Tony Eyre discovers the Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute and pays homage to Dunedin's literary heritage.
Negotiating my way through the scattering of cafe tables and chairs in Dunedin's lower Octagon, I have often noticed the colourful displays of book covers flanking the entranceway to what's known as the Athenaeum building.
With a vague notion that this was the home of a private subscription lending library, my curiosity was further aroused when learning that the full name of this long established reading nook is the Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute. With this peculiar juxtaposition of words buzzing around in my head, I recently ventured into this unassuming building to explore what lay behind the double glass doors tucked away at the end of the corridor.
My four years of schoolboy Latin gave me some inkling of what to expect when entering an athenaeum - a Graeco-Roman word for an academy of learning - but in its dual role as a mechanics institute, I was not sure what would greet me. Open to the possibility of picking my way through a mishmash of crankcases, spanners and manifold gaskets strewn over an oil-soaked linoleum, I was delighted to discover a warmly carpeted library and reading room, a quiet inner-city sanctum sanctorum with a unique history dating back to the 1870s.
Mechanics institutes, founded in Scotland in 1800, were set up to offer educational opportunities for the "mechanic", those workers who wished to learn about the scientific and technical principles used in the production process in their workplaces. These institutions provided libraries and reading rooms, lectures and cultural activities for their members.
The lending library is all that appears to remain of the Athenaeum Library's range of educational services that were offered to its members over the past 140 years and I suspect that Christine, the lone librarian, is well acquainted with her subscribers' personal reading tastes. All the popular bestselling authors seem to be represented on the library shelves closest to the entrance and new releases are obviously the big attraction for the athenaeum's book-loving members.
But I am more drawn to the less frequented sections of the library where out-of-print first editions can be plucked from the shelves and where the life history of every book is revealed in the due date stamps dutifully affixed in their inside covers. An autobiography catches my eye, obviously a popular read - it was last checked out 25 years ago.
Like many old libraries of the past, a narrow mezzanine balcony projects itself around three of the walls where dark-stained shelves house hundreds of books of every genre. One corner could almost be a remnant of the Pickwick Club.
Rows of darkly hued antiquarian hardbacks stand as a collective museum piece, a silent witness to the heydays of a grand old Dunedin institution.
One could argue that the Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute is an anachronism, left behind by a modern world where the advent of the iPad, Kindle and eBooks now threatens the very existence of the printed book as we know it.
I prefer to see it as a jewel in Dunedin's literary crown.
Indeed, Dunedin knows how to elevate the book to celebrity status. The University of Otago now has its Centre for the Book, staking a claim to be "a leader in book history in New Zealand" and their recent inaugural book symposium attracted an enthusiastic bunch of academics, librarians, writers and book lovers. Later in the year, a Bibliographical Society Conference descends on the city and early 2013 will feature the third Otago Rare Book School.
More down to earth is our beloved Regent 24-hour Book Sale, where we forgo our personal body space and put all our senses to work as we paw over, caress, smell and devour the thousands of second-hand books on offer. And let's not forget our camp mother - the Dunedin City Library. It would be hard to find a more warm, friendly and inviting institution dedicated to making the book accessible to everyone.
As the Dunedin Writers' Walk illustrates, we have a rich literary heritage and there are moves afoot to have Dunedin one day recognised as a Unesco City of Literature. So the printed book will be around for a good while yet and the Athenaeum Library - as one of the few remaining institutes of its type still operating - hopefully will continue to be part of that literary tradition.
I am sure that Dunedinites will have many fond memories of visiting the Athenaeum building, whether as a book reader or as a patron of the Fortune Theatre, which began its life there, or simply to use the former rest rooms. But if you have never popped in before, I recommend you do.
They are always on the lookout for new members - especially mechanics.
• Tony Eyre is a Dunedin writer.
