International Publishing Fellowship: Day 3 — Where Are Our Libraries!!

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Like I said last week, walking in Manchester felt like we were inside an epic film. We spent the night, and in the morning met the great Ivan Wadeson, who took us on a guided tour of the city.

Manchester is a UNESCO City of Literature, and from what I understood, an organisation helps steward that title, coordinating programmes and events around it. Ivan leads the team managing this work. It was a privilege to learn about the city through him.

At moments I felt like I was in Mary Poppins, especially the animated scenes. Then it felt like one of those joyful football adverts. Then we saw trams gliding along the same roads as cars, and it became a modern Alice in Wonderland. The city is layered – I love the way Ivan described it – with three categories of building: brick and mortar buildings of old, standing beside steel and concrete structures built in later centuries, and now the most recent style – sleek glass walls rising confidently among them. History and modernity in conversation. Statues of important historical figures like Emmeline Pankhurst scattered amidst the mighty buildings. Sigh. Visiting Waterstones. And then, the cherry on top of these two days, the goodie bags. Tote bags filled with books and memorabilia. Books from the roundtable sessions. A Manchester City of Literature tote with all the things I love, pens, notebooks, beautiful books. A map of the city – a paper map.

I had heard about painful incidents in the city’s past, so I am not sure what I expected. Certainly not this warmth, beauty and sense of belonging.

But my real lament today is about the libraries. Because what in the never-seen-this-kind-of-magnificence-before-ness is the John Rylands Library? And that is before you even step into the city’s Central Library. These spaces are magnificent enough to be tourist attractions. In the Central library, we entered a circular room where, if you stand at the centre, you can hear whispers from across the room. Architecture at its finest.

But more than beauty, it is what these libraries represent. They are big. They are open to the public, free. They strengthen community ties. They support advocacy work. They are part of Europe’s response to the loneliness pandemic. They preserve books from different centuries. They safeguard history and knowledge. Hundreds of people use them. People of all ages have somewhere to go to connect with culture, memory, and ideas. Some libraries even function as museums, preserving important artefacts.

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Written by

Crystal Butungi Rutangye

I delight in the power of the written word to share ideas, thoughts, stories, memories, and other aspects of humanity. With over 14 years' experience, my expertise includes editing fiction and non-fiction trade books, ghostwriting, book production management, and training new writers/editors. I lead a team of zealous book editors, graphics designers, and illustrators at Scribe House.

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