 The more in some sense our lives become screen-based, the more importance many of us place on the physical encounter, the human encounter, the allure and fascination of the precious physical object, and the space, and often the public space, where we can be both public and private together. Private study in a public space. We have the privilege of living that idea I think in one of the great, truly one of the great post-war buildings, but we are only part of a whole network of such buildings and spaces, the length and breadth of the land, of the UK and globally. Libraries in the age of the internet, you might say that libraries as a network predated the internet and indeed may yet outlast it. The other most powerful and resilient network of all, a network of shared values and mission across languages, faith, political boundaries.