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CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Uncover the rich history of the Vancouver Public Library's central branch as it celebrates its 30th year
People wearing face masks enter the Vancouver Public Library's central branch after it and four other branches reopened with limited services, in Vancouver, on Tuesday, July 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck As the Vancouver Public Library's central branch celebrated its 30th anniversary at the end of May, staff reflected on the milestones and memorable moments experienced at the building since it opened on West Georgia Street in 1995. Its inception had been the result of a public referendum calling for a new facility to replace the aging VPL building on Burrard Street and those memorable moments, says Kay Cahill, VPL's director of Information Technology and Collections, had begun to mount before the ribbon had even been cut. 'The move from the old building to the new was really quite something. There were 600 or so truckloads of materials that had to be transported,' she says. An invitation to the public to take part in what the library called 'Operation Bookworm' saw book lovers come together to form a human chain and pass the hundreds of publications from the old library building to the new. 'I believe the first book to arrive was actually the World Bibliography of Bibliographies,' says Cahill, adding how the library now offers up over one million publications in its collection. The interesting tales and tidbits created during those first few weeks would be joined by countless others as time went on, giving the library a history at 30 years that is storied in a way rarely associated with buildings of such youth. Few people will know, for example, that if you enter the doors of the central branch and look directly upwards, you will see a time capsule, buried between levels 2 and 3, that was made and hidden during the library's 16th anniversary in 2010. Naturally, Cahill refuses to divulge what exactly can be found inside. It would spoil the secret ahead of its opening in 2040, she says, but she does disclose that its contents revolve around the theme 'One Book, One Vancouver.' The World Bibliography of Bibliographies might have been the first text to enter the library's front doors, but the most impressive publication to do so is one that has been passed down for centuries, and through more hands than just those of the Vancouver public. A Breviarium, a medieval manuscript written by nuns in a German convent in 1430, is kept with other old and rare books in a special, climate-controlled vault on the library's seventh floor. It is the facility's oldest artefact, sitting alongside periodicals, maps and manuscripts from B.C.'s first explorers. Cahill says the library is currently working to digitize some of the ancient texts to allow the public to peruse them safely online. Until then, it can only be viewed upon request and under the guidance of library staff. Cahill, who joined the library on its 10th anniversary and is celebrating her 20th year with the facility as it celebrates its 30th, has witnessed firsthand some of the change and growth the library has been subject to over the decades. She notes the reclaiming of the 8th and 9th floors that, for the first 20 years of the library's lifespan, were leased out to the provincial government. It was a major turning point for the facility, she says, namely because the space was repurposed to become the library's rooftop garden – one of few rooftop spots in Vancouver where one can enjoy the sun without paying $30 for a cocktail. The Inspiration Lab, which opened in May 2015, features analog-to-digital conversion stations where visitors can digitize their old videotapes and photo negatives. A particularly fond memory of Cahill's is of one man who arrived at the lab with a pillowcase stuffed with videotapes, not realizing, in his excitement to digitize them all, that the project would take at least three weeks to complete. The space is also home to green screens, computers with editing and graphic design software, and recording studios available to be used by musicians and podcasters. 'There's actually a really inspirational story about a busker who busked on Granville Street for years and years and was constantly asked whether or not he had CDs of his music,' recalls Cahill. 'He was able to come into the library, make a recording, use the software to do the editing, and then he was able to make his CD and have that available for people to buy. It changed his whole way of being.' Musical instruments – guitars, ukuleles, violins, keyboards – are also available to be rented, and Cahill says the library 'works really hard' to make the public aware that the facility is about more than just books. 'It's always going to be a journey of exploration when you come to the library,' she says, touching on how the space is a place of community connection and a hotbed of creativity when it comes to the worlds of music, art, writing, and film. Film buffs will likely know that the central branch building has featured in numerous movies and TV series, including The Flash, Supergirl, Altered Carbon, Battlestar Galactica, and the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi action flick The 6th Day, where it was blown to smithereens. With such interesting tidbits making up much of the library's history, Cahill expects the Vancouver public to come out in full force for the guided tour that has been put in place to celebrate the 30th anniversary. There's plenty more to be learned, she says, and countless other accomplishments to acknowledge regarding the library's literary programs and First Nations connections. The June 12 tour is a drop-in event starting at 6 p.m., although Cahill recommends swinging by in advance. With over 1.5 million visitors having visited the library in 2024 and much of the Vancouver public hankering to be a part of its ongoing history, there could be a queue.
Vancouver Sun
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Amanda Knox set to appear at Vancouver library event: 'How do I truly feel free?'
Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn't commit. In the process, she became an infamous tabloid story. In 2007, in Perugia, Italy, the then-20-year-old Knox and her Italian, boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested for the murder of Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher. Both convictions were overturned due to a lack of any evidence linking them to the crime, and the pair were ultimately exonerated by Italy's highest court in 2015. Now, 18 years later, Knox — who the tabloids dubbed 'Foxy Knoxy' — is returning to the story with a new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning. But instead of just re-litigating what happened to her, she turned her nightmare into a story of healing and hope for others searching for a path out of dark times. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Knox will be in conversation with Vancouver journalist Sarah Berman at Vancouver Public Library's main branch on June 2, at 7 p.m. Knox, who also wrote the memoir Waiting to be Heard after being released from prison at age 25, decided to return to her story all these years later as she realized people were still interested. 'I very specifically have tried to keep my personal life very private for years. And I couldn't,' said Knox, 37, who is a mother to two young kids and lives on Vashon Island in Washington state. A big sign of continued interest came when paparazzi and media descended on her 2020 wedding. 'I tried to keep it really, really locked down,' said Knox recently from her home. 'I made sure that no one who was attending said anything to anyone. I was really strict about it, and even so, paparazzi showed up outside and started taking pictures of me and my various guests and writing articles. 'My personal life remains in the public eye, even when it shouldn't be. And I'm instead sort of accepting that as part of my reality, and then asking myself, 'OK, what good can come from that?'' said Knox, who upon her release from prison cut her hair off, donned large glasses and worked in a basement bookstore. The result of that reflection is Free, a mixture of memoir and self-help. 'What I came up with, is someone who is open and communicative and attempting to articulate really difficult things so that other people can see themselves in my experience, and I can see myself in their experience,' said Knox. 'Part of it is also me trying to feel like I belong to humanity again.' It should be noted that, almost two decades after her original arrest, Knox's legal drama is not over. She is still trying to get the slander conviction she received after she was coerced during her interrogation into naming Patrick Lumumba, a pub owner she worked for in Italy, overturned. 'Even though I had been denied the assistance of an interpreter or an attorney, I was blamed for the outcome of the interrogation and sentenced to three years' time served,' Knox writes in Free. In 2019, the European Court of Human rights vindicated Knox and said her rights were violated during her first arrest, and she was then able to successfully sue Italy and had her slander conviction overturned. But in 2024, she was back in Italy in court and stunned to hear the appeals court had decided to uphold her original slander conviction. 'I was re-convicted, and now I just got, very recently, the motivation document, which explains the verdict, and I'm literally making plans to speak with my attorneys about what our options are,' said Knox, noting her goal is to wipe her record clean, once and for all. Knox says her experience with courts of law and the continuing court of public opinion — Knox still receives hateful messages from the public — have, at the end of the day, offered her valuable insight into who she really is. 'You just learn to have control over the little that you have control over. And you have to accept what you cannot,' said Knox. 'I would have driven myself crazy if I spent the entire time that I was in prison banging my head against a wall that I could not get through. So, I instead focused on what I could do.' Calling the book Free obviously conjures the idea of her exoneration, but for Knox, the title leans more toward the journey away from the 'girl who was accused of murder' to the woman she is today. 'I've had to challenge what people thought my life should be limited to,' said Knox. 'I've always balked at limitations and these little boxes that people are trying to constantly shove me in. And you know, that goes back to this idea of freedom, which is why I named the book Free — how do I be free when the world really wants me to be limited and diminished and boxed in? 'How do I truly feel free? Part of that is accepting my life for what it is, seeing my life really clearly, and seeing other people really clearly. And then asking myself again, what is it? What is the good that I can do … that is the thing that ultimately defines me.' In the book, Knox talks a lot about her mistakes and how failing, in the end, propelled her forward. She describes meeting other falsely accused people and gives due to one of the 20th-century's most unjustly maligned women. 'Meeting Monica Lewinsky was a huge moment where it really, like, cracked open some things for me,' said Knox. 'I saw a woman who had every reason to feel like her entire life was over because the whole world had just written her off as a human being and blamed her for other people's infidelities. But she had forged a path forward and reclaimed her life. And I was like, oh my God, there's an actual model for how it can be done.' Finding a way forward led Knox to reach out to the prosecutor that put her behind bars in Italy all those years ago. 'That's a huge story in the book,' said Knox. 'I think anyone who's been victimized in the past can relate to this experience of wanting to know that the person who hurt them cares, and they recognize that it was wrong … That's one of the big things that someone who has experienced grief or trauma wants, is just an acknowledgment that what you're experiencing, that the pain you're experiencing, is real. 'I was really, really surprised at the results. And once I came out on the other side of that experience, I thought, oh my god, I really have a story to tell now, because I've actually done something that defines me, I think, more than this horrible thing that happened to me.' At the end of the day, Knox realizes her infamy is what may draw people to her new book. But once their curiosity is sated, she hopes the reader will find the book's much bigger takeaway useful. 'My hope is that people will read my book out of curiosity, and then once they get to the end of it, they'll be like, 'Oh my God, I need to get this book to my friend Sarah, who's going through a breakup, or my Uncle Rob, who's dealing with cancer,' or whatever,' said Knox, who has hosted the podcast Labyrinth since 2020. 'Who really needs to hear this story is this person who's going through a hard thing. And then I can, through my book, be there as like a companion to someone who is going through a difficult thing. That's what I hope.' Dgee@
