ALL BOOKED UP

WHILE WE WEREN’T LOOKING, PUBLIC LIBRARIES GAVE THEMSELVES A MAKEOVER – AND NOW THEY’RE THE HOTTEST PLACE TO BE FOR ENTREPRENEURS, DIGITAL NOMADS AND NETWORKERS. BUT THEY’RE STILL A BOOK-LOVER’S PARADISE, DISCOVERS HANNAH JAMES

Libraries are now cooler than ever, don’t you know?

YOU’VE HEARD THIS STORY BEFORE. It’s the one about how a shy, bookish child finds a refuge, a palace of delight, a portal to other worlds and a doorway into her future – and all in one place: a library. But this story has a twist.

That child is me, of course, and if I hadn’t spent large swathes of my youth absorbing the comfort, escape and endless reading material libraries provide, I wouldn’t be a writer today. I can measure out my life in libraries, from blissful childhood hours spent sprawling on institutionally carpeted floors in medium-sized British towns, to working into the night as a student at Oxford University in the splendour of the 18th-century Radcliffe Camera library, to now, as a writer in my thirties, dropping into my local Manly branch every few days to borrow books and use the place as a home office that’s far superior to both my own home and my own office, with its fast wi-fi and excellent procrastination tools. (That article’s due tomorrow? Sure, but this fabulously ’80s Jilly Cooper bonkbuster just caught my eye…)

I’m not the only thirty-something in love with libraries. ELLE art editor Michelle Jackson, who splits her time between Sydney and Byron Bay, visits her local branch once a month: “I go to get reference material for my permaculture studies, attend authors’ talks and sometimes for some quiet time out – there’s something so calming about just reading in silence among shelves of books.”

Libraries have long been places of inspiration for more than just students and future writers – fashion labels, for instance, seem to have a particular affinity with them. With its cat-eye specs, pussy-bow blouses and sensible loafers, librarian chic is a look all of its own, and one that’s arguably the entire basis of Prada’s enduring appeal. Gucci publishes a list of Gucci Places that have inspired the brand, and one of Europe’s oldest and most beautiful public libraries, the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome, has made the cut. And British designer Orla Kiely once set an entire runway show in a replica library, complete with signs commanding “Silence”.

The internet, rather paradoxically, loves libraries. If you haven’t double-tapped a photo of Trinity College Dublin’s vast and glorious space receding in an orderly march of book-filled arches, are you even on #bookstagram? In 2019, libraries continue to be exactly what I’ve always loved – rich repositories of learning and enchantment open to all – but the twist in this tale is they’ve evolved dramatically.

Libraries were born in their current form 170 years ago, with the idea of free public reading spaces becoming enshrined in the UK’S Public Libraries Act. Australia was an enthusiastic early adopter of the trend, with the State Library of Victoria opening its doors in 1853. And many people think that’s where they’ve stalled, with dusty books in grand 19th-century buildings staffed by shushing librarians. “Twenty years ago you would have seen lots of debate about the future of libraries,” says Kate Torney,

CEO of the State Library of Victoria. “Why would libraries exist in a Google age?” Author Neil Gaiman has the answer to that: “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one,” he has said – and of course Torney is quick to agree with the sentiment.

Yet far from being consigned to the dustbin of the digital revolution, the dusty, deeply analogue library quietly set about becoming one of the most dynamic and technologically advanced sectors in the modern world. “Libraries are one of the great transformation success stories,” says Torney, “and they should be celebrated for that.”

“We’ve been a very good example of an industry that has adapted to digital disruption,” says Sue Mckerracher, CEO of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). “Digital has become a natural part of what we do.” Those leaps into the virtual age range from lending out e-books and online newspapers and magazines to providing the computer access that’s now vital for just about everything. “As the government has increasingly said to people, ‘You need to fill your tax form in online, you need to book your childcare places online, you need to register your car online,’ so the library has become the place where people who don’t have the devices, connectivity or skills, come to,” explains Mckerracher. (Oh, and it’s the perfect place to find a computer hidden away from prying eyes to google all those awkward questions you don’t want in your search history: How do I identify this nasty rash? When’s the best time to break up with your boyfriend – before or after his birthday? Just how do you dispose of that inconvenient dead body? Google knows, and now so do you, but no one else needs to…)

Computer skills courses aren’t limited to older people. “We’re very aware that kids need digital skills,” says Mckerracher, “so we run coding and robotics classes. Plus, everyone loves the ‘tech petting zoo’ – where the library sets up a table with a variety of devices: a smartphone, tablet, computer and e-reader, so people can try before they buy.”

The State Library of Victoria is moving even further into the modern world. As part of its $88.1 million development program, it’s offering Start Space, a service for would-be entrepreneurs. “A lot of the people using our libraries don’t see themselves as entrepreneurs and would never walk into a university or commercial startup space, but they do walk into a library because no question is dumb in a library,” says Torney. “Start Space is for pre-entrepreneurs – we want people to come in to explore the potential of their idea in a really safe space.”

