Sunday, June 28, 2009

Back from Barcelona: New Library Titles from Supreme Court of Canada Library

Mr. and Mrs. Library Boy got back yesterday from our 3 week vacation to Catalonia in Northeastern Spain (with a side trip to the neighbouring province of Aragon for hikes in the Monte Perdido region of the Pyrénées and a visit to the Somontano wine producing area, which also hosts caves with fascinating paleolithic and neolithic paintings).

It all felt oddly familiar: Catalonia, within the Spanish federation, has an autonomous status, a different national identity, its own language (Català or Catalan), etc.

The central government and the Generalitat de Catalunya (regional government) also engage in the kinds of "flag wars" that would hold no mystery for the average Canadian who pays any attention to Quebec politics. Even the regional financial industry is dominated by Mouvement Desjardins-style credit unions known as Caixas, which are omnipresent in economics, social philanthropy and sponsorship of the arts.

We had a chance to spend June 23rd in Girona (between Barcelona and the French border) for the Summer Solstice or Revetlla de Sant Joan in Catalan, as important in that region as the St-Jean-Baptiste feast is across Quebec.

Here is a picture of Catalan "castellers" (human pyramid builders) in Plaça de Vi in front of the Girona Ajuntament (city hall). This was at the beginning of the evening's celebrations that included live music performances, fireworks, dancing around bonfires, lots of firecrackers, and many glasses of cava (Catalan "champagne").

The castellers can go as high as 7 stories or levels. The guy on the lower left of the picture below in the dark shirt with the rolled-up sleeves is yours truly. I was standing too close to the group, so one of the organizers grabbed me and "volunteered" me to help consolidate the base of the pyramid:



Oh well, back to real life:

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of June 1st to 15th, 2009 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 2:04 pm

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