Scooper on libraries

There was an article  today in the New Zealand Herald about the new National Library building in Wellington. 

The opening up of the National Library's collections is a good idea. Our national treasure house for documentary heritage includes the Alexander Turnbull Library's unique collections of New Zealand's heritage material, which is largely inaccessible in a building designed in the 1970s and not completed until 1987 - it was already out-of-date when it was opened and certainly cannot accommodate the customer needs of today's generations of enthusiastic users, researchers, learners and library staff. New Zealanders and tourists alike love to see and experience their and our heritage - it is difficult to see how this can be expanded in the current building which has awkward public spaces and which has already run out of storage. 

The reality is that now libraries have to deal with digital access, storage and preservation as well as the physical. These challenges cannot be met under existing circumstances. Our documentary heritage deserves to be showcased much more than it is, and this includes the unique collections also of national significance, particularly the Hocken collections at Otago University and Sir George Grey collections at Auckland City Libraries.

There's been a lot of talk about the end of the book, i.e.

• Technology will take over from books
• The publishing industry is dying
• People don't read nowadays
• Bookshops are in trouble
• Nobody reads fiction anymore
• People will read only e-books
• All you need is an iPhone or an iPod

and so on. While it is true that Amazon's Kindle (new version Kindle 2 due out next week) and Sony's Reader   are growing in popularity for storing & reading e-books, the reality is that books are far from dead. At The Institute for the Future of the Book their mission is to chronicle the shift from the printed page to the networked screen, and have an impact on its development in a positive direction.

The book as a construct of pages, chapters, paragraphs, and sentences (and pictures and photos) to describe and convey stories, ideas and information has evolved from the manuscript on papyrus to the e-book of today - and its format will continue to evolve. An e-book can now include the addition of graphical, audio, and video elements to the written word, plus it can be networked, so that it is always a work in progress.

There are many devices out there for reading e-books - have a look at a large selection here on ChannelWeb. The U.S. Consumer Electronics Association estimates that about 538,000 e-readers were shipped in 2008, representing 235 percent growth in the market from 2007.

So the book will always be with us... long live reading, wherever and however, as long as the book and the printed page don't die out entirely!

Richard Prince is a successful artist and re-photographer, but is also "one of the world's great bibliophiles".

He has built a personal library of unique first editions (Joyce's Ulysses of which there were only one hundred signed copies), proofs, manuscripts and letters, including works by Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett, Sylvia Plath, William Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov eg Nabokov's own 2 volume edition of Lolita with his handwritten corrections.

Sometimes he thinks this collection is "too good to be in private hands", and that it should be in somewhere like the Morgan Library, which began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), one of the pre-eminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. Pierpoint's son J P Morgan gifted the library to the citizens of the US in 1924 and transformed it into a public institution.

Leonard Cohen's concert in Auckland on January 22nd 2009 was sublime - we were transported both back in time and forward to another planet as he and his band of incomparable musicians and singers produced perfect music and songs. This concert was part of his first tour in 15 years,and aged 74,he bounced onto the stage impeccably dressed in suit and fedora, crouched down and with total focus, sang the best concert I have ever experienced. He was gentle, respectful and thanked us for keeping the songs alive. He thanked his perfect band twice and allowed each member to shine as they did him.

His rich baritone voice filled the arena. The set list was a tried and true one but nonetheless pefect:
Set 1
1. Dance Me to the End of Love
2. The Future
3. Ain't No Cure for Love
4. Bird on the Wire
5. Everybody Knows
6. In My Secret Life
7. Who By Fire
8. Chelsea Hotel #2
9. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
10. Anthem

Set 2
11. Tower of Song
12. Suzanne
13. The Gypsy Wife
14. The Partisan
15. Boogie Street
16. Hallelujah
17. I'm Your Man
18. A Thousand Kisses Deep [recitation]
19. Take This Waltz

Encore 1
20. So Long Marianne
21. First We Take Manhattan

Encore 2
22. Famous Blue Raincoat
23. If It Be Your Will
24. Democracy

Encore 3
25. I Tried to Leave You
26. Wither Thou Goest

Leonard's Cohen's concerts are described as religious experiences because you are transported to another place for 3 hours. He was unforgettable. And it's not just the songs - the poems live as well  - A thousand kisses deep was beautiful.
But Kim Hill still hasn't got the interview!

Check out the back catalogue for his music, movies and poetry - from 2008 back to 1961 for The Spice-box of earth

SAM HUNT

And let's not forget Sam Hunt, who stood alone on the stage for 45 minutes and entranced us with his own poems, made us laugh W B Yeats and ? can anyone remember which Yeats's poems he recited? Sam told a very funny story about a roundabout in Auckland he went round 27 times because he couldn't work out which exit to take, was pulled over by a traffic cop who said there's no law against it but why are you going round and round the roundabout? They ended up the best of mates with Sam as godfather to his child - a true story. Last year Sam Hunt published a hugley popular book of new and selected old poems - Doubtless: you can find it in  the library's catalogue along with 25 other publications by him from 1970-2008.

There's a move afoot to have Sam Hunt as our next poet laureate - let's hope the National Library of New Zealand is listening!