On a Friday night I'm at the...library. It's packed. I'm happy. A tribute to all libraries.

Big or small, fancy or plain, country or city, I'll never get sick of them.

Canada Water Library. Photos: Amy Fallon

On a Friday night I'm at the… library. It's packed. I couldn’t be happier.

Yes, I’m taking the piece that I'm now writing on remote working seriously. But when I also saw the photo of the Canada Water Library in London’s Docklands, which is described as looking like an inverted pyramid, I was so intrigued that I wanted to visit it asap. Yes I know - don’t threaten me with a good time. (And yes I am often looks-obsessed/superfical).

I’m very fond of libraries. In 2018 I was in my hometown in northern New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, in-between work gigs. I spent a lot of time at the library. I was freelancing and completing my human rights masters remotely part-time, which was very intense.

The constant chatter from people who had turned the library into their cafe and were watching TV out loud on their phones was distracting. In fact, I'm ashamed to say it, but it annoyed me to the point where I actually wrote to the librarians and complained. (Am I a snitch?)

I still have their response in my inbox:

One of the people I now suspect that they were talking about was a man who I’d describe as straight out of the pages of The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) novel by Roald Dahl - a book that I’d borrowed years earlier from that very library. This man in my town wears loud Hawaiian shirts and wanders around it. I later met him a couple of times and spoke to him.

Another, who I also came to know later and roams around, is also an interesting and friendly man who sports huge headphones and lives off the grid, with no internet or phone. (Yes people like this do exist and they’re in the town that I’m from). So he depends on the library for A LOT.

Yes, I wasn’t happy with that the librarians had written back to me. I wanted my own way. But I accepted it and didn’t give it a second thought.

Incidentally, I went to Toronto in Canada, where my mother’s from, to have a look around there sometime later. While in the city I came across the Toronto Public Library, one of the world’s largest. That very fall, they’d hired a social worker as a permanent staff member for the first time.

Reading about this in the paper there took me back to that moment when I read that reply from the librarian to my email. I felt shame. It reminded me that libraries are now fulfilling a huge role beyond lending books. After all, I’d lived in a country, Uganda, where there aren’t a lot. Given this, one brilliant woman called Rosey started a “mobile library” to deliver books via motorcycle taxis. I wrote about it here.

Peckham Library in south London which won the Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2000. Photo: Amy Fallon.

All I can say in my defence about my snitching is that I am easily distracted and found my degree hard. (I’m not academic).

A year after I sent that email, City of Melbourne Libraries became Australia’s first library to employ a social worker on-site.

I have now come to appreciate libraries everywhere and will always jump at the chance to visit a new one, big or small, fancy or plain, city or country, whenever on a road trip or in a new country.

They’re as much on my “to see” list when I’m in a foreign city as much as anything else. Favourites throughout the years have been the stylish Peckham Library in south London and the super class Vancouver Public Library that I visited last year.

I was beside myself with excitement recently when I went to Oslo and visited the Deichman Bjørvika, crowned the world's best new public library. I didn’t even mind that I had to do a bit of work on what was mostly meant to be a holiday, as something had come up the week before because I thought ooh I can go there!

Oslo's award-winning library. Photos: Amy Fallon

When I returned home to Australia from Canada in late 2018, I spent more time at that same library where I’d been previously. I became fascinated with the seed library within it and the others in the area and wrote about these too. I’d forgotten about this story until tonight. But the editor emailed me a nice comment from a reader after I’d written it. (I wish I saved these!)

Later that year, I visited Coffs Harbour library on the mid-north coast of NSW which has a seed library and a recording studio.

The Murwillumbah seed library (left) and Byron Bay Library in Australia. Photos: Amy Fallon.

When I walked into the Canada Water Library earlier tonight, the cafe was nearly full. Upstairs, which boasted a view of the London skyline including the “Gherkin” and of the quay, was the same.

There was an adult’s, children’s and teen’s book section in the library.

But what really impressed me was the range of services that I saw that they offered. There’s a “library of things” or a borrowing library where you can have a lend of a drill, carpet cleaner or projector among other items that you don’t have. Makes sense in a crammed city like London and during a cost of living crisis. There’s a scheme for recycling waste electricals, a weekly coffee gathering, a short story club and you can even get a free health check.

Highlights of Canada Water Library. Photos: Amy Fallon

However as much as all of this warms my heart, I’m also reminded of a tragic statistic that I read recently: there’s now more food banks in the UK than public libraries. As former prime minister Gordon Brown pointed out in the Guardian in June:

Austerity wasn’t just an economic policy, it was an attack on people. And we’re reminded of this even more so now that it’s getting darker and colder again. Having said that, seeing the Canada Water Library is also a reminder of how the capital may differ from the rest of the country.

So please treasure your local library, if you’re lucky enough to have one. Audible’s great, but I don’t know if it can build a community.

PS. Oh and I do have a life - I eventually left the library and went for a late night swim at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, just before it shut, for the first time ever. It’s only taken me ten months to do this.

Happy Weekend. Tomorrow I’ll be going to the Palestine protest which is starting at Russell Square and ending at Whitehall. I’m also hoping to go to Hiba restaurant and Palestine House this weekend and write something on this.

Vancouver Public Library. Photos: Amy Fallon