STIMULATED BY LIBRARY EXPERIENCES

Long before my time - the Western side of the Queen Victoria Markets as it was originally known, the York Street frontage looking South to the Town Hall.

Also long before my time- the Assembly Hall Building on Margaret St viewed from across York Street .The picture evidently taken from near the entrance to the present Wynyard Station..The picture is full of interesting detail, note the early 1800's residences next door.These are occupying the site where new buildings were to later receive as tenants the USIS LIBRARY and the always exotic ( in my youthful mind )PFAHLERTS HOTEL. Note also in the R.H. corner the paling fence(!) - this suggests that the "cut and cover"excavation and construction for Wynyard Station had begun ( early 1920's).

Yesterday's post "1955 -1956 LIBRARY EXPERIENCES"stirred up a few quite varied thoughts:

THE QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING

For all of my childhood and youth, the QVB stood virtually empty, save for the City of Sydney Library and their Cellar at the Northern end and a few shops and a Cafe on the George Street frontage. Access to the interior was not available to the public.

The great building, originally the Queen Victoria Markets, had not been a commercial success and , no doubt, the Great Depression finally set the seal on that. So it stood there like a great sandstone question - "what will you do with me?". There were many answers as I was growing up - most of them not respectful. Like its rival Melbourne, Sydney lacked, and still lacks , a fitting civic Square ( Melbourne's recently fabricated "Federation Square" still doesn't fill the bill and is just an eyesore.) Numerous "visionaries" wanted to demolish the QVB to create a Civic Square beside the Town Hall!Fortunately the inherent good sense of Sydneysiders of the time rejected the idea. Besides, the suggestion crystallised in the public mind the thought that we really liked and admired the old girl, We just needed to find a suitable use for her! Urban shopping was evolving and in due course, that evolution and the QVB's potential crossed paths.

To-day the QVB with improved access via a Tunnel to Town Hall Station and under George Street at either end of the building, has created a pulsing, vibrant shopping heart thronged by local and overseas tourists alike.It is always great fun for a wander  each time we return to Sydney for a visit. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Shop on the top level is always a favourite and on several occasions our daughter Justine has taken us to High Tea in the grand restaurant in what was originally a Ballroom on the upper level at the Northern end.

MARGARET STREET

The sandstone houses in Margaret Street in the photograph above, were typical of houses of the vintage of 1840 onwards that were still common around Sydney into my early twenties  and could still be spotted here and there in one or two place until much later, I am thinking of Castlereagh Street near Park Street for example. Earlier a very nice group on the corner of Phillip Street,King Street and Macquarie Street was demolished to make way for the ugly multi storey Courts Building.

LIBRARY IN MY POCKET?

Reflecting on those Libraries and their influence on my development, I came again to marvel at the phenomenon of the Kindle 3G E Reader which holds thousands of books in the size and weight of a small paperback, and offers the capacity to search in a particular book or across its whole library and make notes! The impact of this on my work will be brilliant, when I realise my goal and get one. How much more brilliant for a student in secondary studies  and tertiary studies. No doubt many not limited to a Retiree's means will even have the greater capacities of an I Pad! The acceleration in the rate of learning should be immense - but what of the depth of learning?Will they use the full potential of the E-Reader? Or simply skim further and faster?

Despite all the advances in technology, and the changes in the patterns of teaching, it is surprising how little many young people to-day know about history, even the modern history of our own society.And relatively few seem interested to find out.

DIDN'T HEED MY OWN WARNING! - WHAT A DAY THE 9TH WAS!

Soon-to-arrive i PAD 2

What a blast! My 71st Birthday on the 9th has taken some recovering from . All it lacked was the presence of the Southern Dixons, but they were pretty swiftly on the phone, and a very generous Brother-in -Law Tony Hannon has already sent various appurtenances of an i PAD 2, with the iPAD itself to follow when the Apple dream factory thinks the appetite has been sufficiently excited! Add to that a super new Nikon camera from my dear wife . My head has been reeling for two days!So clutching my Kindle 3G  for security I have my eyes set firmly on the future - or I will have, once I have mastered all the new electronic wizardry!

In the meantime , it is back to earth with a thud ! The rain has been giving us a brief respite over the last day, and the morning is fine - so its out with auto mow grass and 71 or not, the 4 section lawn must be mowed before its length becomes unmanageable.

So, my very deepest thanks to all who helped me celebrate and did so, so very generously!

