Librarians on the Front Lines
Before I continue, let us start with the history of the written word. A&E, the Art of Entrainment channel, did a poll several years back of the most influential people of all times, and who was number one? Johann Gutenberg, the man who invented the printing press.
In 1452 Gutenberg conceives the very idea that will transform the world by the fabrication of movable type. In his workshop he combines the technologies of the day: paper (which came
With these three invention commonly used in the 1400’s, the printing press was born. No more did men copy word after word on to a scroll, then knowing that that scroll would be obsolete and in need of recopying within just a score of years. Man knew even at that time the word was everything, for without it communication would cease and without communication man would never survive.
Returning to my original statement, now.
Neil Gaiman, the author of American Gods and Neverwhere and the DC comic series The Sandman writes, “I love librarians… I love librarians when they crusade not to be stereotyped as librarians. I love librarians when they're just doing those magic things that librarians do. I love librarians when they're the only person in a ghost town looking after thousands of books.”
Librarians guard the words of those who came before, those who are present, and those who are soon to arrive. If librarians lose the lust for their obligations and lay down their defenses, we have lost our history, our art, our knowledge, our edge, and, quintessentially, our communication.
Somewhere along the way getting this point in our nation’s history, we forgot the importance of respect for those who hold, essentially, our society within the confines of their shelves. Books birth dreams and kindle passions and push imaginations to a realm of absolute possibilities, and we, as Americans, cannot allow for this process to stall, if so, thus, stalling the pace of human development.
Throughout history countless writers have told countless stories upon countless pages weaving countless words bounded within countless books to be read by countless readers for countless hours. The pleasures, the pains, the joys, the sorrows, the intrigues, the disappointments, the loves, the losses, the facts, the lies, and the truths captivate people, for people wrote these tales for a reason and that reason is to be, at the day’s close, human—to feel, to grow.
While books are the beacon to which ambition is drawn unto, librarians lay out the course of its navigation. No matter how much and how often ignorance grapples with our way of life, librarians just knuckle down and stands their ground. Librarians are on the Front Lines of an educational downfall.
I delivered a speech on this topic before (go through the Archives to find it). I wanted to write on Globalization this week in response to a “letter to the editor” and my last column (read below), yet I have had so much work and so little sleep this week, so I just turned this one in to fill my weekly commitment.