Barbican Centre Library

I had never really heard about the Barbican Centre before, but once we got there I must say I was charmed by it. Tall towers of serene apartment buildings with literary names like Shakespeare Tower with a mini river flowing inbetween full of lilypads, ducks and waterfalls. It was so perfect-looking it reminded me of all the places in the movies that are supposedly utopian but then have some dark and horrible secret underneath the quiet zen (did I mention I can have a dark sense of humor?), but thankfully what we saw instead was a quietly bustling public library.

Image courtesy of Microsoft Clipart, not specifically of the Barbican Centre

Apparently, the Barbican Centre was an idea long in the making. It was thought of in the 1950s, planned in the 60s, built in the 70s, and opened in the 1980s (the lending library in 1982, and the music library in 1983). The Barbican Centre Library has three parts: a lending library, a music library, and a childrens library. The lending library's main demographic are the workforce of the city, not only those who both live and work in the city but also those who come in to work in the city and then go home at night. The music library's patrons include many students of nearby schools of the humanities, and the children's library interacts not only with the children who come in but also with the schools in the area and local nursuries. The lending library's challenge is bringing in the new electronic and digital materials, the music library works with the intricacies of a delicate cataloging and classification system (as well as the passerby who want to look up a song by humming), and the children's library is campaigning for literacy programs.

There were several things that caught my eye about the Barbican Centre Library. First was the "Art Space" in the front of the library, a mini-gallery of sorts that is rented out monthly and is currently sold out until the end of 2011. Another was the idea, foreign to us Americans, that checking out DVDs, blurays and CDs at most libraries in the UK is simliar to checking something out at the local Blockbuster or Family Video, in that there is a small fee involved. Another difference between the US and the UK's mode of operations is that the UK library will card you if you don't look old enough to check out a video of a certain rating. A young individual is not allowed to check out an item rated for someone older than they are without a parent or other responsible adult with them.

Another thing that caught my eye was the arrangement of the bookcases in one of the main areas. There were small bookcases, called "propellers," scattered around the pedestrian flow that were filled with materials relevant to a topic of general interest, like large print books in various genres or a gathering of materials about dancing for an upcoming dance festival. Arranged in an almost spiral or circular manner were medium-sized bookshelves that were Fiction arranged alphabetically by author. Further back and along the walls were topical collections, such as recently acquired materials, World History, Novelists, Travel, Horror, Nonfiction and Brit Travel. On the way to a computer study area was another set of medium-sized bookcases that comprised a "Skills for Life" area for all ages, with subtopics ranging from dyslexia, baby care, starting your own business, people of various ages dealing with depression, kids learning to be little helpers and swimming a length, etc.

While some increase in library use could "absolutely, definitely" be attributed to the global recession, an increase in reading interest has been occuring in the UK for about the past decade, since a Year of Reading in 1998 and then a follow-up year in 2008. At the same time, there has been an overall drop in the literacy of the UK.

The childrens library was swinging into gear for the beginning of the summer reading challenge, Space Hop. On top of the usual summer reading challenge program, the Barbican Centre's childrens library and a few other local libraries are hoping to draw in older childrem with a "Top Trumps" card game, sort of like a Pokemon game in that each card has a creature with a name and strengths that compete against one another. Unlike the average Pokemon card, the alien characters on the Top Trumps card game also list their birthplace (the one I looked at was born in East London), a favorite book, and a personal motto.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Barbican Centre Library, which had a nice variety of materials in its lending library, an impressive selection in its music library, and a great set-up for kids in its childrens library.

Image is not specifically of the Barbican Centre Library, and is from ClipArt

St. Paul's Cathedral Library

We were a large enough group that we split up first to go to St. Paul's Cathedral (I was in the smaller group that opted for the tube instead of a bus) and then to tour the library. On the way we stopped for a group picture by the Temple Bar, one of the original gates of London where many impressive personages have passed through and others were spitted and displayed after their execution. When we entered the cathedral I was in the group that went up first, while the other group meandered around the cathedral. Led by the librarian, Joseph Wisdom, we headed up the south-west triforium (curved stone staircase) up to where the door leading to the library branched off. I was glad that we only had to go up that far, because the fact that the stairs were wide but short and the alternating pale stone with black strips of gripping tape were beginning to make me feel a bit dizzy. First on the tour was the lapidarium, the in-house part of the stone collection which featured fragments of the pre-Great Fire of London cathedral. You can access the full history of the cathedral in all of its reincarnations here, in a neat and tidy timeline. Then we passed further down the hall and stopped by the door of a study, over which was inscribed a quote from Ecclesiasted 12:12 in Latin: "Faciendi plures libros nullus est finis," or "Of making books there is no end." The next stop on the tour was the "BBC view," so nicknamed because the spot high on the balcony in the very back of the cathedral is where the BBC cameras set up most often for events.  Then it was on to one of the original library rooms which was never used as a library, and now houses the great model of what the architect Sir Christopher Wren had originally planned for the cathedral. Why was the original plan not carried out? Because it looked rather similar to St. Peter's in Rome, and that wasn't the most politically sound idea at the time.

