 The Garrison Library was an idea, really. On the back of the Great Siege, at the time, Captain Drinkwater was serving in Gibraltar during the Great Siege and he felt that many of his men despaired during the quiet moments of siege. And he believed that maybe a library, public library, would help to bring them together. They could congregate in a library, read, and really it was about mental health. They could read books, they could look after them better in this way rather than let them despair. Because what you had during the siege were suicides and desertions and that wasn't good. But what happened in the end is that Drinkwater ended up establishing a private subscription library in 1793. Probably because this was the only way he could raise funds for a library. And this is where we are today in the Gibraltar Garrison Library. Established in 1793 for the offices of the Garrison of Gibraltar. So the Garrison Library, as you can see, we have books in the trains all around our walls. And of course there are many books, we're also an archive and a newspaper library. But we also have a number of very special collections which are important to us. And important to Gibraltar, I'd say, I believe that we have perhaps just a wonderful collection on Gibraltar related material on Spain, on the immediate hinterland, North Africa. Now these are really important to us because they speak of Gibraltar's positionality, Gibraltar's history. And we do receive a lot of interest from researchers who visit Gibraltar to consult these books. Amongst our treasures is Gibraltar Chronicle. The Gibraltar Chronicle is Gibraltar's daily, but it is born from the Garrison Library. The printing press first comes to Gibraltar through the Garrison Library. Its first issue is in 1801. In 1805 we have the global scoop of the victory of the Royal Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar. So the news is first published in the Gibraltar Chronicle in Gibraltar and from Gibraltar then it heads out to the United Kingdom. We are very proud actually of having given birth to this newspaper because the Gibraltar Chronicle is the second oldest newspaper in English to have been continuously imprinted. So once the library was established it actually wasn't in this site. It was the top floor of a residence in town close to the convent where the governor lives. But by 1799 they had a master vast collection and could no longer house this collection in their then premises and they start collecting funds through private subscription to to have a purpose built library. They lack the funds. Clearly they had great vision but not enough money in their pockets. So what they do is rather interesting. They send a letter to Pitt the younger requesting support to be able to build a library. Now Pitt was very supportive of of the aims of the Garrison Library and he presents this to George III the King of England and George equally equally felt that this was a very valuable project for Gibraltar and he gave the Garrison Library Committee of the day all the funds to build this wonderful Georgian building and not only that he also gave the committee all the freehold of the land surrounding the building. So this was a very important landmark I'd say at a time when Gibraltar was still raised to the ground so soon after the siege and what we see is this beautiful Georgian building being erected in the center of town. This is quite remarkable I have to say. And of course what we have here is is really it's a private subscription library which means that only the subscribers those that pay at the end of every month can have access but it was not only that it was only for officer class so these are officers of the British Army the Royal Navy and therefore mostly men so women were not permitted in these premises. This became clearly a library many of the the officers who would come to Gibraltar would do so before being sent out to another posting. Therefore they'd continue their education here but this was also a gentleman's club. They'd sit in the garden, they'd sit in the smoking room, they'd play games, chess, bridge and and therefore this was not a feminine space but rather a very masculine space. When women were allowed however so we have a ballroom on the first floor and this ballroom was used for recreational purposes but of course for recitals, for dancing and therefore women were necessary for this and women were permitted on these occasions only but they had to use the back door which I have to say is quite interesting given this 21st century drive for equality and so they had to come up through a wrought iron spiral staircase in the back garden and make their way into the ballroom. The one concession was that a lady's powder room was installed for them in the upper reading room so that they wouldn't have to navigate this spiral staircase which I mean it's not a big issue now we wear trousers, we wear trainers but I would imagine yes perhaps a bit problematic during the 19th century ladies wearing crinolines perhaps during the Victorian period no electricity and having to navigate this spiral staircase in the dark perhaps with candles so very interesting. Clearly we are open access now the library ceased to become in a private subscription library in 2011 and at that point I come in as its first director and a woman of course so the parallels are very interesting when we start thinking about this how times have changed the libraries over at open access and we do run as a library on a daily basis men and women and and members of the public can just come in but we're now hosting this wonderful chess tournament battle of the sexes I believe it's called but it is important to understand how women have not had access to institutions such as this one and possibly because chess was also held for many many years within a male domain really women are now clearly you know clawing their way back into the public space in a big way and are battling it out upstairs in chess which is a wonderful it's wonderful there's great synergy in in how this is developing here at the library as a military library of course we would have had a chess plate here and chess has a a has military beginnings as well and therefore this great affinity between the garrison library we're very proud of our military heritage and hosting now this wonderful chess event so when Brian Callahan approached us last summer in 2021 to host this wonderful tournament battle of the sexes we found that there was great synergy and an affinity not only between chess and our military heritage but of course the environment