Education, Salvation and Damnation

Well, dear readers, the two events which I mentioned yesterday turned out to be really lovely as I knew they would. Despite torrential rain and thunderstorms in the Stirling area yesterday, the reopening of Bridge of Allan Library was a fantastic occasion with lots of people turning out. I am very grateful to Elizabeth Farr for inviting me to this. I really do like the whole look and feel of Bridge of Allan library and I particularly like the quotations around the walls, especially the RLS one about the Allan Water. How apt.

 

It was lovely to be able to catch up with people and have a blether and it was particularly good to see Robert Ruthven back for the event. Poor man, he has to deal with academics now he's University Librarian at Glasgow Caledonian and we all know what they are like. Robert's legacy in Stirling is brilliant. What a great team the staff in Stirling Council Libraries are. They are always so motivated and positive and committed to giving a first-class service. There are so many people in that service that I count as friends and not just professional colleagues. Robert is, of course, always characteristically modest about his role but I'll pay tribute to him and say what a sterling (every pun intended) job he did in giving leadership and vision as well as creating and fostering a first-class team of highly professional staff. Robert, Elizabeth and Sheila are all librarians I hold in seriously high regard; their commitment and dedication shines through the service in Stirling along with that from all their other colleagues. So, yes, Bridge of Allan library's reopening was a great occasion and I wish it every success.

Today, I was at a birthday party - the 120th birthday party for Aberdeen Central Library. Many of you will know this building well. For those of you who don't, it is located on Rosemount Viaduct in the city centre. Next to it is St Mark's Church and beyond that is His Majesty's Theatre. This venerable troika is known affectionately in the city as "Education, Salvation and Damnation". Hence the title of this posting.

 

The party was very well attended by staff past and present, members of the public and civic leaders including the Lord Provost who opened proceedings and made three long service presentations to staff. He launched the publication of a lovely little book celebrating the anniversary. Then, I'm afraid, the proceedings went down hill for yours truly was invited to speak. On such occasions I am reminded of something the curator at Chatsworth House once said to me; he described the late Duke of Devonshire's talks to groups visiting the house as "His Grace's twenty minutes of inaccuracies". Well, I hope I wasn't that bad today. Anyway, here is a summary of what I said. Some of it you may have heard before!

 

The 1890s was, of course, a felicitous time to be considering a new public library building because of the keen interest of the millionaire philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie had been born in Dunfermline in 1835. His family emigrated to the United States in 1848 and his first job was in a bobbin factory; later he became a telegraph messenger and steadily rose through the ranks of that company. Eventually, he went into the steel industry and ultimately created, after a series of mergers and takeovers, US Steel, one of the biggest and most successful companies the world has ever know. His wealth at its peak has been estimated at around $300 billion in contemporary values.

Carnegie had some very fixed views about wealth and philanthropy and famously declaring in his book The Gospel of Wealth that a man who dies rich dies disgraced. As a consequence, he was determined to use his enormous wealth for the greater good of society. He had a strong attachment to learning, self-improvement and education and these formed a cornerstone of his philanthropy. Libraries played a key part because of the affection and gratitude he had for the libraries he himself had been able to use in his formative years. He had an underlying philosophy to life which explains much about the man. He said that a man should:

 

■Spend the first third of his life getting all the education one can;

■Spend the next third making all the money one can;

■And spend the last third giving it all away for worthwhile causes.

 

Carnegie was clearly no soft-and-cuddly philanthropist. The acumen he had shown in building up his business empire was more than matched by his approach to funding libraries. Virtually all of 2,509 Carnegie Libraries built across the English-speaking world were built using a tried and tested methodology, called the Carnegie Formula. This required recipient towns to make a contribution matching that of the donation. Additionally, he required the town to:

■Clearly demonstrate the need for a public library
■Provide the site for the building
■Provide annually ten percent of the cost of the library’s construction to support its running costs; and
■Provide a free service for all

 

It was Carnegie’s staunch belief that the recipient towns had to show an ongoing commitment to maintain and enhance the library. Without that, he would walk away and, indeed, on some occasions, did just that. Aberdeen, however, embraced Carnegie’s ideals and committed itself to his formula because there was, amongst our Victorian forefathers, a real sense of the worth and value of a free public library. So, on Tuesday, 5 July 1892, the great man himself attending by the worthies of Aberdeen came to the official opening ceremony.

