Get ready for Gadgeteers, arriving online and in your local library this summer.
Science is all around you! What do you love doing? Are you a brilliant baker? Or a mega music fan? Are you the tech wizard amongst your friends? Join the Gadgeteers for the Summer Reading Challenge to discover the amazing science and innovation behind the world around you, including some of your favourite things!
Curious? Perfect! Your imagination can unlock endless possibilities… We’re teaming up with Science Museum Group for a very special science-themed Challenge that will inspire you to use your imagination and creativity!
Gadgeteers will feature amazing books, awesome rewards, and plenty of ideas for cool experiments and activities to discover the science all around you. The Challenge will be brought to life by top children’s writer and illustrator Julian Beresford.
Are you excited to join the #Gadgeteers this summer? Keep an eye on our blog for all the latest Summer Reading Challenge news!
Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing, will host Bookbug Week from Monday 16 May – Sunday 22 May.
This year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Journey, and Bookbug jumped on a vintage bus with families at the Riverside Museum to mark the occasion.
Bookbug Week will focus on all kinds of journeys, whether it’s the excitement of riding on the bus or a train, strolls through the park, an adventure to outer space or even just a trip out in a buggy. Scottish Book Trust is also reminding families that wee ones love hearing stories and songs when they’re out and about.
Bookbug Week is an annual celebration of Scotland’s national book-gifting programme and Song and Rhyme Sessions.
This year, Scottish Book Trust ran a competition for a new Bookbug Week illustration, and the winner was Dylan Gibson.
He illustrates picture books and illustrated stories for older children and reluctant readers and has produced artwork for dozens of books and covers. Dylan will run an online event showing children how they can draw their very own Bookbug Week picture.
Award winning illustrator Nick Sharratt and author Katrina Charman will host a live online event jam-packed with rhyming fun. They will be sharing book readings of their book, Car, Car, Truck, Jeep and The Whales on the Bus, with a fun draw-along to take part in too.
Many Bookbug Sessions will return in person – check Scottish Book Trust’s website to find a Session near you. The popular live Bookbug Session on Facebook will run on Friday 20 May at 10am.
Bookbug has recently launched their very own Instagram, and members of the public can join in the fun by sharing their own #BookbugWeek pictures and stories.
Families can access Bookbug’s Song and Rhyme library, via Scottish Book Trust’s website, or on the free Bookbug app. There are also fun activities for children available on Scottish Book Trust’s Home Activities Hub.
An exciting Bookbug Week competition will run across Bookbug social media from Monday 16 May, and you could be in with a chance of winning a bundle of books and some transport goodies.
Clare Haughey, Minister for Children and Young People said:“I am very excited for Bookbug Week 2022 ‘Bookbug’s Big Journey’, knowing families will be able to enjoy sessions in libraries and community settings.
“Bookbug helps to encourage an early love of books among children while also providing great opportunities for parents and their wee ones to spend time together, having fun and learning.
“I am very proud that we have a universal national programme in Scotland, which supports all families to enjoy reading with their children from the earliest opportunity. As well as laying the foundations of early literacy, the Bookbug sessions help to promote positive interactions and attachment for families, which we know is key to children’s health and wellbeing in the long term.
“I’m delighted that the Scottish Government are able to provide increased funding for 2022/23 of £1.7m for the continuation of the fabulous Bookbug programme.”
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said:“It’s wonderful to welcome families back to libraries and community groups for Bookbug Week and Bookbug Sessions.
“Our thanks to Dylan Gibson for designing this year’s wonderful Bookbug Week illustration. We hope everyone enjoys their Bookbug Week journey, and we look forward to seeing people across Scotland joining us in person and online.”
Scotland’s Makar Kathleen Jamieleads pledge support for national reading initiative
Scotland’s Makar, Kathleen Jamie, is one of the first people in the country to pledge their support for the Keep the Heid and Read! campaign, which launched this week.
