CATHERINE Stihler suggests we meet in the café at Dunfermline’s new museum and gallery, a smart extension of the town’s library.
The library was originally funded by Andrew Carnegie - the ultimate ‘local boy done good’ - and the café overlooks the grounds of Dunfermline Abbey, birth and burial place of generations of Scottish royalty. Both of the ancient capital’s claims to fame are relevant to Catherine’s interests.
“Carnegie saw why libraries and open knowledge are important”, she says. “Above the door at every Carnegie library are the words ‘let there be light’ – not just the light of knowledge, but the light of public places and public spaces. That’s why churches being public is so important, that’s why here in this library we have to make this space not just about knowledge but also making them centres for understanding… so we can all become far more data-literate.”