Stockholm

Arrived safely in this beautiful city( the atumn colours are stunning) early Saturday morning , after an excellent flight with Thai Airways. Negotiated the airport sucessfully and caught the bus to the city . Christel , who I had met at the IAML Conference in Sydney, was there at the bus station to meet me and drove me to her home in Nacka, where I am staying with her and her husband , Lennart, who is a doctor. The house is lovely,very Swedish , quite old and wooden and in a rural setting though quite close to the city. Within three hours we were out and about and I visited my first two libraries , those of Nacka Communs. 

These are very funky and trendy and have a controversial, popularist approach. One is in a shopping centre and has recently been refurbished and opened the day before. It haas very bright colours , lime green , orange etc. a minimalist information desk and as it has RFID there are self check-out machines. I was amazed at the size of a coffee shop counter within the library space as it was huge. Very strange when there was a nother coffee shop located opposite in the shopping centre. To my mind a waste of valuable library space. Children,s area was fun with a curtained off part for storytelling etc.  Then we went to a disused factory site which has been remodelled for a shopping complex and  the library is located in the old diesel factory. (Dieselverkstaden) which is participatory arts centre with exhibitions, childrens art claseses, orchestra and theatre based activities. Again very funky and a popularist collection of library material, but a hub of activity.