What’s on in York: Bloodaxe Reading Challenge 2018/19
York Explore Library :
Sat 27 Oct – Sat 12 Jan :
Free
Explore York Libraries and Archives are delighted to be working with the Jorvik Viking Festival again on the Bloodaxe Challenge.
Are you brave enough to take part?
The Challenge runs from Saturday 27 October 2018 until Saturday 12 January 2019. Your challenge is to read 4 books with a historical link. You will be given a Viking character sticker for each book you read and when you have read 4 books you will get a bonus character sticker, a certificate, a ticket to get free entry into the Jorvik Viking Museum and the chance to come to Explore York Library to meet author Tony Bradman and hear him talk about his book Anglo-Saxon boy on Wednesday 27 February.
You can join up at any of our libraries, so come along and we will see you there!
What’s on in York: Agatha and the truth of Murder at Dringhouses library
What’s on in York: Poetry Circle at Acomb Explore Library tomorrow (Thursday)
What’s on in York: Sad Poets’ Doorstep Club
Acomb Explore Library :
Thu 10 Jan :
5.30pm – 6.30pm :
Free
A poetry circle event with a mental health slant, this is a chance to explore your thoughts and feelings about mental health issues in a safe and supportive environment.
Please bring along a poem or short story that you have written to share with the group. Organised in an Open Mic format you will have the opportunity to read or perform aloud, or simply to listen.
There is a three minute limit for each piece, but there will be multiple rounds of the circle so plenty of opportunities to showcase your work.
Strictly 16+
Contains adult themes
Please visit our ticketing website to book a place.
York Libraries – call for more transparency over future
York Explore Library
Staff working in York’s libraries are understandably concerned about the lack of any announcement about the future of the service.
The libraries are currently run by “Explore Libraries and Archives Mutual Limited” company.
Their contract comes to an end in March 2019.
In June 2018 the Council decided to tender for the continuation of the service.
A report raised several worrying options including the introduction of “volunteer” run branches. Others were concerned that a large leisure management company based outside the City would take over the service.
The contract on offer is believed to be worth £32 million and covers a 15 year period.
Acomb Explore Library
The present management arrangements are essentially a development of the team that led the library organisation when it was run by the Council. They have had a generally successful 5 years with, against the national trend, user numbers stable and some useful innovations like the reading café in Rowntree Park introduced.
An updated report on the Libraries recent activities was published yesterday (it says that they can now handle visa applications – a role that the Post Office revealed, during consultations about the relocation of the Lendal office to W H Smiths, they were losing)
The Councils Forward Plan which lists all major upcoming decisions runs until 28th April 2019.
It does not include a decision item on the future of the library service.
What’s on in York: Christmas story-time again Acomb Explore Library on Tuesday
What’s on in York: Everything is Permitted, Restrictions Still Apply
“Everything is Permitted, Restrictions Still Apply” – a psychoanalytic perspective on contemporary life.
York Explore Library :
Mon 17 Dec :
6.00pm – 7.45pm :
Free
Ian Thurston, a public sector psychoanalytic psychotherapist living in York talks about his recently published first book, which offers an applied psychoanalytic perspective on dominant emotional trends in contemporary life.
There is a need to better understand the emotional motivations that might underlie the polarized thinking currently evident amongst populist right and progressive left alike, motivations that might be at odds with professed political ideology.
The author suggests that there are powerful social defences against facing loss, limitation and internal conflict. He applies a historicized psychoanalytic perspective on these phenomena, highlighting the decline and denigration of the old centres of traditional industry, and the rise of an increasingly narcissistic culture, in which emotional narratives of victimhood trump the need for evidence and the claims of “traditional” expertise and authority.
There will be opportunity for discussion and debate.
Author’s Biography:
I am a York resident, brought up on Tyneside, currently working as a psychonanalytic psychotherapist within the NHS, and with many years of experience of working in public sector mental health care, in the north of England and London.
Please visit our ticketing website to book a place.
What’s on in York: Getting started with House History
York Explore Library
Sat 15 Dec :
1.00pm – 4.00pm :
£25
Have you ever wondered who lived in your property before you?
How old it is, or what historical events it might have witnessed?
Join Explore’s Archivist (Access and Engagement), Laura Yeoman, as she takes you through how to get started with researching the history of your home. This introductory session assumes no prior knowledge, and you will have a chance to get those burning questions answered!
Please visit our ticketing website to book a place.
What’s on in York: Surprise Ending: How was it for you?
Acomb Explore Library :
Fri 14 Dec :
2.00pm -3.30pm :
Free
Surprise Ending, our Big City Read play was funded by Arts Council England.
We are inviting anyone who came to see the play to join us for a chat about what you thought of the play and to share any ideas about other initiatives that we could ask the Arts Council to support in libraries in the future.
This is a free session, but please book.
Please visit our ticketing website to book a place.