‘Having fun isn’t hard when you have a library card’
The Telephonic Youth team have been spending a lot of time in libraries recently—though we weren’t there to borrow books (even if there were more than a few which caught our eye!)
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- Shirley Library
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- Bitterne Library
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- Central Library
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- Lordshill Library
The team at Southampton City Council Libraries kindly allowed us to stage a series of pop-ups across Southampton throughout February and March. It was a bit bumpy—and we had to re-schedule our last one because of covid—but it was also an enriching experience. In the process, we’ve added more stories to our interactive map. We’ve also learned a lot about how we can and should work in public spaces to gather memories (we spoke about this recently at the Institute of Historical Research’s Britain at Home and Abroad seminar). So, what did we learn?
Librarians are your best friends. We already knew this, but it was good to have it reinforced. At all of the libraries we visited, the librarians were there to offer us support, advice, and cups of tea. They directed visitors to our pop-up and even shared their own memories.
Local stories are also global stories. We talked a lot about this in our seminar paper, but visiting libraries across Southampton once again showed the diversity of the city. It was really striking how similar the memories people shared of growing up in Southampton were to those of growing up in other countries—the telephone is definitely something which can unite us all!
The best laid plans of mice and [historians] often go awry. Expect the unexpected is easier said than done, but it was especially true of our pop-ups. We began this research project during a pandemic, and even as restrictions have eased and we were finally able to go out and meet people (masked) in person, covid is still with us and so we’re especially grateful to the library teams for allowing us to reschedule when needed.
More than anything, we were reminded that public libraries are really important spaces which need to be available. Not just to loan out books, DVDs, board games, and puzzles, but also to provide a place for people to meet for a chat, to study, take part in family-friendly activities, or just spend the day learning about people’s experiences of growing up and using the phone in the 1980s and 1990s.
Do you remember using the phone when you were growing up? Share your memories here!
