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| The exterior of the library |
On the ground floor there is a lending library with
escalators leading up to a brilliantly designed children’s library, the main
feature of which are the big yellow “story steps” to be used for group
activities and performances. They have even been painted with a special substance
that should stop children from hurting themselves if they fall over!
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| The book rotunda |
The third and fourth floors display a large selection of
the library’s archive collection in elegant curved bookcases that run along the
entirety of both levels. Much of the collection has never been seen by the
public before as it was hidden from view at the old library. Under supervision,
customers can even leaf through a selection of the older books and documents.
One special feature of the new library has actually come
directly across from the old library. And when I say directly, I mean that this
room was entirely deconstructed and then reassembled piece by piece in the new
library. The Shakespeare Memorial Room, originally built in 1882, now sits
above the ninth floor at the very top of the buliding and contains a collection
of 43,000 books within its old wooden walls. Speaking of Shakespeare, the
library is also home to two extremely valuable books: Shakespeare’s First Folio
and Audobon’s Birds of America, each worth between £6m and £7m.
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| The Shakespeare Memorial Room in its new home |
A major element of the new library is technology; from the “wands”
librarians will use to locate electronically-tagged books to the 200+ computers
stationed across the building, this is a library with two feet firmly in the 21st
century.
We have come to a time in our society and culture in which
technology plays an incredibly important role in our lives. Whether it is using
iPads (like many of you were issued at the start of the year), iPhones or
computers and laptops, the way we search and acquire information is changing
and libraries are finding themselves needing to adapt to this. The Library of
Birmingham is a wonderful example of how books and technology can come together
to create a comprehensive knowledge hub - a place where information is at your
fingertips via page or screen.
However, for me, at the heart of the library there will
always be the book. Officially opening the new library, Malala Yousafzai put
these sentiments into words perfectly:
“Books are
precious. Some books travel with
you back centuries; others take you into the future. Some take you to the core
of your heart and others take you into the universe.
[…] It is written that a room without books is like a body without a
soul. A city without a library is like a graveyard." (Yousafzai, 2013).
Images via BBC
Library of Birmgham website