At our CILIPS Annual Conference in Dundee last month, I invoked the memory of Carnegie. It was, by coincidence, the day on which the Olympic Torch Relay arrived in Dundee and I reminded our delegates that Carnegie had used the symbol of a torch for his libraries. Indeed, a torch was often carved in the stonework above the entrance or incorporated in the decorative scheme internally, although interestingly not here. Carnegie, however, saw the analogy clearly: libraries were to be beacons of learning and education and hope for the community.

And, in the intervening one-hundred and twenty years this library has continued to carry that torch brightly, now supported by branches throughout the city and, in many cases, sharing services with schools and being integrated into the heart of the cultural well-being of this city. Some great characters have presided over this institution and they have seen it change and flourish.

Alexander Robertson was, in 1899, succeeded by the redoubtable GM Fraser who was to preside as City Librarian until 1938, an extraordinarily long and fruitful tenure. There a wonderful photograph of him in the local studies collection, looking every bit the urbane sophisticate with a pair of lorgnettes perched on his not inconsiderable nose. Fraser was succeeded by an equally remarkable character with an equally long tenure. Many of you know the high regard that I hold Marcus Kelly Milne in. His reign as City Librarian took us to the end of the nineteen-sixties. As an aside, it is remarkable that in its first seventy-five years, there were only three City Librarians. During Milne’s time, the torch shone very brightly in spite of the inevitable challenges of the Second World War and its aftermath. I have previously written about how Milne saw a time of crisis as an opportunity to innovate not least in the introduction of his Books you can borrow a current awareness bulletin he started in October 1941. Truly necessity was the mother of invention.

And since Marcus Milne, the service has continued to evolve and adapt. Technologies not even dreamt of one-hundred and twenty years ago are now central to all that we do and Carnegie would have been bemused by the notion of using the library from the comfort of one’s own home down a telephone wire or on the move using something called Wi Fi. That’s said, there is much which he would still recognise and approve heartily of. Not least that the City of Aberdeen has continued in its steadfast commitment to his formula of supporting the building he gave.

Today, Carnegie library buildings are not without their challenges but this one remains a beacon in our city. Libraries are, as Carnegie intended them to be, transformational spaces, places of hopes and dreams, expectations and reality, help, support, education, fun, learning, enjoyment and so much more. They are amongst the most trusted public spaces in the community with some studies showing as many as 85% of people saying that the library is their most trusted public service. Aberdeen Central Library is all of these things and so much more.

There are two final things I would like to say. Firstly, I have dwelt on some of the people who have had an impact on this place and I’d like to say a little more about that. Those inspiring characters from the past who did so much to establish this place in the hearts of Aberdonians are more than matched by today’s team led by Fiona Clark. They are continuing the process of development and enhancement to ensure a library service that meets the demands of the twenty-first century whilst remaining true to Carnegie’s fundamental beliefs.

The torch is in the safe hands of a superb library team. But, there are other people to mention too. And they are, of course, the users for whom, over the generations, this place has come to mean so much. This is a focal point for our city in architectural terms of course, but for the countless thousands who use it this place is also a focal point in their lives and the impact that this building, its services and its staff has had is truly incalculable.

Finally, I am going to return to Marcus Milne for some closing words. In his Public Library Annual Report for 1941-42, he began his introduction with some words of Vladimir Ilych Lenin; a most unlikely bedfellow for Mr Milne but the quote is apposite:

"Let us see the pride and glory of a public library....in the magnitude of book circulation among the people, in the number of new readers enrolled, in the speed with which enquiry for any book is satisfied, in the quality of books lent for home reading and in the number of children led to good reading and the use of the library"

Indeed, the Pride and Glory of this public library is clear for all to see. Thank you Mr Carnegie. Thank you Aberdeen. Thank you all who have worked and used this place. Long may education, salvation and damnation dominate Rosemount Viaduct. Happy Birthday Aberdeen Central Library.

Ok, so I know you've heard about my esteem for Marcus Milne before and, yes, I've used the Lenin quote before too but both were very right and fitting for today. So, these last two days, have given me more reasons to Love Scottish Libraries (as if I needed more).