postcards. The drawings are fantastic and we would like to know who the artist is...

The images all refer to the Bay of Firth Oyster Fishery and are obviously meant to be humorous but we don't really understand the joke. Something to do with oysters...

Tee hee...

Very droll, I'm sure...

Stop! My sides!

The Syndicate of work!

Insect powder in some bellows, powering a jumper-sailed boat... hilarious!

How SLIC are we?

All of you old-skool readers may remember this post about a very successful inspection of the Orkney Library and Archive.

Well, the inspection has led to a Scottish Library Excellence award from the Scottish Library Information Council (SLIC). Hoorah!

Our Library and Archive manager is travelling down to the awards ceremony which, inexplicably, shall not be televised, to accept what we hope shall be a solid gold, jewel encrusted trophy. Some manner of crown and sceptre set I should imagine. His speech is prepared, Cheryl Cole-style epaulets have been affixed to a spangly jacket and the dance routine has long been perfected and memorised.

The archive department did particularly well in the assessment, scoring 6 out of 6 for generally being a completely brilliant local studies collection.

Toodle Poo

We are still in the post-festive lazy slump here. It seems terrible enough that we have to arise before 8am, actually go outside and do some work, and almost inconceivable that archives could be selected, scanned and commented upon for the visual pleasure of cyber readers.

Such work when one has been used to spending entire days flicking Quality Street down one's throat whilst watching The Snowman and Enchanted for the hundredth time each simply because the remote control is outwith arm's reach seems both unachievable and wrong.

This lovely Kirkwall Town Borough Testimonial passed through my lazy hands as part of an enquiry, however, and the scanner is only two centimetres away from said hands:

The testimonial is in support of the character and the "natural genius for drawing and painting", of William H F Strange Petrie and dates from 1810. It is inscribed at the top of the page with Deus Nobiscum - 'God is with us' which is the Kirkwall town motto.

Well, that  has been exhausting. Time to lick a finger and chase the last of the Christmas biscuit crumbs from the inside of the tin. But first, here is a picture of Noel Edmonds:

Archive Reference D1/379

Toodle Pip

The Orkney Library & Archive

will be closed from

3pm on Friday 24 December 2010

 

We open again on

Wednesday 5 January 2011

9.15am – 7pm

Best wishes for the festive season from all the staff

Images taken from archive reference D30/2/10

Errrrr.....

Found in archive reference D30/2/10

Click to enlarge if you dare.

We Are Closed Today

Due to weather.

We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause you.

The Only Time Today That It Has Stopped Snowing...

One Further Update...

Stromness library is closed today and tomorrow as every single member of staff there is stranded in some way!

Again, we are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.

A Few Updates...

The library is open today but the staff are a little depleted due to the weather. Us town folk must admit that the thought of leaving our warm beds to trudge through the snow was difficult, but we are not only dashing, adventurous types who laugh in the face of ice and snow, we are far too dedicated to you, dear customers, and so we are here; a little creased and rosy-cheeked but eager to serve.

However....

The Bookbug Rhyme time session has been postponed until Wednesday morning and the mobile library van shall not be in Burray and South Ronaldsay today.

Also, the library and archive shall be closed tomorrow, Saturday the 18th.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

From Us To You Dear Readers...

Above is the archive image which has been chosen to adorn our Library and Archive Christmas Card this year. It is taken from a school jotter filled with stories, pictures and poems which were divided into editions of a magazine called 'The Star'. The book is part of the Mary Robertson Sinclair Papers, reference D30/2/10.

The cards themselves are even fancier as Karen and Steven spent hours titivating them with glitter glue before sending them on their way.

Strictly No Drilling!

The student fees vote is the biggest story this morning and looks to be a hot topic for some time to come. Below are some images relating to  probably the biggest protest to take place in Orkney.

In the late 1970s, exploratory surveys of uranium-rich land just north of Stromness were planned, to great public opposition. The Orcadian protests were much more subdued than those seen in London yesterday. Around four hundred people turned up on Broad Street for a silent protest and many children were present.

Plan of proposed drilling area from The Scotsman dated 23rd February 1977

Images taken from the Press & Journal dated 9th of February 1977

 

The government ministers involved tried appearing on a festive Strictly Come Dancing special to win folk over but the population were moved by neither sequins nor prowess with a flippy little cape and the plans for drilling were dropped.


Information taken from the Ernest Walker Marwick Collection reference D31/28/2

We Are Never Happy...

The snow does seem to be thawing in Kirkwall, but this has only served to reveal the treacherous layer of trampled ice that was lurking beneath the crunchy, powdery snow which was easier to walk on.

Perhaps you are all feeling a little nostalgic for the irritating, yet safer fluffy snow of earlier in the week? Perhaps not..

High Street, 1918

High Street, 1918

High Street, 1918

The West End Hotel on Main Street, undated.

Old Scapa Road, 1918

Palace Road, undated

These photos were all taken by Tom Kent and therefore the undated ones must predate 1936.

Sound familiar?

All of these snippets are taken from editions of The Orcadian dated January 1978. So far, so familiar, but things were about to get worse...

Nearly all of the West Mainland and Island schools seem to have been closed for an extended period, roads in Orphir were completely blocked and impassable, the water went off in Stromness, Evie, Rendall, Sandwick and Orphir and there were milk shortages due to farmers being without water, electricity and transport. Milk was being dumped at some farms.

Mr Alastair Whyte, manager of the Kirkwall Claymore milk factory said: " I have never known so much chaos in my time."

Worst of all, there was no telly for a significant proportion of the population! The Radio was working, however, and Radio Orkney was on air for three hours one night keeping the population up to date with developments and boosting morale with music and phone-ins.

The worst Orkney power cut story I have ever heard was recounted in the staff room one day. It must have been around about 1983 when the power cut out across most of the mainland. I know this, because this is when the fabulous guilty pleasure of a mini-series The Thorn Birds was shown. The power cut happened IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAST EPISODE.

In these new-fangled days of iplayer, youtube and dvd box sets, this would be, at worst, a minor irritant but in the early 1980s such an event was truly desperate. Fans of the charming yet ambitious Father Ralph de Bricassart  were reduced to roaming the streets, tearing their hair out and shouting "Does anyone have power? Will Ralph ever find out that Dane is his illegitimate son?!!"

Some people still tear up when it is mentioned and it is fun to prank call Orkney numbers and whisper "her dress was ashes of roses..." until the recipient of the call dissolves into confused and helpless sobs.