On Wednesday 10 October 2018, the library at Notley celebrated the life and work of Robert Ripley and his creation of the highly popular “Believe it Or Not” series. 

Robert Ripley was a cartoonist, explorer, reporter, adventurer and collector who travelled to 201 countries in 35 years seeking the odd, the unusual, and the unexplained. He began his career drawing cartoons for the New York Globe and created his first “Believe It or Not!” cartoon in 1918. The cartoon was so popular that he went on to create books, radio and television programmes and then his first “Odditorium” at the Chicago World Fair in 1933. Today his books are still hugely popular in our library and thousands of people visit “Ripley’s Believe it Or Not” museums across the world.

To celebrate 100 years of the “Unbelievable”, students at Notley were invited to come and take part in a variety of weird and wonderful competitions and activities themed around the wacky world of Ripley. Around the library were ten unbelievable facts and students had to work out the correct answers for a chance to win a prize. There were also cartoon drawing activities and puzzles. Earlier in the week, students had also taken part in our special Ripley themed “True or False” House Competition. Tutor groups W9 and T4 excelled in their knowledge of the unbelievable and bizarre and correctly answered all ten questions!

A big thank you to everyone that took part in all of our activities, every student that entered the House competition and Mr Ripley’s Believe it or Not challenge will receive house points. This event was the first library activity of the new academic year - watch this space for more fantastic competitions throughout the year including National Recycling Week House competition, a special Shelter Tuilding Team activity, Day of The Dead mask competition, Halloween crafts and a special Harry Potter themed Christmas event at the end of term.

Who said libraries are boring? Not ours!