All these innovations are working. “If you walk into our library today, you’d be shocked by the number of people under the age of 35,” says Torney. “You won’t find a more diverse place – there’s diversity in ages, socio-economic backgrounds, cultures. Some of Australia’s best authors will be in here today. We’ll have some extraordinary researchers who are side by side with Year

11 and 12 students, homeless people and parents with babies. There’s something very special about a place that attracts and is welcoming to everyone.”

And it really is everyone. Mckerracher says public libraries in Australia had 110 million customer visits in 2012, which rose to 113 million in 2016. “In Victoria,” adds Torney, “45 per cent of people belong to a public library, which is phenomenal.”

One crucial reason it’s working? Libraries are free. There are vanishingly few public spaces where your presence is not conditional on buying something – but the library is one. Not only is this a delicious rest from our frantic consumer society, but it’s an indispensable resource for those who don’t have money to spend. “Public libraries have always been egalitarian,” agrees Torney. “That’s rarer and rarer in our community, and as a result, people are coming in droves.”

This is more powerful than it may seem. In a world of walls, of internet echo chambers, of relentless and ever-increasing corporate greed, a truly communal space that’s open to all, regardless of your income, is an extraordinary thing. “There’s something so beautiful about a place that trusts you with treasured items to take home and look after, to enjoy and share and then return. I love that,” says Jackson. “I also love that it’s helping the environment – rather than buying a book, we’re recycling.”

Beloved sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote: “A library is a focal point, a sacred place to a community; and its sacredness is its accessibility, its publicness. It’s everybody’s place.” The word community is key. Through providing a precious space for mums to meet up, travellers to learn about the locals, burntout commuters to work remotely and the troubled to escape their worries for an hour or two, libraries create community. In February, Mckerracher reminds me, it was the 10th anniversary of the Victorian bushfires in which

173 people died and many more lost homes and livelihoods. “During the fires, people were coming down off the hills to the town of Alexandra and seeking refuge. The local library stayed open to the public the whole time,” recalls Mckerracher. “They set up the children’s area to show DVDS for the kids so the parents could be on the phone or computer, sorting out insurance issues, letting family know they were safe. I remember the staff at the library brought in nappies for babies, and supplies. So the library supported the community through the disaster. After the fires ended, the roads were closed for a long time. When the mobile library was able to go back out again, it was a major celebration. It brought people together again.”

“If you WALK into OUR LIBRARY TODAY, YOU’D BE SHOCKED by the NUMBER OF PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE of 35”

“It’s commonplace to FIND LIBRARY EMPLOYEES EMBRACING the ROLE of CONFIDANT”

And it’s not only in times of crisis that libraries rise to the occasion. “I love the social aspect of the library – I visit so I can chat to the people who work there,” says Jackson. It’s commonplace to find library employees embracing this role of confidant. “On a daily basis, you see great people who are community-hearted, understanding and recognising the needs of the people they serve. You see beautiful and really innovative responses to particular community needs,” says Torney. “I’ve seen great examples of libraries getting together with leaders of primary and secondary schools to develop fantastic programs for asylum seekers who are moving into the community.”

Welcoming new arrivals is a topic on Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore’s mind, too. She recently oversaw the creation of the award-winning Green Square Library, and tells ELLE, “Libraries are vital spaces for the locals. Our Green Square community is made up of many families who have young children. We’ve seen them embrace our rhymetime and storytime sessions, which are also held in Mandarin – reflecting the needs of the multiple bilingual speakers in the area. It’s clear from the community’s keen usage of the library and its services that this was a much-needed facility for the Green Square area.”

As that kid who loved libraries, and now as an adult who still loves libraries, I find it hugely exciting that in the middle of dense, high-rise, 21st-century urban development, a public library can still take centre stage. And not just there. There are libraries in schools, libraries in prisons, libraries in universities – oh, those libraries! – and libraries in disused telephone boxes. There are libraries on ships and in trees and even in space (thanks, Elon Musk – I guess).

For many, libraries possess a utopian quality. “They’re one of the best damn things ever,” says Jackson. “A communal place to read, share and indulge your mind and meet other wonderful people. It’s a true oasis. Everyone should join!” Library enthusiast Gaiman goes even further: “Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education, about entertainment, about making safe spaces and about access to information… If you do not value libraries you are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future.”

So yes, you may have heard this story before, the one about the bookish child who loves libraries and grew up to be a writer. But one of the reasons you’ve heard it is because people like me – and people as unlike me as it’s possible to be – have been emboldened and empowered to tell that story by our libraries. Libraries are democratic and liberating and they’re well and truly embracing the 21st century. And thankfully, it looks like they’re not going anywhere.