The Bias of Libraries: Montreal's Grande Bibliothèque Paulina
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The Bias of Libraries: Montreal’s Grande Bibliothèque Paulina Mickiewicz Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal May 2013 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Paulina Mickiewicz, 2013 Table of Contents Introduction 10 Chapter 1: Introducing the Grande Bibliothèque 26 Founding a “Scriptural” Society 26 The Saint-Sulpice Library 28 The Civic Library 31 Montreal Libraries in Context 36 The Quiet Revolution 39 The Québécois “nous” 44 The Grande Bibliothèque: From Conception to Object 45 Library Leadership 50 Battling the Budget 55 Architectural Makings 57 Chapter 2: Matters of Site 64 The Politics of Reading and the Problem of Place 70 Constructing the “Third Place” 78 The Finalists 87 The Curse of the East 94 Public Choice 100 On the Border of Things 107 Chapter 3: Letting the Outside In: Designing a New Public Space 109 Library Transformations 113 The International Architecture Competition 117 Architectural Priorities and Hopes 120 The Architects 125 An Architecture of Openness: Letting the Outside In 129 The Grande Bibliothèque 135 Welcoming the Grande Bibliothèque 147 The Complexities of Access 151 Surveillance, Monitoring, and Questions of Privacy 158 Mediating Public Space 167 Chapter 4: Knowledge Experiments: Technology and the Library 169 Technology and Design 172 Technologizing the Grande Bibliothèque 188 Adapting 197 “Technological Citizenship” 207 Library Mediations 212 Chapter 5: When Does a Library Stop Being a Library? 216 Why Libraries? 224 Learning at the Grande Bibliothèque 240 “The Community Garage” 253 Conclusion 257 Bibliography 271 Abstract This dissertation is centered on the Grande Bibliothèque (GB) which opened in Montreal in the spring of 2005, and was a library project of unprecedented scale in the city. The Grande Bibliothèque project unfolded during a significant moment in the cultural history of Québec, in which contemporary technological changes were, and are still, exerting transformative pressures on traditional models of the library. These same technologies have come to play an increasingly important role in the formation, circulation and reproduction of cultural practices and identities more broadly. As a case study, the GB is an instance of the many trends that are currently shaping libraries, including their changing historical narratives, their innovative architectural designs, their adjustment to new and emerging media technologies and the implications of the changing meanings of the book and reading. The aim of this research has been to consider the role that the library plays as a communications medium and cultural technology in a period when emerging digital and network media are destabilizing traditional notions of libraries and their role as democratic, public institutions. In other words, this dissertation considers how broader understandings of the library, which is treated as a medium of communication in its own right, have shifted dramatically over the last several decades. The 21st century library can be seen as an emerging medium that seeks to not only preserve and disseminate collective memory and culture, but also to provide access to spaces and networks of knowledge, culture and interaction that together renovate the library’s traditional role as a democratic institution. The library has become a central nervous system for new and emergent media technologies, a space that centralizes increasingly decentralized networks and systems, and a place in which new and emergent media technologies have not only found a home, a place where they can be contained, but a space in which the encounter between citizens and public knowledge and culture is staged. Cette thèse a pour objet principal la Grande Bibliothèque (GB) qui ouvrait ses portes à Montréal au printemps 2005. La création de cette bibliothèque, projet de grande envergure sans précédent à Montréal, marque un moment important dans l’histoire culturelle du Québec, où de nombreux changements technologiques ont eu, et continuent d’avoir, un effet transformateur sur le modèle traditionnel de la bibliothèque. D’une façon plus générale, ces mêmes technologies jouent un rôle de plus en plus important dans la formation, la diffusion et la reproduction des pratiques et des identités culturelles. En tant qu’étude de cas, la GB met en relief de nombreuses tendances qui sont actuellement en train de révolutionner la conception contemporaine de la bibliothèque: ainsi, cet exemple rend visible l’évolution des récits historiques présentés par les bibliothèques d’aujourd’hui, ainsi que leurs conceptions architecturales innovatrices. Enfin, l’étude des différentes modalités de leur adaptation aux technologies nouvelles et émergentes permet une réflexion poussée au sujet de l’évolution des significations du livre et de la lecture. L’objectif