National University Library, Torino
This week I am in Torino, Italy for the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) pre-conference. The theme for this meeting is Libraries as Space and Place and there are speakers from all over the world attending; check out the full programme here. The pre-conference is split into three sub-themes:
Wednesday 19 August 2009
New libraries, new spaces with new challenges
Thursday 20 August 2009
Libraries as a Third Space
Friday 21 August 2009
Finding New Design Solutions
I’ll be speaking tomorrow about the public library as an impartial space in the 21st Century; discussing whether or not this is a realistic or romantic notion.
We’ve just completed a tour of the Royal Library of Torino, which is a fascinating place. Not only does it house the majority of the Italian Royal Family collection, but the archives are home to some of Italy’s treasures, including original sketches by Leonardo Da Vinci, which we got to see!:)
I’m looking forward to this afternoon’s sessions, which features speakers from Italy, Australia, Singapore, Birmingham and Canada:
- 14.30 Session 1: The Turin Library System and the City.
Paolo Messina, Director, Turin City Library System, Italy - 15.00 Session 2: Beyond co-location: designing and managing new model library spaces and services to reflect trends in convergence and integration.
Sue Boaden, Director, Australia Street Company P/L, Sydney, Australia and Carina Clement, Cultural Programs and Audience Development Team Leader, Library Museum, Albury City Council, New South Wales, Australia. - 15.30 Session 3: The UnLibrary – library within a library.
Damien Wang, National Library of Singapore. - 16.00 Session 4: The Library of Birmingham – Hub of the Knowledge Economy
Brian Gambles, Assistant Director, Culture, Birmingham City Council and Francesco Veenstra, Partner Architect, Mecanoo, UK. - 16.30 Session 5: In the Words of the Users: The role of the urban public library as place
Francine May, Librarian, Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
And now, for a spot of lunch before the real work begins! 🙂
The Library of Digress 
I came across your blog this morning on a Google alert for libraries, and I am interested in exploring it further. I am going to add “The Library of Digress” to my list of “Blogs I’m Following” on my own blog, LitLinx.
Hurrah for Google Alerts! 🙂 I’m happy you like my blog! I just had a look at yours and was v impressed by the number of books you’ve already read in 2009! I keep meaning to read more fiction but always end up reading journal articles instead
I am, however, reading a great little book at the moment called I’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammanii – ever read it? It’s my summer holiday read 🙂
I haven’t read it, but now I’m going to look for it at my local public library.
I wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity I had being interviewed for a Voice of America story on the Nancy Drew books. The transcript and the stream are available on the VOA website at http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-08-23-voa2.cfm
Have you read any of the Nancy Drew books?