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Donald
Friend (1915–89)
CALENDAR
OF
EVENTS June 2004 Moats,
Maps, and Mayhem For
bookings, details of membership and subscriptions, contact:
|
On occasion, we here at the Friends are overwhelmed by the sheer magnificence of the physical structure that is the National Library. As Trevor Pidd, the recently retired Building Manager, would frequently remark, ‘it’s a construction the like of which we shall never see again; modern techniques mean that they just don’t build them like that anymore, and what a pity that is’. This remarkable building is constructed around a reinforced concrete frame, and is faced with marble. The outside columns are Carrara marble from Italy and the walls are Roman travertine. The reason Australian marble was not chosen was that no quarries could guarantee they could supply identical stone to the year 2000, which was when the original three buildings were expected to be completed. Each block of marble is individually suspended, so that any one can be removed without affecting the slabs on either side. The podium is paved with black and grey–green Norwegian slate and the handrail is South Australian black granite. The foyer is paved with Australian Wombeyan marble and the foyer staircase is Pentilic marble from the Parthenon quarry in Greece. The stairwell features blue-green Italian marble. The foyer also features another link to Greece, with a small stone from Athens set into the floor near one of the marble columns. The stone was a gift to the Library from the Greek Ministry of Civilisation and Sciences in 1973 to symbolise the sharing of knowledge. The plaque near the stone reads ‘On this stone, about 2000 years ago, men in search of knowledge stood in the Library of Pantainos in the Agora in Athens’. The National Library building is currently listed on the Register of the National Estate as a building of cultural significance, and will most likely be heritage listed one day. The construction of the National Library involved 18 plans and variations on plans, and cost a total of $8 million, plus a further $600 000 to furnish and equip the building. An extension of the podium was completed in 1987 and cost $11.2 million. The Library is enormous. There are seven floors; the two lower ground floors, underneath the podium, contain 19 900 square metres of floor space, and house the majority of the books and serials in the Collection. There are well over 200 kms of shelving throughout the building, but despite the size, it’s still not sufficient: the shelving grows by 5 kms each year. The storage space in the building is complemented by warehouse space in the outer suburb of Hume, to the south of Canberra. This annexe is a single storey, 2500 square metre building. The annexe was purpose-built for the Library and can store up to 850 000 volumes, or 15 per cent of the collection. Cherry pickers are used to retrieve the material from the 7.2 metre (the size of a three-storey house) shelves. Our intrepid Queen of Mayhem, Education Manager Heidi Pritchard, has agreed to take a very special Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the Library for members of the Friends. See exotic places, visit secret areas the public never sees, ogle rare map displays, and did you know … there’s a moat? If you’d like to join this expedition, you must be a Friends member, and you must book, as numbers are strictly limited. We will embark at 2.30 pm on Thursday 17 June 2004 from the foyer. JAMES
HALLIGAN |
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