Swedes are good at some things and not at others. Very much like most nationalities, except the good and the not so good varies. Fancy looking new public buildings are among the better things.
Probably, anyway. I didn’t feel Halmstad needed a new library. The old one where I went as a child was good enough for me and had a great fifties feel to it. Though most likely it was too small, as they said.
Now there is a new elegant building, which reaches out into the river, with lots of windows. Masses of space. Everything is glass and pale wood and lime green. (What they’ll do when lime green goes out of fashion is anybody’s guess.)
There are plenty of public computers, that don’t always work. There’s a café with a terrace to the park on the side. They have lockers (lime green) and toilets. There’s a reading area with a diverse selection of daily papers.
Staff are less plentiful, as they are reasonably paid and, hence, expensive. But those who are there dress well, so are also nice to look at.
Checking books in and out is for the customers to do. Being not terribly good with anything new and technical, I often come to grief with these things. At least it happens in nice surroundings.
I can never work out if all these new beautiful buildings are worth it, considering the money that could have been spent on other things.
The Occasional Bookwitch 