Wonderful libraries from around the world - and how to join one!

As you can see, Trad Padders, I love libraries and so have to share this with you.

I have tried to pick a favourite but I love them all.

They are different but are all doing their best and brightest

to serve their specific clientele.

And then there's this.

How to join a library.

Library Dreaming : refurbishment : cultural precinct : community hub: the place to be

 

Last night, I attended the above consultation.   The consultation was done with Flightpath, an architectural consultancy, with two of their associates.  One , the principal, took the notes.  The second architect was said to have the knack for asking the good questions so he did most of the talking.  The third was a graphic designer who didn't say much at all but took his own notes. Lesley Morgan of the Ballarat Library and the Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation was there. Another person was there from the Council but, in spite of trying, have not yet tracked down who she is.  Besides those, there were about eight of us having our two bits worth - oops, giving our input.

Lesley Morgan is the manager of the Ballarat Library and a senior manager at Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation. She has held the role of Ballarat Manager for 4 1/2 years.Lesley has worked in libraries for 30 years in a variety of different roles, including Public, University, School and Tafe libraries. Lesley is a passionate advocate for public libraries, reading and literacy in general. One aim of hers is to assist in breaking down cultural barriers so that social inclusiveness becomes the right of all.

Click Here to visit the Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation website

Now I am not sure what this talk of re-making the Ballarat Library, perhaps making it a 'hub' is all about.  I have only been in Ballarat about eighteen months.  I have, however, come across this article from 2009 - a bare four years ago.   Then I came across this - which appears to be from April this year.

Now, we weren't told of this limited amount of money.  Perhaps the architects did not wish to cramp our style or limit our imagination.  However, for what we eventually got to talking about were were well past this financial limitation.  Why?  We named the elephants in the room which went beyond the boundaries of the Ballarat Library.  We named the parking space between the library and the civic hall - which has been left for a decade to rot in neglect - which, like so many parking facilities, has a period in its daily life cycle which means that is dead, empty, vacant, non-contributing.  And there is the on-going saga of the Civic Hall. My contribution on how to revive the Civic Hall and add to the area as a cultural precinct was this marvellous news of the eradication of urban blight in down-at-heel Newcastle:

So the wash up of all this? 

We few - we precious six o'clock few -  had our wide-ranging say.

We ranged from the library purists who wanted a library to be a library -

to those who were prepared to venture further

into the concepts of hubs and precincts.

One marvellous idea put forward which encouraged me to air the Westbury idea was the idea of flying the Ballarat historical and artistic and literary flag in a manner which is not done by our existing cultural institutions.  The proposer began with reminding us of the wonderful Will Dyson and progressed through a litany of distinguished cultural Ballarat-ians, male and female.

So we spilled past the 7pm timeline but in the end had to leave Library + Hub Dreaming.  Where will it take us?  What happened with the other two consultations?  Is anybody listening in a really meaningful way?  Will it become just a fleeting moment in time?  We wait to see.  I don't have a lot of confidence in the Ballarat Council's ability to make the most of opportunities, to respect heritage, to take good care of what it already holds.  I have come to this point of view because of the Civic Hall neglect and the Black Hill Look-out neglect.

World Book Day : John le Carre : the Bodleian Libraries : Dr Zhivago #worldbookday #bodleian #lecarre

To-day is World Book Day.  Find out all about it here.  

What is fascinating this year - if you are a John le Carre fan and a fan of his most famous character, George Smiley - is that he has presented his literary archive to the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford in England. The intention is that the Bodleian will become the permanent home of the archive.

You can see images of some of the manuscript for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy here.

You can see images of some of the manuscript for The Russia House here.

I recall the movie of The Russia House quite fondly.  You see, I have been in love with Boris Pasternak since I read Dr Zhivago at the age of seventeen.  I have always kept a copy of the book on my shelves – and, in fact, have two at the moment.  You see, I don’t want to be without Dr Zhivago’s poems which are at the back of the novel.

I am not much of a traveller in foreign climes and have never visited Russia.  I always promised myself, that if ever I did visit Russia, I would visit Pasternak’s grave at Peredelkino.  In The Russia House is a scene in which Sean Connery’s character, Barley Blair, spends a Sunday at a lunch with the literary lights of Moscow at Peredelkino.  After lunch, he visits Pasternak’s grave.

So, in a sense, courtesy of John le Carre and Australian director Fred Schepisi (whose family used to own a pub at the old gold mining town of Ravenswood near Charters Towers in North Queensland), I feel like I have been to the grave.  I have paid my homage.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Collected George Smiley Radio Dramas: 

Eight BBC Full-Cast Productions Starring Simon Russell Beale (BBC Radio 4 Dramatisations)

3 Titles By John Le Carre: 

"The Russia House," "A Perfect Spy," "The Honourable School Boy"

Doctor Zhivago

The Poems of Doctor Zhivago

Dreams are not negotiable #realisation

Tweet

Soap and fire : froth and bubble?

Recently, the back of the Nunawading Public Library underwent a metamorphosis. It became the Erinsborough Hospital. Neighbours had turned up. Stickers went on to doors and the roof of the library was alight with TV trickery. Miss Eagle was there to give you a behind the scenes look.

Australian Spring

To read "Australian Spring" click on the picture for an enlarged version.

You should then see an enlarged version with on it a little square with arrows.

Click this little square and you will find the picture is now readable.

It is only July, but - after some clear Melbourne weather this week and seeing wattles and jonquils and fruit trees in blossom - Miss Eagle feels as though Spring is in the air. We Eurocentric people of the Southern Hemisphere still rely on the distinction of the Northern Hemisphere seasons turned upside down. So officially, Spring does not arrive here until September 1. Miss Eagle believes that we should pay more attention to our own environment not just in the Southern Hemisphere or in our own nation but in our own locality.

Miss Eagle thinks that if we were sufficiently in tune with our environment there would be a name for what is happening now. And for lots of other seasonal changes as well, seasonal changes that may not happen for a period of three months but may only last for three weeks or six weeks.

What would this present season be called? The Harbinger? Newness? Please let Miss Eagle know what you think.

The poem, Australian Spring, by Australia's leading suffragette and face-on-the-five-dollar note, Catherine Helen Spence, is from the State Library of South Australia and reminds us of the attitude of transplanted Europeans. Things have changed a century later - but not enough. Generally speaking, we Australians have not come to terms with our land. We have not paid sufficient attention to what it can tell us. In fact, let's ask ourselves if we are listening at all.

We are still seeing things through the eyes of elsewhere, not the eyes of the native born.