En KINDLED

A knock at the door on Friday, the UPS Man hands me a light weight box , and I am catapulted into the outer regions of the electronic "envelope"!!

Thanks to the amazing generosity of my daughter Justine, and her husband Paul, I am now the proud and enthusiastic owner of a KINDLE 3G E-Reader. Stunning ! Imagine carrying around an item the size of a small format Paperback, capable of containing 3,500 books and able to facilitate search within any one or all of them, that remembers what page you are up to in the one's you are reading etc., etc.

Needless to say I am immeasurably grateful, and impatient to extend the library to facilitate my reading and reference work for my Blogs and FOUNDATION.One of my early coups has been to load Whiston's Complete Works of Flavius Josephus for about $5-00 - the paperback of one of his works costs $ 34 !
Let me know if I get boring about Kindle - but the possibilities! Already I am re-reading in the Kindle Edition "The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ"by Archbishop Alban Goodier S.J. and reading for the first time the Autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant- just as terrific a read as my Brother-in -Law Tony Hannon said it is!

*STIMULATED BY LIBRARY EXPERIENCES

Long before my time - the Western side of the Queen Victoria Markets as it was originally known, the York Street frontage lookins South to the Town Hall.

Also long before my time- the Assembly Hall Building on Margaret St viewed from across York Street .The picture evidently taken from near the entrance to the present Wynyard Station..The picture is full of interesting detail, note the early 1800's residences next door.These are occupying the site where new buildings were to later receive as tenants the USIS LIBRARY and the always exotic ( in my youthful mind )PFAHLERTS HOTEL. Note also in the R.H. corner the paling fence(!) - this suggests that the "cut and cover"excavation and construction for Wynyard Station had begun ( early 1920's).

Yesterday's post "1955 -1956 LIBRARY EXPERIENCES"stirred up a few quite varied thoughts:

THE QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING

For all of my childhood and youth, the QVB stood virtually empty, save for the City of Sydney Library and their Cellar at the Northern end and a few shops and a Cafe on the George Street frontage. Access to the interior was not available to the public.

The great building, originally the Queen Victoria Markets, had not been a commercial success and , no doubt, the Great Depression finally set the seal on that. So it stood there like a great sandstone question - "what will you do with me?". There were many answers as I was growing up - most of them not respectful. Like its rival Melbourne, Sydney lacked, and still lacks , a fitting civic Square ( Melbourne's recently fabricated "Federation Square" still doesn't fill the bill and is just an eyesore.) Numerous "visionaries" wanted to demolish the QVB to create a Civic Square beside the Town Hall!Fortunately the inherent good sense of Sydneysiders of the time rejected the idea, besides, the suggestion crystallised in the public mind the thought that we really liked and admired the old girl, We just needed to find a suitable use for her! Urban shopping was evolving and in due course, that evolution and the QVB's potential crossed paths.

To-day the QVB with improved access via a Tunnel to Town Hall Station and under George Street at either end of the building, has created a pulsing, vibrant shopping heart thronged by local and overseas tourists alike.It is always great fun for a wander  each time we return to Sydney for a visit. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Shop on the top level is always a favourite and on several occasions our daughter Justine has taken us to High Tea in the grand restaurant in what was originally a Ballroom on the upper level at the Northern end.

MARGARET STREET

The sandstone houses in Margaret Street in the photograph above, were typical of houses of the vintage of 1840 onwards that were still common around Sydney into my early twenties  and could still be spotted here and there in one or two place until much later, I am thinking of Castereagh Street near Park Street for example. Earlier a very nice group on the corner of Phillip Street,King Street and Macquarie Street was demolished to make way for the ugly multi storey Courts Building.

LIBRARY IN MY POCKET?

Reflecting on those Libraries and their influence on my development, I came again to marvel at the phenomenon of the Kindle 3G E Reader which holds thousands of books in the size and weight of a small paperback, and offers the capacity to search in a particular book or across its whole library and make notes! The impact of this on my work will be brilliant, when I realise my goal and get one. How much more brilliant for a student in secondary studies  and tertiary studies. No doubt many not limited to a Retiree's means will even have the greater capacities of an I Pad! The acceleration in the rate of learning should be immense - but what of the depth of learning?Will they use the full potential of the E-Reader? Or simply skim further and faster?

Despite all the advances in technology, and the changes in the patterns of teaching, it is surprising how little many young people to-day know about history, even the modern history of our own society.And relatively few seem interested to find out.