Joining some of the country’s most influential individuals and organisations, including the Institute of Directors and the SPFL Trust, in pledging to take part in the ‘national reading moment’ on Wednesday 11 May, the Makar was happy to help drive awareness of the project.
The Scotland-wide initiative, led by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) in partnership with the Mental Health Foundation and the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) and with support from Baillie Gifford, aims to inspire and encourage people of all ages and abilities to read every day to boost their mental health and wellbeing – starting with a pledge to read for just six minutes on11 May.
Research shows that reading for six minutes a day can reduce stress by 68 per cent – in people of all ages. With the national reading moment due to take place during Mental Health Week 2022 (9-15 May 2022), the campaign signals the perfect opportunity to take stock and establish a regular reading habit.
Kathleen Jamie, the national poet for Scotland (2021-2024), said: “Our local libraries are full of great reading material – books of course, but also comics and pamphlets of poetry, so they are the perfect places to release the imagination, whatever your ability and interests.
“Reading for pleasure can have a huge impact on our wellbeing. I read every day, often early in the morning to set me up for the day, so I’m glad to support the Keep the Heid and Read campaign. I’ve pledged my six minutes of reading on 11 May and would encourage everyone else to do the same.”
An online totaliser, capturing the number of reading minutes pledged towards the national reading moment, is available at: www.keeptheheid.scot
Speaking about the inspiration behind the Keep the Heid and Read! campaign, Pamela Tulloch, chief executive at SLIC, said: “This campaign was designed to promote the positive and easy-to-implement changes which can help increase mental health and wellbeing, and highlight the part local libraries can play in that process.
“We believe starting with a simple pledge to read for just six minutes on 11 May will help inspire people to take forward these good habits in their everyday lives.”
Working in partnership with Scotland’s 32 public library services, SLIC hopes the free to use services across Scotland will encourage as many people as possible to get involved in the Keep the Heid and Read! campaign.
Pamela added: “Libraries play a valuable role in reconnecting communities and with the majority of libraries now reopened across Scotland after the pandemic – all with an abundance of free reading materials available – we hope these services will allow people all over Scotland to take part in the national reading moment.”
Individuals and groups, such as schools and workplaces, are invited to sign up now to get involved at www.keeptheheid.scot, and add to the totaliser count. Gaelic translated ‘Na bi ga do chall fhèin, leugh!’ campaign materials are also available in full.
Keep up-to-date and share your support using #keeptheheid on social media.
Do you know someone who would benefit from free access to ebooks, audiobooks and magazines, but who aren’t a member of the library?
You can get free instant access to Edinburgh Libraries Libby from OverDrive service without a library card.
Thousands of best-selling titles for adults, teens and children are available to read on your phone, tablet or computer. It’s a fantastic way to make the most of your electronic Christmas presents and to save money. Please spread the word to relatives and friends!
No library card? No problem! Until the 17 February if you are over 13 years old you can sign up for an Instant digital card in seconds.
All you need is a mobile phone number and the access code – Library2go.
The Instant digital card gives you access to Libby for three months.
However, you can keep on using the service for free by joining the library and receiving a permanent membership card. Join online through: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/joinourlibrary
The city council is looking at how they can offer alternative locations for library services on a temporary basis for the communities where buildings are currently being used as COVID Testing Centres – principally Leith, Oxgangs and Newington Libraries.
Work to take forward plans to prepare and adapt the space available in Fort Community Centre has already started, which will allow some library services to restart alongside the Early Years Centre in North Fort Street.
The community centre is just a six minute walk from Leith Library and, once ready, will aim to provide the following services:
customers borrowing, returning and reserving library stock
bus pass applications
Hey Girls sanitary provision
hearing Aid batteries
food recycling bags
Bookbug under 5s rhyme times for children and their parents/ carers
CEC is also looking at ways to provide adult group activities in the building subject to Covid guidance. The intention is for the services to be running from Monday to Saturday and to build up the opening hours to closely match existing Leith Library ones.
More information will be provided soon, as the plans are developed further. Work is also underway to identify suitable alternative properties in the Oxgangs and Newington areas for their library services.
