The Internet is a wonderful research tool. A few key strokes open a world of information. It's quick, easy and utilitarian. It's also cold, sterile and impersonal. Before the era of digital intelligence, inquisitive minds had to trek to the nearest library, and what a magical journey it was.Since time immemorial, man has sought to store his knowledge. Cavemen painted pictographs; Sumerians incised cuneiform tablets; Egyptians scribed papyrus scrolls. Romans built public libraries to enrich patrician and plebeian alike. In the so-called Dark Ages, monks copied, illustrated and preserved the written word. Persian and Muslim scholars assembled massive libraries in Baghdad and Isfahan creating Meccas of learning.
In colonial America, Benjamin Franklin and his Junto established The Library Company of Philadelphia, the first lending library in Novus Mundus. Another American bibliophile, Melvil Dewey devised the eponymous Dewey Decimal System. Of course he also championed the metric system. Give a guy a millimeter, and he'll take a hectometer.
Entering a library is like walking into a shrine or cathedral. As opposed to data transmitted in binary codes, books are tactile, beautiful objects. The letters typeset with care, the binding and illustrations artwork, the words ambrosia for the mind. Ambling through the stacks, ideas and images are palpable.
Do yourself a favor. Spend the next rainy day at the nearest library and experience the enchantment - as ever BB (Enoch Pratt Free Library card holder)
"I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book." - Groucho Marx
2 comments:
To the library I go,to absorb Faulkner,Genet and Poe. In it's stacks i'll unwind,surrounded by Kerouac,Burroughs and the kind. Long will I stay,ensconced in the shelves untold,surrounded by Joyce,Whitman,and Fitzgerald as the stories unfold. The librarian will hunt me down at the close of the day,and find me absorbed in Dostoevsky.Ginsburg and Hemingway....
So true! I think libraries have another thing over the internet: they are romantic. I always get nostalgic remembering going to my college library to do research for a paper. It was a time filled with excitement, fear and yearning. Shuffling thru the card catalogue was always filled with anticipation. I feel none of these things on the computer except when an obscure fact comes to light via google (wiki-sometimes bad). Still, it's just not the same.
Great post, Bill.
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