Pen pals across the Atlantic: Nottingham links up with US library
A new partnership between Nottingham Central Library and a US library invites residents to write and exchange letters across the Atlantic.
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Nottingham Central Library is hosting a letter-writing session today as they have partnered up with an American library to exchange letters.
The drop-in session will run from midday for an hour, where you can pick up an introductory letter from a pen-pal from Connecticut, USA, and put together your reply. The library is providing all the required stationery so it's quite easy to turn up and start making a new friend from across the ocean.
The Library Letters Project was started after a Nottingham librarian contacted The Sunday Letter Project to enquire about setting up a letter writing program at the library. The Sunday Letter Project was set up by UK-based Wildflower Illustration Co. after many of the customers of their stationary shop bemoaned how few people write letters any more. The Project asks people to take a pledge to write a letter each Sunday, as well as linking up people who wish to be pen-pals with local shops as the conduit. Nottingham Library wanted to become such a conduit.
Within days of Nottingham getting in touch, so did the American library, Mystic & Noank, requesting the same. Notts library officer, Jessica Allen, was connected with Kristina Camaioni-O'Leary, her American counterpart and the project was started.
"I think that it just resonates with a lot of people that they want to connect with others. They want to share stories," Camaioni-O'Leary told American newspaper, The Day. "They want to learn about other cultures, learn about what's going on in the world, share ideas — and this is one way to do it. It's just a small way, but I think people are starting to really look forward to it."
The writers from Mystic & Noank began their letters on 12th of February and have sent them across to the UK to be responded to today, and over the next few weeks. There is a letterbox set up in the lounge of Central Library to post letters to a pen-pal any time the library is open. Letters written at today's session and put into the letterbox will be sent by the library.
