Really Really Really Old Books!

When I heard we were going to the Mitchell Library, it was hard not to retract back to primary school days of thinking 'Boring!' when a word such as library is brought up. I haven't visited one in year to be frank, not from a dislike of them, but through never having had the time or needing to.

When we arrived at the library I was shocked, it looked very modern and a cool relaxed place to sit and study, the open lobby with the cafe was very modern and had a very good atmosphere to it. We then proceeded to walk back in time when we visited the upper archive level, the carpet I think is as old as the books they have.

This is not a bad thing, its character. Who would want to sit reading an archive book under spotlights and a freshly buffed shinny floor? It was cosy to say the least. The librarian already had a table set aside with a number of archive books from their collection for us to see. I was shocked by the fact that we can just go in and request to see these books and actually read them. It was like a museum with out the glass boxes.

I still feel I would be far to scared to request to see a really old book of fear of damaging it in some way. The story of the woman drinking Irn-Bru just rang of something that I'd do without thinking about it. But all the same was a fascinating look into our past, they all looked like props from a period drama or something.

The police photo book was just plain creepy though, the whole thing of holding their hands up was unsettling, to think these were actual people with an actual story was mind-blowing.

Overall a really interesting look at the stuff we can get access to for any future projects and also just to know the shear scale and wealth of information that they have stored away. It did make the internet look like a child's play toy.