Life Lately

Life lately has been very busy at the Special Collections Centre. Our new exhibition, Print Shop Window, opens on Friday and so we are all bustling around getting things ready for the launch. Our Conservation team are busy getting the archives ready for display, Learning & Outreach are preparing activities and guides for all of our small (and tall) visitors and our Exhibition Officer is getting ready to hang our beautiful prints on the wall. To find out more about the exhibition visit our exhibitions web page

As well as lots of planning we’ve also had events and school workshops to keep us occupied. On Saturday 14th September places all around Aberdeen City invited curious visitors in as part of the annual Doors Open Day. The Sir Duncan Rice Library joined in the fun and people came to ooh and ahh at the eye-catching architecture, gaze at the stunning view from our seventh floor and get a peak behind-the-scenes on our Special Collections tours. To entertain smaller explorers we ran a Family Fun event based on our Wanderlust exhibition. Visitors learned about the amazing places some of our Wanderlust travellers explored and made souvenirs from those countries to take home with them in paper bag suitcases. They made peacock feathers from India, snow goggles from the Arctic and Provençal plates from France, getting their passport stamped on the way.

We also had our first visits of the new school year from two P4 classes from Portlethen Primary School. The pupils are studying endangered animals in class and visited us to do our African Animal Attack workshop, which explores the letters of two missionaries living in Malawi, surrounded by lions, hyenas and leopards to name but a few. The pupils heard extracts from the letters and brought them to life with drama activities and illustrations for the “Livingstonia news”. The workshop ended with the class creating a full class drama bringing life on the mission into our Learning Room.