The Archive at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Woke next morning and after all those early morning rituals like showering, dressing and eating I eventual arrived at Hotel desk.  Asked if they could phone for a taxi—30 seconds one was at the door.  A coincidence I think.

During the trip to the University Library, we had quite a conversation about Australia and New Zealand.  The driver at first was not sure where to go but then realized that he often took a gentleman called Brett Riggs the library.  Another coincidence as this was just the person I was to meet.  The driver said “Say hullo to Brett from Mac.”  He took off his hat and said “Bald Mac”.  

During this trip, I learnt that it had been raining for the last six weeks.  So later I was to be grateful when during the noon to 2 pm closure of the archive that it was dry enough to walk around outside for a while.

I went up to the front desk in the library and asked to see Brett Riggs.  “Up on the next floor” the nice man behind the counter told me.  Funny I thought, last year I had to go down to the basement.  Seeing that I was a bit puzzled he came around the counter and led me up the stairs and across the room full of bookcases to Brett’s desk.

Yes, I was right, late last year the Archives moved up two floors from the basement and what a difference it has made.  A light and airy area with windows and views and as the lady sitting at the desk in the reading said, “Now we know what the weather is outside before they leave our desks.”

During this my second time in the Victor Campbell  Archive I managed to fill in more details which will help make my writing more accurate—the facts not necessarily the grammar!  For example, in the first hour I located a hand drawn map of the Browning Pass, Boomerang Glacier area where Campbell had marked the positions of their campsites during the period 11-20 January 1912.  The pencil drawn map was on the last page of one of his small sledging notebooks.  Why I missed it last year I don’t know.

The Library, from the roadside is a stepped structure of six or so stories.  The stepped area is devoted to light and airy study places for the students.  While the more conventional side houses the library’s information desks, computers (lots and lots of computers) for searches, general administration, and stack rooms.

Another interesting feature is the housing for the Student Facilities.  These are in a building on the side of the 4-lane road that splits the campus in half.  A large bridging structure spanning the highway houses the student dining room and food outlets. First you decide on what you would like to eat, go to the appropriate food outlet, and then either sit at conventional seating or like me go to bar like table set against the windows and spanning the full  width of the road.  Climb onto a ‘bar stool’ and eat you lunch while watch the traffic speed along the traffic lanes and passing directly under your seat.  Very much like the restaurants spanning the motorways in Northern Italy, except here they speak and understand English!