On Friday I took a trip to Birmingham to visit a friend and Europe’s second largest Christmas market (expect more from that on this week’s Festive Thursday post). And what kind of Book Geek would I be if I didn’t visit their brand spanking new (and massive) Library?
I was thoroughly impressed, amazed, and just a bit jealous.
The Library of Birmingham provides a showcase for the city’s internationally important collections of archives, photography and rare books. New facilities including state-of-the-art gallery space open up public access to the collections for the first time. It is also home to a BFI Mediatheque, providing free access to the National Film Archive.
Spread over 10 levels of varying size and usage, the building comprises a spacious entrance and foyer with mezzanine, two outdoor garden terraces, a ‘golden box’ of secure archive storage occupying two levels, and at the very top of the building a rotunda feature housing the Shakespeare Memorial Room.
The large windows and roof gardens overlook Birmingham’s big wheel, and the ice rink at this time of year.
Here is my friend Laura who was promised a Christmas sausage but got Shakespeare instead. I don’t think she minded too much, they seemed to get on well.
I wasn’t as miserable as I look, honest.
Info taken from http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com
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