Welcome to the Future

There are plenty of cool places in the city of Rotterdam.  You’ve got the famous cube houses, the Euromast and of course Blijdorp zoo, but one of my favourite places to visit is the Rotterdam Library, or the Bibliotheek Rotterdam as it is known in Dutch.


I’m not even going to go into the details about the interesting architecture because that could be a blog post on its own and it isn’t really the reason why I visit the library on a semi-regular basis.  No, the reason why I love the Rotterdam Library is because of its spaceship like interior, all the books (duh!) and the future-like facilities.


The moment you walk into the library you are hit with the same feeling that you often get when walking around the city of Rotterdam – “wow, this city has some amazing, forward thinking architecture – what a cool place”.  The entry way is open and airy, usually featuring some small exhibition or lecture/presentation.  The entry way is also where you will find the huge, life size chess board with any number of regulars competing against each other.

If you are returning to the library with some books to return, then you get to use spaceship feature number one…the return machine.  This is a relatively new machine and perhaps the most dangerous.  To return your book, you place it in the box.  You must do this with care however, as your book will be pulled away by the machine and a door closes, taking off your hand if necessary, all to ensure that the book is not checked in and then sneakily taken away by the returner.  One-by-one you return your books, risking limbs each time.  Once your last book has been returned you can even request a receipt, which is then spat out at you, just under the computer screen.

From here you are free to explore the many, many floors that the library has (I am afraid I forgot to count how many but I know there is at least 5).  There is quite a large English section and English books can also be found throughout the library under specific themes, for example cookery, crafts, computers, etc.  There is also a large magazine section, children’s section, youth section and media department.  Throughout the library you will also find places to play chess, locations to listen to music, exhibitions, computers, newspapers and much more.  Although the one thing that is a bit odd about the library is the fact that they only have hardback books.  Now I can appreciate that this ensures that they last longer but there is nothing stranger than seeing shelf after shelf of only hardback books.

Once you have made your selection, you get to head back downstairs to play with spaceship feature number two…the check out machine.  This little guy is also great fun.  You touch your library card to the machine and then one by one, you place your book on a plastic part of the table.  Placing your book on the plastic does two things, first it adds the book to your library card (showing up on the computer screen) and secondly it deactivates the security tag so that you can take the book out of the library without setting off all of the alarms and looking like a criminal.  When you are done, you can again click a button and out comes your receipt.


Now if you are like most people, one day you will forget to take a library book back on time or you will want to rent a dvd, which incurs a small lending fee.  After all the fun with the return and check out machine, it is understandable that paying your fee to a human being could be a disappointing proposition for you but the Rotterdam Library has thought of that as well!  Enter, spaceship feature number three…the paying machine!  Just hold your card in front of the scanner and the computer will tell you how much you need to pay and you can pay right there and then.  No human interaction needed.


And there you have it…the Rotterdam Library.  Even if you have no desire what-so-ever to borrow a book, I still highly recommend that you pop in and take a look around.  Maybe even borrow a book and return it straight away, just so you can play with all the machines.


Off to read a book so I can return it…


Cloggie In Training