we have a number of wonderful old chess books here which I think some of our players have had a look at and therefore there is great synergy between this institution and the events taking place over these days at the garrison library I was very interested when Brian Callahan described how this tournament was going to be organized and when he mentioned the battle of the sexes I thought great I mean this is very interesting over many years we've I belong to an organization that supports women and women networking and professional women indeed and and it is a hard slog what can I say we we do battle away but there are economies of scale in our professional lives certainly at Gibraltar but also in chess and I was very interested to learn this when I was speaking to one of the chess players just to understand how significant this battle of the sexes is in the chess world and how underrepresented women are as grandmasters for example so I hope I have this correct but I believe that I was told that there are 15 women grandmasters of course and then when you balance this against well it's not a balancing act at all how many male grandmasters there are there is clearly an economy of scale and how to achieve equality is really very very difficult because women are only now coming through in the chess world and they're very very good but there are far more men in the chess world and so that balance is not there men will be far more predominant until women gain more ground in this field so I was very interested in that and interested for a number of reasons in Gibraltar for example we're a very small community and yes there are women in high positions and women really break in new ground but we are spread across wide professions and areas so we are underrepresented in our own fields as women are in chess and and that's that's the interesting side but it's also the difficult side of of how to achieve equality there are far more men than there are women in these areas and therefore it is maybe not a battle we're not battling it out fisticuffy but what we are is just clawing our way into what is a predominantly male environment and that can be tough and so a question often asked and especially in the chess arena but also in many other areas of life if it's not a question of biology if it's not a question of physical strength if it's and clearly men are are stronger physically than women at least can be many women are very strong so why does the imbalance prevail and that's an interesting question because it's clearly not about biology or physical strength we have women in the armed forces are fighting you know leading from the front even so I would suggest maybe that this is about society it's about all of us how ingrained we have become and socialized really in what is the norm in our society in that women will do this men will do the other women are more suited to certain professions or sports or games than others and so these are cultural norms and values that we I would suggest reinforced through education in families in the way that we perceive gender roles to be but of course I think I mentioned this earlier we that there is a a you know how to change this is very difficult because it's about changing society about changing education about changing perceptions so it's not just about why is it is it about brain laterality is it about men are more suited for this and women more suited for the other because there's no evidence to suggest that that is the case but this is so ingrained in us over I want to say hundreds but I believe it's probably thousands of years with these ascribed roles becoming so entrenched in in what we believe is normal that it is very difficult to break this down and yes and we're breaking this down little by little but it takes a long time it's more about perceptions and culture than anything else and economies of state scale when there are so many men achieving at some level how do you break that and how do you tell men because this is a reality as well when we're talking about equality we're saying well if there are in a corporate setting in the boardroom you have 10 executives for equality you'd have five male executives and five women executives but this is a harsh reality if we want equality then five men would have to step down and then five women would have to take their place and this is quite a brutal concept really so there are how do we do it without creating not a battle but a war and and how can it happen and women are very different to men as well women speak differently use different vocabulary probably in chess have maybe different strategies different attacks use soft power projection more than men do do not use aggression or muscle power will use words and it's about valorizing what women bring to the table it's different to what men do but it should not be undervalued it should be rated at that same at that same level it's just different but it's just as good and just as strong so the experiment here with the battle of the sexes is rather interesting actually because as it as the tournament has been organized these are male and female players who have the same rating and they're playing against each other so it's not a question that women are playing against women and men against men and then we'll see who comes out in the end as although yes ideally the final players we'll see what happens there but it's not the case that women should play their own game and men should play their own game but rather the way i see it it has to be about an integration to achieve equality it's not about people playing separate games or people working in separate professions and achieving their goals in those separate spheres but rather together and so i don't feel like it would be productive if we would have women playing their game separately and men playing their game separately but rather coming together the standard has already been set by by men over hundreds and hundreds of years of playing this game and therefore attainment reaching those heights breaking that glass ceiling is playing against men and so this experiment over here is rather marvelous because it means that it's aspirational at the same time it's about testing abilities and about knowing that when you're playing against a male competitor you just start getting into that drive and you understand the game from a different perspective as well and you can soar you can reach the heights that way but playing a separate game for women and for men will not achieve equality for women but rather perhaps create two separate strands of the same game