de cette recherche est donc d’examiner le rôle que la bibliothèque occupe dans une période où les technologies émergentes déstabilisent et la notion même de bibliothèque et son rôle en tant qu’institution publique démocratique. Pour se faire, la bibliothèque est considérée à la fois comme moyen de communication et comme technologie culturelle. En d’autres termes, en abordant la GB comme un moyen de communication en soi, cette thèse met en lumière les changements spectaculaires subis par le modèle de la bibliothèque au cours des dernières décennies. La bibliothèque du 21e siècle est appréhendée comme un médium émergent qui vise, d’une part, à préserver et à diffuser la mémoire et la culture collective et, d’autre part, à donner accès à des espaces et à des réseaux de connaissances, de culture et d'interaction qui, pris ensemble, revitalisent le rôle traditionnel que la bibliothèque occupe en tant qu’institution démocratique. Ainsi, la bibliothèque est devenue à la fois une sorte de système nerveux central pour les technologies nouvelles et émergentes, un espace qui centralise des réseaux et des systèmes de plus en plus décentralisés, un point de ralliement pour les technologies nouvelles et émergentes et, enfin, un espace où citoyens et connaissances se rencontrent. Dedication In October, 1949, at the age of 25, my great aunt, Łucia Kalisz, died in a lab explosion in Bratislava, in the former Czechoslovakia, while doing research towards her Ph.D. This, at least, is the ‘official’ story conveyed to my great grandparents by the authorities in Bratislava. The actual story of her death is, to this day, mostly a mystery, and what is known of what might have happened to her casts a sinister shadow. Łucia apparently died of heart failure brought on by the explosion, but this was difficult to determine as, when my great aunt’s body was returned to my great grandparents, there was evidence of an unofficial autopsy that had left her body empty of organs and with sawdust in their place. Her skin bore no signs of burns or lacerations that may have resulted from the alleged explosion. By contemporary standards, her death would no doubt be considered suspicious, but in the post World War II Stalinist climate of Eastern Europe, truth, at least in these types of circumstances, was a rare commodity. My great aunt was a vibrant and brilliant young physico-chemist, and a Ph.D. candidate at Warsaw Polytechnic, now the Warsaw University of Technology. She was one of the very few women in her field and the only other woman in my extended family to have been working towards a Ph.D. degree. I dedicate this dissertation to Łucia Kalisz and her memory. Not only was I fortunate enough to finish the degree that she tragically was not able to complete, but I was able to finish this degree in an environment free of the political and violent turmoil that she no doubt was witness to and possibly a victim of. I hope for more open, honest, and safer universities the world over, so that brilliant researchers such as my great aunt can continue their work in the search for truths that are neither prescribed nor managed, but truly free. A coal drawing of my great aunt Łucia Kalisz. This was drawn by her fiancé and given to my great grandmother shortly after my great aunt’s death. Acknowledgements It took me a long time to bring myself to write these acknowledgements. In fact, I waited until the last possible second. When I started this dissertation I naively thought the acknowledgements would be a breeze to write up, of course I knew whom I was going to thank. Yet, when the task was finally upon me, I realized that it wasn’t about whom I would thank, but about how I would thank them. Although I just wrote a three hundred page dissertation, I don’t consider writing to be my strongest suit and although I feel so much gratitude towards those who I am about to mention, these few lines cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to them and how important they have been to me throughout this entire process. My first very big thank you goes to Darin Barney, the most caring and amazing supervisor a student could possibly have. I know he’ll take this as just something you say, but I really, truly would not have been able to do this without him. Darin has been an incredible teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend. He went above and beyond his duties of supervisor, was always there when I needed him, never doubted my abilities as a scholar, and always saw me as someone who is a much better human being than I really am. Darin, I can only hope to one day be as amazing a teacher and friend as you. A special thanks to his wonderful wife and children, who took me in and made me laugh over numerous unforgettable dinners. You are all very dear to me. The second immense wave of gratitude goes to my wonderfully patient husband, best friend, and partner through the good and bad, Raf.