Opening speech by P.D.James

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Vice Chancellor, Chairman of the Board of Governors, academic staff, students, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a pleasure as well as a privilege for me to be with you this morning officially to open this new extension to Portsmouth University library, not only because of my family connections with the city – my paternal grandfather was organist at the Garrison here – but also because, in 1999, I was honoured by the award of Doctor of Letters by this University. In formally opening this splendid library I would like to congratulate all who have been involved, from its funding to its final furnishing, particularly the Vice Chancellor and the academic staff, the architect, the builders, the students who helped in the task of moving the books, and all who, by their encouragement and interest, have played their part. This flourishing University and the great city of which it is a part may well be proud of the achievements, particularly of the last five years, achievements of which this building is a potent symbol.

For me the library is at the heart of any institution of learning, and particularly a university. Here we have assembled the wisdom of the past, the achievements of the present and our aspirations for the future. This library is surely a practical demonstration of democracy’s faith in higher education, not as an end in itself, but as part of a continuous and life-long process of learning. A library enshrines the achievements of our common humanity and continually renews and refreshes mind and spirit by the provision of books for pleasure and relaxation as well as for learning. And here we have a library designed to be welcoming to all who enter, a user-friendly building which provides for students not only the most modern equipment for the access of knowledge, but the comfort and convenience of well-designed desks and designated study, seminar and meeting rooms. A library is a place where we can move apart from the noise of our over-busy lives and study in quietude, peace and comfort.

Portsmouth University is now fortunate enough to have what must be one of the most modern and technically best-equipped libraries in the kingdom, but what I find particularly heartening is that it also houses, apart from over seventeen thousand electronic journals, over six hundred thousand printed volumes, each one of which enshrines the long history of the printed word. And despite all the technical advances which enable scientific knowledge to be collected, classified or disseminated by electronic means, the library remains what the derivation of the word suggests: ‘A place set apart to contain books for reading, study or reference.’ I have loved books since early childhood. Even to take one down from the shelf is for me an anticipation of joy.

It will be a tragic day for mankind if books, like so many old churches, become objects of interest only to antiquarians or those with minority and eccentric tastes. The printed book is essential to our understanding of ourselves and our heritage, and to the heritage which we in turn shall bequeath to future generations. It is not too much to say that civilisation itself rests on the book, that fragile but resilient artefact whose frail pages have borne down the centuries the weight of the human heart. And in celebrating books we celebrate libraries, the place where they find their natural home and where they are loved, revered, cared for and used with profit and delight.

It is with the greatest pleasure that I now formally declare open this new extension to the library of Portsmouth University.

P. D. James