External Links

Leadhills Miners’ Library catalogue:

The library catalogue is held on a platform called NBK (National Bibliographic Knowledgebase) which holds about 225 library catalogues including those of some of the world’s largest libraries.
To log on, go to  NBK Libraries | Jisc Library Hub Discover
Scroll down the list until you come to Leadhills Miners’ Library and click on ‘ldh’ at the right side of the screen . This will take you to a search box. Enter your search term after, held-by: ldh’. For example if you enter ‘Sir Walter Scott’ you will get lots of hits and you see other holdings in the right hand side of the screen. If you enter a less well known author e.g. ‘John Lapraik’ you will get only one entry and only three other holdings on the right hand side of the screen. This feature is useful for identifying unusual items within the collection.

Independent Libraries Association –

https://www.independentlibraries.co.uk/
Leadhills Heritage Trust is a member of the Independent Libraries Association. The Independent Libraries Association was founded in 1989 to further the conservation, restoration and public awareness of its member libraries. The founding institutional members of the ILA all began life specifically as independently funded subscription libraries founded between 1768 and 1841 although other types of library are now included. Unlike Leadhills may of its members provide a lending service and have many members. The Association ‘aims to develop links between its constituent members by means of co-operative agreements, newsletters, social gatherings, seminars, workshops and meetings’.

Research Projects:

The Trust is associated with two research projects:

The Pen, Piston and Press Project

https://www.pistonpenandpress.org/  is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project based at Strathclyde University which aims to understand how industrial workers in Scotland and the North of England, from the 1840s to the 1910s, engaged with literary culture through writing, reading, and participation in wider cultural activities. The project began in September 2018 and will run for three years. This includes both writing and reading activities by working class groups at the period including miners of all types.

Books and Borrowing:

An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1850′. – https://borrowing.stir.ac.uk/
This is also an AHRC funded research project which has been awarded over £1 million to research the history of reading in Scotland in the period 1750 to 1830. The Analysis uses formerly unexplored (or underexplored) borrowing records from old libraries all over Scotland. This will create a valuable new resource that will reveal hidden histories of book use, knowledge dissemination and participation in literate culture. It will examine about 150,000 loans records of the borrowings of farmers and farm workers, factors, gamekeepers, shepherds, blacksmiths, lay preachers, boltmakers, vagabonds, poachers, merchants, glovers, maidservants, coachmen, soldiers and sailors, as well as schoolchildren and members of the professional and leisured classes. The project is based at Stirling University and led by Dr Katie Halsey.