William, the Conqueror of Information

Well, hello again, readers! The internet has arrived at our home, and so I am now able to post on a regular basis. As I am sure you are aware of, I started my new job on Monday, which is exhilarating. I'll talk more about that later. In this post, I want to share with you an interesting idea I've been mulling over recently.

Banned Books Week

This week, the ALA and libraries in many places are celebrating Banned Books Week. It's a wonderful idea, and something I am proud of my profession for - the active advocacy on behalf of our right to free speech here in the United States.

Libraries With a Future Responses

It's a busy time for periodicals here at The Dean Files. The new issues of The New Yorker, Dwell, GOOD, ACRL News and College & Research Libraries all arrived within a few days of each other. I am working my way through these, and in an effort to get ahead of the reading, I stayed up a bit late reading the two ACRL publications. I read (and was super proud and happy to read) an article by my good friend, Erin Dorney about a "Job of a Lifetime," which was great. One other article in particular really piqued my interest, Libraries with a Future: How Are Academic Library Usage and Green Demands Changing Building Designs? by Michael Wescott Loder. Of course, I thought to myself "Oooo, Library Design post!" but it really turned into something more than that.

1959: Electronic Home Library

While using the new Flipboard app for the iPad earlier this week, I came across this really cool look back into 1959 for the perception of the home library of the future:

Electronic Home Library, on Paleofuture

So, first, I admit to you that I would love to have a home library that looks something like the one in that image. How cool mid-century is that? I think I would skip the shield and spears, though. Oh, and the book projected on the ceiling as well. Now reader, I know that you expect me to discuss what this has to do with library science and how it piqued my librarian brains. I won't disappoint you!

Library of Congress Thoughts

Jen and I are back from ALA, and I have a lot to share. I am working on compiling my thoughts about the conference itself, but in the meantime, I want to share with you a thought/idea I had this morning while reading a bit.

As you might have guessed, Jen and I visited the Library of Congress, the national bibliographic institution of the United States, to use MARC appropriate language. It was so busy, filled with people wearing their ALA badges (mine is pictured above) that it was hard to really get any sense of the institution at all. However, it was great just to be there, and I got a cool mug.

Anyhow, the Library of Congress is (I think) almost entirely devoted to the collection, organization, and preservation of the labors of the mind, so to speak. As you read last week, I am reading Empire of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood right now, and came across this passage on page 351 while reading this morning:

Although Jefferson was an aristocratic slaveholder, it was his political genius to sense that the world of the early Republic ought to belong to people who lived by manual labor and not by their wits. Cities, he believed, were dangerous and promoted dissipation precisely because they were places, he said, where men sought “to live by their heads rather than their hands.”

As you probably know, the Library of Congress was founded with the purchase of Jefferson’s entire library of 6487 books by the US Congress in 1815. It is an interesting contrast to me that the man who was so against those who sought to “live by their heads” ended up selling his collection to found an institution almost entirely dedicated to that purpose. I would like to think that his action was perhaps a tacit decision to acknowledge the importance of the labors of the mind, as well as the importance of working with your hands.

What do you think his founding of the Library of Congress says about Jefferson? Other thoughts?

What Makes a Library Important?

This is an article I have been intending on sharing and reflecting on for a while.

Beyond the Bullet Points: New Years Resolution, by Dave Lankes

Dr. Lankes points out that in order to help retain funding, as well as keep the library’s importance and impact at the forefront of people’s minds, we should make this the “year of the librarian.” Not quite like this, though:































I think, though, Dr. Lankes makes a great point - it is librarians, and not the collections and resources they steward that make the difference. How much good does having all those items do if no one knows how to find them, how to search them, or how to use them? Librarians make the difference between having a bunch of stuff and having a library.

I think for many people library is a bit of a loaded term. They think of the library as a place filled with books and quiet voices. I say library means those things, but also means that it is a place where people find the information they need (in any form or capacity) not just in a book, or the latest issue of Scientific American. That might mean connecting them with resources to start a business, go back to school, or just read the latest Dan Brown thriller (in any format of the patron’s choosing - Kindle, iPad, e-book online, or a book). People can interact in the library, meet in the library, study in the library. Use the videoconferencing software to interview for a position. Have a movie festival with lectures and discussions. Really, the library can be pretty much what its patrons want it to be, but the library has to be attuned to those needs.

