Libraries: a cave where genius abides

[coberst]

Libraries: a cave where genius abides

If you find no library card in your wallet or purse you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.

A self-learner has a multitude of clamoring questions, in a multitude of domains of knowledge, seeking answers. To discover the nature of reality and the answers to these questions one must have access to a library of books.

Most colleges have a ‘Friend of the Library’ card, which, for a small annual fee, will allow anyone to borrow books from that library.

After schooling is over the experience of learning begins. I think that the first step toward becoming a self-actualizing self-learner is to acquire at least one library card.

Public libraries are not just for kids on field trips.
Public libraries are so much more than a book storage facility.
Public libraries are places where people from all walks of life are welcome.
Public libraries are wonder-filled places where people of ignorance can find genius, a place where the homeless can find shelter and where the educated can find inspiration.
Public libraries smell like knowledge and taste like wisdom.
Public libraries are truly beautiful from the inside out.
Visiting public libraries often and for long periods of time is a modern form of respecting our elders.
Humanity is summed up in the content of the written word which can be found in a public library near you.
To study the masters from within a public library is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience for some people.

The line I used to entice my girlfriend into becoming my wife; "My library card has recently been renewed."
-Savant

What’s in your wallet?

[tame_deuces]

Where I come from libraries are a public right so by law everyone should have access to one, they can't charge money and are obliged to order books you want to read which they don't have, so I don't have a library card because I don't need one. *edit* I actually have two cards which works are library cards, I had forgotten that. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

But I agree that libraries are fairly awesome places. The interweb has stolen much of its glory but the large digitalized academic libraries beats the living daylights out of any google/wikipedia combination, so the heritage lives on. Library science is still the best option for preserving knowledge and works.

Good old libraries still wreck on the fiction front though. Libraries make me happy. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Phil153]

I miss the days when you had to go to a library to get knowledge. There's something about having it at your fingertips and in a highly ephemeral form that makes knowledge less meaningful.

[tame_deuces]

[ QUOTE ]
I miss the days when you had to go to a library to get knowledge. There's something about having it at your fingertips and in a highly ephemeral form that makes knowledge less meaningful.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this, there is just something about books/paper and collections of them.

On the good side, paper is superior to digital media when it comes to durability, so it still has some tricks up it sleeve. It is (as of yet) the best way of storing knowledge over very large periods of time.

[coberst]

[ QUOTE ]
I miss the days when you had to go to a library to get knowledge. There's something about having it at your fingertips and in a highly ephemeral form that makes knowledge less meaningful.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect that the Internet makes us less learned than before. I think that the Internet accenuates the sound-bite and bumper sticker quality of our culture.

[coberst]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I miss the days when you had to go to a library to get knowledge. There's something about having it at your fingertips and in a highly ephemeral form that makes knowledge less meaningful.

[/ QUOTE ]



I agree with this, there is just something about books/paper and collections of them.

On the good side, paper is superior to digital media when it comes to durability, so it still has some tricks up it sleeve. It is (as of yet) the best way of storing knowledge over very large periods of time.

[/ QUOTE ]

I find that I cannot read for extended periods of time when using my computer. I suspect the Internet is making us Wiki quickies, i.e. we have knowledge without substance and form. We have acquire knowledge without understanding.

[FortunaMaximus]

[ QUOTE ]
I miss the days when you had to go to a library to get knowledge. There's something about having it at your fingertips and in a highly ephemeral form that makes knowledge less meaningful.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT.

I love libraries, and consider it civilizataion's finest achievement. I'm a roamer but I make a point of getting a library card for where I am, every time. And I'd proudly be among the minority that insists on going there if I need to do serious research.

Or obviously, old and new sci-fi. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[AWoodside]

[ QUOTE ]
I miss the days when you had to go to a library to get knowledge. There's something about having it at your fingertips and in a highly ephemeral form that makes knowledge less meaningful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps the fact that it is at your fingertips just makes you realize that the vast majority of available knowledge is not, in fact, meaningful. For every meaningful page that gets written there are probably thousands of pages of tripe. When pages in general used to be difficult to acquire the subjective value people placed on them may have been artificially inflated. Supply and demand and all that.

