National Library Fantasies
Mary Russell’s Wednesday post is over on her MySpace page — and that episode of “A Case in Correspondence” in its original form will appear here on Friday.
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Oh, I’ve had such fun looking at the submissions for the Fantasy Library contest—you people are great! The only problem is, after setting the contest under way, I now have the job of judging it, and I want them all to win. After much painful consideration, I’ve managed to whittle them down to a Top Ten, aiming at a balance between prose and poetry, romance and practical, image and technical plan.
When I came up with the idea for a fantasy library contest to celebrate National Library Week, I thought it would offer a chance for some fun ideas. I didn’t expect quite so many of them—or that I would be asked to use them as a planning resource.
But there were a lot of submissions, and more than one librarian (including the assistant state librarian for Vermont—hi, Christine!) who asked to see what I came up with.
Had I thought about it beforehand, we would have set it up differently, but as it is, showing all the submissions would mean having to format each and every one separately. Which would either make for dozens of individual downloads, or for a single document with several hundred pages of scrolling.
Instead, I’m posting ten of my favorites today—download it here and take a look. Absorb the visions of a group of dedicated lovers of books. Share in their dreams. And then check back here tomorrow to see my choice, the person who wins the contest, and a complete set of books for their favorite public library.
(And thanks, everyone, for making my decision so incredibly difficult.)
What an absolute wealth of visions. I shall spend hours with them relishing every one. Thank you, Laurie for the great idea and all the contributers for your wonderful work!
These are lovely, the library as a metaphor for life. I have to confess that as a librarian I have little (ok, no) nostalgia for the card catalog, which was always difficult to maintain, way behind in filing, and intransigent when it came to finding things (well do I remember the joy of trying to find conference proceedings or anything about the Bible with the old filing system), but otherwise these library visions are delightful.
Interestingly my Library uses a tree as its symbol, a design by Lance Hidy, filled with letters of the alphabet and scientific and mathematical symbols!
Great contest, Laurie, and love the fact that the library pictured has cats!