There is a little known secret….
I am not really sure that I should even tell you about it… because it may make life and searching that much tougher for me. We’re friends now, so let me share some of my booty with you…. but first, let me tell you how I discovered it.
Have you been to a library lately? If you haven’t then you’d be shocked. Many libraries today are not filled with reference books, in fact, the Dewey Decimal system really isn’t used too much. Libraries are filled today with newspapers, romance novels, sometimes movies , video games and the requisite homeless guy. Not too much is left of what we called a library a decade or two ago. It doesn’t even smell the same
Why is this?
Some folks blame the failure of the library system to the disinterest of the ignorant American Public. However, I don’t think we are any more ignorant than we have ever been; in fact, I am always impressed with how smart we all are becoming. Afterall, we continue in California to vote down those stupid tax increases … so we’re figuring it out.
I would credit our increased intelligence to the Internet which first gained wide acceptance by late 1991 … There are ‘no more secrets’ out there and anyone can sit down and check out what’s happening around the world or research almost anything. The internet has replaced libraries as the ‘source’ for data acquisition. Young people today can view ‘original sources’ on-line, grab pictures and write their entire papers and reports for class without ever going nto the ‘stacks’ ( in olden times, that’s the place in the library where we would look up what takes us seconds to do on-line).
Isn’t it strange that libraries today have failed to ‘reposition’ or ‘reinvent’ themselves in order to survive in today’s information hungry world? Instead, they keep crying about the ‘children left behind’. Well, they’d be better off setting themselves up as an free internet cafe’… but librarians are reluctant to change. I mean, have you ever seen one dance?Universities seem to be behind the ‘power curve’ as well…. but your teenager is right there.
I am not trynig to pick on anyone, but here is a course offering at the University of North Carolina leading to a degree in Library Science… Is it me or do you see something funny about it?
NLS 554 (144): Cultural Institutions
This course will explore cultural institutions – libraries, museums, parks, zoological and botanical gardens, reconstructions, and other settings – as lifelong educational environments. (3)
Hmmmm…. I smell mothballs… do you? All great places to snooze.
Anyway, I have gone a long way to tell you that for the past decade or so… libraries around the developed world have been ‘dumping’ their books… sometimes rare books in order to make room for something that appeals more to the ‘transient population.’
What if I told you that you could buy a set autographed books for $10,000 and turn around today and sell one of the books for $70,000? I wanted that set but I chickened out… besides, nobody knows who Mark Twain is anyway.
Not all books are completely out of reach. I started my collection by buying on the internet everything that Sir Wallace Budge had ever written. He’s not a household name… unless you are an Egyptologist.
My wife is a Psychologist and wanted to start a library after her interest and one of the authors she wanted to acquire was Charles Darwin. Certainly his most beautiful book filled with black and white etchings is called his “Journal’ and outlines his world travels on the Beagle. He also illustrated the book and is a great story teller. Most people don’t know that he ws an artist,too. This red leather bound book from the early 1800’s first cost me only a couple of hundred dollars… but has been a lot of fun.
So where do I go to find old and rare books? Well, you have a lot of choices, but here is my favorite:
You can even buy an autographed Harry Potter Book… but… I am a little low on magic!
Good Hunting!
Roger Freberg