My OperaVous êtes Madame Scripto?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:02:28 PM
Today I had two truly wonderful experiences – in the morning, I visited a new colleague at the Richelieu campus (the very old library site which contains the true wonders kept in secret and dark corners)...and had a fantastic discussion on the many wonderful activities happening both at BNF, and at other cultural institutions.
My colleague Lorène, works across the institutions, and has a real handle of the innovative things that are happening, all the while organising a string of fabulous events to celebrate La Patrimoine (this is a word that I have yet to find a direct translation – it is an expression a little higher than, celebrating one’s country’s heritage. We don't really use the word 'patrimony' in Australia all that much)...in the next 14 weeks with her assistance and network of colleagues, I hope to (try and) visit 14 memory keeping institutions, to meet with the Education staff at each of them. Well, I’ll give it a red hot go!
This afternoon, I watched a Library tour, for a group of 12 year olds. It was possibly one of the most innovative (and easiest to emulate) ways of introducing students to a Library/cultural setting.
Stephané and Marine, each talented with theatrical voices and gestures, entertained the 30 students for 90 minutes, combining a bit of theatre with a library tour. Together, they put on a little act for the students, pretending to be detectives (Benjamin Lupin and Agatha Burma), on the search for a Manuscript Librarian - Madame Scripto, who has gone missing in the library. The children were agog, and really enthralled in the action...
The premise is that Benjamin and Agatha need to solve a mystery, and they would like the students to help them. Madame Scripto was last seen by a man called Théodore-Antoine Durand, who read a letter that had fallen from her bag, which she hadn’t yet had time to read. During the session, we meet and discuss the possibilities of guilt, of several suspects, each who get ruled out for various historical reasons. The whole session ends with the discovery of a book in the cloakroom, containing the original letter (which Marine cloaked there before the class). The whole thing reminded me of the Da Vinci Code, but in 90 minutes, we got to see the underground transport system of the library (transdoc), an analysis of the architecture, the permanent exhibition of treasures of the Library (which changes every 3 months) and a timeline of the life of the Library. Impromptu approaches to random members of the public by Detective Lupin, asking "Are you Madame Scripto? Non? Pardon, madame..." made it funny, and the kids giggled a lot.
You can imagine, visiting one of the largest libraries in the world (which from within just looks like a big building that someone told you contains books)...would be daunting, or possibly a little boring for a 12 year old, who probably also knows that he/she won’t be allowed in alone, until they are 16 years old. Today I saw faces enthralled, and something that I would love to try at home.
I can right now picture Redmond Barry and Ned Kelly having a duel in the information centre...or perhaps Bertha Booksnap, Librarian extraordinaire, leading kids through the basement on the hunt for a missing book.
Food for thought, anyway...
Ratatouille
Below is a picture of a shop window...it's best described as a pest management shop. Anyone who has seen the film "Ratatouille" will recognise this as an animated scene in that film... these rats are what is left of the Rat Plague, that infested Paris in 1925.
It does compare somewhat (my SLV colleagues will surmise) to the photo in our own collection, of four nights of mice (500,000 mice - who would count them I ask you?) killed during the plague that hit Victoria and South Australia in 1917 (currently on display in the Changing Face of Victoria exhibition at SLV).
(Photo courtesy of Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria)
Anyway, I might start a photo album of "Wierd stuff I've seen in Paris", as this stopped me on the Rue Rivoli for at least a photograph.
My colleague Lorène, works across the institutions, and has a real handle of the innovative things that are happening, all the while organising a string of fabulous events to celebrate La Patrimoine (this is a word that I have yet to find a direct translation – it is an expression a little higher than, celebrating one’s country’s heritage. We don't really use the word 'patrimony' in Australia all that much)...in the next 14 weeks with her assistance and network of colleagues, I hope to (try and) visit 14 memory keeping institutions, to meet with the Education staff at each of them. Well, I’ll give it a red hot go!
This afternoon, I watched a Library tour, for a group of 12 year olds. It was possibly one of the most innovative (and easiest to emulate) ways of introducing students to a Library/cultural setting.
Stephané and Marine, each talented with theatrical voices and gestures, entertained the 30 students for 90 minutes, combining a bit of theatre with a library tour. Together, they put on a little act for the students, pretending to be detectives (Benjamin Lupin and Agatha Burma), on the search for a Manuscript Librarian - Madame Scripto, who has gone missing in the library. The children were agog, and really enthralled in the action...
The premise is that Benjamin and Agatha need to solve a mystery, and they would like the students to help them. Madame Scripto was last seen by a man called Théodore-Antoine Durand, who read a letter that had fallen from her bag, which she hadn’t yet had time to read. During the session, we meet and discuss the possibilities of guilt, of several suspects, each who get ruled out for various historical reasons. The whole session ends with the discovery of a book in the cloakroom, containing the original letter (which Marine cloaked there before the class). The whole thing reminded me of the Da Vinci Code, but in 90 minutes, we got to see the underground transport system of the library (transdoc), an analysis of the architecture, the permanent exhibition of treasures of the Library (which changes every 3 months) and a timeline of the life of the Library. Impromptu approaches to random members of the public by Detective Lupin, asking "Are you Madame Scripto? Non? Pardon, madame..." made it funny, and the kids giggled a lot.
You can imagine, visiting one of the largest libraries in the world (which from within just looks like a big building that someone told you contains books)...would be daunting, or possibly a little boring for a 12 year old, who probably also knows that he/she won’t be allowed in alone, until they are 16 years old. Today I saw faces enthralled, and something that I would love to try at home.
I can right now picture Redmond Barry and Ned Kelly having a duel in the information centre...or perhaps Bertha Booksnap, Librarian extraordinaire, leading kids through the basement on the hunt for a missing book.
Food for thought, anyway...
Ratatouille
Below is a picture of a shop window...it's best described as a pest management shop. Anyone who has seen the film "Ratatouille" will recognise this as an animated scene in that film... these rats are what is left of the Rat Plague, that infested Paris in 1925.
It does compare somewhat (my SLV colleagues will surmise) to the photo in our own collection, of four nights of mice (500,000 mice - who would count them I ask you?) killed during the plague that hit Victoria and South Australia in 1917 (currently on display in the Changing Face of Victoria exhibition at SLV).
(Photo courtesy of Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria)Anyway, I might start a photo album of "Wierd stuff I've seen in Paris", as this stopped me on the Rue Rivoli for at least a photograph.
