shared learning
projects
Shared Learning Project at the British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United
Kingdom. It is based in London and is one of the
world's most significant research libraries
holding over 150 million items in all known languages and
formats. The Library's collections include around 25 million books, along with
substantial additional
collection of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300BC.
As a legal
deposit library, the British Library receives copies of nearly all books
produced in the United
Kingdom, including all foreign books distributed in the UK. It also purchases
many items which are only
published outside Britain. The British Library adds some 3 million items every
year.
We are
proposing to undertake a Shared Learning Project at the British Library
beginning in January
2008. Although the British Library is not directly involved in the Project, we
will be meeting twice with
Alison Bailey, Curator of the Children's
Literature Collection in the St
Pancras building. At the first
session, led by Max de Boo, Alison will give
a general introduction to the Library and an overview of the
children's literature collection, which you will be able to access once you have
a Reader Pass. She will
also be attending the final presentation and our intention is to present a copy
of our final report to the
Library. Working as a team of members from U3As in the Greater London region, we
will share our
learning with each other.
The subject of our research will be:
'The portrayal of children [good/naughty/wicked]
in literature
written for children 5-11 years old over the past 100 years (their rewards and
punishments).' For
example: Tom, Tom, the piper's son; Mary Jane in Rice Pudding by
A.A. Milne; The Water Babies; Peter
Pan & Wendy; My Naughty Little Sister, Where
the Wild Things Are; Horrid Henry & Perfect Peter.
We will look at aspects of this remit further during the
first meeting, such as by author, time scale, prose
or poetry, younger or older children, etc. Additionally, it would be interesting
if we could also record
briefly our own and others' memories of access to children's literature during
our own childhood pre-,
during, and post World War II.
If you are
interested in the literature of childhood, you enjoy research and like working
in a team, this
Project could well be of interest to you: no prior knowledge or experience are
required although
computer literacy would be an advantage. However, your enthusiasm is paramount!
The Project
will start on Thursday 10th January 2008 with an introductory session
from 10.30am to 12
noon and continue fortnightly at the same time for a total of twelve weeks.
The last session will be on
Thursday 3rd April- a total of six sessions. (Please note that the
last meeting will take place after Easter.)
If you think you might be interested please contact Max de Boo, Project Leader:
Tel: 020 8922 5623 or
email: maxann.deboo@ntlworld.com
for more information. The closing date for applications is Friday
23rd November 2007.