The Libraries Worth Traveling For — A World Tour of Libraries

The Libraries Worth Traveling For — A World Tour of Libraries

For anyone who rarely visits libraries at home but turns into a devoted library lover on the road: a recommended list from a library traveler.*

Compiled by :    Pyo Youngso

Illustration :    Kim Eunbin

* A true library lover and activist who majored in library and information science and worked as a public librarian in the United States. Drawing on stories of life she experienced in libraries, she wrote ‘The Library Is Alive’ (Mati). This article presents 16 of the 48 ‘libraries to put on your travel plans’ listed in the book’s appendix.

TU Delft Library
The central library of Delft University of Technology in Delft, the Netherlands. Its cone-shaped structure rising from a slope is distinctive. It is also the largest science and technology library in the country. Besides reading rooms, it has study rooms, workshop rooms, a bookstore, and a café.
“The building is truly unique. The sight of people reading on the grass roof, which seems to rise straight out of the ground, is hard to forget once you’ve seen it.”

Vennesla Bibliotek og Kulturhus
A public library in Vennesla, a small town of about 15,000 people in southern Norway. Completed in 2011, the building houses cultural spaces such as a café, an event hall, and a cinema in addition to the library. The timber structure has won several architecture awards.
“The wooden ribs inside the reading room run from the ceiling straight down to the shelves and flow into seating for visitors, which makes for a distinctive design.”

Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart
The city’s central library, housed in a cube-shaped building with two basement levels and nine floors above ground, brings together a children’s library, a youth library, a music library, and even a graphic library. It stands in Stuttgart, Germany’s sixth-largest city, and was named ‘Library of the Year’ in Germany in 2013. The rooftop terrace offers a 360-degree view of the city.
“It was designed by the architect Eun Young Yi, and the word ‘library’ is carved in Hangul on the exterior wall. Through the central void you can see all five floors of shelves at once, giving the illusion that the stacks go on forever.”

Biblioteca Vasconcelos
This library is dedicated to José Vasconcelos, a writer, philosopher, and politician regarded as one of Mexico’s leading cultural figures. It boasts an enormous scale, with an initial budget of $98 million (about 124 billion won) and a total floor area of 38,000 square meters, and it has earned the nickname ‘Megalibrary.’ It is in Mexico City, Mexico.
“Its surreal shelving structure, reminiscent of the five-dimensional world in the film ‘Interstellar,’ is striking. Then again, nothing is more striking than the giant fossilized whale skeleton guarding the stacks.”

New York Public Library
The second-largest public library in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. Since its founding in 1895, it has been one of New York’s defining landmarks. It has 92 branches across the city, including the Bronx and Staten Island. The two lion statues at the front of the building symbolize patience and fortitude.
“The library’s collection is enough to fill a museum. It includes a Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence, George Washington’s handwritten farewell address and his beer recipe, handwritten scores by Beethoven and Mozart, Truman Capote’s early manuscripts and cigarette case, Paul Auster’s manuscript for ‘The New York Trilogy,’ Jack Kerouac’s draft of ‘On the Road,’ Maya Angelou’s manuscripts, the Brontë sisters’ notes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s slippers, Virginia Woolf’s diary and walking stick, the world’s largest restaurant menu archive, collected in the rare documents room since 1843, E. E. Cummings’s typewriter and death mask, Charlotte Brontë’s hair, and a letter opener Charles Dickens had made from his late cat’s paw.”

Stockholm Public Library
A library with a striking exterior in which a cylindrical structure sits atop a rectangular building. It was designed by Gunnar Asplund, one of Sweden’s leading architects, and was named one of the ‘world’s most beautiful libraries’ by the travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler.
“Why not stroll along the circular shelves that wrap around you for a full 360 degrees? Even the invisible bustle, where the hush of readers meets the energy of busy visitors, feels delightful.”

National Library of Scotland
Scotland’s largest museum, in Edinburgh, holds a vast collection ranging from old historical records to the latest online materials. Visitors can also see Charles Darwin’s letters, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and Shakespeare’s First Folio. It runs a variety of programs for the public, including exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours.
“A book sculpture donated by an anonymous artist is displayed in the library lobby.”

Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial
A historic library built in the Renaissance style in the 16th century under Philip II. Its collection of some 40,000 volumes and manuscripts spans philosophy, politics, and literature, among other fields, and many languages, including Latin, Greek, and Arabic. It sits within a complex of royal palace and monastery on the outskirts of Madrid.
“It is counted among the world’s most beautiful libraries to see before you die. El Escorial is a small town in Spain, but the monastery is overwhelming in scale, and its gardens are well worth seeing, too.”

