Another of the main sights of the Cities, the Jalkin Library lies on Fishers Road, just south of the Harkanas Gate. Built in the first construction wave, it is an imposing 4-story building, of the usual white-stone-and-Elvish-wood mix then in vogue, with little outstanding features. Its fame comes from being the biggest and one of the first of Christoté's public libraries. Originally started to be a storehouse for government archives, Chancellor Rudanc Masterson then decided to develop a collection of religious and philosophical texts here as well, pinning this to his theories on the importance of culture to build a nation. Following the Garreday Uprisings and the subsequent political power won by the poor, mass education and literacy became an important factor; and as part of the drive to achieve this, the Jalkin Library, which had by then gained a considerable collection, was thrown open to all in 1081. These confused origins live on today in the Library, which is something of an all-sorts mix. Though the government archives were finally moved from their sealed rooms to rather better sealed one in Huwdone House in 1262, the Library is still split between an education centre, a book-lender and an academic reference source. Of the latter, the Library over the years has acquired copies or originals of all of Christoté's main philo/religious texts and a fair smattering of obscure and foreign works; though a lot of the more controversial ones are strangely absent. Also present in droves are herb lists, atlases, grimoires, legal works, novels, poetry collections and a vast store of play texts. The overall collection compares favourably with most aristocratic or academic libraries, though relies far more on copies than the former, and is dwarfed by Brightlace University's vast store. Sporadically Jalkin Library has also acquired more low-brow works,, depending largely on the whims of the Archivist-in-Chief. Marcas Puln, who held the post for a number of years until 1331, catered well for the light reader, and filled the bottom floor with love poems, salubrious, melodramatic novels (mainly Musrich novels shipped in from Erenland), printed ballads, Noriscan sagas, criminal confessions & the like; most of which are currently being weeded out by Carla Atwood his successor. For the last 40-odd years, stories from newsheets have also been honoured with immortality through being stored in the library, collated according to the event. Though mainly earnest Herald articles on new tax laws & the like, a few libel case-provoking Messenger stories or poetic Five Crowns descriptions have also been kept. As well as simply allowing access to its books, the library also operates a lending system for copies of its more common books; the system operates on free membership (for Dorlaf citizens) and payment of varying amount of deposit. In line with its pedagogical mission, Jalkin Library also runs free literacy classes for local children on premises, and runs a system of volunteer tutors visiting homes.
Officially part of central government, the Jalkin Library has over the years achieved a strong degree of autonomy. It is run by the Jalkin Archivists, a small and rather shadowy group of figures, self-recruiting & drawn mainly from mercantile & lower gentry ranks. Like clergyman, the Archivist post carries little pay, but a strong sense of vocation, and a certain amount of power and prestige. Officially operating as a collective, the Archivists are really ruled by their Archivist-in-Chief, though (s)he is supposed to be a first-among-equals type thing. The Archivist-in-Chief is officially a government appointment, though a long-standing tradition allows them to elect their leader from their own ranks, usually a life appointment (Puln was 83 when he retired, suffering from a wasting illness which still hasn't finished him off). A small amount of funding comes from Jalkin Council; mainly it pays the bills by touching the wealthy, though in a less formal and more evenly-spread method than, e.g. the Domes' Board of Patrons. The Library also shores up its income by running tax-exempt translation, hand-copying (with Flowery Script) and reference-sourcing services, as well as providing fee-charging tutoring to the better off. (This latter recently led to a row with Jalkin Council, who accused the library of all-but ignoring the free tutoring in favour of fee-paying families; after a rather ugly and incredibly technical squabble, the Council threatened to end funding and tax-emption, and the Archivists backed down, agreeing to abide to set quotas.)