The Doors

Well in that case, I want to be the doors on Cardiff Central Library. The new super duper Cardiff Central library at the bottom of the Hayes which has five floors and is meant to be one of the seven wonders of the world or so the Western Mail would have you believe. Now amongst the shisters and low lifes that I associate with, common agreement has it that there was nothing wrong with the old library and even with the interim one. The Portakabin at the top of John Street had some character with all the colorful book signs down the side. Now this one would have character if you could get in through its revolving doors. Revolving doors don't work period. Especially electrically powered ones, sensitive to the touch and movement! Having been absent from Kairdiff over the Christmas festivities I returned and found that we were now being ushered through the side door and the fire escape. The language of heaven (Yuk, gyfoglid yeah!) is on the fifth floor, far enough away for those who don't speak it and consider it a nuisance. Tannoy announcements are in the Queen's English, very pukka, pronounced by the IT Superintendent followed ever so sweetly by the Welsh Speaking Librarian. Surely all announcements in Wales should be in Welsh first, like on Cardiff Central Railway station. The puzzled faces after every bing-bong make you realise that you are in a different country with a different language and the scurrying from platform to platform can be quite fun to watch.

The Psychology of doors. Doors are an entrance and an exit to a building. They are your first experience. Sensory, visual and otherwise. If the doors don't work, they make you think that the building or the institution don't work. They make you think that something is broken inside. So come on Cardiff City Council, you built it, fix the doors. Take the revolving ones out and have ones that open and close with a swish. Have a little cubby hole with TV monitors for your security personnel so that they are not breathing down your neck the moment you've managed to get through the doors. Why would I steal a library book if they are free anyway? For someone with delusions of grandeur I would also like a red carpet the next time I visit. I'm sure Ghandi had no idea that I would use his passionate philosophy to make a point about the doors on a library but I thought well, the world has gone shallow and we seem obsessed with the minutiae over the bigger picture, I thought I would just dive straight in there.

That's me walking past, refusing to negotiate the revolving doors of Cardiff Central Super Duper library!