Electronic Pianos and Daniel Craig 7/2/13 Part One

 To get the obvious out of the way: No, I did not see Daniel Craig, but apparently he has frequented the Barbican Public Library, where we visited on Tuesday. The public library is on the middle floors of a larger arts complex in the square mile that makes up the real “City of London.” Compared to most of our destinations in this class, the Barbican is young, having moved to its current location in 1982, which used to be social housing. There are some weird collection arrangements, because the facility was never intended to be a library. Like, the fiction books are located on curvy shelves in the middle of nonfiction, which just seems incredibly confusing for the uninformed browser. Another strange aspect of the Barbican is its patron make-up. Because it’s located in London proper, most of its patrons do not live within London, but are commuters. Anyone can get a Barbican card, as long as they have a photo ID. This means that the library is busiest during non-traditional times for American libraries: noon-2 on weekdays. The library isn’t even open past 5:30 on Tuesdays or Thursdays. This is just so odd for me, because our library gets busiest around 5:30, and programming is always scheduled between 5 and 6. On our tour, we saw many ways that the library tries to deal with their limited hours, with a lot of eresources, and self check-in and limited internet computers available outside the library doors.

Most of library services that I saw were pretty similar to ones at local public libraries back home. They have home delivery services for those that can’t physically get to the library, and a lot of language and “life skills” resources. There’s a large DVD collection for check-out, including Doctor Who, of course, but also Walking Dead, Firefly, and even The West Wing (yes, I checked!). The library has free wifi, but for some reason they change their password weekly, which is apparently a switch from daily. I cannot imagine changing the wifi password daily, but I guess they do so to discourage local residents from  constantly using their internet?

In contrast to the modern features, there’s the Barbican collection. There are books available in the stacks, for check out, that date back to the 1730s. They also have the second largest music collection in London. They make the arts a priority, because of the library’s location. I guess that the previous librarian had digital pianos put in so that patrons could preview the sheet music before checking it out, but now they’re mostly used by patrons for piano lessons. There was a guy playing on one when we were there, and seeing someone playing the piano, and only being able to hear the rhythm, instead of the notes, was really odd.

By the time we were done touring the music library, my feet were just pure pain. The constant walking we’re doing every day is really hard on the feet. So you can imagine how happy I was to hear that the library was having us for tea. We got to go back in the employee’s lounge, and they had a little tea set up for us, with biscuits (cookies) and everything. The vanilla sandwich cookies were almost as amazing as resting my feet for fifteen minutes. We were able to have a really great chat, though, and talked about all sorts of library and random things, like how Big Ben is actually the name of the bell, and not the tower, which is Elizabeth’s Tower. Apparently, our guide had once worked there, and was restocking pamphlets of a speech by politician, when he was startled by the bell, and dropped them, nearly braining that same politician with his own speech.

After tea, we went into the children’s library, and heard about the youth services programming from a youth librarian. The children’s library was small, but really bright and colorful and inviting. The library actually supports 12 schools, providing classroom sets and programming. Of course, they have storytimes three times a week, with toddlers and 3-5 year olds, just like I do. They also have book clubs, one of which was meeting that night, and had read How To Train Your Dragon, which just sounds like so much fun! They have a really cool program called “Read to Succeed,” where 5-14 year olds are partnered with reading partners to help improve their reading skills.

Literacy is apparently an important initiative for the whole city. There’s a program called “Bookstart” run by Booktrust, which encourages parents to read with their children as early as possible. Apparently, parents

receive a pack of books and guidance about introducing their children to reading from their doctors, it’s that important. The Barbican has packs, as well, and provides further support to parents to stay motivated about literacy.

The Barbican was a really nice public library, and I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of all of the librarians that talked to us.

I found Waldo, but he goes by Wally here.

After the Barbican, we visited a corporate library, to discuss that kind of librarianship. For privacy and security reasons, we were asked not to name the company or take pictures. My first impression of the business was that it was super posh, and I was really under dressed. We were lead into a fancy conference room, which was furnished with tea, coffee, sparkling and flat water, and someone who worked there took cappuccino and latte orders. I have to say that I had never considered corporate librarianship, but the presenters made the job look interesting and fast paced, and the business was really impressive. We were treated so well there, I appreciate the time and courtesy they extended to us. It was so cool.