I think Ray Bradbury may have said it best when he stated,“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.” Think about it, a world without a library. Where would all of the college students study, congregate, and write those seemingly endless papers? Where would little children go to read til their heart’s content without having to use their allowance money? Where would those that are less fortunate, who do not have the financial means to have a constant access to books or technology, learn? Where would we go to lose ourselves and find ourselves once again in the pages of a book we stumbled upon? What kind of a nation would we be? Isn’t a library so much more than the books that it holds?
In his blog post, “Musings about librarianship,” Neil Gaiman details several articles he has read in recent years that have made him seriously ponder the future of libraries and librarians in general. What happens to them in an increasingly digital age? Do they give up? Do they surrender to technology? Do they waste their time defending their dusty old print books rather than embrace the new? Perhaps we can learn from Neil’s musings, by understanding that it is a good thing that people feel so passionately about it one way or the other, that people are still passionate about books, and maybe from there, we can find a solution.
P.S. If you think librarians are archaic and out-of-touch, you’re WRONG. Check out this Huffington Post article to open your mind, people.
“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”
― Walter Cronkite