On this same point, let me throw another link at you.

New Libraries Revitalize Cities, by Jonathan Lerner

That link points out what libraries can do, they can be what their patrons want them to be. They use Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Library as an example of that - which is a building I love. Then, Mr. Lerner starts talking about libraries with pools and clinics. This I disagree with, One of the threads I have discovered in the course of writing the Library Design posts is that all good libraries are clearly libraries, as evidenced by their design and their visual cues. The library can be an element in a larger community construction project that includes separate pools and clinics, but the library must be an entity unto its own.

What do you all think? Should the library be defined by items, or by the people? What should the library “of the future” look like? Besides the flying cars, of course!

The Importance of Ephemera

Some time ago, the librarian at the Amon Carter Museum Library shared this article with me, which I found very interesting:

Gallery Card as Relic? By Roberta Smith

In my time at the library, it has become very evident to me just how important these ephemeral items (generally, information on paper with less than about 12 or 20 pages) are to researchers. At the Carter library, we use these ephemera to put in Bio Files for the artists. These files are generally our first line of reference when we are asked reference questions about a specific artist. Without these physical items, our bio files would not be the excellent (and rare) reference source they are today.

Of course, I can understand why galleries are changing to an email format - sending these gallery cards and announcements by email is almost free, while sending a physical card through the mail takes time, money, and extra effort. Also, sending an email is far better for the environment than a piece of postal mail is.

This highlights the oncoming crisis for libraries, especially ones like the Carter - what happens when paper starts to dwindle? I feel sure it won’t go away entirely, but what are we going to do with all this digital data? How is it going to integrate into our paper collection? These are some questions I want to look at in the second half of my MSLIS studies.

The Library at Night

I am re-reading a wonderful book by Alberto Manguel, titled The Library at Night. If you are interested in libraries, or bibliography, I would highly recommend this book to you. It’s a wonderful and thoughtful work on libraries and their many facets. Here are some quotes to get you “hooked.”



“There is nothing,” Naudé wrote, “that renders a Library more recommendable, than when every man finds in it that which he is looking for and cannot find anywhere else; therefore the perfect motto is, that there exists no book, however bad or badly reviewed, that may not be sought after in some future time by a certain reader.” These remarks demand from us an impossibility, since every library is, by needs, an incomplete creation, a work-in-progress, and every empty shelf announces the books to come. (81)



We dream of a library of literature created by everyone and belonging to no one, a library that is immortal and will mysteriously lend order to the universe, and yet we know that every orderly choice, every catalogued realm of the imagination, sets up a tyrannical hierarchy of exclusion. Every library is exclusionary, since its selection, however vast, leaves outside its walls endless shelves of writing that, for reasons of taste, knowledge, space and time, have not been included. Every library conjures up its own dark ghost; every ordering sets up, in its wake, a shadow library of absences. (107)

Mr. Carter’s Library

The library director of the Amon Carter Museum Library today uploaded an interesting description of the original contents of that library. I thought I would share the link with you.

Amon G. Carter’s Library, at the N-Files

The Evolution of Libraries

First, reader, I apologize for not having a post yesterday. The storm we had that night messed up our alarm clocks, and so we were late rising from bed - meaning I did not have time to write the promised post about the evolution of libraries. I know you were all so disappointed, so without further ado, here is that promised post.

It seems apparent that to many people the library is very much a static institution, and has been for several centuries. This idea, of course, is interwoven with the histories of books and literacy through time. However, allow me to attempt to change your mind:

The library is not a static institution, but a dynamic, constantly changing organism changing constantly to serve the needs of the society it supports.

S. R. Ranganathan, one of the key individuals in the creation of the modern library science profession posited five laws about library science. The fifth of these laws states:

The Library is a growing organism.

