dimanche 15 mai 2005
Urban musings
I came across this post by Karen in Montréal and it was neat to read her comparison of Montréal's public library system against Edmonton's. Calgary's is the same as Edmonton's, and I guess I was unaware that other cities could have run things differently. From the sounds of it, Montréal has quite a complex web of libraries that exist independently of each other, rendering interlibrary loans impossible.
After hearing this, I'm impressed with how centralized Edmonton and Calgary libraries are and even more impressed with The Alberta Library system! I have a TAL card and it is run so smoothly that books taken out from any library can be returned to any other. I suppose I've taken this for granted the last few years. I can see now how awesome it is that we have a library set up so that there is "universal, barrier-free access to information for all Albertans."
The Grande Bibliothèque will still be something to check out in Montréal, but I'm going to miss the public libraries here. Nothing like leaving your city to help you appreciate what was there all along :) Speaking of which, I came across this great photoessay on Calgary by Christopher Dewolf's, which I highly recommend (as a native Calgarian!). I'm currently going through his Two Months in Montréal as well.
Oh yeah, after seeing a ton of Christians come out for the prayer event today, it was such a blessing to see that many people praying for Calgary and the world. There was some French and Mandarin in the program, although they skimped on the French and should have used Cantonese instead. To sum it up, the trains were full, the Saddledome was half-packed (so around 10,000 people today), and worshipping God with people across all denominations was such a cool experience. I hope to be able to experience a similar event in Montréal called Heartquake while I'm there.
