Volition volunteers had a fantastic tour behind the scenes of Manchester Central Library on Friday. Courtesy of the Heritage Access Manager, we toured the old and new areas of the building and learned a lot about local history. Volunteers learned how to research their family trees and the history of Manchester Cenotaph using digital tools. This will be an invaluable training tool for our volunteers working as stewards on Manchester Cenotaph in the city centre.

We toured the restoration labs where expert restorers rebind books and bring old documents and posters back to life. Volunteers were also shown into the Manchester archives where 100s of 1000s of documents are stored and which are now being digitally archived for future generations. The grand old office of the library director with it’s secret doors and ‘snug’ rooms is now a meeting room which fascinated the group, as did the beautiful domed reading rooms with its ‘whispering’ echos.