CONNECTICUT LIBRARIES
Dcember 1998, Vol. 40, No. 11
CONNECTICUT LIBRARIES
Dcember 1998, Vol. 40, No. 11
Our Singular Strengths: Meditations for Librarians
Our Singular Strengths: Meditations for Librarians
assumes that the "meditations" of one librarian can be shared by the many. The author has tried hard to imbue some universality to his own musing on libraries, librarians, and librarianship, but it is unlikely that librarians, who are independent thinkers, will make the sum of Gorman's page-long meditations their own.The book is probably best for dipping into, as a stimulus for discussion or as a prod for ideas when one is writing the occasional library article or speech. It contains 144 meditations on subjects ranging from Andrew Carnegie, to the Newbery Medal, to the problem patron, to art and decoration in the library.
Gorman has a flair for building sentences that lift librarianship to ethereal heights (adapt the following extracts for your own use!):
There is something of the sacred in the least library: something that speaks to us of the human soul as well as the human mind, of the continuity of memory and achievement, of the joy of youth and the wisdom of age. (p. 161)
Libraries...are both timeless and modern. Libraries, in their vital role of preserving and making available the thoughts of humankind, can be said to be living islands in the sea of eternity--adrift in time, eternal, always dynamic. (p. 21)
We can help children to discover the pleasures of words, the humor and the pathos of life, and its inexhaustible complexity and abundance. Through reading come other skills. No one who is ill-read can write well. Reading teaches us logic and the story of human kind, and an ever-expanding vocabulary is the fertile soil in which the seeds of knowledge flourish. (p. 135)
That's inspiring stuff and worth the price of the book, at least for me. There is, however, one troubling aspect to Singular Strengths, and that is Gorman's time-warp view of libraries. Gorman clings to the past like Leonardo DiCaprio clings to the deck of the sinking Titanic. Gorman's flaw is that he cannot release himself from the libraries of yore and imagine future libraries. Future Libraries, by the way, happens to be the title of the book he wrote with Walt Crawford in 1995, which attempts to blast the "virtual" library to smithereens.
No far-sighted strategist he, Gorman persistently knocks the new, in ways both subtle and bold:
How long would love and dreams-the dreams that inspire art-survive in the sterility of the virtual library? (p. 182)
Libraries have a richness of content and diversity of entertainment and knowledge that dwarf the Internet and television combined. (p. 15)
The truth is that reading is on a higher intellectual plane and is a more worthwhile activity than, say, viewing videos. (p. 28-29)
That last one really kills me, as now I must shamelessly admit that my own life has been influenced more by films than books. Isn't it obvious that I, yes I, am James Dean in East of Eden, Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, and Woody Allen in Manhattan? (Did he say Woody Allen?). Viewing videos is not on a lower intellectual plane than reading, rather it is the way one thinks about the videos being viewed that matters, as it is with books. There are great videos, and there are horrible books, and vice versa.
I wonder if Gorman isn't more in love with paper than with books. He meditates on the "paper-full society" saying, "There seems to be an almost atavistic human need for the security and relative durability of print on paper that is, so far, immune to the pundits of paperlessness." (p. 92)
Paper, so far, but not forever. See, for example, the "Polyester Panels" piece in the November 17 issue of PC Magazine (p. 9), which reports that, "Researchers have recently made breakthroughs in developing thin-film transistor displays out of polyethylene terephthalate-a thin, flexible, and rugged plastic that you can roll up, fold, or bend into practically any shape you need...applications could include paper-thin electronic books and newspapers."
And there is also a stimulating article, "Silicon Dreams and Silicon Bricks: The Continuing Evolution of Libraries," by Andrew Odlyzko (research.att.com/~amo/doc/silicon.dreams.txt), which posits that "The arrival of electronic displays that will almost completely replace books will come much sooner, during the lifetimes of most of us, and so needs to be planned for." The article is worth reading as an antidote to Gorman.
But, forgive me, I stray from my subject. Overall, what's best about Gorman's book is that it seeks to make us proud of our profession and reminds us of the many things, both simple and complex, that we do so well. At times, if the mood is right, Gorman provides the lump-in-the-throat recognition of things we know, but seldom say, such as:
The important thing is to create a climate in which even the shyest person feels able to ask for help without being judged inadequate. (p. 38)
It may not be the reason for libraries to exist but the fact that we make lonely lives less lonely is no mean contribution to society. (p. 50)
In every library there is a sense of possibility, a potential for wonder. (p. 181)
Gorman helps remind us why we are librarians, and there is something enduring in that.
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