Councillor Donald Wilson, Culture and Communities Convener, said: “I’m really pleased we’ll be able to relocate these essential services to the Fort Community Centre, which is only a few minutes walk from the existing Leith Library building, on a temporary basis until we get Leith Library back fully functioning.
“There is so much more to libraries in addition to borrowing books – they are trusted and much-loved hubs and bring local communities together. Although our online provision during the pandemic has been incredibly successful there’s no substitute for physical access.”
Councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan, Culture and Communities Vice Convener, said: “I’m sure the local community will be delighted to hear that the services provided by Leith Library will soon be available from the nearby Fort Community Centre. All our libraries are centres of learning and information and are also essential for the wellbeing of our citizens.
“We’re actively looking at how we can provide more services for our other communities where libraries are being used as test centres and we’ll do everything we can to get these up and running as well. I want to thank all the hard work and efforts from the various Council teams who worked so hard to achieve this.”
Over 30 public and school libraries across Scotland have been awarded Scottish Government funding to deliver a range of innovative projects including initiatives to tackle climate change and promote sustainable development – but none of them are in Edinburgh.
The Public Library Improvement Fund and the School Library Improvement Fund are annual awards set up by the Scottish Government and administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council. This year nearly £400,000 has been awarded through the two funds.
Sustainable projects backed by the Public Library Improvement Fund include East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure’s The Root Cause Project, which received £14,240 to transform an outdoor space at Thornliebank library into a sustainable community allotment and multi-functional space.
Funds for school libraries were awarded to projects championing anti-racism and anti-discrimination.
These included Prestwick Academy Library and Ayr Academy Library’s project Read Woke Primaries to curate a wider range of contemporary fiction written by, and about, people from minority groups.
Culture Minister Jenny Gilruth said: “Libraries play a key role in our communities and our schools and projects funded through these awards will help to improve the services they can offer.
“Promoting sustainability is integral to our Net Zero ambitions to tackle climate change and our public libraries are an important focal point for conversations and taking action.
“And as part of our wider approach to creating anti-racist environments in school, it is great to see school libraries engaging our young people on the importance of belonging, inclusion and social justice.”
Pamela Tulloch, Chief Executive at the Scottish Library and Information Council, said: “As we begin to rebuild our society following the pandemic, school and public libraries are an essential part of the recovery process to ensure our future social and economic well-being.
“We’re particularly proud to provide funding awards to projects that promote sustainable development in public libraries and champion anti-racism and anti-discrimination across school libraries as examples of how libraries can make a valuable contribution to Scotland’s social fabric.”
The total amount for projects from the two funds comes to £398,142.
South Ayrshire Libraries Jock Tamson’s BairnsAmount Awarded: £9,200
South Ayrshire LibrariesClimate for ChangeAmount Awarded: £26,610
Stirling Libraries in partnership with Stirling University Making a Difference – Amount Awarded: £46,568
West Dunbartonshire Libraries Towards a Sustainable Future – Amount Awarded: £21,435
West Lothian Libraries in partnership with Heriot Watt University Eco-Ableism – Amount Awarded: £6,000 Total: £198,657
School Library Improvement Fund awards
Aberdeen School: Dyce AcademyProject: Hear a Story / Tell a Story – Award: £4,000
School(s): Aberdeen City Libraries / Harlaw Academy with Holocaust Educational Trust Erika’s suitcase – Award: £8,000
Angus School: Arbroath Academy plus othersProject: OPEN – a book, your eyes, your world – Award: £1,630
Borders School: Arbroath Academy plus othersProject: OPEN – a book, your eyes, your world – Award: £1,630
School: Eyemouth High Project: Get Woke – Award: £8,150
Dumfries and Galloway School: North-West Community Campus NWCC Project: Bringing Diversity, Racial Equality to the NWCC Young adult Book Group – Award: £8,150
