Fransesca Quartey i en orange kavaj

THE THOUGHTS FRANSESCA

Setting sail on the oceans of imagination

In the 1970s, when I was growing up, Gothenburg City Library was still a new and modern building. There are pictures of me and my mother playing on the steps of the new library. At that time, I didn't yet know that it would be my second home.

Sweden has a long and proud library tradition stretching back several hundred years. The oldest library, the Royal Library, was founded in the 16th century at the Tre Kronor Palace and consisted of the collections of the Vasa kings. But it was not until the 18th century that Sweden began to create libraries for the public. The so-called parish libraries were run by priests and were mostly filled with Christian books or practical literature on farming. The idea that the general public would want to read fiction hardly existed and was considered neither desirable nor necessary.

In the 19th century, public school inspectors were given the responsibility of supervising parish libraries. One of these inspectors, Per Siljeström, was an enthusiast who fought for the expansion of libraries and women's right to education. He wanted parish libraries to contain a wider range of reading material and believed that what was good enough for educated people should also be good enough for farmers and workers. But despite his efforts, progress was slow.

It was not until the end of the century that the idea of a public library with a wider range of literature took hold. In Gothenburg, the Dickson Public Library was located in the city's working-class district of Haga. James Dickson, a wealthy wholesaler, wanted to give "the hard-working laborers" the opportunity for entertainment and education, and the library finally became a place where everyone, regardless of background, could come and discover new worlds.

My mother introduced me to books and reading at an early age, and I quickly became a bookish child. Every visit to Gothenburg City Library was an adventure. At the bottom was the record section, where I sat with headphones listening to comedy records and laughing so loudly that the librarians had to shush me. At the top was the adult section, where the adults sat with serious faces, and God help the children who made themselves heard there. But best of all was the children's section on the first floor, where you could talk as much as you wanted when you weren't reading, of course. The whole room was filled with books, and between the bookshelves were glass cases with the cutest little dolls from Elsa Beskow's many stories. And on the wall in the children's section it said: "Books are ships that pass the vast seas of time". And I, an experienced captain on the vast seas of imagination, borrowed piles of books to read late into the night in my bed under the covers, by the light of my flashlight.

Libraries and librarians are one of the finest things we have in our society, yet we seem to forget about them when we grow up. Forget the joy of losing ourselves in a book. Forgetting the allure of a room full of books, just waiting to be read. So don't forget about your local library, visit it today. You will not only be supporting libraries, but also one of the foundations of a strong and free democracy. A library is the place where all of us, whatever our life situation, can set sail on the oceans of imagination, free of charge, and return so much richer than when we left!

/ Fransesca Quartey

- Cultural practitioner with a passion for theater, cultural policy and social issues in general.

Photo: Patrick Degerman