The importance of a library

Title

Creator

Basler, Roy

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XXI (No. 2) February 1969

Year

1969

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

The importance of library

Fulltext

■ This article discusses the great importance of a library to education. A library of well-selected books and publications is the source of a uni versity’s strength, blood, and warmth; it is its. lamp of learning. THE IMPORTANCE OF A LIBRARY I am here to rejoice with you that a great thing has been accomplished, and ask you a question: What kind of library is this going to be? The successful transplan ting of a new heart gives promise of renewed vigor and extended lift to the aca demic organism which it serves. For truly the library building is the heart of any college campus, from which the life blood of learning flows to every other part of the organism. A college may have a weak physical education depart ment and still be great, but not a weak library! Its department of economics may be a withered hand, its En glish or history departments myopic eyes, its biology de partment a sour stomach, and its administration a slightly .addled head, but if its li brary heart is adequately sup plying the needed library materials, the college can function and fulfill a major part of its purpose — name ly, education — in whatever other parts of the curricu lum are healthy. This library building is not really the library, in spite of the modern usage recorded in Webster’s Inter national, . .. Library in its original, etymological source derived from the Latin Librarius, “of books,” implying any collection or assembly of books, and I am sure that President Meyer and his staff know this and mean to see to it that this fine building is increasingly supplied with the materials that are the es sential muscle of the organ. In using the term, "libra ry materials,” I meant that the modern library cannot be adequately supplied if 18 Panorama stocked with books and other printed matter. Eve ry library must stretch its budget somehow to include, to some extent, the era ol recorded sound and sight. It is simply intolerable today to limit study of Shake speare’s plays to the printed text when there are magni ficent sound recordings and even motion pictures avail able for library and classroom use. We cannot ever hear Lincoln’s voice speaking the Gettysburg Address, but we can and should forever be able to hear Churchill speak ing his immortal “blood, sweat, and tears.” Truly the records of his tory, of literature, and of science will never again be limited to the written or printed word, and whether film, microfilm, electronic tape, or plastic disc is the medium, the modern library must increasingly provide the means of preserving and serving these new forms to those who learn. As for the librarian, his role has become, in spite of his best efforts perhaps, more nearly like that of the ope rator of a department sto/e or supermarket, checking in merchandise by label and checking it out by label. He does well even to keep his shelves in order and see that customers do not leave with items unaccounted for. Certainly, being a librarian is no longer, even in a small college, a part time job for one of the elder professors. Even if one is not a li brarian, he cannot be wholly unaware of what has been called the “information ex plosion,” and the problem it presents to education in ge neral and to the library in particular. For example, in the year I went to college (1923), the Library of Con gress held 3,089,000 books, of which 89,000 had been added to the collections that year. Last year it held near ly 15 million books, over 400,000 of them acquired that year. In 1923 the Library of Congress had so few sound recordings that it did not even keep count of them, but last year it held 225,000, of which nearly 25,000 had been added that year. As a teacher of literature and history, like many of my colleagues, I used to la Fedhuart 1969 19 ment my students’ lack of background. But we must face the fact that although to read one book may have been sufficient for Thomas Aquinas, as he proudly in sisted, that book is by no means necessarily<the one to lead the lists of books that college freshmen should read today. I venture that there are at least ten books pub lished in the last year which are more important for a college freshman to read now, and I will go out on a limb by naming tw’o of them: The Body, a 552 page com pendium of scientific knowl edge by Anthony Smith and Concerning Dissent and Ci vil Disobedience, a 64-page paperback legal essay by Abe Fortas. Oliver Goldsmith, observed two hundred years ago that "The volumes of antiquity, Like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious: but the works of the mo derns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much bet ter for immediate use? The question "What kind of library?” is related to the question “What kind of cur riculum?” which has been troubling the academic world as long as I can remember. The student rebellions on college and university cam puses during the last two years have indicated pretty clearly two things: 1) what ever the faculty and adminis tration may have thought was a good way to run higher education, a great many stu dents (and some faculty) did not think so; and 2) the rebellious students have a great deal to learn. That’s why I think Justice Fortas’ book might well be required reading! The trouble with most of us is that we think we have already learned, un til we are brought up against events which make it all too clear that we must continue, or begin all over again. — Excerpts from the address at the dedication of the Heterick Memorial Library by Dr. Roy Basler, The Library of Congress. 20 Panorama

pages

18+

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