Libraries Tribute -- Scalzi, etc.

[Extollager]

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/02/23/a-personal-history-of-libraries/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/jacobs/on-libraries/

I discovered my two top favorite authors in a public library -- I was just looking around for something to read. I will await comparable testimonies from people who avoid libraries and bookstores, and stick to electronic devices. Perhaps such testimonies will be forthcoming.

 

[Culhwch]

Lovely piece by Scalzi, and one of a few I've seen in response to Terry Deary's opinions...

I can't imagine life without libraries. When I was a kid my mother took us to the library regularly and fostered mine and my sisters' love of reading. Our visits were monthly at least, if not weekly, and when I was old enough and my mum wasn't available to chaffeur me I'd walk down with a backpack that would usully come back full. I have done volunteer work with libraries, and my first paid job was shelving books at a university library. I now live a block away from my local library, and it was a huge selling point of our house. I love being able to wander down whenever I feel the urge and just browse the shelves.

So, yeah, big fan of libraries over here.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I love the library! It was at the library that I discovered fantasy books. I knew I wanted to read a book about dragons, so I headed to our local public library and eventually found Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. I've been going to the library ever since.

My daughter is almost 2 1/2, and absolutely LOVES to read (you can imagine how happy that makes me as a Mama! ). Without the library, I don't think we could afford her reading habit. We go to the library at least 2 times a month and check out around 10-15 books at a time. She gets so excited when I say we're going to library; the library and the bookstore are her favorite places to go.

Our library also allows you to check out e-books. I have a Kindle and have checked out a few books from them to read on it. They have something like 10,000+ books available to check out for e-readers. You can also download 3 MP3's a week to keep, you don't have to check them out. And once I lose my job in a couple months, I plan on taking my daughter to storytime as well. We are big fans of the library here at our house!

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

I really should start using mine but I really like owning my books and adding them to my personal 'library'. I don't like the idea of having a set amount of time that I have to read a book before I have to take it back, I often go on buying sprees in used bookshops and eBay and some of that stays on the TBR shelf for months before I get round to it.
I've been meaning to get a library card sorted for a while just haven't got round to it. At the moment I've got too much stuff TBR to justify adding a load of library books to that.

 

[Nesacat]

I love libraries. I could not have read as much as I did without them. Books were such an expensive investment when I was little so my mom always took me to the library. Sometimes even more than one. It's where I discovered so very many authors. I salute my mom for hauling me to libraries several times a week until I got old enough to take the bus myself. She's sign herself up too and give me all her cards.

When I was in University in the UK and living on a shoestring budget, the library was a wonder. The local branch was right across the road and I practically lived in it.

 

[Mangara]

I love my local library. Thanks to my wife going in on a whim last year and picking up a book for me (Flood by Baxter) I rediscovered my love for reading. If it wasn't for the library I wouldn't have picked up some of the authors I've read so far. It was especially useful last year when money was tight, but I use it now to facilitate reading all the books I want to. It's part of a joint library with the rest of North Yorkshire (apart from York which seem to have their own catalogue) which means I can get most things. It still suffers from the non-complete seri of books and availability of lesser known authors which most authors seem to suffer from. They are pretty accommodating though, and have brought new stock recently including some titles I requested

 

[Connavar]

Local libraries both public, University libraries has changed me alot the last 5,6 years. They drive my hunger to read new authors in many different fields and i have saved alot of money and time by loaning books i needed for Literary classes,history,Arabic language studies. I discovered all my fav authors but few through the library.

Since i dont follow my old religion as a muslim a good library is a holy place to me. I feel comfortable when im in town to read,study in libraries. Its like a place i grew up in that i never get tired of.

 

[Fried Egg]

I like my local library for somewhere quiet to sit down and read but far more often than not, I take my own book in with me. Most of what I want to read just isn't available in the library, even through interlibrary loan. Perhaps our library system her is just not very good. But by and large they are simply no more to me than somewhere I can go to read.

 

[GOLLUM]

I too am a fan of libraries.

I used them more often when I was younger and when I was a student becasue I couldn't afford to buy many books then.

These days it's a little different but I still sometimes go to my local library or when I'm in the city (Melbourne) on most weekends of the year I sometimes pop into our State Library which is pretty nice, especially when they have frequent literary exhibitions not to mention some of their excellent literary collections they periodically wheel out for show.

Outside pic of the State Library of Victoria as you approach the steps..
Click on magnifying glass where applicable to enlarge.

http://good-trips.com/PICTURES/aust...5_melbourne_state_library_of_victoria_big.jpg

A cool pic of the main reading room...
http://www.thecollectormm.com.au/private/LibraryDome.jpg

Another closeup pic....
http://mel365.com/media/wp-content/...e-State-Library-Victoria-CBD_20120507_080.jpg

 

[Mangara]

Wow that dome is impressive!

 

[GOLLUM]

Indeed. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the domed reading room, constructed as it was in 1913. The Victorian State Library itself was first erected back in 1856. not that old for a library in world terms but still plenty of history there.

It looks sort of pretty at night. You can just see the dome peaking up at the back in the top left corner of the image.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qrAsr6CrH...cpsshY/s1600/800px-State_Library_at_Night.jpg

I also like the garden, lots of people are often parked there just chilling out.

http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/images/regions/melbourne/city/melbourne-city-23.jpg

 

[Abernovo]

That's what a library should look like, Gollum. Impressive.
Mind you, drop a book off one of the top balconies, it could be lethal!

Libraries were where I learnt what sort of books I liked (loved) as a kid, trying all the different genres, and several authors, sneaking out of the children's section to read books that were 'too complex' for me*. We need more of them, not less.

