One would think that two young adults in their mid-20s would arrive in Melbourne glassy-eyed with thoughts of joining the thriving and unguarded nightlife. In this case, one would be entirely wrong. Where did we spend a large chunk of our first day touring Melbourne? At the Victoria State Library, of course.
Yup, I’ve left behind the library world only to immediately glom onto the first large library we came across. Granted, the building is particularly beautiful, so it was nigh impossible not to go in. After waking up ridiculously early (approximately 5:30 in the morning – jet lag lives on!), Glen and I decided to spend the day touring the downtown area. There is a free tram that circles the main city centre during the day; it moves slowly and has a recording that points out areas of interest, so it really is the idea way to become familiar with Melbourne’s downtown district.
After spending a good three-quarters hour on the tram with our coffee, we hopped off at a station that was central to some magnificent government buildings. As it happens, that stop was smack outside the Victoria State Library, and there were several very beautiful statues out front of a very beautiful building.
Glen, ever the sculptor, immediately began snapping pictures of the statues. Our favourite was St.George defeating the dragon:
Followed by the sphinxes on the base of the lampposts:
Sphinxes! On library lamp posts! I find this incredibly fitting.
There were also sculptures of Jeanne D’Arc, and LaTrobe, for who one of the main downtown streets is named, and some big judicial fellow who had a statue erected in his honour in the late 1980’s.
There was an exhibit of some nice pictures of big celebrities inside the library’s lobby gallery. It was a lovely display, but I hardly think that we need to expound upon artsy shots of Emminem, Fifty Cent, or Bill Clinton here.
The library is chock-a-block with pretty things. We had to pay entirely too much for the use of a locker, as library rules did not allow us to bring in our day-pack with us, as it was considered too large. Near the locker room is this lovely staircase with stained-glass windows. Glen was compelled to photograph these as well:
Being a state library, there are several state galleries within the library, affording a free view of many Victorian era portraits of important people who could afford to have portraits painted of them. There were also landscapes of Australia that looked remarkably like landscapes of England, which is no surprise considering that the majority of the artists were British ex-pats with a fondness for pastoral subjects.
The library was quite packed with university students starting up their spring term studies. Considering the beautiful reading rooms, freely accessible internet, and amazing rare books collections, it is hardly unreasonable that this place is a haunt for the studious. One of the rare book collections that we came across is devoted to books that are important to the development of children’s literature. Unfortunately all the rare book collections are restricted access and appointments are necessary to even enter the rooms. It was all Glen could do to keep me from storming the rare children’s literature collection.
Here I am in the first reading room where we found the rare children’s literature collection. A couple of the students were poking fun at me as I attempted to pose for Glen. They simply didn’t understand…
This is the second reading room. The circular floors around the perimeter of the room house some more excellent exhibits, including a fabulous display of the history of the book. This exhibit showcased many of the library’s most prized rare books, dating back to Celtic illuminated manuscripts and medieval hand-written texts. It carried up right through to modern printing; some of the most interesting modern pieces were the laptop upon which a particularly famous modern book was originally "penned"(alas, the name of the book and author escapes me), and an original Kelmscott Press printing.
As you might imagine, the entire gallery and reading room were stunning, regardless of the level from which you looked at it.
At the top of the gallery levels, right where we took the above birds-eye photo, we found a stained glass window that likely doesn’t get viewed as frequently as it should due to it’s somewhat backroom display. It is a lovely glass rendition of Shakespeare, but what makes it really nifty is the number of times it has been broken and the absolutely masterful was it has been restored.
Unfortunately the picture could not capture the numerous breaks and cracks that spider across the window. They are barely discernible unless you are looking for them, and looking very closely and carefully at that. The conservator who restored the window defiantly knew what he was doing. I can imagine that he probably went blind labouring over the fumes from the glue and molten lead needed to piece the window back together.
What was likely the most personally satisfying in an "I KNEW IT!" sort of manner was coming across a room in the library dubbed "Experimedia". This place is a wonderland, a library games room with computer games terminals - console and PC - scattered around the room as well as additional ports to multimedia and experimental media information and entertainment formats. I just about had a conniption when I saw this beauteous wonder. None of my library cronies reading this post will question why, knowing mine and Glen's obsessions with computer games. I wanted to bark with laughter when I saw that room, saying a bit HA! to all those tosspots who are under the impression that games have no place in a library.
As you can see, it is indeed a thing of beauty!
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