Library Tourism

Thebubble.org.uk is the name of an online student magazine in Durham. Bubble refers to a specific feeling that is typically evoked if you stay for a long time in a small city. This metaphor makes a lot of sense, when speaking about the current last term of the academic year. During the third term, students begin to focus exclusively on revision for their final exams or on a dissertation.

Durham seems to get smaller than it already is. On busy days it measures the size of a library's desk, a room in a flat and the short distance between them. In the feverish moments caused by such a lifestyle you want nothing but the good old trimester back: 'Yes, yes, back then we attended seminars and lectures which provided such a wonderful spatial alternative to this librar... Glug, Glug, Glug!'



Usually it is a student, sitting next to you, who wakes you up from sweet day dreaming by drinking loudly out of his bottle, starting a whispering conversation with his buddy or by using one of thirty other well known simple ways to produce enough noise to distract other people from their work or mind relaxation. Luckily, some escapes into thoughts are not disrupted. Also this one would be spared when I started to search for a drug to combat the curriculum's rigid intention to make students stay inside the library in the summer season.

My mind ended its journey – in the best German tradition – attacking criticising myself mildly massively: 'Hmm... actually, why are you working all time in the uni library when there are other cities around offering beautiful libraries?' Somehow I was tempted to follow this absurd idea. So I searched for 'library + England' in Google maps and surprisingly there were some spots in the region that seemed to be 'interesting' and had public libraries that fulfilled two necessities – desks and good opening times. Two day trips later, time has come for a critical evaluation of this exotic travelling style.

And here it is, written with a touch of this very sterile language that intends to make an argument look 'more' objective and sound while greatly impairing readability: 'The library tourist is certainly successful in breaking out of daily routine by leaving his town for a full day. Staying at an unfamiliar and less busy library, the traveller is truly productive for some hours. Before travelling back, a small walk will allow him or her to discover one of the many lesser known cities in the country that provide a lovely library, despite never being recommended by a single travel guide worldwide.'