Gintaras Steponavičius

Transcription

Dot the I The attitude of the University towards the Library may be perfectly illustrated by the fact that during the latter 30 years the first large investment made by the University was devoted to the Library. This fact shows the importance of the Library in the life of the University. It may be called history already. As far back as 1965 the then Director Jurgis Tornau said: „That‘s all right, the old Library is really good however its walls are neither made of iron nor they are made of rubber, they will not expand to the infiniteness therefore we must think about a new Library“. And the first thing we did was to build two extensions– the first one in 1970 when the Library marked its 400th anniversary, and - the second extension -when the University celebrated its jubilee in 1979. We have built two extensions and anyhow we see that the Library suffocates. When I was a director since 1985 I started to think that it is necessary to announce a tender. So the first tender was organized in 1990 – a tender for new Library, open to the community, a library that will be working from morning till night, and even throughout the night, open to everybody, not only to students. We announced a tender and the architect Eugenijus Gūzas has won it. At that time the Library had to be just a simple building much larger than the present day Library by its area and the number of readers’ workplaces was twice as big. Upon adopting that project we started to think where to obtain funds. Naturally at those times we had no chances to get money. The years were passing by and when the economical situation changed of course the Library wishes have changed as well... I believe that this Project should be a success. It should be successful because a lot of people have been working at it, they rendered to it their best ideas and experience. It is a pity that some of those people are not with us already however their ideas and visions were not forgotten and we used those ideas formulating the activities of Vilnius University Library and planning Library building. I want to mention the former Vilnius University Rector Professor Rolandas Pavilionis and the former Director General of the Library Professor Audronė Glosienė. They were really great enthusiasts of our new Library building. There were also other people when we started thinking and talking that maybe there is a possibility to start a Project of the new building, so then the beginning of MKIC was also supported by VU Rector Professor Jonas Kubilius, Library Director Birutė Butkevičienė and many others. The second tender was announced and it went to the Palekas Company. Again several years have passed, as there was no money. In 2008 that Project of the building was corrected and then the money came at last and thanks God the construction was started. This day is like a bridge between our academic history rising from the past and this new stage of continuation and link to our future. 30 years ago it was a calm and quiet place, no construction trucks were buzzing and we were a bit disappointed that Vilnius University stopped. And what I see today here I am very glad personally as a former member of the University community, I am really glad. It is especially good that the new project is being carried out with such a high level of ecological conscience. It is very good. Exceptional architecture inspires and motivates to search for some special wholly different decisions, that is to say the environment itself inspires you to think differently and to work in a new way. New Library is nevertheless a splendid architectural solution as well. This building is of especially great importance and it can not be an ordinary one. Actually the idea was to draw, to design something conspicuous. It is indeed a unique building. In Lithuania of that time banks and shops and apartment buildings could be designed while cultural purpose buildings were completely forgotten. I was very glad to have a chance to design something cultural. It will be cozy enough and we hope that public space, that glass atrium joining those all three capacities will be as if a part of nature, of the outside. We plan to orient book shelves and tables in such a way that practically you would be able from any point to realize that you are side by side with the forest, so that you could admire all four seasons of the year. The Library is alongside big grassland existing today. I imagine that later on the Center of Physical Sciences will appear next door as well as the Center of Life Sciences, and gradually a new Saulėtekis nucleus will be created. That grassland may become a favorite place of students, a place nearby, a place for events. Not incidentally a square emerged, not some square but the square clearly enclosed and slightly deepened. It is definitely a library square, not belonging to some place, to some city, but belonging to the Library itself in front of the main entrance. It is a uniform spaces and it is formed by several buildings from one side and a small forest from another side. Further on we pass from the square into a closed space and some restraint may be felt. Here we should feel already space of canteen or cafe which is fairly on the same level. Just here it may be seen immediately, how spaces as if interlink, overflow with the square, tables in summer scattered over the square. Then we enter as if insensibly, however the conception was that you even do not feel that you are inside. Glass roof, glass walls, the same material in the interior of three capacities. We tried in different ways to eliminate and to decimate, as much as possible, to wither away the border between the outside and the inside. Therefore at last you conceive that yes, you are inside and you have inevitably to open the door and this door opening action marks the border between the inside and the outside, yet being inside you can also see the sky, maybe you can see leaves strewn on the glass and you may see the forest. In one end you may see the cloakroom, in another –the cafe, yet in another - information, periodical reading room, then you get into the building 128 00:10:50,544 --> 00:10:55,139 and in those buildings you find reading rooms. In the reading rooms there is one huge space, and on each floor in the borders there are carrels for individual work. You may shut yourself away in a carrel and work individually. So, from such general categories as the square in front of the main entrance we go to carrels for individual work. Such is the sequence of the scale of individual spaces. I think architecture is not a glove that is tailored precisely to suit the hand and you know it will fit. The hand has to adapt somehow too. So they will have to model themselves adapting to this capacity, inner customs, to the pattern of life. Everyone will make friends with the Library function and capacity in their own unique way. There are not many public spaces with a roof in Lithuania. There are quite a number of parks in Lithuania, there are also many forests. And this will be a very large space. As the architect said it will be nearly the biggest public space in Lithuania within library context. First of all it will be a completely different building and a wholly different Library. The name itself tells that it will be the Library Plus. Until now Vilnius University Library has resided, it has been situated in the place where it had started. I think it will be a new one if compared with the 440 years old Vilnius University Library, as last year the Library celebrated 440th jubilee. The Library has accumulated about five a