There are more than 10,000 books held within the 3 libraries at Harewood, collected by every generation of the Lascelles family and covering a range of different genres.

A dedicated team of Library volunteers check the details of more than 11,000 books on the online catalogue, and adding extra information about their condition, contents, bindings, illustrations etc.

This Volunteers Week, Kathy, Paul, Susan and Raymond take us through the work they do and what brought them to volunteering at Harewood.

Kathy

My name is Kathy and I am a retired librarian, working with a small team of 3 other volunteers to update the catalogue for the library collection at Harewood. We are checking the details of all the books on the online catalogue, and adding extra information about their condition, contents, bindings and illustrations.

Many of the books are 200 to 300 years old, and some are rare and valuable. What makes them especially interesting are the personal histories shown in many of the books. They contain bookplates and armorials belonging to the member of the family who collected them.

They often have inscriptions showing who gave the book as a birthday or Christmas present, or who presented the book to show their esteem. Sometimes there are notes in the margins, and occasionally some doodles (such as those where a member of the family was getting bored during a long church service). Some contain sketches done by members of the family.