"There is no institution that matters more than a library" - David Malouf

Photograph: Peter Marquis Kyle

Last Saturday David Malouf was in town – an opportunity not to be missed. In the morning he spoke to a gathering in the privileged upstairs space of the West End Public Library, on the occasion of its 80th birthday.

The charm of this little library, officially known as the Kurilpa Library, is due to its pleasing neo-Georgian proportions and interesting bell tower, which honours the fallen from WW1. It was opened in 1929, making it the first purpose-built public library in Queensland - something I gleaned from it's entry on the Queensland Heritage List. It continues to thrive as a busy community resource today.

David Malouf spoke in his intelligent and refreshingly modest way about the libraries in his life, their cultural importance, about reading, and about his childhood memories of growing up in West End. I remember scribbling down in my notebook one of the things he said that morning - "there is no institution that matters more than a library". It left me with decidedly nice warm fuzzy feelings about my chosen profession.

I am now in posession of a signed copy of his most recent work Ransom whose genesis dates back to a reading of The Illiad by one of Malouf's primary school teachers on a rainy Brisbane afternoon in the mid 1940s.