Monday 1 July 2013

Now That's What I call Library - Volume One

Yes indeed folks, my return to St Alban's yesterday not only reacquainted me with that marvellous building but let me savour the classic delights of a 'proper' library! There were none of those Personal Computers anywhere to be seen and all was just as Melvil Dewey would have liked it to have been back in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It even had proper machines for producing type-scripted work:


In fact there were TWO of them (and a cover!):


This is the sort of library I think is REAL - no virtual books, no whirring PC products - just proper books, that smell like books are supposed to smell and an instant data retrieval system that keeps running even when the power goes (and no UPS anywhere to be seen!):


In fact there were TWO of these as well - dual random access storage and retrieval facilities - this is what libraries are supposed to be like:


I have found the promised land and it looks like the library in St Alban's Abbey - how close to God must they be to have such a treasure, how close?

Hallelujah for the Hudson Library :-)


5 comments:

Allie P said...

The library at St Alban's Abbey was of major use to Cliff when he was studying to qualify as a URC lay preacher a few years back. Long may it continue!

Vic Van Den Bergh said...

It's a real gem and apart from the valuable resource that it is, it is also a real treasure - a 'proper' library in the bookshelves of former days.

Definitely one of the treasures of St Alban's Abbey :-)

John said...

Have lived in St Albans for twenty years and never knew it existed!

Thank you

Nick Rutter said...

I love the two libraries in Lichfield Cathedral for the same reason! Loads of extra artefacts too!

Vic Van Den Bergh said...

Heading to that place soon as well.

:-)