After Petra dropped me off, I caught the train, the bus in Pasing, and was at the library a few minutes before 10:00 to visit with Mary under the linden tree before our work began.During my work time this morning, I managed to write the bulk of the science unit into the paper, so I've only got two more major sections to complete tomorrow and Saturday morning before turning in the rough draft on Monday. I had enough additional time this morning to organize the pictures for the blog and eventual Movie Maker project. We went to lunch a few minutes early today so that we could be on time for our 2:00 appointment for a tour at the Bavarian State Library.
Lunch today was again on the patio, which was gorgeous.
We enjoyed cordon bleu, which seemed to be made with a boneless pork cutlet, rather than chicken, but was very tasty. There was also a portion of roasted potatoes with chives and bacon. The waiter brought us all some tap water today, which was a nice treat. During lunch, we discussed our plans to take Petra, our host from the library, out to dinner the night before we leave. After eating lunch, we gathered our belongings from the locker area and headed to the bus.A bus, train, and U-bahn ride later, we were at the Bavarian State Library, which is one of the oldest libraries in Germany. The collection began with a vision from Duke Albrecht V in 1558, and expanded in 1803 with donations from monestaries throughout the area, as well as a donation from a court library of the Electors Palatine. Currently, the library has over 10 million holdings. Much of the building was burned or bombed during WWII, so most of what we saw was a reconstruction of the original. We had the amazing opportunity to see what remains of a collection of books that were salvaged from the Nazi book burnings during WWII; an incredible commentary on censorship. One thing that struck me while visiting the library was the vast cultural difference between this European setting and our libraries at home in terms of rules and regulations. There are several rooms in which personal laptops are not allowed and the reading rooms, even one with seats for over 550 people, is absolutely silent. The area for the reference librarians is in a more separate area with half walls, so that patrons can ask their questions without having to feel rushed by other patrons in line behind them. Unlike many of our libraries, this library has a cafeteria in the basement and a beer garden in the courtyard, a true reflection of how much this culture values time outside and good food. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the library, so I've included a link to their website here: http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/The-library-in-brief.263+M57d0acf4f16.0.html. The building is beautiful and the catalog is incredible! You can also find a chronology of the library through the homepage.
Our tour of the library was over around 4:00, so I decided to come home, since I still had my laptop and it was getting heavy. So, I came home and changed clothes and spent the evening working on my paper and blog postings. After listening to a bit of NPR and Radiolab podcasts, I'll turn in for the night.
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More wonderful blog postings, Allyson! Interesting insight into the bike-riding traditions and policies. It must be much safer for children there to travel about town on their own. Also, I imagine that the roads are designed with bike lanes or there are special bike paths similar to our greenways so that bike riders are safer than they would be here?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the libraries/media centers in the schools like? It seems that you mentioned earlier that the students commonly used the public library facilities because the schools' libraries are not as comprehensive as they are here. Do they have any library/media in the schools? Are the rules for quiet as strict as in the public libraries? I can't imagine taking students to the library and having them work in complete silence (though it certainly would be nice to achieve that once in a while!)
There are bike lanes on most sidewalks or as a path on the edge of the road. Most of the school kids bike in areas that are less congested. If they go to school in the center of the city area, then they seem to take the public transit more. The school libraries seem to be less substantial than ours, from my conversations with Petra. That is why they make such good use of the public libraries, such as the IJB and the Bavarian State Library. I have not inquired about the presence of silent reading rooms at school libraries, although it seems to be a cultural norm to respect those who are studying and to remain quiet. (It even seems that this is true on public transit... quite often, it is obvious who is American because they are the ones who are having conversations, while the Germans are reading or studying on the train.)
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