Tatiesque PlayTime

I went on media silence, as I didn't want to pre-empt the media coverage, or tempt the fates for our Central Library opening day on March 14th.

As it happened that first Saturday went very well, with a huge flood of visitors to the see the new building, and almost everything working.

Since then, however, the scenario has reminded me a little of a Jacques Tati movie. I don't normally identify with Luddites (and nor did he really, let's face it, insisting on filming on 70 mm film, with stereo sound, etc) - but the nostalgia for human ways of doing things (of his character, Monsieur Hulot) still pervades libraries, and I look on with semi-detached bemusement. Both (older) staff and users often refer to the simplicity of a set of little cards in envelopes, and a rubber stamp. Obviously, there are some distinct advantages to catalogue and online searching, and tracking where items end up, using computers, but that is only true when everything works.
We have had so many new things set up at the same time and at the last minute, that teething troubles could be predicted (like the restaurant's grand opening in Playtime). When the book sorting is done by a Heath Robinson contraption (that then fails to work), or the lifts can't make up their mind whether to take you up first, or the other passenger down first, or to stop off or drop off people on the way (and when you step out of the lift there is no obvious number to tell you which floor you are at, I know it would have delighted M.Tati). He could just get on the cctv and catch the moment(s) when I step out of the lift, look around to read the big floor number on the wall behind me, do a double-take when I realise I am not on the floor I expected, and lunge to re-enter the lift as the doors close, and it zooms away.

And the wonderful Escheresque zig-zag of stairs does make stair access a rather long way around...again, the shortest distance between two points would have delighted him - that you can see your friend working on a floor below, and wave, but then have to figure out how to

meet.

Reminds me of the people on the railway station at the beginning of M.Hulot's Holiday - running from platform to platform in response to PA announcements announcing a change of plan - or Hulot confronted by the office maze.

And then we have the infinite range of furniture, of every kind of design and colour you can imagine - again, something Tati gently satirises quite frequently.

Are we just a load of Bullocks?

In the small hours, after a 'Sixties night' at The Globe in Cardiff, I search for any sign of our wonderful new library in Google (gotta keep it simple) but ended up with Fred Bullock...back in the early twentieth century, dying for his country and all - peace be with you frater librarian.

Shouldn't we have a more modern link though, like, within the last ninety years (say)?   The new central library looks fairly modern, but does it yet understand the balance between internet and books (we need both) that evolved over the last twenty years?  This remains a general library dilemma, not just Cardiff's problem.

I don't feel convinced that we have the balance right, just yet.

Still, that photo (that young man) come from our local studies collection - via Gathering Up The Jewels.

Why not come and look, as we digitalise our collection of old pix?  You don't even have to come and see the building, you could build up a virtual relationship with our collections... Go to our online catalogue here and click on Local Studies.  This gives you remote access to search all the currently uploaded pictures, maps, etc.  Some (in copyright) will have watermarks on them, but contact us (or visit) to see the whole thing.

Psst.  Did I say the new Central Library will open this Saturday, 14th March?  It surely can't be a secret any more.  Can I post photos of the interior yet?  See next week's thrilling episode. Does Anon get reprimanded for sarcasm?  Does he lose his job for negative thinking - also known as contingency planning, or Plan B (in the vernacular)?    Whatever.    We're in countdown mode, 5,4,3,2,1...days to go.

Wales UK shows you the exterior...  Still no easily available inside images, and I don't feel safe to publish until after Saturday - even though pix appear in the local paper-paper (not their digital version) for Friday 6th March.