Em Oakland, a Creative Writing student at Glyndwr University, joined Gladstone’s Library as a volunteer scheme late in 2021. Here, she writes about her experience so far.
Behold the magnificent and historic Victorian building that is Gladstone’s Library. It is one of the UK’s few residential libraries, built to contain thousands of books owned by William Ewart Gladstone early in the 19th century. It is situated down Church Lane in an equally historic village, Hawarden.
It is in the archiving and marketing departments of this neo-gothic building that I have been volunteering lately.
Some of my activities whilst volunteering have included taking photographs using a digital camera, creating lists of contacts, learning about the library users (for instance, Gladstone’s Library is highly connected to the church and has a chapel for people of all faiths), and looking at and commenting on social media posts. I also composed a short poetic verse that went with a picture I took of a fireplace in the Gladstone Room:
Fingers of flame in the fireplace,
Flickering secrets in the pouring ash.
Flaming warm, flaming bright.
What secrets will you burn tonight?
I have also had a tour of Gladstone’s Library and the archives, and the amount of stuff in the archives is enormous! I met some other people also volunteering, although I prefer to work alone (which is possible at Gladstone’s Library).
During my tour, I looked at the digitisation suite and the Anwyl Room, one of the large meeting rooms visitors to the Library can use. I also saw the rooms the archiving and marketing departments work in at the annex at the back of the reading rooms, which are full of books that belonged to W.E. Gladstone and books that had been given to the Library.
I have been working closely with Rhian Waller during my time at Gladstone’s Library, who is fantastic to work with and we share a lot of interests. I’ve been introduced to Alexandra Foulds, the Library’s archivist, who gave myself and the other volunteers the tour of the Library, explained the health and safety procedures to us, and explained the archiving projects – including the need to take the utmost care with handling the archives and books!
As well as the history of the place, and the variety of voluntary projects that Gladstone’s Library has, the Library boasts some fabulous late Victorian era neo-gothic architecture. A building of monumental proportions, exquisitely opulent, it is well worth every single brick that went into building the place.
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Welsh Government restrictions mean we cannot currently accommodate on-site volunteers, but Em and many others are ready to get back to work as soon as possible. If you want to join the team, email [email protected]. Different roles are available, from gardening to book conservation.