(no subject)

[aryanhwy]

Leave the libraries alone. You don't understand their value..

Two things occurred to me while reading this. First, Pullman's arguments against the bidding process sounded very much like arguments that can be made against the current process of obtaining scientific funding. Second, his arguments about the availability of books in the public library is also an argument against libraries not housing their books in closed stacks. Of the many things that bother me about the UvA library system, one of the biggest is that there are so few public stacks for browsing. In Madison, I found so many of my books, for pleasure reading, for onomastic research, for philosophical and mathematical research related to my courses, by serendipity, because they were located next to other books I was interested in. This is one of the benefits of arranging books by topic: You find things that you would otherwise never find because you don't know they exist. If you don't know they exist, the odds that you'll find them in the library catalog are slim (not impossible, but unlikely).

Comments

[pedropadrao.livejournal.com]

As a library tech, former grad student, & amateur astronomer, I say right on!

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The best part of browsing is discovering new books. I can't wait to introduce my son to this joy.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

That's one of the reasons why I so intensely dislike search engines that start to personalize themselves to what you've asked for before. (For "search engine", please read "anything that takes input and points you somewhere", which includes not only encyclopedic stuff but, oh, commercial sites. Especially Amazon.)

They work well only if I know what I'm looking for ("Hi. I'm looking for the complete list of Jack Whyte's books in his Camulod series, so I can get the ones I don't have.") or can sufficiently narrow the search. But often I'm not quite sure which terms I should use, or what I'm looking for, or even where I should look.

That's where browsing the card catalog came in handy. And browsing the stacks - why, look, this section on British 16th-century ceremonies is not only next to the heraldry section, but across the aisle is stuff on sociology of high-ranking groups, and over there is the history of theater.

It's not only looking within a section of books that helps; it's also looking for sections that are physically nearby but not necessarily topically nearby. And you can't do that if they don't let you actually look in the stacks...

Information is useless if it can't be accessed.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I find, gosh, 70% of the books I read via browsing? Especially nonfiction--I look up the general call number and then go through the shelves. Without serendipity, I would never had found Edward Said in college, or the books of 16th century Essex wills, or half the books I've poked through on linguistics, or any number of excellent novels.

The other thing that struck me reading the comments there--libraries are not just a source of books. They are a center to a community, which is something people who don't use them apparently neither realize nor care. If it's not THEIR community, they don't care if it's taken away. Most of my childhood revolved in part around my local library, which was a small, very community-focused library--and I would trade all kinds of higher taxes to keep that opportunity for others. My local library offers conversation classes for people learning English, computer classes, book clubs, hosts events for children and adults, provides rooms for groups to meet, provides internet and printer access, delivers books to people with mobility problems who can't easily get to the library, and countless other services--not least librarians to help people find what they need. Even if I had all the money in the world to buy books (and I would need rather a lot more money to buy 100+ books a year), it would not replace libraries for me.

[felinophile.livejournal.com]

While I too often find wonderful things by browsing, closed stacks and stores really are necessary. Aside from the things that can't be on open shelves because they are fragile, hideously expensive or inspire fapping in the study carrels, there simply isn't room. When the building is full, the building is full. No matter how much the Arts Professors scream (and it is always them) books either have to be sent offsite, or *shock horror* thrown out entirely.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I completely agree about closed stacks for old/fragile/rare/valuable/likely to be vandalized (e.g., Playboy) books -- I worked in a rare books/special collections dept. for 6 years and almost everything we had in the vaults I thought should be in the vaults.

But the UvA? The only browsable stacks it has are in the specialty libraries. The main university library has no open stacks. And it's not like there isn't space in the building for them. They just decided to move everything off site. And when they moved the Faculty of Science out to the new Science Park, my institute had to fight tooth and nail to get a fraction of the books from its specialty library moved out to the new one. They specifically built the library in our building with the intention that in 10 years, it will no longer have any books.

I understand there isn't always going to be space for all of the books to be in open stacks, nor should all of them be, but to have no open stacks, or to actively plan a library with the intention that eventually the books are gotten rid of or moved to closed stacks -- that is unacceptable.

[felinophile.livejournal.com]

None at all? Well that is stupid.
And don't get me started on this Information Commons and coffee shop nonsense!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

If the main library does have publicly open stacks, I've yet to find them.

[adelais.livejournal.com]

If "fapping" means what I think it means, that may be my new favorite euphemism!

[felinophile.livejournal.com]

Public indecency that endangers upholstery :)

I really wish I was joking...

serendipity

[jesse alama (from livejournal.com)]

Serendipity is indeed a marvelous force that only well-stocked, open libraries can provide. For those who've had had that humbling, inspiring thrill of discovering unimagined troves of books, the idea of shutting up libraries is anathema.