Libraries: impossible dreams

Sparkling Morningside Public Library

As a change from all the gloomy news about libraries, yesterday was a good day for libraries in Edinburgh: the Morningside Library re-opened, after a massive face-lift, and revealed a new, dazzling white self, the opening graced by local author and celebrity, Alexander McCall Smith. The last time I visited the library, water was pouring through the roof and we had to dodge buckets. Luckily, for Morningside the money for the restoration had already had the thumbs up before the present clamp down and threat of closures in the UK.

A wee thank you and hurrah for the staff who manned (though chiefly womaned) the mobile library parked in a nearby street during the months of the main library's closure. It was delightfully warm in there and I don't just mean the heating.

But great to be back in the main building. The children's section has a curving book-shelf and a Wendy House, the teenagers will be delighted by the game consoles (and who knows, perhaps they will find libraries so congenial they will be tempted by the books). Upstairs, there are Conference Rooms for hire.

Scottish Poetry Library Xmas Bash

It was also a good evening for the very special Scottish Poetry Library, lit up with night-lights - (how often is the naked flame allowed in a library?) whose Christmas party I went to along with other volunteers, staff, Friends, friends generally, poets or poetry-lovers. Robyn Marsack, the Director, said in her welcoming speech, that one visitor from abroad had remarked how unusual it is to have a library dedicated only to poetry, to promote 'impossible dreams'. On the whole, I guess we do know how lucky we are. Long may it thrive. Long may we dream impossible dreams.