Macquarie University Library
Building C7A
Balaclava Road, North Ryde
NSW 2109 AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 2 9850 7500
Library Friends & Stories
The Macquarie University Library Friends Foundation was formed in 1986 by Eoin Wilkinson, the University's second University Librarian (1971-1987). It provides a focus, both professional and social, for all those interested in the Library and its future.
As part of the Library 2010 project, Library Friends are collecting Library Stories to commemorate the 40 year history of the current building.
Share your
story
If you are interested in sharing your recollections, reflections or remembrances of our Library contact us: librarystories@library.mq.edu.au
Ballad of a Thin Man… Bob Dylan
“You've been with the professors
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known
Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?”
Bob Dylan,
‘Ballad of a Thin Man’
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?”
Bob Dylan,
‘Ballad of a Thin Man’
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
A haunting lyric from the quintessential singer/songwriter of the 1960’s. Bob
Dylan. The voice of a generation in search of itself. Defiant words tinged with
savage honesty. The shards of a fractured present hurled against an unknown
future.
Where is Mister Jones now? Is he still walking purposefully past the University Library? The pathway has now been replaced and renamed Wally’s Walk. The saplings on the edges of the pathway have grown to magisterial proportions. These impressive, leafy plane trees now mask the concrete architectural brutalism of that original design. A green canopy that shields the eye and the sky. But in 1967 they were as thin and vulnerable as the first intake of students: Gypsies, jokers, sailors, tight-rope walkers, gifted kings and queens, princes, calypso-singers, lovely mermaids, fishermen, thieves, servants, immigrants, wicked messengers, midgets, lumberjacks, lawyers, lepers, crooks, jugglers, clowns, diplomats and priests. The Library has been here for all of them.
In 2008 the first steps will begin in excavating a new site for the future University Library. Not an extension, refurbishment or renovation of the existing building. But a new building. A new location. A 21st century learning environment.
Mister Jones?
Yes, something is happening here… discover the details