Old Books In A Modern Building

To me, libraries are a haven. I love the public ones the most, but even Dal's Killam (with its atmosphere of stressed out students) can be peaceful and cozy when you dash off into the stacks.

I just found an article talking about a new public library Halifax is planning. It will be downtown, a block away from the old one, and be about three times the size. I love that Halifax is investing in a new library, but when I saw the design... Well, I can't decide if I support it.

This is our current library

This is what the new one will look like

I feel like an old fogey, bashing this new-fangled shit, but it worries me! I can't find anywhere what's going to happen to the old building, and I'll be heartbroken if it disappears, or even stops being a library. I love the old library, it's everything a library should be, to me. It's old stone, and its solid. You can descend into the bowels of it and pull ancient books off the paint-chipped shelves. Or, you can go up to the upper levels, spread all your work out on old, sturdy wooden tables, and be surrounded by reference works threatening to distract with all sorts of things you don't know (but could, if you just leave your work and open them!)

The new design looks neat, don't get me wrong. It's very modern, and it even has potential to be awe-inspiring to some small child. Maybe the child will be struck by the magnificence of it and will later reminisce about the atmosphere and how it was their haven growing up. But it looks so new. That's all I have against it really: the modernity. The old stone building can't go out of style. How will this new architecture age? It's all glass. It's the modern thing. But I look at other buildings built in the modern style of their time and I cringe. Have you seen the Dal Arts Centre? It's Horrible, with a capital H. Plus! All that glass and open-concept nonsense in a library! I want the books to surround me, to protect me from the outside and take me into their world. I don't want to grab an Asterix comic and go sit by a window to watch the bustle of downtown. I want to grab an Asterix Comic and go hole up in some corner, forgetting that I'm anywhere but in Roman-occupied Gaul.

These are very personal beefs. I realise I look at books and libraries a certain way. But something inside me still obstinately believes that a library is better off being a stately stone edifice than a shiny glass construct.
Also, the old library is a memorial to those that died in the two world wars. Announcing its replacement so close to Remembrance Day? Have a little class, Halifax.

(AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MY FAVORITE STATUE? Wrong-facing Winston??)