Our public library is exactly how I imagined the ideal library would be.
In France they would call it a "médiatheque", but the term doesn't begin to do our library justice.
Far from being a stuffy, poorly-lit place of hushed voices aimed primarily at adults, our anything but humble municipal library is light and airy, has no fewer than three play areas for children of different ages, coloured pipes snake along walls for playing whispering gallery, there are dressing-up costumes and dozens of cuddly toys, about a dozen computers with preloaded educational games and child-size mice. And noise is permitted (if not necessarily encouraged).
Then there must be about 20 terminals dotted around the library simply for the purpose of surfing the Internet or word processing, many of them with scanners, not to mention a dedicated computer room containing another 30 or so PCs, five group study rooms (each offering a table and seating for two or three people and several tutorial rooms for one-on-one work, free wi-fi access and electricity sockets throughout the library, magazines, newspapers and - my particular favourite - armchairs right in front of blazing fireplaces for extra-cosy reading.
On the purely lending side, you aren't restricted to books either, though there are certainly plenty of them, especially in the vast children's section. There are CDs, CD-ROMS and language courses for children and adults, lots of audiobooks, a vast and extremely up-to-date collection of DVDs and even MP3 audiobook players for borrowing - all free of charge.
One time I was there, I overheard a conversation between one of the librarians and an elderly man who had seen a reference to a biblical passage in a film he'd borrowed. The librarian not only scanned the entire DVD to find it, but wrote down the position (to the second) and printed out a screenshot of the relevant frame showing the passage in question.
If you can't quite finish your borrowed film or book within the permitted 2 or 4 weeks respectively, you don't actually need to come into the library to extend it, because everything can be reviewed and renewed online. You can even check what's in stock, order temporarily unavailable books and reserve study or tutorial rooms from the comfort of your home computer.
Add seven-day opening, often until 9pm, and you have a wonderful gift to the local community, and not surprisingly one that earned a nationwide top-ten ranking.
In France they would call it a "médiatheque", but the term doesn't begin to do our library justice.
Far from being a stuffy, poorly-lit place of hushed voices aimed primarily at adults, our anything but humble municipal library is light and airy, has no fewer than three play areas for children of different ages, coloured pipes snake along walls for playing whispering gallery, there are dressing-up costumes and dozens of cuddly toys, about a dozen computers with preloaded educational games and child-size mice. And noise is permitted (if not necessarily encouraged).
Then there must be about 20 terminals dotted around the library simply for the purpose of surfing the Internet or word processing, many of them with scanners, not to mention a dedicated computer room containing another 30 or so PCs, five group study rooms (each offering a table and seating for two or three people and several tutorial rooms for one-on-one work, free wi-fi access and electricity sockets throughout the library, magazines, newspapers and - my particular favourite - armchairs right in front of blazing fireplaces for extra-cosy reading.On the purely lending side, you aren't restricted to books either, though there are certainly plenty of them, especially in the vast children's section. There are CDs, CD-ROMS and language courses for children and adults, lots of audiobooks, a vast and extremely up-to-date collection of DVDs and even MP3 audiobook players for borrowing - all free of charge.
One time I was there, I overheard a conversation between one of the librarians and an elderly man who had seen a reference to a biblical passage in a film he'd borrowed. The librarian not only scanned the entire DVD to find it, but wrote down the position (to the second) and printed out a screenshot of the relevant frame showing the passage in question.
If you can't quite finish your borrowed film or book within the permitted 2 or 4 weeks respectively, you don't actually need to come into the library to extend it, because everything can be reviewed and renewed online. You can even check what's in stock, order temporarily unavailable books and reserve study or tutorial rooms from the comfort of your home computer.Add seven-day opening, often until 9pm, and you have a wonderful gift to the local community, and not surprisingly one that earned a nationwide top-ten ranking.
2 comments:
Sounds amazing, apart from the "child-size mice" bit, which gives it more of a Jurassic Park feel...
You're right, Tim: the child-size mice are there to prevent the velociraptors eating the chidren (the cleaners complain about the stains on the carpet).
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