The Durrës Library – the portal to knowledge

One of the best assignments Carol has here in Durrës is her 6 hours a week at the library. Her responsibilities include sitting at the main desk and handing out newspapers to the old men that come in to read and then collecting the newspapers when they are finished. The challenge to this job is you must write down the persons name and the newspaper (with date) all in Albanian. Sometimes, it is just too embarrassing to ask the patron to repeat their name for the fourth time, so some of the entries are “man with hat” or “man in brown coat”. And she wonders why they will not let her do the more difficult work of inventorying where they must write out the card catalog entries very precisely. Needless to say, an MBA and 25 years of working in Finance was excellent preparation for this assignment.

Today, Carol showed up for work and was whisked off to the town hall to meet the director of culture, which includes the library and then was taken to the Cultural Center and told about a ceremony that was being held tonight at 5:00pm. At this ceremony, there would be a brief video followed by awards – and she would be receiving one for her dedicated volunteerism.

We arrived close to 5:00 and sat down for the video – “A History of the Durrës Library”, starting with the early Mesopotamian libraries, the Alexandria library and then the Durrës Library. Of course the highlight of the video were the shots of Carol filing patron cards in the catalog. Where does”man with hat” go?

After the video, there were a couple of very brief speeches and then awards were presented. Notice that everyone has a coat on. There is no heating in the public buildings and Durrës is having a cold snap. In fact, we had snow flurries two nights ago, the first in 12 years, we are told.

After the awards, there was a short reception with champagne. Just a great way to start a vacation!