Tuesday, 28 November 2017
What's the user
THE library user group is an alternative name for 'friends of the library'.
They are the groups in the borough of Camden and elsewhere that organise events in the libraries and campaign for various causes.
I think the term 'user group' sounds stronger, but some libraries started using 'friends of...' so they stick with that.
One group decided to change from 'user' to 'friends', but someone reminded them how difficult it is to change the name of a bank account, so they immediately changed their minds and stayed as they were.
Tuesday, 5 September 2017
Reminder: books on wheels
WHEN you enter an unfamiliar library--perhaps you are on holiday--always ask for the books-for-sale trolley or shelves. You'll be surprised what you find.
I always approach the enquiry desk with such a question. It's a good warm-up towards the staff helping you on other matters.
It might be that I'm unnecessarily self-conscious, but I always approach the desk wondering whether the member of staff will at first find me awkward, or I'll find him or her awakward or both of us will have that little uncomfortable hesitation which needs to be overcome.
Hmm, I can see I'm becoming a veritable psychologist in the field of library enquiry desks.
Wednesday, 19 July 2017
A hint of history
THE foyer of Swiss Cottage Library provoked me to imagine times before I was born.
This year the emergency evacuation of nearby high-rise residential blocks meant a centre for helping and informing the residents had to be set up. The location was the Library and the attached Leisure Centre. In the Library foyer and around the Leisure-Centre cafe and swimming-pool, there were desks, staff and volunteers in conspicuous jackets. They walked, sat and wrote, and assured the many visitors.
The high-rise blocks had been inspected and tested for safety against fire, and still are being subjected at the time of writing.
The alert to the London borough of Camden had come from the fatal fire in a high-rise block in west London.
All this set me thinking. You might know from my previous posts my determination to remember a library in the War. That was the forebear of this library, the ill-fated Hampstead Central Library, bombed twice in air raids in the Second World War, once with the hideously destructive VII rocket. It's a few bus stops up the road and still standing, now used as an arts centre.
In the present, the west London tower fire is unbearable to contemplate. It cast me back to the people who lived through the air raids of the First World War and the Second World War. Such disasters as the present one in west London they might have had to endure every week or more.
The present occupation of Swiss Cottage Library and Leisure Centre channeled me to history, buoying me along to see the Blitz spirit suddenly roused in the present. The old rallying points are invisible but still there.
This year the emergency evacuation of nearby high-rise residential blocks meant a centre for helping and informing the residents had to be set up. The location was the Library and the attached Leisure Centre. In the Library foyer and around the Leisure-Centre cafe and swimming-pool, there were desks, staff and volunteers in conspicuous jackets. They walked, sat and wrote, and assured the many visitors.
The high-rise blocks had been inspected and tested for safety against fire, and still are being subjected at the time of writing.
The alert to the London borough of Camden had come from the fatal fire in a high-rise block in west London.
All this set me thinking. You might know from my previous posts my determination to remember a library in the War. That was the forebear of this library, the ill-fated Hampstead Central Library, bombed twice in air raids in the Second World War, once with the hideously destructive VII rocket. It's a few bus stops up the road and still standing, now used as an arts centre.
In the present, the west London tower fire is unbearable to contemplate. It cast me back to the people who lived through the air raids of the First World War and the Second World War. Such disasters as the present one in west London they might have had to endure every week or more.
The present occupation of Swiss Cottage Library and Leisure Centre channeled me to history, buoying me along to see the Blitz spirit suddenly roused in the present. The old rallying points are invisible but still there.
Monday, 8 May 2017
Taunting and haunting
THE Hampstead Central Library, the ghost library within the modern building that still maintains its old, taunting exterior...it preoccupies me.
The blankness on one side of the building--is that where once stood the rest of the structure obliterated by the air raid nearly eighty years ago. I ought to return soon. The female watcher on War duty and killed in the raid needs to be better remembered.