Library of Trinity College Dublin
The place to see the Brian Boru harp, the oldest surviving harp in Ireland, and the eighth-century illuminated gospel manuscript the Book of Kells, a UNESCO-listed treasure. The library spans several buildings, and the most famous is the Long Room, built in the 18th century. This 65-meter-long hall holds some 200,000 antique books. It is in Dublin.
“The Trinity College Library, home to the Book of Kells, the best-known illuminated manuscript of the Middle Ages, is a pilgrimage site for book travelers. Famous visitors such as Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden, Julia Roberts, Al Pacino, Mel Gibson, and Bruce Springsteen have come to see the Book of Kells, praised as the most beautiful gospel book in the world. The final scene of the 2D animated film ‘The Secret of Kells’ shows the book’s most famous folio, the Chi Rho page, in a fantastical sequence.”

The British Library
Along with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., it is counted among the largest research libraries in the world. It was part of the British Museum in London until it became a separate institution in 1973. It holds between 170 million and 200 million items from around the world.
“The library’s Sir John Ritblat Gallery displays treasures such as a Gutenberg Bible, the First Folio, Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Magna Carta, handwritten scores by Beethoven, Handel, and Chopin, Mozart’s musical diary, letters by Ada Lovelace, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, Lewis Carroll’s handwritten manuscript, and notebooks belonging to members of the Beatles. In the six-story glass tower at the building’s center, the King’s Library houses the collection of George III.”

State Hall of the National Library of Austria
Austria’s largest library, located in the Neue Burg wing of the Hofburg palace in Vienna, Austria. It began as a royal library founded by the Habsburgs in the 14th century and became the national library in the 1920s. The Baroque main hall is famous for its lavish interior, including frescoes on the domed ceiling and marble decoration.
“An 18th-century Baroque library built on the orders of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, and named one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. It is said that after visiting this library, King John V of Portugal built the Mafra Palace Library and the library of the University of Coimbra.”

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
A library founded in the 16th century by Pope Clement VII, a member of the Medici family, to house the early printed books and manuscripts the Medici had collected. It is located inside the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy.
“A Renaissance library designed by Michelangelo and one of Florence’s signature attractions. If you want to learn more about the history and space of the Laurenziana, read Alberto Manguel’s ‘The Library at Night’!”

Bibliothèque publique d’information, Centre Pompidou (BPI Centre Pompidou)
A public library in Paris open to everyone, from the general public to students and professional researchers, it holds some 430,000 items spanning every medium and genre. Located inside the Centre Pompidou, it hosts a range of cultural events, including conferences, panel discussions, and film screenings.
“A haven for travelers in Paris. Named after Georges Pompidou, a former president of France, it is a multicultural complex that houses a museum, a lecture hall, a cinema, and a café.”

Mafra National Palace Library
A lavish eighteenth-century Rococo library on the second floor of the Mafra National Palace in Portugal. It measures 88 meters long, 9.5 meters wide, and 13 meters high, with long wooden bookcases and balustraded galleries running along both sides. It holds about 36,000 antique European volumes from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
“If you’re planning a trip to Lisbon, stop by Mafra, about 28 kilometers to the northwest. The vast Baroque Mafra National Palace and its library alone are well worth the money and the time.”

Helsinki Central Library Oodi
One of the public libraries in Helsinki, Finland, it opened in 2018. Together with the nearby Helsinki Music Centre and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, it serves as a cultural and media hub for the city. Its modern, open architecture is also striking.
“Named the world’s best public library of 2019 by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. It’s the kind of library you wish were in your own neighborhood. The view of Helsinki from the balcony is a bonus.”

Toronto Reference Library
It first opened in the early twentieth century and moved to its current building on Yonge Street in 1977. It is the largest and most visited reference-only library in Canada (about 1.5 million visitors a year). It also offers a variety of events, such as author talks and workshops.
“It houses the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, established with the support of members of the Sherlock Holmes fan club, The Bookmakers. In a Victorian-style space modeled on the study of Sherlock Holmes’s lodgings at 221B Baker Street, it keeps and displays some 100,000 books, character memorabilia, about 10,000 handwritten manuscripts, family photographs, and a first translated edition of ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles.’”