The Library

The library is fast being overshadowed by the immense ability, convenience and reach of the Internet. Nowadays most houses are connected to more-or-less every single book that has been published, ones that any normal family would want to read, and for that matter many books that have never and will never be published in the old fashioned way of print.

Television was once a sign of wealth, the internet a toy for the yuppie; now it is a required tool that every family needs, just like a washing machine or a kettle.

But once upon a time the local library was a central attraction for people and families of all genre, class and age. For daily news, for the latest in crime fiction, for research or interest, a quiet day out or a sleep in the corner, the library called everybody on cold winter evenings or warm summer days alike! But now the Internet has arrived, no more fines for overdue books, no more grumpy librarians saying "shhhhhh" all the time, no more books with the last page missing and no more tramps using the latest edition of the Times newspaper as a head rest!

Now a screen reveals all with a few clicks of the mouse and quickly too!

Are libraries all over the world shutting their doors, destroying books as they don't know what else to do with them? Are people shunning the warm and comfortable interiors of the library in preference to a day in with the computer? Is dust winning the battle on faded covers and are tramps now welcomed as the only customers expected for the day?

The end for the library may not be as close as many might imagine! Despite the sudden increase in popularity of the Internet, public libraries have not suddenly been discarded like an empty coke can! Doors are still open and humans of varying types are still found inside. The popularity of the internet is purely a result of convenience, of ability to gain knowledge fast and from laziness. The World Wide Web will never give relaxation, a place to wind down and to ponder life past, present or future. The very idea of sitting down at the computer for a lazy afternoon of reading the newspaper is well, not going to happen.

Computers get the blood pumping, they control and take-over souls and they never once permit the mind to wander into another dimension. People hunch uncomfortably over a characterless desk, and from an uncomfortable position they are drawn inwards into the channels and routes that a screen dictates. The computer makes its user angry and frustrated, irritable and unable to remain for long at one website! Nobody falls asleep at a computer, time is of the essence and seemingly in short supply as search engines sprout out websites that bear no similarity to those required. Important ideas become lost amongst the flood of alternative information which in itself is so irrelevant should one actually be able to recall why they logged on in the first place.

A library is a place where families can go, each to their respective shelves or sections, where students can meet to converse quietly undercover of studying and where doctors and lawyers can be seen but not heard. A library is a place were time can be spent in total relaxation; the computer is a place were time rushes by in a hectic and maddening rush that never sees end! A library makes one hungry for knowledge and allows for minds to drift, for words to be misinterpreted to suit ones whim and people can fall asleep whilst snuggling back into a chair with a book as disguise.

Certainly librarians do not suddenly seize up and require a boot up the backside to get them moving again, spam and offers of cheap Viagra never comes toppling out of books that are being read and worms do not meander through the aisles and shelves causing mayhem and havoc as they chew on pages and covers of books! Oh, and some black colored gentleman who introduces himself as the late son of the ex-president of Nigeria, never keeps on popping his head around the corner to suggest that you give him your bank details for no apparent reason.

The internet is definitely a required tool of our time but equally so the library is and will remain a place for all for a while longer yet!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.Com

13th March 2005

Some Little Historical facts of the Library

1. The first real libraries known to man were those built by the Sumerians. They were diverse peoples living in the fertile valleys between the Tigris and the Euphrates (in my local library atlas it tells me that this is an area once known as Mesopotamia, or more popularly known as Kuwait and Northern Saudi Arabia). Archeological record makes it clear that during the third dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC) the Sumerians organized their archive material in a wise and orderly fashion, making it available for everyday affairs. These tablet repositories contained anything that might be of use for future reference and they housed anything concerned with economic administration. The material was classified in specially designed areas in such a way as to clearly define three things; the identity of every tablet, its specific content and the extent of the subject of each work!

2. The Leighton Library is the oldest private library in Scotland, dating from 1867. It was built to house the 1500 books of Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane (1611-1648).

3. The Chetham's Library was founded in 1653 and is the oldest public library in the English speaking world.

4. The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731 was probably the first real Library to form in America!

5. A book thought to be the oldest surviving printed book in the world is: The Diamond Sutra, which bears the date 868 AD, was found in a walled-up cave in Dunhuang, north-west China, in 1907, along with other printed items.

6. The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. turns 200 this year. Begun with fewer than 1,000 books, the library now holds 115 million items in a number of formats. "America's oldest national cultural center," the library is the largest repository of recorded knowledge in the world.

7. The world's smallest book just one millimeter square is among a number of unusual volumes on display at Aberystwyth to mark World Book Day. Old King Cole, a 12-page book of the famous nursery rhyme, is part of an exhibition at The National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. The miniscule volume is one of only 85 copies printed by Scottish publishers in 1985 and can only be read using a microscope.