Well, the time finally arrived, and I find myself in the middle of moving the library into its temporary accomodation. You may well ask why the new library didn't get built first, so we could move straight in...
What Cardiff needs (apparently) is more shopping and less parking...(they plan to knock down the current library, several multi-storey carparks, shops, post office, Toys 'R Us, etc - to put up a John Lewis arcade).
So we move into some breeze blocks (and the old Welsh National Opera rehearsal building) - and patiently wait until 2008/9 for our 'state-of-the-art library' to get built in the carpark of the Marriott Hotel... (sigh)
The regulars suffer most...we have always formed a safe haven for the poor, the mad, the old, the ill, the unemployed (as well as the students, housewives, researchers, etc) - and this month of turmoil has displaced everyone's routines.
It does seem a shame that so many people now see us as irrelevant (see Love Libraries campaign). Why buy books, read them once, and clutter up your home with them gathering dust?
I love libraries because I chose the dangerous and impoverished path of the 'artist' so I have always believed that (to misquote The Furry Freak Brothers) "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries."
1 comment:
I was driving round Callaghans Square on saturday and caiught a glimps of the new library. Are the 'mock book ends' a permanent fixture, or only for hiding construction work?
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