*I've since wondered if that wasn't a bit of reverse psychology on the part of the librarian, telling me that.

 

[GOLLUM]

That's what a library should look like, Gollum. Impressive.
Mind you, drop a book off one of the top balconies, it could be lethal!
.

Stop giving me ideas....

Actually from memory not all levels are accessible to the general public. For some of the 'stacks' you need to request the librarian to source the particular item you're after.

I'll make a point of going there again next time I travel into the City.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Wow, that library is amazing Gollum!

 

[GOLLUM]

Well we were the second City to be nominated a UNESCO City of Literature after all....

Actually that turned out to be a good thing because it also brought us the Wheeler Centre housed in the Southern Wing of our state Library. It's a quite amazing collaboration of publishers, Australian literary organisations and writers with plenty of free events...in fact Neil Gaiman recently gave a talk there...

Here's a wiki article on it..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler_Centre

Exterior shot...
http://assets.wheelercentre.com/static/files/assets/ddee33ec/CBWIbuilding_Size8.jpg

Interior...
http://www.melhotornot.com/wp-content/uploads/P1040741v1.jpg

http://melbournedesignawards.com.au/downloads/mda/_Image 3 .jpg

http://www.arts.vic.gov.au/files/00baa7e1-86fa-48f3-989c-9ce70100ae69/CBWIstaircase.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HPpJ8Hx07...GtRQ7LkM4/s1600/Wheeler+Centre+-+Door+-+1.jpg

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Very nice. I am trying to think if we have anything even half that nice around me, but I don't think so. I get excited when they decide to remodel some of our older libraries though!

Although, this weekend is our annual Festival of Books, which I look forward to every year. It is now the 4th largest in the country, so that's not too shabby. Patrick Rothfuss will be there this year, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

 

[Mangara]

This is the outside of ours, its a really nice building.

They cleaned it up good and refurbished the inside.

I'll get a picture next time I'm down that way.

 

[GOLLUM]

VAlthough, this weekend is our annual Festival of Books, which I look forward to every year. It is now the 4th largest in the country, so that's not too shabby. Patrick Rothfuss will be there this year, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

That's sounds like something to really look forward to. We have our own Melbourne Writers Festival, a two week literary festival that's now in its 27th year.

Check this out...

A talk given at Federation Square beneath the architectural wonder that is The Atrium...

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2783/5802853378_8c1d73cfb9_o.jpg

Or you can go see various literary figures around town like our Aussie firebrand Germaine Greer pictured here at one of these locations around town...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8042/7897269758_6225916151_h.jpg

Wideshot of the same (or possibly different) venue...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8291/7854041796_e20580aff1_o.jpg

Or checkout the corner bookshop at The Atrium, which is the nerve centre of the Festival if you need to know what is going on, book events, attend book signings or view several talks in the myriad auditoriums...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3135/5802568119_61a71b0fc4_o.jpg


Then of course since 2006 there's been the Clunes weekend festival in regional Victoria, the biggest single book event in the country.

Clunes itself is an historical mining town that's been restored to something of its former glory, the cool part being that the myriad of booksellers who attend get to exhibit their stuff within these historical building; quite a neat concept actually...in fact Clunes is renamed as 'Booktown' for the event.

Blurb courtesy of wiki...
The idea of transforming Clunes into a European-style booktown was first conceived by Council and it held its first 'Booktown for a Day' event on 20 May 2007. Over 50 booksellers from around Australia set up shop for the day in the town's heritage buildings. Renamed to 'Back to Booktown' a year later and to 'Clunes Booktown Festival' in 2012, the township now holds the event each year on the first weekend in May, with more than 60 booksellers, millions of books both antiquarian, secondhand and new including small press publishers, 15,000 visitors, it has become the largest collection of books in any regional centre of Australia and the major Victorian regional book event.

Here's the program...

http://www.booktown.clunes.org/program12.htm

Some pics...

Historical town building...

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5280/7147175867_e2d528ddc1_z.jpg

Inside the town hall...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8158/7001086676_f13decb7be_z.jpg

Inside another building....

http://www.voicefm.com.au/voice-media/Clunes-Booktown-Festival-2012-img2.jpg

Inside the town Church....

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8161/7147178865_31e516ca2c_z.jpg

Second hand books here from part of a actual stonewall....

http://thethousands.herokuapp.com/m...GcGOgZFVFsIOgZwOgp0aHVtYkkiDTc5NXg0ODA+BjsGRg

OR...watch Punch and Judy..or listen to the grand street organ...or see folk walking about in their top hats. attend trivia nights at the local pub, go see the bottle museum, ride on historical conveyances etc...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cuMClDiHcYs/T6eOWodhwyI/AAAAAAAAAJA/DqVwhdvyv1w/s1600/3.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-piWZnBW33Io/T6eOV3oenKI/AAAAAAAAAIo/S0d-GMvGdZ0/s1600/1.JPG

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Thanks so much for sharing those Gollum! They look wonderful! I don't think any of the venues at our Festival are quite as nice as those, but I will try to see if I can get some photos this weekend to share. It's held at our University, and here is a picture from last year (I took it from their website, its not my own photo). As you can tell, lots of people attend, which is great news!

 

[GOLLUM]

Wow! That's a lot of people. As you say, it's obviously one of the higher attended book events in your neck of the woods.

Look forward to seeing any further photos...

@Mangara: I meant to say that that is certainly a nice facade to your library and what a contrast to pre-restoration!

Hopefully you can post some exterior and interior pics soon.

Cheers.