Checking In at the Library

So I took a little trip yesterday to the State Library of Victoria (about a 5 minute walk from 301 on Swanston Street). The building is beautiful. The reading rooms are all classically decorated. There is a large permanent collection of Australian art. The photos above are the library, me in front of it, and two views of the same reading room, one of the ground floor and one trying to capture the level upon level of stacks.

Rather than checking out a book,I was there to make some deliveries. I received a package recently from Meliors. (I have been receiving some great packages lately, given that today is my birthday. Thanks to Mom for the calendars and clock, to Lynn and Robbie for the great book and to Amy for the champagne stopper, CDs and photos.) Though I haven't met Meliors, I was introduced by my friend Kimberly.

Meliors had sent me some beautiful hand pressed cards with some instructions on where and when to place the cards in a library. Check out her beautiful press at her blog.

While this mild participation in art and idea exchange was already more than I usually undertake, I decided to give the project an air of a secret and dangerous mission. I raised the stakes considerably by misreading the time table. Arriving at 5:40, I was expecting to spend an hour or so in the library furtively placing the beautiful cards and head out unnoticed prior to the library's close at 9 PM. The library closes at 9 Monday to Thursday, but this was Friday, when they close at 6. Suddenly we have pressure. (Don't worry Meliors, I was just planning to find and place as many as I could and then come back tomorrow.)

I went off wandering though the stacks to specific Dewey decimal locations on specified topics and also one on the history of New Zealand. I split the cards about evenly between fiction and non-fiction. I had just found a book by a specified poet for the last card when the loudspeaker announced that the library would be closing in 5 minutes and asked us all to exit. Perfect!

So the cards are there now, making the beautiful library an even richer place. Some of them will be found today when the books that contain them are pulled off the shelves, and some of them will not be found for weeks or months. I think that whenever they are found, they will ignite in the mind of those who find them a sense of appreciation for their craft and a wave of consideration for their origin and for their message. Deep gratitude to Meliors for allowing me to participate in the project.