million of very valuable books and old manuscripts. It is not only a Library, it is a Museum as well. The new Library – centre of scientific communication – will be actually a jump forward modernizing the Library, using most modern technologies, and information technologies. It will be a place for meetings, place for seminars. We as students, first of all regard the Library, as a newly built centre, as a public space, where students, whole University community may gather to learn, study, communicate, create new ideas, etc. Cultural place, all the same I think – Library towards modernity. Library is no longer only a house of books, it is a new communication centre where you may not only read books, but you may actually live here. It is a place where you have all facilities. Our students like our Central Library very much, they often study there, communicate, discuss there. I think they will come to like the new communication centre much more, where they could live where they could almost sleep and be in the heart of science with new books, new technologies and come close to the goal for which we have all gathered here – to seek knowledge. It will be not a library, its will be a certain communication centre. What is the essence of communication? To create and to find some new ideas. To initiate innovative and jolly things. And how could they be created? You may think something on your own, but still you will need certain conditions. For this there will be completely individual carrels for misanthropes, who prefer to work alone. If you need to consult a colleague, to find a businessman, who could turn your idea into reality, you will have here wholly different spaces. The building will be open 24 hours a day. The open centre should be attractive to those who like to work in the evening. Students often lack the last night before the examination, so now they will have a place where they will be able to study and learn. It will be a space where it is good to stay, good to think something a space that stimulates creativity. There must be a space devoted to creative communication which may result in creation of something new or some good product. And I think its greatest strength will be dynamics and adaptivity. It must adapt and continually change. It must be a living organism. We have planned spaces to read with a child. Students– young parents will be able to come to the Library and read with their children at the same table or sitting side by side and reading books they like most. There are seminar rooms, a conference hall. Conference hall will be used by all Saulėtekis Valley communities. We really think that it should be popular enough because there are all facilities to implement and install modern equipment and technique. And we hope that in this hall quite a number of scientific ideas will be born, interesting thoughts and results of research will be exchanged. Modeling the spaces of new Vilnius University Library Centre of Scientific Communication and Information we followed several principles. They are flexibility, openness, dynamics, and economy. Don‘t think that the Library will not have its traditional library functions. It would be strange if a man comes to the Library thinking he will find a water attraction park. On the other hand you can never know. Well and when you get tired of library information environment and want to have rest in the Centre of Scientific Communication and Information there will be a cafe, there will be rest and recreational spaces, small islands where you could simply talk, communicate, share ideas about the book you have read or the film you have just seen. Not only scientific or studying institutions will take part in creation of Saulėtekis Valley. There will emerge also business offices and institutions directly related to scientific investigations carried out at Vilnius University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. But if I knew that there is the Centre of Scientific Communication and Information where I may get everything. I may really see those studying people, I may meet lecturers, I may obtain information about everything what has been created in the world – after all this is a Library which can always extract information from everywhere and in any way. For this purpose there are managers and specialists of information. I think it is simple and it saves time. A person comes and says: I need this, and that; find me the lecturer who lectured on that subject and I will take those three students as they will be necessary in the process of creation of some materials necessary for some cosmic technologies. New University Library is super modern Library. Thinking about Library everyone imagines only books however contemporary modern Library contains books and scientific periodicals for scientists. 252 00:20:16,795 --> 00:20:18,865 Actually it is a cultural centre, place for communication, electronic services, and electronic literature. Therefore I think it will be a big jump at Vilnius University. When MKIC will be opened it will be a new cultural focus in our academic Saulėtekis city and at the same time in Saulėtekis Valley. In MKIC you will be able to find information, to process it, to communicate it out, to store and understand it. I believe it is the Library that must become a central place for communication, gathering and discussions, not scientific laboratories. We shall try to create such environment where everyone could find just the right information he is looking for. We are living in the age of information, there is really too much information and it is always complicated and difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Therefore I wish you to become the centre of attraction where people will flow in and will gather wheat. Especially nowadays when there is a huge amount of yellow press news and cheap shows the scientific communication and altogether intellectual communication becomes very important. That is why I personally hope that this new Centre of Scientific Communication and Information will be one of essential focuses for Vilnius University, its academic community and all Lithuania. There is no doubt that Library as a cultural place will continue to exist around the world. The form of the Library always changes. Many anticipated that theatre will cease to exist after the rise of cinematography but it did not happen and I am sure it will never happen. The same applies to the book. The book will survive and the Library again becomes an important place for meetings, communication tête-à-tête and undisturbed conversation between people. Come what may whatever may news technologies be, but it seems to me nothing can replace the smell of book pages and being among books. University is like a living organism. It continually grows, expands, sometimes universities cease to exist however Vilnius University which has outlived four hundred years already, and especially the Library, which is still older– we all hope it will further grow and develop. Communication centre and love... I am truly not an expert, but the experience shows that serious people, young people get to know each other in places of intellectual nature, including reading rooms. As there will be huge and beautiful spaces with books, journals, reading-rooms, computer classes accessible for young people they will gather there. That seems to me like a very attractive place for young people getting to know each other. Why not? And surely it may be called love. Library, as you know, is a place where eyes meet, then you say hello. I don’t know some of us get acquainted quickly, some are slower.