My love for libraries is not a secret. So, when I visit new cities, I always want to visit the public library, to have as a reference. A city with a good library can’t be bad, while a city with a bad one might not get along with me at all.
Vancouver has a good public library. It’s airy and big and has many coffee shops close by. (I presume the couple being photographed in front of the public library building are book lovers, just as me. I felt a kinship with them, somehow, and wish them everything good for their future lives together.)
Just to check the substance of the library, now that I felt so positively about the exterior, I went to the children’s section and found the following:
Well, I can do nothing but have respect for Vancouver now.
The public library in Victoria is much smaller and much more inconspicuous. It feels more crowded and full, not as much air, but still there’s an atmosphere there that made me stop by a shelf, pick a book at random and start reading. It’s a place where you want to stay and read, which is really all you can ask of a library. But, then again, creating that atmosphere is harder than it might seem. It isn’t only interior design. It’s also the feeling of many big reading experiences surrounding the place. And that requires devoted readers and library visitors.
So, yeah, British Columbia has got some real kick-ass libraries. Thumbs up for that!
Katja Malmborg 