Finally came the library itself, a medium-sized room filled from floor to tables to ceiling with old books. The room was filled with the pungent aroma of old books and their maladies. The librarian explained that part of the sent was a result of "off-gassing," a chemical reaction between the materials and their environment. Along the tour we learned such fascinating facts as that there is always a cathedral archeologist on staff. All the names of the librarians from the mid-17th century are known, and until the mid-20th century they were all in orders. There are four extant Wren libraries, the largest being located at Trinity college at Cambridge. The library collection is very focused in its acquisitions, only accepting works on Wren, the life and history of the Church of England, and alumni material. According to the librarian, they are frequently offered Bibles of loved ones passed away, which they cannot accept but are more than willing to find new loving homes for. There was a time for answering questions, and when someone asked what the specific system in use for organizing the many items scattered about the tables, the whimsical answer was "Is there a method to the madness? Yes. Is there madness? Yes!"

After the tour we were set loose to wander about the cathedral, which was absolutely magnificent. You can take a virtual tour of the cathedral, if you'd like.  No photos taken of the interior may be posted online, so I am very grateful to Wikipedia and to the St. Paul's site for these images.

Good Morning!

Since blogging, as it turns out, will be a major part of our scholastic experience abroad, my whole class is here in the computer lab typing up a storm!

One of the requirements of each post is a link and an image. I'm inserting a basic image for the time being, but when I get home I'll begin adding my own photos, so keep looking whenever you can.

Another option of blogging which I've never tried before is adding an RSS feed. Basically, what that means is that now you can look below this blog's archives and see the current headlines of both the British Library and the Bodleian Library, and when you click on the link it will take you to that article automatically. Amazing what technology can do these days, isn't it?

I'll probably be in here later today to write about our adventures in St. Paul's Cathedral Library, so I'll keep this post brief and sign off now.

Lost! (the adjective, not the noun)

If you read my earlier post, you'll know that today was supposed to be pretty simple-- leisurely morning, then a walk in the afternoon. However, it did not end up that way. I joined up with the group, and we all walked over to the Tate Modern. The plan was to go through the Tate Modern together, then walk over together to the National Gallery and walk through that together. It all went well until I stupidly walked a bit in front of the rest of the group, and didn't find them again. The other professors I've done walks with tend to count heads every few paces and make sure everyone stays together before moving on, but this one is highly in favour of students striking out on their own, so his stated policy on if you lost the group was that 1: it wasn't too far from the dorm, you could find your own way back or 2: you could do your own version of the same tour and look at the National Gallery yourself. So, after realizing that they had gone on without me, that's what I did. I finished looking around the Tate Modern (Calders and Rothkos and Picasso's, oh my!) and then made my way outside and asked someone who looked official (with a museum name tag) where the nearest tube station was. She happened to have a stack of basic maps of the area, and gave me directions to wind around a certain building, then follow a series of orange lamps to the Southbank tube station. I followed the directions, but after the first orange lamp-post I failed to find any others. However, every few blocks was a map of the area and the tube stations or bus stops within 15 minutes' walk, so I just kept walking towards the tube station. I finally got there, and it looked very much not open. I stopped at the corner, comparing the map there with the map I held (and wishing I had an actual map) when one of the station's employees, a motherly Irish woman, came over to see if she could help. I explained my problem, and she told me that I had found that station alright, but it was closed for the day to fix something. Then she gave me directions to the next nearest tube station, which happened to be Waterloo, the station closest to our dorms. I thanked her profusely and went on my way, deciding to continue on to the National Gallery with a double motive in mind: to see the paintings there, and to get a map from one of the kiosks outside. It was a bit tricky remembering how to get from Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square, but I must have looked confident doing it because someone with a British accent asked me for directions. When I got the National Gallery, I wandered into an entirely new area of art which included Monet, Manet, Renoir, Seurat, and Van Gogh, including the one and only Sunflowers. Then, when I realized my feet ached and the gallery was closing in less than an hour, I decided to head back, and got a wonderful map on my way back.
Tomorrow is the first day of real class, and mine is heading out to tour the library of St. Paul's Cathedral! Then tomorrow night is the official welcome event from King's College, at the Somerset House. If you want to read up on where we're going beforehand, here's a blog written by one of my instructors that has some great info.

In London

Well, just in case you were beginning to wonder, I'm alive and in London.
I don't know what time the computer will say I'm writing, but right now it is 11:45 AM in London, which means that in South Carolina it is 6:45 AM, and in Texas it is 5:45 AM. Pardon me for yawning.
I suppose I should start at the beginning (as the song says, "a very good place to start.") On Thursday morning I woke up mostly packed, unpacked the few things I needed to get ready, repacked them, and then ran out the door and hopped in the family car. We picked up Dad from work, then headed out to Charleston. We had a wonderful lunch at Hyman's, then continued out to the Charleston airport. I checked in on time at about 4:00, and when we asked a lady at the check-in desk about help in making a very quick connection from my first flight to my second, she said she had moved me up closer to the front of the plane. After giving and recieving goodbye hugs, I sniffled my way through security and then hung around by the gate for the 2 1/2 hours until my flight, during which I was stalked by a little toddler girl about to go on her first flight. It turned out that when the check-in lady said she had moved me up closer to the front of the plane, it was an understatement. I was on the second seat in the entire airplane! The stewardess stood next to my seat to give the safety demonstration. The flight passed safely and without a glitch, and the stewardess, whose name is Melissa, gave me directions to my next gate and recommended a fish and chips shop that she goes to every time she's in London.
When we landed in Dallas I had to wait a couple of minutes for my valeted bag to be brought up, but as soon as I got it I began bustling over to my next flight, leaving somewhat imminently. I was looking for the right shuttle when a couple of people zoomed past me, running with backpacks and a frenzied look in their eyes. "I bet they're on my next flight," I thought, and it turns out I was right. It was in this scramble to the gate that I learned the art of riding up and down escalators with a rolling bag. We were all just in time to board, and the plane took off on time at about 9:30 Dallas time. Dinner was a couple of hours into the flight, and then everyone settled down to try and sleep. I'm not sure how much sleep I was able to get, because I was seated near the wings in the loudest part of the loud plane. I could hear the scraping, groaning sound of what I'm hoping was just the raising and lowering of the landing gear at take-off and landing, and was immensely grateful to my mother for giving me a pair of good earplugs during the entire loud, uncomfortable 9-hour flight. Because of the 6-hour time difference between Texas and London, it was around noon on Friday when we arrived at Heathrow.
In following the correct patterns from landing to the correct gate, I got a mini-tour of the airfields, and began counting all of the different countries I saw. Since I thought I would begin blogging imminently after my arrival, I didn't think to write them down, so I only remember a few: Saudi Arabia, Canada, Ireland, Australia...And there were several planes there that didn't have their name in English on the side, so who knows how many countries were represented at the airport that day. After debarking from the plane, I followed the crowd along to the border check. There are two lines in this area: UK or European passports, and everyone else. The line moved along smoothly and quickly, and although I didn't know it there were many other students coming in for a University of Southern Mississippi program, so the Scottish gent who looked at my passport didn't even have to look at all of my papers before he gave me the go-ahead. The next area led to baggage claim, where I managed to snag my suitcase on the first try. Then I scurried on out to the next area, passing through the "nothing to claim" area and on to the long line of people waiting for whomever they were picking up. I was just beginning to worry when I saw someone at the very end of the line holding a "British Studies" sign, and he told me where to hang out while he directed the rest over and they were bringing the "coaches" (buses). It soon felt like a third of the airport was standing with me, and that was when I realized just how many people were coming for the same general program I was, if not for the same class. We ended up having to wait for the buses for a good long while, because of some small glitch, but eventually we were loaded up and on our way to the dorms.
 We saw several sights on our way out the windows of the bus, like the London Eye and the houses of Parlaiment. We were the last few to arrive for the program, getting to the dorms at about 3:00 that afternoon. We had just enough time after check-in to refresh a little bit before it was time for Neighborhood Walk with our classes at 4:00, here's a link to a Google map of my class's walk, although not in precise order. We finished ours with dinner at Texas Embassy, which gave it a good try but didn't quite get to Texas level. Then it was back to the dorms to settle in for the night.
The dorms we're  staying in during our time in London belong to the Waterloo campus of King's College London. This link gives you virtual tours of the Waterloo Bridge and the academic building across the street which includes the classrooms we use and the computer lab where I am currently typing (the Waterloo campus). If you click on the tab "King's Accomodation" at the top, then click on "Stamford Street" at the bottom, you'll get a 360 degrees look at an example room of where we're staying. What it first brings up is the common kitchen in a flat, shared by eight people. I had thought to perhaps use the kitchen pretty frequently, but came to realize that buying everything required (pots, pans, plates, silverware, etc) would burn too much of a hole in my pocket. It's when you click the small picture in the middle that says "bedroom" that you see one of our rooms.  The thing that looks like a slightly ajar closet door with a towel hanging on it is the bathroom, which is pretty much the same size as an airplane lavatory with an extra couple of feet at the end for the flat, uncurtained shower area. The picture's a fair representation of the room, except that it's missing the little heat waves to show that it has no air-conditioning. That's one of the most noticeable differences between London and back home: air-conditioning is not standard. Because the buildings are built to hold in heat, it is often cooler outside than inside. If everyone weren't jetlagged and wilting in the heat, I wouldn't be too surprised to see an adventurous bunch hauling mattresses out to the courtyard. As it is, we hang around wherever it's cooler and joke about the possibility of sleeping outside.
Other differences: you always look right when about to cross the street, drivers are rather aggresive so if you're not a local you'd better just wait for the light, intersections look differently (different system for pedestrians etc). It's sometimes Coke Light instead of Diet Coke, you can never predict what language a random person on the street will be speaking, and coins are more prevelant. The @ sign and quotation marks are switched on the keyboard, which has really affected my attempts at typing all this. Almost everything is pronounced differently than an American would think, like the Thames sounding like Tim's and Leicester sounding like Lester, which led to me thinking about the Goofy Movie which I watched as a kid and what Leicester's Possum Park would be like. ~Last but not least, the tube works along certain lines and then in certain directions. Let me make that clearer. While the metro in Washington DC runs in colors and then the last stop to show which direction you're going, like Red line, Shady Grove, the tube runs in lines and then whichever direction you're going, like Northern line, North or South.
I've already learned something about myself on this trip that I hadn't realized before: when I enjoy traveling, it's really about with whom I'm traveling.
The society of the students and our professors is a different one than I'm used to. I'm used to a team environment, where everyone sticks together most of the time. Here, we do group activities when scheduled, but otherwise we drift around with whomever's nearby or just on our own. I must admit that I've already broken the promise to never go anywhere by myself, because it's expected that if you have something to do you go out and do it on your own, and that's how things are set up.
However, I've kept the promise to attempt to learn a London accent, although not altogether successfully because what I've found is that there is no London accent. If you limit it to English, and British speakers, then there's still a wide range in what you'll hear in a single day in London, from an almost Cockney type of accent (Frasier fans, think of Daphne's brother) to a very precise accent (think Emma Thompson, or Colin Firth).
I have been very successful in another promise, which I forgot to put here earlier: I promised to have several pictures with me in them. I've been a good little cheesy tourist here and there, and so far I have a picture of me in a red telephone booth, me with the London Eye in the background, and me & a friend with one of the Queen's House Cavalry guards --who are not the black-hatted type, but still aren't allowed to move for the most part, except we caught ours smiling occasionaly.
I have also been successful in promising to write on this blog as soon and as often as I could, because I don't even have my own computer card yet. We're supposed to get them tomorrow, and in the time being we check out and then check in a card from the security desk. I'm actually assisted in this promise by the fact that for my class we're actually supposed to be keeping a blog, something I didn't realize until our first class yesterday.
Well, I've written more than enough for now (my apologies for the length), so I'd better finish up. Today, Sunday, July 4, I didn't have anything in the morning and so allowed myself to try and sleep in and beat the jetlag, somewhat successfuly. All I have scheduled is a LondonAlive walk (part of the orientation process) at 2:30 this afternoon, which is supposed to last only until about dinnertime. Tomorrow begins the actual schedule of visiting libraries, museums, and archives. I'll write more then, and try to include details of where I'm going and what I'm doing as time passes. My goal with this blog is to share as much of the experience with y'all as I can.