East Lothian School: Musselburgh Grammar Project Award: Digital Storybag – Award: £4,900
School: Lethams Mains Primary with EL Council – Project Award: The Borrowers Bus – Award: £9,000
Falkirk School: Bonnybridge Primary – Project: Bonnybooks: For a’ Jock Tamson’s Bairns – Award: £24,940
Fife School: Bell Baxter ClusterProject: Racial Equality Transition ProjectAward: £9,000
School: Carleton PrimaryProject: The Same Page – connecting families to promote diversity and equality. – Award: £5,500
Glasgow S -Award: £11,120School: Barmulloch Primary & ALNProject: Digital and Family Learning HubAward: £13,000School: Lourdes SecondaryProject: Inclusive Storytelling for Healthy Minds – Award: £15,870
Moray School: Forres Academy Project: Equality, Inclusion, Diversity, and a Mentally Healthy School – Award: £3,750
North Ayrshire School: Auchenharvie cluster and Strathclyde UniProject: Keep the Heid’n’Read Even Mair! – Award: £16,400
Perth and Kinross School: Breadalbane Community Library/Breadalbane AcademyProject: Read It Racism – Award: £4,220
South Ayrshire School(s): Prestwick Academy Library and Ayr Academy Library (in collaboration with 9 primary school libraries)Project: Read Woke Primaries – Award: £44,000
South Lanarkshire Schools: St Andrew’s and St Bride’s HighProject: Equal Voices using anti-racist and diverse texts in extra-curricular group discussion – Award: £5,125 Total: £199,485
Libraries will close at 5pm on Friday 24 December for Christmas and reopen on Wednesday 29 December.
Our libraries will then close again at 5pm on Friday 31 December for Hogmanay and reopen on Wednesday 5 January.
Visit the Your Library website for full details about which of our libraries have reopened, services available, opening hours and which services require an advance booking.
Innovative projects to reopen some of the libraries that closed during the pandemic, set up wellbeing cafes or provide home library services have received more than £1 million in funding.
The Scottish Government’s £1.25 million Public Library COVID Relief Fund will support 23 projects around the country to re-connect communities with their libraries.
Applications were made through the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and allocations will also support reading and STEM education programmes.
While priority was given to applications which support deprived areas and communities, all library services across Scotland were invited to apply for the fund.
Culture Minister Jenny Gilruth said: “These funding allocations will support public libraries across Scotland. Libraries that closed because of the pandemic will re-open and others will be able to widen the services that they offer their local communities.
“Libraries are so much more than a place to borrow books. This fund will see the provision of community-centred projects aimed at, among other things, reducing social isolation, promoting mental wellbeing and reducing the poverty-related attainment gap.
“This funding is part of the Government’s wider aspiration to drive a cultural recovery for our communities. I look forward to seeing how libraries use this support to benefit their local area and to working with the library sector on our future recovery plans”.
Scottish Library and Information Council Chair Ian Ruthven said: “Public libraries are an essential part of Scotland’s social fabric, supporting and inspiring people to fulfil their potential for over 150 years.
“Improving mental wellbeing, tackling social isolation and closing the digital divide are some of the key aims of public libraries. The Public Library COVID Relief Fund will allow local public libraries to reconnect with their communities and offer these much-valued services.”
The Public Library COVID Relief Fund was announced as part of the Programme for Government and all local authority library services were able to apply for funding.
Edinburgh receives £33,100 for a co-creation project with young adults in collaboration with a number of key stakeholders. Activities will focus on STEM and digital projects but will be driven by the young people themselves within the 20% most deprived Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) areas.
Edinburgh libraries’ successful environmentally themed creative writing competition, open to all P4 – P7 aged children in Edinburgh and, once again, to young people in S1-3 runs until 15 October 2021.
There has been a lot of attention recently regarding climate change and its effects on the natural environment. In November 2021 the Unite Nations will host COP26 in Glasgow.
We challenge you to think, if you were an animal, a bird, a tree, a plant or even a mountain or river in Scotland, what would be your story about climate change.
