Back in the 1950s Juliette Gréco sang Je hais les dimanches(I hate Sundays), but would she have found them quite so dull if public libraries had been open? It is still an open question in France, where museums and cinemas welcome the public on this day of rest, but not yet libraries, reports The Guardian.
Things may finally be changing, thanks to a bill originally more concerned with shopping than the arts. An amendment, put forward by former arts minister Aurélie Filipetti, to the “growth, business and equal economic opportunities” bill currently grinding through the French parliament, seeks to oblige local councils to organise a debate before introducing Sunday opening for libraries and shops. Her successor, Fleur Pellerin, has endorsed this proposal and asked a member of the upper house to look at how library opening hours could be adapted.
Although it may be some time before it becomes law, a vote in favour of the bill could have symbolic impact. It would certainly draw attention to the role now played by libraries, institutions that have taken on other missions than simply providing books.
Workshops, events, exhibitions, training courses and encouraging public participation in their management have become part of libraries’ roles. In some you may talk without whispering, use a phone, eat and even play computer games. Reading has become a source of sociability and the books on offer are supposed to encourage “social cohesion”. This trend towards greater openness, which started a few years ago, has only taken hold in a few of France’s 3,000 public libraries. But, it seems, it’s spreading.
The most recent and perhaps most emblematic of the new media libraries opened last June in the working-class Mont Mesly district of Créteil, in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris. Everything here is impressive: its size (4,400 sq metres); the building’s transparent design that seeks to blur the distinction between interior and exterior; the number of items (140,000), freely accessible computers (84), seats (96) and armchairs (138). There is even a digital piano in the music room (only used with headphones).
For local people, access to the library is free of charge, in keeping with the “third place” concept much in vogue with librarians (the first two being home and workplace). “We’re in an intermediate place here,” says head librarian Elisabeth Rozelot. “Its vocation is to teach people how to be citizens and to develop their critical faculties, with the ability to choose their own leisure activities, meet others and take part in social life.” The library organises a range of workshops, including reading, computing, basket-making and lino-cutting, readings, slide shows and concerts. But there are employment and literacy support groups too, in partnership with local associations. The resident poet stages encounters with fellow writers.