Librarian Philosopher

I love books. I have 22 by my bedside right now. I chose to be a Librarian when there wasn’t much more than books. I read to my children from books.

However, I do not feel the need nor do I think Librarians need to justify and defend the book. We need to recommend books when books are the best solution to the patrons’ curiosity—anything else lacks integrity.

How long will books be around? Books will exist as long as they add value to the readers’ experience and readers value books. To think that Librarians can change that and keep books around after they retain no value for the reader borders on arrogance on our part. Did the buggy whip makers influence the world into keeping buggy whips after the horse drawn carriage was replaced by the car? Maybe they changed the use of the buggy whip, but it was no longer a buggy whip.

Again let me state that I believe the black text on the white background is the most powerful influence on the imagination there is today—far more than a good Star Wars movie or Wii. For now physics says that the pixels of a paper book are several times more dense than the best computer screen so reading books takes less eyestrain.

I believe books will exist in paper form until an electronic device is design that looks like, acts like, feels like, and smells like a good paperback novel. Most people will not want to curl up in bed with a good computer most of the time nor take a computer to the beach most of the time.

We do not need to defend the book. We do need to be prepared to recommend the right book to the right student at the right time to turn the student into a life long reader and lover of reading (no matter what the format). And we need to be able to recommend to the student the right source of information at the right time to turn the student into an educated and knowledgeable user of information.