Or perhaps …
You wish to tell us what experiences you are going through, if we don’t tackle climate change, what does the future look like in 2030.
Entries could be poetry, prose or story, all we asked was that the writing is the author’s own work and was no longer than one side of A4 paper.
Maths Week Scotland is back for its fifth year from 27 September to 3 October 2021. Local schools across Edinburgh, Lothians and Scottish Borders are joining in the fun with a wide range of activities and exciting programmes taking place during the week.
Maths Week Scotland is part of the Scottish Government’s drive to encourage positive attitudes to numeracy and maths and is developed and delivered by National Museums Scotland. The Small Grants Fund, a partnership between the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust and the Scottish Government, has supported 75 activities across the country. These activities are taking place in schools and local community groups.
The theme for 2021 is ‘Our World’, exploring the importance of maths in understanding and responding to the climate emergency, whilst also finding maths in the world around us. School pupils across Edinburgh, Lothians and Scottish Borders will learn about this crucial topic through activities such as outdoor learning, a Maths Enrichment club and a mini beast project.
Science centres and museums across Scotland have also received additional funding from Maths Week Scotland to support in a series of activities and challenges encouraging innovation and participation.
Edinburgh’s five star visitor attraction, Dynamic Earth, will be launching a digital workshop on the topic of ‘Navigating Our World’, to explore how successful navigation was achieved in the past, and how it is now done in the present day.
Edinburgh Central library is hosting a free, drop-in shape and number trail for under 10s, plus additional maths and STEM books will be available to take out on loan.
The National Mining Museum Scotland in Newtongrange will also be host to a number of maths-themed activities for young visitors, including a mining version of snakes and ladders, quoits, bean bag toss, making patterns with coal, dressing up as a miner and handling mining objects.
Meanwhile, in East Lothian, Prestongrange Museum, John Muir’s Birthplace Museum, Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery and John Gray Centre will all be launching maths-related trails and activities linked to each specific site.
Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery will launch a time-related activity based on the clock and two sundials on the exterior of the building, while events at the John Gray Centre will focus on money and transactions, reflecting the commercial history or East Lothian and linking to trade tokens on display.
Katie Oldfield, Maths Week Scotland co-ordinator, said: “We’re proud to be bringing Maths Week Scotland back for its fifth consecutive year. It’s great to see that so many schools have come up with exciting activities that reflect our theme for this year.
“Maths is found everywhere in the world around us, but it is also a key part of the solution when it comes to tackling climate change. It was really inspiring to see many of our schools presenting this sometimes complex subject in a fun and engaging way.”
The schools programme is core to Maths Week Scotland. Schools and community projects receiving grants in Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders are:
· Balerno High School: Maths Enrichment Club – setting up a Maths Enrichment club at lunchtimes to support enjoyment and develop problem solving and team work skills in Maths.
· Oxgangs Maths Club: Families can do maths together
· Edinburgh Central Library: Maths Week at the Library – Central Library and the Children’s Library are hosting a variety of fun Maths-themed events for adults and children, from pattern-making to Möbius strips!
West Lothian
· Greenrigg Primary School: Mini-beast Maths
Midlothian
· Stobhill Primary school: Let’s get Creative at Stobhill!- interactive maths kits
Borders
· Berwickshire High School: Mathematics and citizenship of the world
This year, Maths Week Scotland is also supported by winner of The Great British Bake Off 2020, Peter Sawkins, in collaboration with National Numeracy.
Peter is hosting a virtual assembly on 29 September, which will be streamed from the National Museum of Scotland to participating schools to learn about the maths involved in baking.
Maths Week Scotland has a supporting year-round programme for schools, families, adults and community groups. This is part of an ongoing drive to transform Scotland into a maths-positive nation through raising the profile of maths and encouraging enthusiasm for maths across the country.
National Museums Scotland is working with a wide range of organisations and collaborators to support and deliver Maths Week Scotland activity across Scotland.
For a full list of contributors and to view the whole programme, visit:
