I Love My Library!

I worked in the National Library of Latvia for several months and my assignment was to photo-record everything in the old historic buildings of the library (five altogether) as well as things that could not be taken to the new building which was then under construction. I had expected it to be a boring, tiresome task involving uncountable book shelves and no people who I love to photograph. But I was deeply impressed by what I saw. I met people who loved their job and cherished their workplace. I was touched by their deep commitment. Many of those people had been working there for years and had many stories to tell about their time at the library. The longer I worked in the library, the more clearly I saw that it was impossible to move the library atmosphere to some other place, from the old buildings to the new one. Neither was it possible to retain and transfer elsewhere the „order of things”: the premises that library employees had repaired themselves, their favorite desks, plants they had tended to for many years, their ways about the library that had become so dear to them.