Comments on: Heroic Librarians Destroy Books

By: Johnny

Johnny — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:58:09 +0000

So I read this article, thought about it for a week, and then came back to it. After thinking about it, and trying to keep all emotions aside, I have to agree with the author. Books, are just paper. From a physical perspective, no different than what you use to clean your behind. The reason we worship books is because of the ideas they contain. Before, it was easy to burn a book and kill an idea. Nowadays, our technology makes that pretty much impossible. This love affair that some people have with books is sickening. They want to preserve books (I don’t know where), regardless of the kind of book and regardless of the merit. Not all books are created equal–and people should come to terms with it. We have been brainwashed–almost religiously–into believing that books are items of worship, and destroying a book is a crime only comparable to murder. All the book “savers” should put their money in what they believe and rent acres of storage for books, and actively preserve them. Otherwise, they should understand that getting rid of books is a matter of convenience, while the ideas we’ve learned from them carry on.

By: Slade Barker

Slade Barker — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:34:17 +0000

It is bad enough that today’s librarians do the opposite of what their predecessors did long ago. But to call them “heroic” for participating in the groupthink of a mass malicious movement is nauseating — & self-serving in the extreme. Do you readers feel queasy that librarians should take such relish in destroying books? Does it bother you that librarians consider themselves “heroes” for demolishing stuff that you might love to read or even own? Then read the book the Annoyed Librarian & allies don’t want you to read: Nicholson Baker’s “Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper.” Read about it here: http://www.amazon.com/Double-Fold-Libraries-Assault-Paper/dp/0375726217

By: Richard Berthelot

Richard Berthelot — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:56:39 +0000

Are you ignorant of the ALA’s policies are just ignorant?

By: KidLib

KidLib — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:58:05 +0000

But I remember wanting to argue with them in library school–of course libraries are archives! It’s only fairly recently that we’ve started treating them as the literary equivalent of fast food stops, and it’s not necessarily an improvement. The better libraries are the ones where you *can* find that weird, obscure little book that you need to look at for your thesis on Christian Children’s Literature of the 1960s or Lesbian Authors of the Elizabethan Age. No one is going to have that in his or her personal library; having it available is a reason to pay for keeping up a public library.

Which is not to say that weeding isn’t a good thing. One copy of a bestseller of the 1930s is great. If you’re still lugging around three copies in each branch because once upon a time it was popular, there’s a major problem.

By: Ms. Joneser

Ms. Joneser — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:49:49 +0000

I’m curious to know which libraries/librarians are “fighting to allow internet porn”. Examples?

By: Ms. Joneser

Ms. Joneser — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:48:43 +0000

What You Said. Donations have never been “free”.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:15:51 +0000

The funny thing is that archives don’t preserve
*everything* either. Some things are deemed unworthy and stripped from a collection of papers. Some collections are not accepted in the first place. You can’t rely on anybody to save it all.

By: Richard Berthelot

Richard Berthelot — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:46:03 +0000

I have a huge problem considering librarians “experts and cultural guardians with regard to the codex, and trustworthy stewards to the new information age.” The problem here is a matter of hypocrisy. The ALA abuses and ridicules and parents who attempt to have a single copy of a book removed from the shelves of a school library, even going so far as to dedicate a week to these so called “banned books.” Librarians fight to allow access to internet porn in libraries despite communities, Congress and the Supreme Court having told them that this is unacceptable. The ALA is struggling to be the determining voice in what is and is not protected speech in this country, and this is a clear example of the hypocrisy involved. It’s okay for a librarian to destroy a book; they after all know better than the communities they serve. But if any member of that community asks that a book be taken out of the young adult section or tries to prevent minor from accessing porn on library computers, that person is branded a censor by the ALA. Librarians and the ALA have accused their opponents of being censors for so long it’s only fair they be branded as such for performing what is a necessary task. In other words, librarians made this bed, they should lie in it.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:18:18 +0000

Many of the books that are ‘crap’ now were not crap when they were purchased. For example, books on software – they’re current at one point in time, but well out of date, and useless, within a relatively short period. Medical texts or health-related books are another example. When they are out of date, sometimes they are dangerous. They may recommend things that are later debunked. Sure, there has to be a historical copy kept in a historical collection someplace – but you don’t want the item on a public library shelf anymore, or in a current academic collection.

By: I Like Books

I Like Books — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:29:39 +0000

AL said: “Books themselves are fetish objects with an inherent value in themselves… Historically, I expect this is a cultural holdover from the days when books were expensive and hard to come by.”

I don’t know what it is about books, but from the dawn of writing to the present day people have assumed books have power. Not “knowledge is power” type of power, but cure a headache by opening the Bible to Psalm 23 and placing it on the head, it’s not necessary to read it, type of power. It’s unlucky to drop a book. Don’t leave a book open when you stop reading it or you’ll forget what you’ve learned. And then the terrible powers of a grimoire like the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, even if it’s a mass-market paperback.

Not that I’m saying most book lovers think books are actually magical. But there is a thread of reverence for the book that has existed throughout its history, even including modern mass-market paperbacks, and not because of their cost. A wagon was (and still is) pretty pricey, too, but not particularly revered.

I think book burners feel it, too, and that’s why they burn books– they want to make a powerful statement.