Diary, 8th May 2017
The blankness on one side of the building--is that where once stood the rest of the structure obliterated by the air raid nearly eighty years ago. I ought to return soon. The female watcher on War duty and killed in the raid needs to be better remembered.
Diary, 8th May 2017
Tuesday, 18 April 2017
Just William among the new architecture
diary, 8th April 2017
IT WAS a hard fight, but William won.
The Society that meets annually to relish the comical stories of the well-meaning or revengeful schoolboy had their heads full of the imaginary landscapes of English villages, footpaths through farmers' fields, community halls with pretentious guest speakers, and disused barns to work out colossal plans. Yet these days meetings are held more frequently in glass and steel modern buildings. This meeting, outside London at a redesigned university, challenged participants in a sleek hall with sheer walls and sweeping floor to envisage the old-fashioned scenes from the William books. The challenge was met with pleasurable defiance.
No matter where they are, the Just William Society members maintain the visions of William landscape and adventure of a comical century from 1919 to 1969. Analysis and celebration of the past abound, a past that strangely is familIar to the present.
IT WAS a hard fight, but William won.
The Society that meets annually to relish the comical stories of the well-meaning or revengeful schoolboy had their heads full of the imaginary landscapes of English villages, footpaths through farmers' fields, community halls with pretentious guest speakers, and disused barns to work out colossal plans. Yet these days meetings are held more frequently in glass and steel modern buildings. This meeting, outside London at a redesigned university, challenged participants in a sleek hall with sheer walls and sweeping floor to envisage the old-fashioned scenes from the William books. The challenge was met with pleasurable defiance.
No matter where they are, the Just William Society members maintain the visions of William landscape and adventure of a comical century from 1919 to 1969. Analysis and celebration of the past abound, a past that strangely is familIar to the present.
Thursday, 6 April 2017
The Storey of Camden
diary 6 April 2017
David Storey reminds us of Camden in flight.
His novel Flight into Camden keeps for us the borough we once knew as it flitted into the future which is now the present.
He died aged 83.
I would pass him on the Heath and in the street, knowing who he was and slightly in awe of even the later man's physicality. I was thinking of the rugby player who wrote This Sporting Life.
David Storey reminds us of Camden in flight.
His novel Flight into Camden keeps for us the borough we once knew as it flitted into the future which is now the present.
He died aged 83.
I would pass him on the Heath and in the street, knowing who he was and slightly in awe of even the later man's physicality. I was thinking of the rugby player who wrote This Sporting Life.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Diary 16 March 2017 Private library privilege
ACCESS to Bulwer-Lytton's private library at the weekend. What a writer was Lord Lytton in the age of Queen Victoria. All those volumes.
The visit to his stately home Knebworth, outside London, brought back memories of admiring the prolific, promiscuous lord. I had read his science fiction The Coming Race, about the civilisation that lives deep underground in the earth and the fear they would take over on the surface.
In another work, Haunters and the Haunted, hero takes his bull terrier to an empty house for some ghost hunting. I'm re-reading that story.
Edward Bulwer Lytton died about 150 years ago. He had a good brand, not happy to establish when he was alive, but invaluable to his literary memory. I remember him not only as a good, prolific writer, but also, according to the publicity, as a womaniser with a vengeful wife.
The media have used him as a butt for their stale joke, that he is a bad writer, when he isn't.
The visit to his stately home Knebworth, outside London, brought back memories of admiring the prolific, promiscuous lord. I had read his science fiction The Coming Race, about the civilisation that lives deep underground in the earth and the fear they would take over on the surface.
In another work, Haunters and the Haunted, hero takes his bull terrier to an empty house for some ghost hunting. I'm re-reading that story.
 |
| Edward Bulwer-Lytton: prolific, scandalous |
Edward Bulwer Lytton died about 150 years ago. He had a good brand, not happy to establish when he was alive, but invaluable to his literary memory. I remember him not only as a good, prolific writer, but also, according to the publicity, as a womaniser with a vengeful wife.
The media have used him as a butt for their stale joke, that he is a bad writer, when he isn't.
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