A project aimed at helping more young people engage with Isle of Wight libraries has led to the creation of a new film made by students from Christ the King College.
‘Connecting Libraries’ has been delivered over the last year through a partnership involving Creative Island, Isle of Wight Council’s Library Service, Arts Council England and Quay Arts.
The project was managed by Project Producer Lisa Kerley and was designed to promote libraries as collaborative and innovative spaces that can meet the needs of future generations.
As part of the wider initiative, 4 mini-projects were developed linking libraries with community partners to reach different groups of young people.
Creative Island has now shared the results of one of those projects, which involved Christ the King College, Quay Arts and local filmmaker Sam Lapham.
The filmmaking project followed a survey of 300 pupils and local youth consultations, which found that many young people were unaware of how to access the range of resources and memberships available through library services.
Under the guidance of Sam Lapham, and with support from Quay Arts and Creative Island Education Director Claire Paul, 10 students took part in the term-long project.
The group visited 5 libraries across the Isle of Wight, interviewing staff and filming material aimed at showing what libraries can offer to younger generations.
Claire Paul, Education Director for Creative Island, has said:
“It was so wonderful to see how enthused our young filmmakers were about the Island’s Libraries.
“I look forward to witnessing the influence their film has on attracting other young people into Libraries in the future.”
Louise Emery, Development Librarian and Lead for Outreach and Promotion, has said:
“It has been a fantastic opportunity to work alongside young adults to explore the ways they would like to interact with, and benefit from our services and we feel like we have learned a lot from them about the types of activities they would like more of in libraries.
“We feel that the project has been a really positive experience and has definitely achieved its aim of strengthening our relationships with both young adults in the community and helped us to forge new connections with other cultural organisations.”
Andrew Montrose, Headteacher at Christ the King College, said:
“I am very proud of the group of students who have taken part in this important project with Creative Island.
“They embody many of the values we stand for at Christ the King College: advocacy, community and collaboration. We look forward to working with Creative Island over the coming months on a number of other collaborative projects and exploring what else our young people have to say about the things that matter most to them.”
The finished film is now set to be distributed to schools across the Isle of Wight as an educational resource, with the aim of encouraging peer-led discussion and improving awareness of local library services.
