.Freedom to Roam
“With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one—but no one at all—can tell you what to read and when and how.”
—Doris Lessing, writer and winner, 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature
(Thanks to alert WORDster Brenda Cooper)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Brenda Cooper)
Editor's Note: I'll be in the stacks. See you Thursday.
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I learned recently that Andrew Carnegie not only funded the beginnings of thousands of libraries around the world, he also changed the way patrons selected books. One of his stipulations was that libraries funded by him allow patrons to browse through open stacks of books. Before that, most libraries' stacks of books were closed to the public. Librarians retrieved books requested by patrons from the closed stacks.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of the number of things I have learned because I stumbled across a book that piqued my curiosity while browsing library shelves, I'm very grateful to Carnegie. I wonder how much the "information explosion" of the 20th century is due to this change in library procedure.
Yes, to what Anne said.
ReplyDeleteHow I take for granted that freedom to browse!
This is the argument against the Web and for newspapers. The serendipity of paging through a newspaper an coming across a fascinating article on Bulgarian clogging...how likely is anyone to Google that?
ReplyDeleteSame for libraries. Sadly, the "modern" library--like the nice new edifice here at Utah State--stores many of its holdings in a mechanized barn, and robots extract stuff from the stacks. Not the same and wandering and stumbling across something unexpected and wonderful.
Ted