Killyleagh Library Campaign Use Unique Art Form

Killyleagh Campaigners Set Up Library Van As Pure Art Form IN passing the site of the old public toilets that were burned down last year by vandals in Killyleagh opposite the Killyleagh Library, you will see on old post office van doubling up as a ‘mobile library.’ But this is no ordinary mobile library. It is a ‘work of art’. Organised by Carole Plankitt, an artist friend of Killyleagh Library campaigner Joanne McCrumm, it is attracting the interest of many passers-by. “Basically I work as a translator and I am an artist. I have a huge collection of books which I have amassed and we thought it would be a great idea to lend them out to people in the area as a gesture of what it would be like to have a mobile library. These books are about military hardware, budddism and art, quite a wide mix. There’s bound to be something there of interest for everyone. [caption id="attachment_25202" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Carole Plankitt, left, with some interested ladies chatting about library services in Killyleagh. "][/caption] “You have to be there at a mobile library at a certain time etc and I have applied my art form to it to try and understand the experience. The old PO van has been painted up  to get the message across about the campaign. “The local library has a place in the social order and  sometimes we just don’t fully appreciate the importance of it. A library is a place where people meet socially too and this is an important function. “So our library van is really a form of performance art, an expression about the experience of lending books. “The van is available from: Thursday and Friday 11-1pm, 2-4.30pm. and Saturday from 10-1pm. It will be running for two weeks. ‘If you look at the van you will laugh but the whole purpose is really to make people think about their library and take an interest in its future. It is art. It is about the whole experience of libraries and borrowing. People will take the books back on time too and this is part of the whole idea that they buy into the relationship of it. “I will also be taking photographs through the two weeks and I work in ‘photo art’ also which will also be another vehicle to address this issue of library services and the threatened closure of Killyleagh Library. So far there has bee a good response”. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Killyleagh-Library/184311718260595 Check out the Save Killyleagh facebook page and how to join your local online library. [caption id="attachment_25203" align="alignright" width="264" caption="Carole Plankitt, artist, with Joanne McCrumm, Killyleagh Library campaigner, at the mobile library van parked at the site of the old toilet block which was burned down by vandals facing Killyleagh Library."][/caption] Libraries NI Release Summer Opening Hours IN a recent statement from Libraries NI, new timetables for the Summer Opening Hours of libraries across Northern Ireland were released. With increased demand for library services during the day, changes have been made to the number of evening openings in some libraries, throughout the months of July and August. For details of library opening hours during the summer go to www.librariesni.org.uk or telephone your local library. Also, this year’s Summer Reading Challenge (2011) ‘Circus Stars‘ has been by Culture Minister, Carál Ní Chuilín. Details again are on the website.  http://www.librariesni.org.uk/ www.librariesni.org.ukIt It runs from 1^st July – 31^st August.]]>