The Library at Night: A Review

April 23, 2016

There’s a reason why they call it virtual reality, because even when you can feel the heavy VR headset resting on the bridge of your nose, the flames engulfing you and the precious scrolls of Alexandria have now become your realty. They are burning, and you are burning with them.

Created by Robert Lepage’s Ex Machina production company with Alberto Manguel and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), the Library at Night Exhibition takes visitors on a virtual tour of ten extraordinary libraries from around the world. As part of the Library and Information Technician program at Algonquin College, my class took part in a trip to Montreal in order to visit these virtual locations ourselves.

Credit: Michelle Lam

The tour begins in Manguel’s own personal library, a dimly lit room lined with books of all sizes and in various states. Green banker’s lamps glow at the end of a large display case, revealing his favourite editions from throughout his life. As we walk around the room, my classmates and I find it hard to concentrate on the narration over the relaxing trickle of rain against the window panes, the distant crash of thunder. Although the setting is cozy, soon it is time to move on, and our tour guide directs us to the virtual reality (VR) headsets. Then he reveals the hidden doorway – a swinging bookcase! We shuffle through with expressions reminiscent to an enthusiastic child at Disney World.

We enter into a moonlit forest, tall birch trees lining the center aisle like pillars in a grand cathedral. Branches become books at the top of the tree; at the bottom are the fallen paper leaves. As a direct contrast to the forest imagery are the rows of wooden desks on each side of the room, illuminated again by those iconic emerald lamps.

Credit: Michelle Lam

The library at night, Manguel believes, seems to revert back to the primal and ancient rows of trees from which the books owe their bindings. It is there, surrounded by the nighttime sounds of crickets, sitting at a study desk, that visitors are finally allowed to put on their VR headsets.

Immediately there is the sense of displacement as you are transported to an unfamiliar place. My first reaction upon entering the virtual recreation of Sarajevo’s National Library is to glance down at the detail of the porcelain floor tile, only to realize that my feet aren’t actually there. Even more disorienting are the staccato footsteps of someone coming down the staircase behind me. I turn my head and watch as a man in a suit jacket carries his cello to sit on a stool halfway down the stair. Slowly, purposefully, the man begins to play a melancholy tune as riots break out through the large, frosted glass double doors. Underneath the lulling melody of the cello, the sounds of gunfire cut through the air and the floor seems to shake as a tank rolls by. By the end of the tune, the library stacks have caught fire.

And so it goes, ghosting through library locations, past and present like Ebenezer Scrooge. Not all libraries have a tragic story to tell, though every library has something happening in the background for visitors to focus on if they tire of marveling at the architecture. It is an experience that far outweighs the price of admission, even when a review such as mine comes along to spoil some of the surprises for you. Because here’s the thing; I could write the most detailed description in the world – write about the weight of those virtual reality headsets, revel in the momentary displacement you feel when you are suddenly teleported into an unfamiliar room, stress that melancholy tightness of your chest when reliving the tragedies of libraries past – but, like all travel destinations, it is always someone else’s experience until you decide to go there and see it for yourself.

The Library at Night Exhibition runs until August 28, 2016 at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) in Montreal. Tickets to the exhibit can be booked at the BAnQ’s website for $10 (admission is free on Tuesdays after 5 p.m.).

Page Taylor is a second-year student in the Library and Information Technician program at Algonquin College in Ottawa. She briefly dabbled in journalism and public relations internships before finding a niche in reference services and information management. She will be graduating at the end of April.