Tuesday 3rd of September 2013 saw the inauguration of Europe’s largest £188.8million purpose build library, by Children’s peace prize 2013 winner and advocate of education the brave and inspirational Malala Yousafzai,who opened the library with a heart wrenching speech delivered with outstanding confidence.
The young campaigner spoke about the power of books on young minds, and how she feels like a Brummie in her new adopted city where she calls home now. Malala said “a city without books is like a grave yard,” Malala told the thousands of people gathered outside the Library.
She went on to say; ‘It is my dream that one day, great buildings like this one will exist in every corner of the world so every child can grow up with the opportunity to succeed.
‘The content of a book holds the power of education and it is with this power that we can shape our future and change lives.
‘There is no greater weapon than knowledge and no greater source of knowledge than the written word.’
Asian World where invited to meet Malala and her father at the launch and spoke to them both about the power of reading and books and their continues support to the communities both in Birmingham and Pakistan, we spoke to Shahida Choudhrywho Malala’s father describes as a member of his family, about the work Malala is doing to empower young people and education, she told us Malala is working hard to promote positive change and she went on to say it is important to recognise the work of woman both here and Malala’s home Pakistan.
The library which is located in Centenary square is expected to attract over three million visitors a year and will hold a four month discovery season of events, displays and activities to mark its opening.
The spectacular metal circled exterior and was designed by renownedDutcharchitectsMecanoo, led by Francine Houben. The ten level library will house a million printed volumes included photography, rare archives and over 400,000 books.
One of the most famous Shakespeare collections is being housed at the library in a secure wood panelled volt like room, which has the works of Shakes pear in more than93 different languages. Here are the Asian (including South Asian) languages in which have Shakespeare translations:
Bengali Marathi
Chinese Pushto (Iran)
Gujarati Punjabi
Hindi Sanskrit
Japanese Siamese (Thai)
Korean Sinhalese (Sri Lanka)
Kazakh Turkish
Konkani (Goanese) Urdu
Brian Gambles Director of the Library of Birmingham said “the new library is an opportunity and learning and sharing with other people,”
The library will certainly be a must see for both tourists and local residents and is being dubbed as the cream of the city, with its golden box shimmering across the Birmingham skyline.
By EmbHashmi
