Or properly, triage and the library. What to save? And if so, why?
The time for decision is past. The Internet has done for the library what the library could not do for itself. Made it irrelevant. For years libraries have been known as the place where you keep old books. No longer is this true. There are few if any "old books" in the library. Instead libraries are packed with the latest offerings of the publishers. The old books once in the library, either went to a book seller or to the dumpster. The "reading" area is now crammed with computers for those who wish to go "on-line." With the addition of objects-de-art, aquariums, spiral staircases, &c., and reference librarians who have nothing to reference and know nothing about the "stacks," they hover about offering useless information. The library is dead! And in departure from the English, it is not; "The King is dead, long live the King." No the library was done in by the bureaucratic evolution of knowing what is best for the Populus, and once dead, no one cares. Why should anyone go to a library anymore? Perhaps to pick up the local real-estate guide, the freebie press covering everything from dating, cars, &c., or records, tapes, movies and other non-sources of information.
The web has hastened the change. If you need the name of a product and a
supplier, why
But, what about the quality of information on the Internet? Some decry the
inaccuracy of information available. Granted, many of us who write, do not
research the topic and proof it with the same thoroughness that would be in
the ink and paper form. It is information, buyer beware, hastily written and
usually with a point to be made. But how much better this is than the
rewriting of history by today's crop of historians and so-called authorities
whose books fill the library's meager shelves. At least you get differing
opinions which may or may not be politically correct or, politicized, not.
As the current trend in library holdings continues, with only the writing of
current authors found in libraries, writers of old will have been removed. So
the cleansing of thought will have been made complete or so might hope those
in the bureaucracy. They judged that they held the keys to information. They
judged wrong!
Which brings us to books, and the web. Perhaps the most successful businesses
on the Internet are the used book shops. In fact the joint listing of books
through book finders has created an industry. No longer is it necessary to
depend on your local store to find a title for you by an often faulty system.
Simply go to Abebooks, Bibliofind,Barnes and Noble, or Bibliocity, enter search, type the author,
title or whatever and within seconds a number of books will appear. The book
sellers describe in good detail the condition of the book and in some cases
they enjoy including a brief synopsis of the book as well. Punch in the key,
"buy this book" and in a manner of minutes the purchase offer will be sent to
the seller. And within two or three hours you usually receive a statement
indicating that the book is being held for you, awaiting payment. Send the
check, or give them the credit card information and the book will be on its
way.
This may sound complicated but in fact is so much faster than the use of an
intralibrary loan; and when you get the book; it's yours. Hold it in your
hand, write in the margins, underline key packages, put sticky tabs on pages
you like and make the book your very own. And then when you have done this
more than just a few times, the reackoning will occur. You have a library.
Now you are embarking on an adventure that was best described by William
Mathews in "Hours with Men and Books." Mathews describes as only he can the
satisfaction of not only book ownership but the quest. In his words, "Our
ruin dated from the hour when we bought our first duplicate. This downward
step, as John Hill Burton says, is fraught with fearful consequences; it is
like the first secret dram swallowed in the forenoon, or the first pawning of
silver spoons; there is no hope for the patient after this: ^�It rends at once
the veil of decorum spun out of the flimsy sophisms by which he has been
deceiving his friends, and partially deceiving himself, into the belief that
his previous purchases were necessary, or, at all events, serviceable for
professional or literary purposes. He now becomes shameless and hardened; and
it is observable, in the career of this class of unfortunates, that the first
act of duplicity is immediately followed by an access of the disorder, and a
reckless abandonment of its propensities.' "
No library can come close to providing this satisfaction. And it's all made
possible through the Internet.
The time of triage, i.e., giving no help to those who will survive without it,
giving no help to those that will die anyway and helping those who will
survive because of timely help, is ended. The reader survives (injured but
recovering on his own), the public library dies (as it should) and the small
book store survives (complements of the Internet).
So, next time you pass by the library, pause, much as you do when you go
through a cemetery. They both hold images of the past, not a living thing.
****
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