« About Tim COATES | Main | Ministers and Mysteries »
April 15, 2006
A beautiful library
Look at the photo on the book jacket to the left. It is the interior of the public library in Great Barrington in Massachusetts, America. I like it; I would happily go there and look things up, or read for an hour or an afternoon. That's what this blog is about. For many years I have campaigned in England for improvements to our public library service. I hope talking and writing about libraries will help them get better.
I am grateful to Karen Christensen and her daughter Rachel who have created this site so the discussion about libraries becomes open to everyone. Karen is the publisher of "The Good Library Guide" of which this photo is the front cover. She also has a very literary pedigree which we will discover as this blog progresses.
I thought I should start the blog with a challenge. There is a library just next to Victoria Station in London which must have been built about the same time as the one in Great Barrington. They both have the same fine windows and high ceiling. The Victoria Library is in Buckingham Palace Road which is in the City of Westminster. It is a most beautiful building; but sadly nowadays it doesn't look at all like the library in our photo. I won't describe it, that might be hurtful; but it is interesting to know that in its depths it carries a famous and wonderful music library and the private collection of the English Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The task is to help the Councillors of Westminster bring about the transformation that their building needs; to make it as evocative and attractive as the library in Great Barrington. Let's open the discussion to the wherefores and the whynots and the whatdoyoudo's and the can'tpossiblies; and remove all the obstacles. My challenge is to all the people who live, work and study in Westminster and their council to make this library into one of the best in the world- and a good candidate for Karen's book.
Posted by Perkins at April 15, 2006 10:21 AM