In the course of our self-guided tour, we did get shooshed once for being too noisy, but still, it’s impressively and unexpectedly quiet. The years of planning involved acoustic engineers who found ways to minimize the echo effect by making use of ceilings with amazingly thick cushions. In an upside-down world we might lie down on them to rest if it weren’t for the metal sprinkler knobs. Imagine saving all the precious books from fire only to have them flooded with water. The staircases are so worth climbing even if your bursitis might long for elevators. We stayed with the staircases to better appreciate the changing perspectives.
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We never made it up to the squinting eye floating above it all. You may imagine it would be for administrators only. |
As a librarian friend commented after seeing photos, there is something very pleasing about seeing books shelved in circles.
Here and there we did notice that, hardly ever making a sound, the construction work is continuing. In a few weeks we may be able to order books that are not on display in the reading rooms up to the desk from the robotic stacks deep below.
If you do make that trip to the Holy City, this would be your best place to sit down with a well-written book about Jerusalem’s over 3,000-year-old history. Or you could find out more about that pilgrimage site you just visited. Middle Eastern, Islamic and Jewish studies books are very much in evidence as you would expect, but a lot of other subjects are there for you to slip off the shelves of the open areas, including a very rich collection of works by the early Christian Fathers and Syriac Christians in particular. However, if you require the works of Shankaracharya, you’ll be banished to Mount Scopus.
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Rearranging reflections at the exit |
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The old library had a special room for the Gershom Scholem collection specializing in Jewish mysticism but with a lot of early and rare books about other spiritual traditions. It became more and more cramped over time. I haven’t gone inside the new Scholem room yet, but you can see a photo of it here at the library’s own website.
If you missed the blog about the opening of the library, click here.
