Documenting GWL
Glasgow Women's Library has been at 109 Trongate since 1994. In 2006, we will be relocating to temporary premises until March 2008, when we will re-open at the Mitchell Library.
During the 12 years at Trongate, thousands of women have visited, donated, volunteered and staffed the Library. Women have chopped wood, filed newspaper cuttings, enjoyed courses and parties, met new friends, formed groups, changed their own and other women's lives and have contributed in small and major ways to creating Glasgow Women's Library. In our remaining time at 109 Trongate, we are creating a large document and history of the environment and usage of the Library over the past 12 years.
The main reasons for this documentation project are:
- To have a record of our important work during this period for future researchers and to make visible our importat contribution to Glasgow's culture in the longer term
- To have material for a small exhibition on Glasgow Women's Library in June 2006 and a future large-scale exhibition in 2007
- To generate images and testimonies for our website, recording our past and encouraging new users
The documentation process will be undertaken by staff and volunteers and will be through photography, video, minidisc (sound recordings) and written testimonies. Documentation training has begun and will be ongoing.
There are three key ways that you can support and get involved in this project:
- Contact us to arrange a session where we can record your memories, testimonies or thoughts. (What was your first impression of GWL? Have you donated something? What about events or activities you have memories of?) We can make a video, tape or written record. If you want to write to us with a story, memory or testimony you can simply email us on info@womenslibrary.org.uk
- Is there a particular book, video, badge, poster, postcard or magazine at GWL that made you think twice, changed your views, made you laugh or inspired you? If so we want to make a portrait of you with it. Simply pop into the Library and select your item and we can do the rest.
- Join the documentation team. If you would like to help others to record their histories at Glasgow Women's Library or make a record of a space or area of the Library that you have helped to create or cherish let us know. We can train you to use digital still and video cameras and to record sound using minidisc recorders. You will be working with professional artists recruited for this project.
To get involved and help record Glasgow Women's Library at 109 Trongate for posterity, just contact the Library, or visit us at 109 Trongate!