What links lanterns from Liverpool, new music from Newcastle, two owls and 26,000 people in Leeds?

It is, of course, the British Library and Light Night Leeds, the city’s annual free multi-arts and light festival. Over two nights in October, tens of thousands of people discovered a treasure trove of artworks inspired by the theme ‘Back to Nature’.

Part of the Library’s Light Night Leeds 2021 installation. Photograph: Abbie Jennings.

This is the third year that the British Library has had a presence at Light Night, and following on from 2019’s dockside installation, and the online offering last year, the Library’s Nature at Night installation, in Park Square, was based around a collection of illuminated animal and plant lanterns created by The Lantern Company, including two new owl lanterns inspired by images in our collection.

Two owl lanterns from our Light Night Leeds 2021 installation. Photographs: Abbie Jennings.

Jo Pocock, Artistic Director of Liverpool-based The Lantern Company, says the Nature at Night installation was ‘a celebration and reflection of the beauty and diversity of the natural world we have here in the UK. It holds up a magnifying glass to the complexity and interdependence of our life-sustaining eco-systems, and is a mixture of plants, insects, wildflowers and indigenous creatures.’

General Reference Collection 74/462*.e.1. (The Birds of Great Britain. John Gould, 1804-1881. London, 1873 [1862-73]). Plate 31 Long eared owl illustration. Plate 28 Barn owl illustration – these plate numbers may vary volume to volume

‘We created two brand new owl lanterns inspired by images from the British Library’s wonderful natural world archives. We chose to depict a barn owl and a long eared owl, as these illustrations were particularly striking. Leeds also has a strong connection to owls and owl imagery is found in much of the architecture across the city, as well as the Leeds coat of arms.’

The Lantern Company creating the owl lanterns

An accompanying sound piece was specially created by Newcastle-based composer Roma Yagnik. Her composition included over 100 tracks taken from our Environmental and Nature Sounds Archive, which holds more than 250,000 sounds.

‘This was such a dream opportunity - being given access to the sounds of nature from the Library collection allowed me to have a different approach to any I’ve used before and that in itself was very inspiring. A big part of this was listening through the range of field recordings whilst looking at the pictures of the lanterns as they were created by The Lantern Company, alongside illustrations of the owls provided by the Library, to find the characteristics and moods for the piece.’

The Littles excerpt Nature at Night

‘It’s wonderful when our wildlife recordings can be used in creative ways. Some of these sounds will have been recorded for documentary or scientific purposes and so it’s always exciting to see how they can be completely transformed by an artist. I’m so impressed with how Roma has taken the raw sounds and created such a beautiful and engaging piece.’ says Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds

‘Light Night Leeds is such a huge and magical event to be part of,’ adds Roma. ‘I love that the British Library is making their collections available to the public in such creative ways.’

‘It’s exciting to be part of an event that attracts so many different people to come and enjoy art and culture,’ says Kenn Taylor, the Library’s Lead Cultural Producer based in Boston Spa. ‘With over 70% of the Library’s collection held at our Boston Spa site near Wetherby, it’s also a great opportunity for people in Yorkshire to engage with our collections.’

Enjoy our growing programme of workshops, exhibitions and events in Leeds and the surrounding area. Find out what’s coming up by visiting bl.uk/leeds. We’d love to see you soon.

Lydia Hiraide is a PhD student researching environmental politics at Goldsmiths, University of London. During her placement at the British Library she worked to understand the role of libraries in tackling climate change. To help find some answers, she collaborated with colleagues from London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Wakefield and further afield with colleagues in Europe and Africa. Lydia presented her findings at the National Libraries Now conference in September and here’s a summary of what she found out:

For three months over the summer I worked as a PhD placement student at the British Library in their Public Policy team. My placement allowed me to see my work used far beyond the world of academic research and help shape conversations about how the Library can approach climate change.

Before stepping into my role, the Library had already made steps to taking more responsibility for its actions. By reducing carbon emissions by 26.4% over the last 10 years the Library has made a great start on its path to net zero. Now it has secured over £8 million through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and sustainability consultants to help reset its goals in light of the climate emergency. And with this progress the Library can now develop a roadmap to achieve its bigger ambitions.

But, beyond being responsible for their own emissions, what is the role of a national library in the climate conversation? The conversation around climate change can be overwhelming. It’s a collective problem with many nuances, and it throws up questions around social inequality, youth empowerment and changes in economies. So how can a library help navigate this fast-evolving world?

A trusted source of information

Reliable information is a key resource in tackling climate change. And how we verify and communicate it brings many challenges but, importantly, libraries can provide and validate information to anybody wishing to access it. It is intriguing to think about the different purposes this information can be used for. From informing public debate and helping small businesses to develop sustainable practices, to supporting scientific research which could help us find real-world solutions.

A network of change

My experience in the Public Policy team encouraged me to think about how such a large institution like the British Library can work collaboratively with a huge variety of partners to create real change. This autumn the Library hosted The Natural Word, a series of events created to inspire people into climate action with different voices contributing from communities on the front line of the climate emergency. You can catch up on these important conversations online on the British Library Player.

Just recently the Library worked in partnership with Blue Peter to launch the Our Planet Now competition to give a young person the amazing opportunity to share their poem or short story about taking climate action at the COP26 summit.  Their work will become part of this critical moment in history and will also be added to the Library’s collection, capturing a record of these important world events.  

A culture of reuse

Not only are libraries important for sharing information, but they are also safe and vibrant community spaces. Most libraries are built on a model of lending and borrowing, which means that they are already naturally sustainable. The British Library’s copies of fashion magazine Vogue have been accessed more than 6,000 times over the last 10 years alone!

It’s been exciting to learn about how libraries all over the country and the w orld are building on these models to create even deeper cultures of sustainability among their staff and audiences. I discovered a range of inspiring projects, including Libraries of Things, Seed Libraries, and the Wakefield Word Fest, all helping us to take those vital steps towards change.

We are working toward a brighter climate future. Find out more about our plans.