The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is one of the world's most significant research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats. The Library's collections include around 25 million books, along with substantial additional collection of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300BC.

As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of nearly all books produced in the United Kingdom, including all foreign books distributed in the UK. It also purchases many items which are only published outside Britain. The British Library adds some 3 million items every year.

We are proposing to undertake a Shared Learning Project at the British Library beginning in January 2008. Although the British Library is not directly involved in the Project, we will be meeting twice with Alison Bailey, Curator of the Children's Literature Collection in the St Pancras building. At the first session, led by Max de Boo, Alison will give a general introduction to the Library and an overview of the children's literature collection, which you will be able to access once you have a Reader Pass. She will also be attending the final presentation and our intention is to present a copy of our final report to the Library. Working as a team of members from U3As in the Greater London region, we will share our learning with each other.

The subject of our research will be: 'The portrayal of children [good/naughty/wicked] in literature written for children 5-11 years old over the past 100 years (their rewards and punishments).' For example: Tom, Tom, the piper's son; Mary Jane in Rice Pudding by A.A. Milne; The Water Babies; Peter Pan & Wendy; My Naughty Little Sister, Where the Wild Things Are; Horrid Henry & Perfect Peter.

We will look at aspects of this remit further during the first meeting, such as by author, time scale, prose or poetry, younger or older children, etc. Additionally, it would be interesting if we could also record briefly our own and others' memories of access to children's literature during our own childhood pre-, during, and post World War II.

If you are interested in the literature of childhood, you enjoy research and like working in a team, this Project could well be of interest to you: no prior knowledge or experience are required although computer literacy would be an advantage. However, your enthusiasm is paramount!

The Project will start on Thursday 10th January 2008 with an introductory session from 10.30am to 12 noon and continue fortnightly at the same time for a total of twelve weeks. The last session will be on Thursday 3rd April- a total of six sessions. (Please note that the last meeting will take place after Easter.) If you think you might be interested please contact Max de Boo, Project Leader: Tel: 020 8922 5623 or email: Maxann maxann.deboo@ntlworld.com for more information. The closing date for applications is Friday 23rd November 2007.