“Well,” you might be saying to yourself, “that’s all well and good, but how has the library actually evolved over time?” To answer that, I will dust off my historian cap, and put it on. There. It’s on now.

According to historians of libraries (yes, there are such historians), there have been seven ages of libraries. Seven distinct periods through which the evolution of libraries are traced. Donald Krummel created the model I will share with you now.

The first age of libraries was the Quotidian age. These institutions lasted approximately from 3000 BC to 300 BC. Libraries in this age were, by and large, centers for the storage of records of transactions, recordings of the society’s laws, and the like. The Quotidian Library was sponsored by the civilization it served. These first libraries are mirrored by the archival functions of libraries today.

The second age of libraries was the Academic age. The libraries of this type lasted from 300 BC until approximately 500 AD. These libraries were the centers for the “search for truth” that occurred among scholars of this period, as well as being the cultural center of the city or civilization it served. The library at Alexandria was the apex of this type of libraries - a center for research and writing of the best scholars of the age. The library was sponsored by the society in this age, and the contents of the library itself were supplements and supports in the scholar’s efforts to find the “truth.”

The third age of libraries was the Religious age. These libraries lasted from approximately 500 AD until 1350 AD. These libraries were focused largely on religious (not necessarily Christian works - Muslim libraries were also important in this age) texts, with some copying of older or ancient scholarly works - so long as they did not conflict with the religious views of the parent institution. These libraries were more oriented to the dissemination of knowledge rather than the facilitation of the creation of knowledge. They were sponsored by religious organizations - monasteries, or the religious organization as a whole.

The fourth age was the Humanistic age. Lasting from approximately 1350-1600, libraries primarily focused on the perceived glories of the sponsor of the library As such, libraries of this time were very beautiful, with gorgeous books, which might or might not have been used. These collections either glorified the founder, or the views and thoughts of the founder of the library. The people funding these organizations generally were nobility.

The fifth age was the Scientific age. This age lasted from 1600 to 1700 AD, and focused on increasing knowledge of its patrons through the study of philosophical and scientific works. These libraries were funded by individual scholars, or by institutions of higher learning.

The sixth age was the Democratic age. This age lasted from 1700 until 1850, and were largely instruments for social improvement. It was at this time that we saw the rise of the free, “public” library focused on the improvement of the voting public. It was felt that a better-educated voter would make better choices. At this time, the government began funding libraries to ensure that they were free for the use of their patrons.

And finally, the seventh age is the Technocratic age. This age began in about 1910, and we are at the end of this age, I think. In this age, most libraries exist to institute some form of social change, and the libraries continue to be funded by the government. These libraries collect many different formats of information - and not only for education. Entertainment is also a focus of this age.

So, what’s next for libraries? I have read and heard several different ideas on this subject, but the one I think is the best vision for the future of libraries is the idea of Participatory Librarianship. I am certainly no expert in this area, and I am learning about it more as time goes on. Allow me to share with you this video by the creator of this concept of participatory librarianship, R. David Lankes. I’d love to hear your comments about his ideas!

Library at Alexandria

For some of my readings for class this summer, I have had to read a bit about the history of libraries. Probably the greatest library ever was the great library at Alexandria. Carl Sagan does a much better job of explaining its impact than I can, so let’s just let him tell you all about it. Enjoy!

- Jason Dean

The Original Library of Congress

The national library here in the US, the Library of Congress, was founded with the purchase of the 6,487 volume library of Thomas Jefferson. This initial purchase was the nucleus of the collection, and was itself a special part of the collection. However, two thirds of the original Jefferson books were lost in a fire on Christmas Eve of 1851. 55,000 volumes, including the two thirds of Jefferson’s library were lost in that fire.

In preparation for the bicentennial celebrations of the Library in 2000, the Librarian of Congress and the Rare Books Librarian worked together to restore as much as was possible the original library of Thomas Jefferson. They did this through purchases, gifts, and copyright deposits. I think this is a wonderful way to honor the legacy of Jefferson, as well as to raise awareness about our national library and its history. Also, what an interesting task, to find copies of the original volumes in Jefferson’s collection.

- Jason Dean