Ladies and Gentlemen This article referenced below is as timely now as it was back in the summer of 2012 when this was first delivered by the childrens author Neil Gaiman. This is a rather long piece that covers virtually every base known to man...ok, maybe I got carried away, but if you havent read this yet I will ask your to find some time... What I am saying right now is that this is one of the best pieces I have seen on the subject of libraries, of people, of the value of information and the system that we have for sharing that information. theguardian/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming Until you have a chance to devour the whole article, there are a few kickers quoted below that I will also be posting elsewhere. There are a number or arguments to be derived from this larger base or basis, and particularly in regard to the deaf community. As it happens my business is the deaf community, but feel free to substitute any other into the context. The article is actually about humanity. I also found another article I liked that I may have shared with some of you before (See: m.theweek/article/index/265775/what-the-death-of-the-library-means-for-the-future-of-books). Both of these articles are strong arguments for libraries, and both reference the fallacy of books on a shelf, but both also fail to mention Friends groups and the social/community and/or nonprofit platforms available. And more importantly why these are relevant. I will formulate a response using both articles as a springboard, but you can understand my concern when something about the Human Element leaves out the Human Element. Reinventing the library is entirely dependent upon an active human element. But back to the piece by Gaiman... ... (1) A library is a place that is a repository of information and gives every citizen equal access to it. That includes health information. And mental health information. Its a community space. Its a place of safety, a haven from the world. Its a place with librarians in it. What the libraries of the future will be like is something we should be imagining now. (2) Literacy is more important than ever it was, in this world of text and email, a world of written information. We need to read and write, we need global citizens who can read comfortably, comprehend what they are reading, understand nuance, and make themselves understood. ... Later, ... (3) We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world weve shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled. ... Spoiler Alert, the closing paragraph: ... (4) Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. If you want your children to be intelligent, he said, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. He understood the value of reading, and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand. ... The last paragraph brought me to tears, and anybody who really knows what the world looks like outside our window ought to feel something. (Disclosure: I am now a Grandfather with a 6 month old Granddaughter.) Sincerely Yours, Alec C. McFarlane
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 05:58:54 +0000
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