Day 6: A Day to Wander
Kelvingrove
No scheduled library visit to day, but we do get to go to an awesome museum and we get a subway pass for the whole day. Today’s mission is to hit vintage stores and find a scone!
There were quite a few of us that went on the museum tour and it was so worth it! Our guide was adorable I wanted ask him for tea and pick his brain about the museum and Scotland. Here are some of the highlights:
There were quite a few of us that went on the museum tour and it was so worth it! Our guide was adorable I wanted ask him for tea and pick his brain about the museum and Scotland. Here are some of the highlights:
Christ of St John
This was so amazing to see a Dali! Glasgow wanted to purchase the painting, but everyone was up in arms because the city was in dire straits. They purchased it anyways and Dali gave them the reproduction rights, so within months of first exhibition, they had made enough money from merchandise that they were able to more than pay for the painting! Lesson in procuring objects for your library or museum-get rights and it pays for itself.
Glasgow Boys
This was a group of young artists who went around Scotland painting things. This exhibit had many different types of paintings, perspectives, and subjects. Here are a couple of my favorites. Also this is where the Dean spent a better part of her day.
Ceremonial Turtle Posts
These two poles are the last turtle pole from the Torres Strait. The Torres people would use these poles in a sacrifice of a sea turtle after a big hunt. Representing both male and female, these poles are the last in existence. In the 1990s an islander came to visit the museum because his people were starting to lose some of their old customs, and he wanted to visit the museums to see other island artifacts. At first, the museum was concerned he might want them back (which they would have done but they were so rare they would have been sad to see them go), but he was so excited that so many people had access to them. He just wanted to learn about the collection and how they were presented. The Kelvingrove has over a million visitors per year as opposed to this island which has a few thousand. The man was so happy that so many people had access to his culture he wanted them to stay and be preserved. This was such a neat story about having access to information. Not only do people get to see it at the museum, but when searching the Torres Strait this is one of the first articles to come up so people have online access as well. Providing access to information is what librarianship is all about, and if we preserve our objects, books, etc. then people can see it now and for years to come. Since the first man from the island came to visit the poles, four others have followed suit.
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St. Kilda
St. Kilda is this small remote island in north Scotland. It was so remote they only got mail 5 months out of the year, the rest of the year they were completely cut off. During this time, they would send mail boats. The first mail boat was sent in 1876 by a stranded visitor. People would use these to send letters and money to people on the mainland. Sometimes they got the messages, others were lost, and some are probably waiting to be found. This is another great example of information access. These poor people were cut off for most of the year and still they tried to communicate with outside world. Now the only people on St. Kilda are scientists and even they only stay there for part of the year. As librarians we want to reach even the remotest of places to give them the information they need. With the internet it’s easy to think everyone is online and that no one is unreachable, but there are still people even in my part of the world that have dial up or no access at all. No matter how connected we think we are, there are still going to be those who are hard to reach, so we need to find our own modern day mail boat to serve them.
Interactive Captions
This was just an exhibit that was part of the portrait gallery. They had a painting and had computer screen thought bubbles for each person in the painting. The thought bubbles would change every few seconds and some were serious, but most were funny. This would be a great idea for a bulletin board or web page for a caption contest or just for fun. I thought this would be a great idea in a public library, but especially for an elementary library or even academic library could have fun with it!
Out and About
On a side note, Kelli and I had a fabulous day of shopping in charity shops and vintage stores. We were in search of a fabric store (and found it with the help if another friendly local) to find Scottish yarn and were disappointed when we found only Italian yarn. We asked some ladies at the shop to where we could find some local varieties, and they recommended Edinburgh (luckily we were going back tomorrow). They also told us about an old American hippy who lives in Skye who has her own flock, but warned us she was a little crazy. I felt like we were given an insider’s view into the world of Scotland’s yarn!
We had lunch at a great little café:
We had lunch at a great little café:
And we found our coffee and scones and cupcakes!