wrote. Ultimately her search of archives and libraries revealed the “bombshell truth” that her father was not the Catholic Harvard graduate of family lore but rather a Jewish high school dropout from Vilva, Lithuania.
Perhaps the sight of books in trash cans affects the soul because of the imagined end of the immortality of the books’ authors. Or maybe the thought of a useful resource going to waste, like the sin of throwing away food, is trou- bling. Boxes of college textbooks are dragged from apartment to condo to house for no known reason. The same reluctance to toss a book means that li- brarians must either conceal the fact that they discard books or try to find them loving homes, which sometimes is easier for unwanted cats than books.
After all, if the books were useful in the first place, the library would not be getting rid of them.
Because books are physical objects, they are also perishable. Mold, deteri- oration, fires, disintegration all threaten the immortality of the library book.
Though an idealized library triumphing over time, space, and mold spores is imagined, it is just that—an ideal rather than a reality.
Even in those libraries where space and physical deterioration are not problems, ever-changing electronic resources make the permanent recording of information challenging. Ownership versus access remains a central concern for libraries. Given the unstable corporate environment of many information providers, librarians are rightfully skeptical about entrusting the commercial world with their sacred duty to maintain and preserve their written legacy. But in some subject areas there are few realistic alternatives. The print versions may be exorbitantly priced. Space may not be available to house these re- sources, even if they can be physically acquired. Accelerating price increases also keep libraries from purchasing and owning many key titles.
The sheer amount of information being produced limits the ability of li- braries to adequately acquire, organize, preserve, and disseminate the written knowledge of civilization. Thomas Cahill said, “History proves nothing be- cause it contains everything.”27 Referring to religions’ directives to re- member, Harvey Cox observes that “to remember everything is to remember nothing in particular. One would be better off to forget.”28Underscoring the problem of too much information coming in, Jorge Luis Borges wrote a story titled “Funes el Memorioso” in which a riding accident causes a man to re- member every minute of every day, all conversation and all his thoughts, even remembering remembering. The act of remembering comes to consume him, leaving time for nothing but remembering.
And so it seems that libraries must spend an inordinate amount of time, effort, and money controlling the overwhelming production of information.
Still, in reality, they do accomplish this task. Though by no means a perfect system, libraries are still able to acquire books, organize them, share informa- tion about their holdings, and provide the materials to those who need them.
If they didn’t, no one would lug boxes of books to donate them to libraries.
Whether real or imagined, authors still seek their immortality through library shelves, and they do so for good reason. Libraries provide them, if not immor- tality, at least longevity beyond their physical years on earth. An analysis of the 1800s Charleston library collection found several books still on the shelf today. And when the temples and royal palaces of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys were excavated, “Houses of Tablets” were found attached to these an- cient religious and governmental seats of power. Even with the ability to en- sure their legacies through pyramids and mummification, the written word still was seen as one of the best methods to provide life everlasting.
NOTES
1. Cox, Common Prayers, 58.
2. As discussed in Sterling, “Evolution,” 102.
3. Tocqueville and Commager as quoted in Brooks, On Paradise Drive, 95, 98.
4. Douglas, City, 516.
5. Battles, Library, 6.
6. As quoted in Griliches, Library, 70, 31, 45.
7. Lerner, Forest for the Trees, 189.
8. Battles, Library, 193.
9. Moyers, Moyers on America, 50.
10. Wolfe, Transformation, 97.
11. As quoted in Tolzmann et al., Memory of Mankind, xi.
12. Susman, Culture as History, 290.
13. Rosen, Joy Comes in the Morning, 24.
14. Lerner, Forest for the Trees, 184, 230.
15. As quoted in ibid., 231.
16. Moyers, Moyers on America, ix, x.
17. As quoted in Griliches, Library, 65 (emphasis added).
18. Battles, Library, 136.
19. Ibid., 119.
20. Ibid., 207, 209.
21. Battelle, “Birth of Google,” 106.
22. Thompson, “Scriptoria,” 146.
23. Manguel, History of Reading, 50.
24. “History of Scriptoria,” Oct. 18, 2004. http://www.christdesert.org/
noframes/script/history.html.
25. Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megillah 15a.
26. Grafton, Footnote, 5.
27. Cahill, How the Irish, 5.
28. Cox, Common Prayers, 162.
61 sk any librarian what is the first thing they hear when ap- proached at the reference desk, and they will tell you it is a confession.
“It’s been a long time since I have used a library,” or “I know I should know how to do this,” are mur- mured by library users before they dare even ask where the restroom is.
Haughty librarians of yore exploited these penitential offerings by fol- lowing each confession with a sneer, which may explain why libraries used to be so quiet. People were too ashamed to speak. But now modern librarians indoctrinated in the dogma of customer service immediately ab- solve the guilt-ridden with an under- standing, “Of course,” or “That’s okay,” resulting in a more relaxed, if noisier, library patron.
One need not even come to the library to suffer library guilt. Like re- ligious service attendance, survey re- spondents consistently exaggerate li- brary usage. If all the people who say they attend church “daily or weekly”
and those who report using their local libraries “often or frequently”
actually did so, both institutions would exceed the “Maximum Cap- acity” signs posted in their buildings several times over.
Librarians and
Libraries Uplift
Individuals and
Society
A
People may enter the library already feeling guilty, but librarians inadver- tently perpetuate their shame through the ubiquitous “READ” posters plas- tered on library walls. In these graven images, bigger-than-life movie icons sit serenely with books splayed upon their laps and dispense beatific smiles to all who pass below. Where churches place a picture of Jesus and the Bible, li- braries display a photo of Britney Spears with her copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. “PRAY,” demands the felt banner on the wall in a church.
“READ,” implores Oprah Winfrey in the reference room. One different four- letter word spells the path to salvation in both locales.
“Develop Yourself” is a recent variation on this theme. From superim- posed photos of friendly faces and camera film on posters and bookmarks, the implied message is that personal fulfillment will come in the library through exposure—so to speak—to books.
Operating in a secular environment, librarians may not realize the subtle religious message of these campaigns. But there is no doubt about it; the
“READ” campaigns are part of an underlying redemptive mission that is nothing short of the secular version of evangelization. The word “evangelical”
comes from the Greek word for the good news of the Gospel. The primary obligation of evangelicals is to save as many souls as possible. Librarians also want to spread the “good news,” but theirs is not the word of the Gospel but rather the words of all gospels. Or, more specifically, they bring the gospel of words. Fundamental to librarians is the assumption that one will be “deliv- ered” to a better place through reading.
The use of guilt in libraries to encourage individual self-improvement is part of a larger redefinition of the concept of sin and salvation. Organized re- ligions once held the monopoly on redeeming individuals from sin by em- ploying what Harvard theologian Harvey Cox dubbed “moral terrorism.”1 Religious institutions would frighten people with threats of everlasting pun- ishment. Attending church, eating certain food, performing ritual acts, ut- tering magical incantations could bring blessed redemption, while failing to do these things or doing them incorrectly could spell dire consequences. No matter what someone had done wrong, religion was the authority setting and enforcing the rules for salvation.