It’s Safe to Speak at the Library!

Thu, 17 Sep 09 11:34:00

On Friday 18 September Alun Ffred Jones, Minister for Heritage, will officially open the newly refurbished North Reading Room at the National Library of Wales. The magnificent room, which was first opened in 1916, has been transformed, adapting to the changes in reading habits of its readers – and now includes a place for people to talk and discuss their work.

 

This is the room for reading some of the 5 million books in the Library's vast collection as well as its collection of newspapers, magazines and journals (including major London newspapers as well as those from Wales).

 

In addition to the presence of the Minister, the Library is privileged to receive a sonnet composed especially for the occasion by the National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke. The Library will also release a specially made video to promote the new-style room on our website, our YouTube channel and our Facebook page.

 

The 60m long by 20m wide room was redesigned with a budget of £754,000 including a grant from the Welsh Assembly Government. The design was undertaken by architectural firm James Jenkins Thomas. They have divided the room into a number of areas including 5 study rooms where users can discuss ideas with colleagues. There is also a dedicated board and an area for viewing electronic reading materials, and another for the more traditional study of books and newspapers. The lounge offers a relaxing read and fantastic view over Cardigan Bay, and of course, as in the rest of the room, there is free access to the wi-fi. The centrepiece of the new reading room is an enquiries desk with staff on hand to provide advice and assistance to users.

 

The Librarian, Andrew Green, is proud of the new-style room,

'With the support of the Assembly Government, the Library has invested a lot of money and time digitising its collections to place online. But the Library also felt that it should also update the personal service offered to its readers within the building itself. The new plan recognizes the different ways and reasons that people today use the Library’s collections and will appeal to academics, students and leisure-time readers. The room also offers a specialised personal service to readers who make the effort to visit the Library in Aberystwyth.’

 

Alun Ffred Jones said,

'The National Library of Wales is one of the major cultural and educational organisations in Wales and is recognized as a centre for research of international importance. The newly refurbished room provides first class facilities for users to benefit from the rich collections of the Library.’

 

The Official Opening of the Northern Room will be at 12.30 pm on Friday 18 September 2009. The guests will enjoy music by the Taliesin Quartet from 12.00 pm forward. The event will be presided over by Dafydd Wigley, President of the National Library of Wales.

 

For further information
Sion Jobbins, Press Office: 01970 632 902 sion.jobbins@llgc.org.uk

 

Links

Newly refurbished North Reading Room video 

 

Official Opening Poem

In the Reading Room

You scan the stream, silver-eyed as a heron

searching the surface for what might betray

a halt in the flow, pentameter’s delay,

a master’s faded words, his lexicon.

Before you, found in an old book

marking a page, a longhand manuscript.

Look, where the knib unloaded ink and dipped

and rose again, leaving a blot on the downstroke,

writing by candlelight in another century,

wind in the chimney, maybe, the pen’s small sound.

You write: ‘Anonymous. Date a mystery.

Some words illegible. No signature found.’

Yet the poem sings in your mind from the silent archive

and all the dead words speak, aloud, alive.

 

Gillian Clarke

The National Poet of Wales
On the occasion of the official opening of the refurbished North Reading Room, 18 September 2009