'Twas the Night Before Leaving...

Well, after a frenzy of laundry, packing, weighing, and repacking, I am ready to go tomorrow.
When my mom asked if there was anything someone particularly wanted for dinner, one of my brothers told me I should pick because it was my "last meal." He quickly rephrased that to something that sounded less fatal, but we had a good laugh over it.
While I am less than enchanted with the folks at my own university's financial aid office for various reasons, I am very grateful to the people with whom I have talked from the University of Southern Mississippi, particularly Frances Sudduth. It nearly brought tears to my eyes that someone actually cared whether or not my financial aid would work, and that this someone checked facts and thought over my problems enough to be able to give me good advice.
I finally found a purse that had a long enough strap to wear messenger-style that also was big enough to fit in more than a coin purse. I never noticed before, but right now the general trend in personal handbags is the bigger the capacity, the smaller the handles tend to be. The fact that my new bag is a nice cheery yellow leather one is an added bonus.
While I will probably not be able to add in photos to this blog while I am abroad, I now have a memory card for my camera that can hold over 6,000 photos and I will be happy to share upon request once I return.
I have recieved such a large amount of advice, and no doubt will recieve more on the morrow, that I thought it would be handy to begin putting together a list of things about which I have promised someone.

I, Megan Coker, do solemnly swear, that:
-I will remain my sensible self.
-I will not drink copious amounts of alcoholic beverages (copious meaning a full portion or more), even though the drinking age is lower in Europe.
-If I happen to meet the love of my life whilst abroad, I will not enter into any serious agreements with said personage until he at least met my parents and endured a nice, long interview with all of the male members of my immediate family.
-I will not roam around on my own, or indeed go anywhere without safe numbers of friends.
-I will always remember that my family loves me, even long-distance.
-I will keep a steady stream of contact whenever possible.
-I will keep my chin up and do my best.
-I will have a marvelous time.
-I will not let someone snatch my purse.
-I will not hesitate to call home if (and/or when) I need to.
-I will at least attempt to learn a London accent (can you tell which one was from my brother?)
-I will try some of the flavorful Indian food, but be very careful of the spices.
-I will remember my umbrella, and wear comfortable shoes.
-If I happen to stumble across an old and valuable manuscript previously undiscovered, I will bring it home to a certain dear friend.
-If I find the museum which contains Dragonetti's double bass, I will take copious amounts of pictures of it.
-I will return home with all limbs intact and alive (maybe I should have put this one first!).
-I will continue to update this blog as much as possible.

Next time I write, it will be from the other side of the pond!

The Count Down...

I'm actually only a few days (well, okay, weeks) away from heading to the airport! It's somewhat surreal that after all the paperwork I actually get to go on the trip.
There's been some more excitement, with the surprise of finding I had been misdirected by my financial aid office in the matter of where I needed to do some of that very important paperwork. Thankfully, I found out before it was too late to rectify the problem and managed to get everything fixed and tied with a bow, so I am fine.
I've been stockpiling various items for the trip, and sometime very soon I'm actually going to get out the suitcase and start packing.
My passport and ISIC (International Student Identity Card) has arrived, although my letter of entry hasn't quite yet. I'm busy copying all of the various important documents of which I will need multiple copies.
There has been an exciting addition to my trip! I will get to go to Paris for a weekend, see some of the marvellous museums there, and probably have that song from "Funny Face" or the soundtrack of Amelie stuck in my head for the duration. Ironically, the one group I had hoped to see live in Paris, Caravan Palace, will be on an American tour at the time. But I am still extremely excited about this opportunity.
Did I mention that I found out that Elephant Parade will be ending on June 30? I'm a bit disappointed not to see the actual event, but I'm still hoping to maybe look over some of the souvenirs when I get there.
You'll never guess what I found! Everyone reading this knows my last name is Coker, right? A family member once mentioned that there was a town named Coker that was somewhere south of London. Last night I did an online search and found out that there are in fact two! The neighboring villages of East Coker and West Coker are approximately 137.22 miles southwest of London, in the South Somerset district, 2 1/2 hours worth of travel, according to MapQuest. Both Cokers are evidently named after the nearby river Coker Water, this Coker evidently coming from the Celtic Kukro meaning "Crooked stream." I don't know if this is actually where my last name might have come from, but I'm certainly going to try to visit East Coker and West Coker.