Seed corn of the mind

Published: 24 February, 2011

• I HAVE recently been told that there is a plan to close the Heath Library and I am shocked such a decision would even be considered. 

Some years ago I spent a year on sabbatical in Hampstead. My tiny flat, that I shared with my very patient wife, off the  Heath, did not offer a space for real work. 

The library in Keats Grove became my de facto office. It provided a quiet space and a very patient and highly competent research staff.

Even more important to these real professional  plusses were the social connections the library provided. My wife and I attended a number of readings and lectures that gave us a feeling that we were a part of the Hampstead community. To this day we talk about the shops on the high street, our favourite pubs and restaurants, and those wonderful readings we heard at the library. 

One of my most compelling memories of the library was an afternoon that I had spent becoming very depressed that I would never finish this project.

Suddenly, a bunch of little kids came into the library, all loud and expressing a “need” to get a book. That’s our future.

There is a saying in America: “A farmer should not eat his seed corn.” A library is the seed corn of the mind.

WILLIAM J HANNON
IDSA, FDMI, FRSA, MS
Boston Massachussetts