Read All About It
Discovering The Nature Library
Linda Brown
A new and unique library recently opened its doors in the harbourside area of Irvine.
Located on the town’s Montgomery Street in an old shipyard worker’s flat (thanks to a collaboration with the Scottish Maritime Museum), The Nature Library offers the public the opportunity to borrow from its wonderful collection of books on the natural world, conservation, climate issues and environmental topics. Membership is free – exciting news for those of us who love reading about nature or want to learn more about the world around us. Comprising a mixture of non-fiction works, poetry, and art books, the Nature Library also holds a good selection of fiction books – novels which evoke a strong sense of place or have captured an element of nature among their pages.
I’m chatting with artist Christina Riley, the Nature Library’s founder.
“The Nature Library is a library and reading space connecting people to land, sky and sea,” she says. “I’m trying to arrange the books by habitat – I have books on oceans, woodlands, river ecologies, land use and food production, among others.”
I’m interested to know Christina’s background and how she came to set up The Nature Library.
“I was born in America and moved to Scotland when I was eight years old,” she explains. “I grew up in Irvine and went to school there. Then I went to Glasgow to study photography, so my background is in visual arts. I’ve worked in various jobs doing photography on the side until about seven years ago when I became a self-employed photographer and have enjoyed focusing on coastal themes for various commissions, teaching work and personal projects.”
Christina was drawn to using the beach as the location for her photography and her photo book, The Beach Today, was published by Guillemot Press in 2021. She focused on creating ocean-based art works, while at the same time reading about environmental issues and ocean-based ecologies. The realisation her reading material was both informing and inspiring her artistic work led to Christina forming The Nature Library.
In 2019 she launched a travelling library with around 70 books from her personal collection. Of course, the following year’s Covid lockdowns put plans on hold and it wasn’t until 2021 The Nature Library really got up and mobile, popping up at locations all over Scotland, such as the Orkney Isles, Ullapool and Ayr, with a few shelves of books at a ferry terminal, café or gallery space. But Christina was keen to secure a permanent residence to house her growing library in her home town of Irvine. A serendipitous conversation with a curator from the Scottish Maritime Museum resulted in the offer to utilise the Montgomery Street flat.
“I thank the Maritime Museum for trusting in my project, wanting to give me the space, and letting me turn it into a library; they’ve definitely given a huge helping hand getting The Nature Library set up.”
Christina has now approximately 500 books in her library and I wonder how she has accumulated and funded them.
“Most of the books are my own that I’ve acquired over time, and I buy a lot second-hand from charity shops,” she tells me. “Publishers and writers donate books too – this introduces me to ones I might not have found otherwise which are about current, topical issues.”
Visitors to the library have also kindly donated pre-loved books, by writers which are now some of Christina’s favourites!
“The Nature Library has evolved slowly over time and has been supported by so many people from the beginning, including specialised funding from the Awesome Foundation in Glasgow and Climate Fringe, and supportive host venues. Now that I’m able to grow it further I hope I can make the most of it and offer something new to an already special location.”
I ask if The Nature Library caters for the younger members of the community.
“Oh yes, I have a Children’s Corner with a wall of children’s books. I’ve got colouring and crafts and I’ve done children’s workshops where we’ve made paper or zines (little magazines they can fold up themselves.)”
Sounds brilliant fun for kids!
“I’m really keen to have books for all ages,” Christina continues. “Young adult books too… especially with themes of environmentalism and climate change which must be on the minds of young people because these are the topics they’ve grown up with.”
Christina has found the experience of working in a library amazing so far. She likes chatting with the people who drop in to browse the shelves, finding out what they are interested in reading and assisting them to find the right book for them.
“There’s been a lot of library cuts at public libraries and especially in schools, and to not have that librarian there to guide people and help them find something they will enjoy reading is such a loss. I was recently Environmentalist in Residence at West Dunbartonshire Libraries – that was a way for them to try and get their local communities engaged with different environmental issues through arts and creativity and writing. Working with libraries has made me so in awe of them as buildings and as places people can go to – and the more I’m hearing about cuts to library funding has been quite worrying. Libraries should be the hub of a town and a community. We need spaces where all people can go for free.”
Looking to the future and following in the footsteps of the inspirational Glasgow Women’s Library, Christina is currently recruiting people to form a library board and aims to register The Nature Library as a charity.
Now that she has a permanent base for The Nature Library, she’s keen to organise special events, such as visits and talks from local authors, scientists and nature workers, paper making workshops for all age groups and creative writing workshops for young people and adults. To keep updated with the library news, please keep your eyes peeled for The Nature Library’s X (Twitter) and Instagram posts, or better still why not pop along to Montgomery Street and pay the library a visit? Take your kids along. Browse the shelves. Choose a good book. Take it home. Chill, read and return.
“Libraries, being sustainable by nature, are a very easy way for us to share all these stories,” Christina concludes.
The Nature Library is situated at 122 Montgomery Street, Irvine. It is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am until 4pm and is fully wheelchair accessible (rear door). Just press the front door buzzer for admittance. Christina will be delighted to welcome you.
www.thenaturelibrary.com
X (Twitter) – @thenaturelib
Instagram – thenaturelib
