So we’ve finally reached the end of January and should be at the stage where we’re now remembering to write ‘2017’ instead of ‘2016’ on everything! Some exciting events are going on today which I will blog about in more detail soon.

First of all the library is helping to run a webinar for  A level History students in conjunction with Channel Talent and UCL about the concept of the American Dream:

“We  are  all  familiar  with  the  term ‘American  Dream’,  though  we  may  have noticed  that  it’s  used  to  mean  sometimes  quite  different  things.  Is  it  about material  success –a  rags  to  riches  story  of  what  can  be  done ‘only  in America’?   Or   is   it   about ‘freedom’   and ‘equality’–   values   that   are sometimes  imagined  to  be  uniquely  or  particularly  invested  in the  US system  of  government?

This  lecture  examines  the  origins  of  the  term ‘American  Dream’  and  asks why it has had such purchase in American society. Dr Adam Smith from UCL will show that the term ‘American Dream’ was only invented in the 1930s, but will begin much earlier –  back  with  the first Puritan  settlers –  because  although  the  term was  new when it was  coined  during  the  Great  Depression  it  drew on  a long history of thinking about what made America ‘special’.

This evening a group of us are visiting Wolverhampton Grammar School to attend their ‘Brave Women in Fiction’ author event featuring Sara Barnard, Katherine Webber, Melinda Salisbury and Catherine Doyle. The library is also hosting the first meeting of the LGBT+ Society on Friday lunchtime and we have Yr 7 book club and Excelsior meetings coming up!

We have recently donated 10 boxes of old library stock to The Rural Enterprise Academy at Rodbaston Hall in Staffordshire. This new Free School is setting up a library from scratch with no funding so I was happy to be able to help, and it meant that we could have a good clear out of unwanted books!

Miss Lees