The NEN – North Edinburgh News

 ‘A library card is a passport to a whole new world’ – author Jackie Kay

A striking new permanent artwork was unveiled at Stockbridge Library  on Monday, the start of Book Week Scotland 2014. ‘Under the Shy Moon’ was created by artist Rachel Barron and takes the form of a vinyl installation and geometric mobile suspended from the beams within the library. It’s hoped that ‘Under the Shy Moon’ will encourage the local community to visit their library and begin or continue their reading journey.

The artwork was inspired by Dear Library, a poem written by best-selling Scottish author and playwright Jackie Kay as part of Book Week Scotland Dear Library highlights the important role that libraries can play at every stage of an individual’s life, from childhood to old age. Rachel was given one verse of the poem to inspire her artwork, written from the perspective of an expectant mother.

Artist Rachel Barron commented: “Working directly with the architecture of the library, the installation has been made in response to Jackie Kay’s poem, which expresses the excitement and aspirations of an expectant mum.

“Inspired by astronomy and lunar cycles, the artwork represents the phases of our journey through life, using a gradient of colours. I am delighted to be part of the ‘Artworks for Libraries’ project, as it has allowed me to develop my work within a new context, towards my first permanent public artwork. It has been a pleasure to meet and work with the library community during the creative engagement workshops, and I am excited to see the final artwork unveiled today.”

Jackie Kay said: “It’s absolutely vital that we tell libraries why we love them so that we can keep their doors open, and with those open doors, our minds and hearts. A library card in your hand is your democracy. Reading expands the boundaries of your own possibilities and opens doors to your future life.

“A closed library could only welcome a closed mind. A library card is a passport to a whole new world, a boundless world without restrictive borders. And you must tell your library why you love it because otherwise it won’t know why you love it and its feelings might get hurt.”

Stockbridge was the first of five Book Week Scotland artworks to be revealed this week, with Musselburgh, Saltcoats, Lennoxtown and Shetland to be revealed over the next four days. Each artwork is inspired by a different verse of Dear Library and members of the communities have been given the opportunity to work with the artists during the creative process.

The poem in full:

Dear library

1.
See when ah wiz wee
ma faverit day wis
Wednisday, library day,

when Ma an me wid go tae ma library
an I wid get to pik ma book
an get it stampd oot

efter the ither yin had been stampd in
and I hid ma very ain card
which wiz a wee magic envlope

that took me tae anither world
awthegither fu o’ caracters an creatures, auntie lopes,
big broon bears, loins and tigrs, new wurds

an anythin an aw’thin I wants tae ken aboot
the moon, stars, sea, the hale galaxy, the wide wurld
wiz at the tip o my fingers in ma locall library.

2.
Always a new book to wolf down in the dead of night,
a borrowed book to read by torchlight…
In the morning, last night’s saved page turns
to who last had this book out
and the date returned, 9 June, this year.

This same book in a stranger’s hands, half-known.
Those readers, kindred spirits, almost friends.
You are in transition; you are on the threshold.
The library is the place that gets you. Pure gold.

You are Holden, you’re Lyra, you’re White Fang,
you’re Kidnapped, you’re Skellig, you’re Refugee Boy.
You’re Callum, a nought, you’re Catch 22.
You’re Chris Guthrie. You’re Hyde. You’re Boo Radley.
It’s not Accidental. You are those books. Those books are You.

Inside your mind you’re strong. Safe.
Toss a coin: heads, reader; tails, writer.
The library is the young writer’s first home.
You read pertinent sayings, make your own.
The cool teenager is a member of the library.

3.
I go to my library to find out about the baby
growing like a story inside me: 37 weeks!

My baby is likely to be sucking his thumb, her thumb.
My tight tummy is a drum, a drum.

The child who I will one day – hopefully –
bring back to this library, ah wee one, is turning.

I’ll get her a first library card, bless,
and sit where I’m sat now, reading, to test

the books I’ll soon read to him, fingers crossed.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

The Runaway Bunny, Goodnight Moon
37 weeks: my tummy – boom, boom, beating time!

Come soon wee baby; wee baby come soon.
Come dream in your basket under the shy moon,

My hungry caterpillar, my goodnight gorilla.
My dear wee daughter, my good little fella.

4.
A book borrowed, kindly given.
A book swapped, loved, exchanged.
A book you will always hand back.
A book is a coat for your mind.

You’ve reached the age, 50 something, when you look back
on borrowed books as if they were old friends –
with nostalgia, with affection, intimately known.

The time when you read The Raj Quartet, or Han Suyin
Toni Morrison or Memo for Spring,
Things Fall Apart or Fire on the Mountain.
Poor Madame Bovary. Poor Anna Karenina.

Your life: many characters, bleak houses, long day’s journeys.
Your life of mixed fates, give and takes;
What you borrowed last month, you return today.

5.
Dear Library, you want to say, Dear Library, you have served me
well all my life. You are magnificence, munificence.
You are a book festival every day. There is no way, me an OAP,
could ever value what you’ve given me by money.

There is no measure for the enriching of the mind, friend.
Faithful and trusty, Dear Library, you are a heart stopper, a kind giver.
I treasure your lively silence; your very pleasant librarians.
They represent what a public service is truly, libertarian.

Impossible, did I say that already, to put a price on that. Again,
stop me if I am repeating myself, your staff will tell
me of a Saramago Street in a nearby town.
Browse, borrow, request, renew – lovely words to me.
A library card in your hand is your democracy.

If you were to shut, Dear Library, it would break my heart.
A library user all my life, I’d be lost without my library.
A closed library could only welcome a closed mind.
Is there a kinder place that you can find than your local library?

I want to say, and I do. I pick up my pen and write to you.

Pictures: Rob McDougall.