#GreatNorthernLibrarians

Bio: Dawn Stanley-Donaghy

Although Dawn unfortunately won't be speaking at our AGM, we here at @CILIP_YH are very excited to share the great work she has undertaken at Leeds Central Library ( @leedslibraries) in this tweet thread.

Dawn has been working on successful geeky projects at Central Library for the last 10 years. With a background in games illustration and youth work she had an interest in subjects like this for many years before coming to libraries.

#GreatNorthernLibrarians

Dawn and colleagues have run a monthly cosplay meet for 10 years at Leeds Central Library: started with her support by a 16 year old girl called Rachel Robertson. 70 members turn up regularly and over 300 use the Facebook group.

The group get involved dancing to K Pop, making costumes, playing games, running competitions and making fan films. Central Library has been the set of various horror, Harry Potter and Dr Who films over the years.

They also run a weekly gaming group for young adults. They have had over 100 members over the 10 years they have been running. With 25 regular members who come weekly. Books and reading are integral to this group.

Whether it’s reading the trading cards (equivalent of a chapter of a book per game), rule books or books connected to the games such as The Black Library books, Dresden files, H.P Lovecraft books, D&D novels & manga titles. They work in partnership with the Cardigan Centre.

They work in partnership with @ThoughtBubbleUK to deliver events at Central Library inc a LGBT comic readers night, artist workshops for local secondary schools, a graphic novel giveaway and an international comic forum.

They have a good relationship with the organisers which also means free tickets as prizes for their groups and large donations of LGBT of graphic novels for their library.

Working with original cosplay organiser Rachel they have run 3 mini @toshocon cons at Central library. All 3 have been sell out events. They raise good funds for Central Library from this event. They have performances, panels, quizzes, games rooms, maid café, and craft stalls.

Sci-fi, manga and graphic novels issue well to users of these groups. They can use our audience’s expertise to consult on popular stock for the system and new services the groups may want to use.

Through the nature of the projects they run they successfully work with many people on the autistic spectrum, and people who feel socially isolated. They provide a safe place for them to meet and make friends: staff have had training to help support and signpost users if needed.

The team fully understand appreciate the difficulties people can face and this is reflected in the set up of the groups, e.g. decluttering spaces, time out areas and activities, pep talks, staff supervision and clear communication.

Dawn loves working with the groups she works with, and she has plans to extend provision when they re-open if at all possible.