Mere mention of library brings up bitter memories for so many people. Memories of those days when they toiled to read monotonous school notes – and by ‘hook or crook’ pass examinations that offer a certificate.
For so many, library is associated with those moments of desperation to pass exams or school tests only. That library largely evokes the memories of school days says a lot – a lot about the total or rather absolute collapse of education; from bottom to top. It just shows where the diminishing of critical thinking began. It also shows how the gap between knowledge and education comes about. It also exposes the dangerous association of reading with desperation to get a certificate. It also showcases how more schools and more graduates could not warrant a society making advances in inventions, philosophical discourses and out of the box approach to critical present-day challenges of existence.
The library as we know it has changed and is rapidly changing; from a gravely quite room full of shelves loaded with books and wide spaces for reading. The modern library is a centre of information and knowledge. Knowledge comes from books stocked, and regularly updated with new and more varied titles, creating a space for choice based on personal judgement.
Modern libraries offer; periodicals, manuscripts, DVDs, internet connected work stations, e-books, audiobooks, printing and copying facilities, ample data base for research, documents, language facilities, maps, fit-for-purpose reading rooms, digital facilities and more.
Nothing shows the value of library and reading than the fact that, as far back as centuries nations have been having academic libraries; within schools and institutions of learning, personal libraries, public libraries, national libraries and institutional ones; like presidential, state libraries, local libraries, and even mobile libraries that take knowledge to remote places.
Despite the huge impact of electronic devices on how we read, the book still matters and many nations with fastest and cheap fibre optic internet connection build more ‘brick and mortar’ libraries, investing more in existing ones: modernizing them to keep knowledge and learning at the centre of every human activity.
Library is not all about reading. It also a space created to provide the quite atmosphere that triggers contemplation and reflection. It is the space that one can be with himself and unto himself, to provoke some soul searching and possibly devote thoughts to more important or even banal things. Without library space, the gap will be filled by gossip corners and circles of vanity chatter over petty issues. It was in the absence of the library space that young people have to create alternatives to it whose overall impact may likely be negative. The existence of library within a town or a city makes it part of the socializing factors. It becomes one of the faces of a town or a city. In a city or society where all the beautiful buildings that qualified to be called ‘monuments’ are shopping malls there is possibility that ‘shopping’ can be protracted.
Advanced nations have the best libraries. Maybe this is the reason why these nations keep moving forward and resolving their own problems. The best libraries in the world are located in Austria, USA, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Norway, Denmark, Canada and China. Even Middle East countries are catching up with massive investment in knowledge. This month gas-rich Qatar commissioned one of the iconic libraries in the world. Built over five years, the library is already a tourist attraction; with space for teens and children. Stocked with over one million books, with 3D printing and stages for performance. The library has in stock famous heritage works of Ibn Sina and Al Razi. According the government of Qatar the library is only one of the steps towards directing its economy to ‘knowledge based.’ Though with small population, ample gas reserves and huge sovereign wealth, this gulf country is working for a future that has knowledge at the centre of it.
Libraries are to knowledge what television commercials and films are to shopping. People watch films and television commercials that inspire them to buy things; change their television from plasma to 3D. While schools impart knowledge, it is library that expands and sustains, and even inspires quest to know more and independently and critically think and discover things beyond the confine of classroom periods.
History will never forget the burning of Library of Alexandria in 48 BC, 270-275 AD, 391 AD and after 642 AD. On all these occasions the destruction of the library symbolized an attempt to destroy ‘culture and knowledge.’ The burning of Library of Alexandria has become a symbol of the value of library in societies that make knowledge a priority. Attack on Alexandria library, often with flames shows importance of library to that ancient society.
Often, we wonder and ask; why more schools hardly turn into more advancement in knowledge? Why are there so many graduates that can’t write a coherent paragraph? Why are there more universities but zero research and inventions? Why are there universities of technology without even pretending any technological breakthrough?
Investing in libraries can cultivate reading culture, and possibly address so many devastating setbacks educationally. Without standard libraries social gaps are created. The result of the impact of this gap – now and in the future, is better imagined.
