Counting chickens or crushing eggs

The Malta Library and Information Association (MaLIA www.malia-malta.org) refers to the news item Insufficient Space For Electronic Library (July 23). The journalist states that:

"The Malta Library and Information Association may have counted its chickens before they hatched when it praised Renzo Piano's plans for a public library in the proposed Parliament building in Valletta" and "It was quick to retract its delight when its hopes were crushed."

MaLIA has been following this matter for months now, lobbying for a modern public library in an easily accessible area in the City Gate area in Valletta even before the Prime Minister set the ball rolling. It found considerable support for this initiative from the public.

On Monday, June 22, (just five days before the plans were unveiled) in a Times of Malta interview A Magic City In A Magic Island, Renzo Piano expressed himself very clearly on his views for a public (not just electronic) library: "The building will not only house Parliament but a public library too, as suggested by a group [that's MaLIA who wrote to him way back in December 2008] that joined the fray..." Later on he is further quoted as stating: "We want to put on the ground floor of the Parliament a function that is public.

I don't think that there will be shops there... the shops are already there. I think we have to put there a dignified, noble activity. We are thinking about a library..."

Can any statement for a public library in the Valletta City Gate project be more clear than this? Was Mr Piano, just five days before publicly unveiling his plans, talking about original, as opposed to final, designs? Hardly likely or believable. Did MaLIA count its chickens before they were hatched or did somebody crush them before the public even got to see them? It is not mainly MaLIA's hopes that were crushed but the hopes of the long waiting reading public which public is served by MaLIA's members and other professional librarians.

Several journalists and opinionists, among them Clare Bonello, Ranier Fsadni and David Friggieri, besides the general public in several on-line blogs, have written on this matter. In general there is agreement that if there was enough political will in the first place then space would have been found and a modern public lending library that includes both books/periodicals in print form and electronic media would have got into the final plans. Mr Piano's advice on this aspect of the project should have been followed.

For the record MaLIA would like to state that the country has lost an opportunity to have a modern public library in a prominent site that would surely have encouraged more people to use libraries for both study and leisure purposes. The Prime Minister often mentions that Malta needs to become a knowledge-based society. A modern public library in a prominent site would certainly have helped to realise his wishes. Other cities in Europe have built and are still building modern public libraries. The age of libraries is far from over. It is only when libraries have little to offer that they lose their appeal and their use declines.

Finally, MaLIA, while noting with satisfaction the recently reported positive developments in the local public library scene, still thinks that the central public library of the island should be moved to a more accessible location ideally within Valletta itself. The building and its facilities should be modern, there should be adequate trained professional staff and its collections and services should reflect much better what the reading public wants. Such a library, in conjunction with other adult literacy initiatives, should moreover strive to reach out to the non-reading public.