Library's stories there to enjoy
THERE are many reasons for communities to love their libraries.
They are hubs that bring people together, they can close the opportunity gap, support lifelong learning, increase digital equity.
Free libraries, it is said, bring a return of anything between double every pound invested in them, to 10-times that value.
One additional strength of the Guernsey library, bequeathed by the remarkable Guernseymen Thomas Guille and Frederick Alles, childhood friends who went to New York to pursue their dreams, is the amazing back story of our library in Market Street and the inspiration they took from the city’s vast apprentices’ library.
‘Never shall I forget,’ said Guille, ‘the emotion of wonder and delight which seized me when, for the first time, I entered the library.’
That moment fostered his dream to set up a library in Guernsey, and some 50 years later, with the help of his friend, he managed it.
Today we learn of the story of an early book, possibly the first book, he ever acquired for the library, and its own remarkable journey – from New York to Guernsey, out of the hands of the library and on to the ‘for sale’ list of a Dutch antiquarian bookstore, and then, via an intrigued Dutch librarian, back to the Guille-Alles' historic collection.
As a community we have much to thank Messrs Guille and Alles for – not least the wonderful stories.