library an unquiet history by matthew battles

Library an Unquiet Historyby

Matthew Battles

matthewbattles.com/othermb/index.htm

Two types of Libraries

• Parnassan-model of the universe-essence of all that is good and beautiful

• Universal- “books not treated as precious”- “must be counted and classified before they may be desired

                                p. 9

Library of Alexandriaprototype of the modern era university

Library of Alexandriahttp://www.utexas.edu/courses/introtogreece/cc301/anclibalexext.html

Papyrus with Greek Lettering

http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/papyri.html

Ptolemites – Knowledge is a resource, a form of commodity p.29

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/introtogreece/cc301/anclibalexint.html

Qin Emperor - Shi Huangdi- ruled by destruction and fear

http://www.globalmountainsummit.org/terra-cotta-warriors.html

"A monopoly on intellectual resources is as important to rule as the control of the production of rice and salt." p.37

People have always found a way to pass on knowledge.

This is a stone stele.http://wyunwanww.yingg.com/?p=155

Biblioclasms

• Accidental - Alexandria, Palatine Library• Purposeful -

        -revision - Shi Huangdi, Early Islam           -comprehensive - erase history and authors                                    -Mexico                    p.42

http://www.thebackyardsteakpit.com/images/fire_graphic.jpg

Mexico

http://thelesseroftwoequals.wordpress.com/category/literature-columns/

Not only did the Spaniards burn the books of the Mexican peoples, the Aztecs also burned the books of their predecessors. They were able to create a new history for themselves. p.44

Rome

Palatine Library Libraries in Private Palaces, Temples and Public Baths     -available to all

Roman Emperors did not seek to "control over the life of the mind" p. 48                                                                                       

Codices from the Ng Hammadi Library

http://historyofscience.comG2I/timeline/images/nag_hammadi_codices.jpg

The House of WisdomA Thousand Years of

Muslim Library Building

hhttp://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/islamic-societies-of-the-middle-east-and-north/lectures/lecture-3

House of Wisdom

Place for translation, education and research.

Eager to learn form all of the countries they conquered.• Persian texts• Hellenic philosophy and

science• Hindu mathematics

                                  p. 64-65

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Image-Al-Kit%C4%81b_al-mu%E1%B8%ABta%E1%B9%A3ar_f%C4%AB_%E1%B8%A5is%C4%81b_al-%C4%9Fabr_wa-l-muq%C4%81bala.jpg

Oldest Illustrated Manuscript in Arabic c.1009http://historyofscience.com/G2I/timeline/images/ms_marsh_144-f325r-326v.jpg

Much of Western Book Culture Owes its Heritage to Islam• Papermaking - Learned from Chinese prisoners• Sewn Leather Binding - from the Ethiopians• Calligraphers and Illustrators of Islam turn books into things

of beauty. p. 64                                                                             

www.salamiran.org/.../calligraphy/index.html

Early Renaissance

San Marco conventhttp://www.life.com/image/50381790

Library of the Sorbonnehttp://www.spirit-of-paris.com/2006/01/01/the-library-of-the-sorbonne.html

Vatican Library  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/arts/design/23libr.html  

Library as Battleground

Sir William TempleJonathan Swift classical "was it possible, or even desirable,that people should build upon the wisdom of the ancient? p. 88 "decried the proliferation of text engendered by the printing press" p. 90

Francis Bacon -observation and experimentation

• memory • wisdom• imagination

 organizing principle of empirical thought. p.83 Richard Bentley and William Wooten saw vigor and potential in the proliferation of books. p. 91

And The Winner is...(eventually)

Bentley becomes keeper of the Royal Library and "turns it from a curiosity collection to an international institution of higher learning." p. 93 created a universal library - wanted enough books on the shelves so everyone would have something to read. p. 94

"He firmly felt that the work of finding,keeping and organizing a scholarly collection of books was essential to modern scholarship, and that the keeping of libraries should be entrusted to people whose intellectual development was strong and unhindered." p. 116

picasaweb.google.com

19th Century 

Steam powered presses changed book printing from an artisanal craft to the subject of

mass production.~

A book for everyone!~

Library changes from a temple to a market.  Librarians are

caregivers instead of custodians.

• Greater access to information benefits society as a whole.

• By reading usefully, patrons advance themselves and society.

• “A book for every person.” Max Beerbohm.

Page 118

http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history_and_the_building/reading_room.aspx

• 1837 criminal who escaped Modena and worked for the British Museum Library.

• Created the Reading Room.

• Library Catalog is not a tool for librarians, but a tool for the public.

• Introduced a numerical catalog based on book location in the library.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history_and_the_building/reading_room.aspx

“As a man’s understanding is directed to some

laudable pursuit, his desire for information will increase; he will

become decent in his conduct. Such a man will frequently rise as the uninformed man

sinks.”

Francis PlacePage 135

• In a well tended library, each book’s value to society increases as more people gain access to and use it.

• Greater access to information benefits society as a whole.

John Stuart Mill and Francis PlacePage 136

Panizzi’s numerical cataloging system

+

Bacon’s theory of classifying by history, poetry & philosophy

=Dewey Decimal System of classifying books by the

knowledge imparted.

• Know your customer.• Patrons don’t know what they need and it’s up to

the librarian to remedy.• A librarian should be sensitive to the needs and

capabilities of clients.• Librarian is the custodian of the new library and

guides the progress of the community as a whole with a finger on the pulse of political, economic situations and cultural needs & tastes. (Think Henry Higgins) Page 149

A Nazi book burning staged by Nazi student sympathizers . Goebbels was pleased and took credit for the Reich. In the next twelve years, the

Nazi’s burned:

100 million books

6 million humans

The destruction of libraries was perpetrated by the Nazi’s to control knowledge, language, and

art.

-

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/greatest-book-covers/21#i1034

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/greatest-novels-of-all-time/3#i100http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/greatest-n

ovels-of-all-time/5

“The ghetto reader is psychologically crippled; his highest ideal is to escape….. His minimal concern is that he at he very least will survive…Only two things are possible: reading for the purpose of intoxication……or reading in order to ponder…… The reader often likes to use a book as a mirror, as a reflection of his situation and the surrounding conditions.”

Herman KrukFormer head of the Warsaw Library

p178

• Louvain University Library in 1914 & 1940• Tibetan Monasteries

• Hakem Nasser Khosrow Balki Cultural Center-1978

• Tamil Library in Sri Lanka-1981• Bosnian National Library-1992

• Bosnian National Museum & Archives of Herzegovenia-1992

• Oriental Institue-1992

“The Library is unlimitedand cyclical”

Jorge Luis BorgesPage 18

www.meditation24-7.com

The people who shelve the books in Widener talk about the library’s breathing-at the start of the term, the stacks exhale books in great swirling clouds; at the end of the term, the library inhales, and the books fly back.

Battles, pg 6.