The Queen Mary 2 Library

The maiden voyage in January 2004 of the Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2, an ocean liner designed for the twenty-first century, ushered in a completely new, massive, and spectacular kind of passenger ship that appeals to a genteel clientele who seeks an ocean voyage in the elegant tradition of the Cunard Line. The QM2 library is no excep tion to that tradition; in a word, the library is sumptuous. Harold M. Otness wrote in his 1979 article on passenger ship libraries: "Almost all passenger ships operating today are in the cruise business and they offer a full range of social activities on board plus sightseeing programs when in port. With the lectures, dances, movies, televi sions, saunas, and even slot machines to pass away the hours be tween meals, one can hardly find time to read on a cruise today. Nonetheless most ships still maintain libraries for the use of their passengers, although these facilities don't seem to have the impor tance they once had."1 Not so the QM2 library. There is an intellec tual component to life on this ocean liner that, in addition to the eight thousand-volume library, includes a planetarium, a regular series of enrichment lectures by professors from Oxford University and other academic institutions, well-known experts not affiliated with universities, and, of course, Internet access. All of these interre lated activities, interestingly enough, take place at the front of the ship on different decks. (The decks are roughly equivalent to the stories of a building, so that Deck 8, where the library is located, is about eight stories above the water line.) The Queen Mary 2 library consists of 700 square feet and is located on Deck 8 forward, at the bow of the ship. The library is physically connected to the ship's bookshop. The librarian is stationed at a ser vice point that serves both the library and the bookshop. There is usu ally at least one other individual who works at this service point; that person handles most of the bookshop sales but also helps with library duties. The librarian handles both library transactions and bookshop customers when no assistant is present. Given the small, special nature