Also, how old are you guys anyway? I actually prefer reading on a computer screen and download pdf books all the time. For awhile I still bought books in paper-form because I like to read in bed and it can be cumbersome to cuddle with a laptop. Recently, however, I've found a better solution. I made a private little website for myself where I put up full length books I'm currently reading so that I can read them on my iPhone in bed (iPhone sucks at pdf files right now).

I do agree that at times it can be easier to do serious research at a library (although I may be biased because the school I just finished had arguably the best library system in academia) but this is going to quickly become a thing of the past.

[warrantofice]

there's even hot chicks at libraries too!

[FortunaMaximus]

[ QUOTE ]
there's even hot smart chicks at libraries too!

[/ QUOTE ]

And that doesn't hurt.

[vulturesrow]

I was in the library almost every Saturday morning as a kid, and came out with a stack of about 12 books every time. Ran the gamut of stuff too.

Once I tried to check out a book that my librarian thought might not be appropriate for a kid my age (dont remember what it was TBH). My mom told the librarian that I was allowed to check out whatever book I wanted, no questions asked. Pretty cool stuff.

I am pretty immersed in the "Internet Age", but I still just cannot read a book on a computer. It just doesnt feel right. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
I am pretty immersed in the "Internet Age", but I still just cannot read a book on a computer. It just doesnt feel right. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. It's tiring and restrictive and hard on the eyes. I suspect those saying they prefer screen-reading have never really gotten comfortable with a good book.

[Case Closed]

The internet is a great way to find very informative articles and watch documentaries that I could never get my hands on in real life. But the vapid glow of my computer screen will never replace the feeling of holding a book, that has been aged with time, in your hands.

[tarheeljks]

[ QUOTE ]
The internet is a great way to find very informative articles and watch documentaries that I could never get my hands on in real life. But the vapid glow of my computer screen will never replace the feeling of holding a book, that has been aged with time, in your hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

to each his own obv. as long as i can read it, i don't care whether it's bound, hand written, or on a computer screen.

[furyshade]

i have found researching from books to be exponentially slower and less productive than the internet. with a book i need to read through pages of totally irrelevent data to find what i want, i need to find individually quotes that i cannot just search for, etc. maybe i am just spoiled by growing up with the internet, and if you are trying to acquire a general knowledge about something books are superior; for example physics books are a lot easier to learn from than random internet articles. my point is really that to get details you are curious about, or to learn a lot of basic details about a subject books are far below the internet at a resource. i honestly wouldn't know a lot of the information i know if i had to go to a library every time i was curious about something

[Paul McSwizzle]

I tend to take my research much more seriously in a library than I do when on my laptop. Also there is just something about the library... it just feels right.

[Paul McSwizzle]

[ QUOTE ]
i have found researching from books to be exponentially slower and less productive than the internet. with a book i need to read through pages of totally irrelevent data to find what i want, i need to find individually quotes that i cannot just search for, etc. maybe i am just spoiled by growing up with the internet, and if you are trying to acquire a general knowledge about something books are superior; for example physics books are a lot easier to learn from than random internet articles. my point is really that to get details you are curious about, or to learn a lot of basic details about a subject books are far below the internet at a resource. i honestly wouldn't know a lot of the information i know if i had to go to a library every time i was curious about something

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately throughout high school I did most of my homework assignments by browsing random articles I pulled off google. This allowed me to procrastinate much more and do the assignments without actually learning any of the relevant material. Looking back, I wish I had taken the time to research some of the topics and actually understand what I am learning about.

[Pokerdemic]

[ QUOTE ]


Humanity is summed up in the content of the written word which can be found in a public library near you.




[/ QUOTE ]

Well, mostly the part of humanity that had access to good schools or tutors, literacy, writing instruments, the dominant language, and editors and publishers with printing presses. While I share your affinity for libraries, I think its dangerous to equate the ideas published in a library with "humanity," as so little of humanity contributed to the work contained therein.