Library under construction – along with a 50 story hotel and condo….
I live across the street from a library…
or at least what used to be a library. The Donnell Library on West 53rd Street.
Today, it is a big hole in the ground.
There is going to be a 50-story condominium and Baccarat Hotel where the Donnell Library used to be.
Frankly, I will not miss the library.
Even though I lived right across the street from it for many years, I never went inside. I never sat in its reading room. I never checked out a book. I never explored its stacks to go through old volumes of bound periodicals in some research project.
Why would I do that?
Why, when I can order up pretty much anything I want online, any time I want. Admittedly, the library is free (thank you Benjamin Franklin for that concept), but the web is also free (at least so far), and instant and much much easier to reference and find stuff than in the stacks (though less romantic, in a literary sense).
I am old enough to remember wandering through the stacks at Sawyer Library at Williams when I was a student. I even had an assigned carrel – a small desk wedged in the stacks where I worked.
Those were the days.
I have a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary on my bookshelf, but when I went to see if carrel was spelled with one ‘L’ or two, I didn’t pull out the OED. I just went to Dictionary.com.
My niece, upon seeing the first Harry Potter movie asked why Harry and Hermione and Ron always went to the ‘library’ at Hogwarts to look stuff up. “Why don’t they just google it?”
A reasonable question.
At any rate, like the OED, the notion of a physical library still has some emotional pull for those of us who grew up with library cards and card catalogues and such. But we are old.
This morning, the NY Times announced that the design of the ‘new’ Donnell Library (they’re putting it in the basement of the Baccarat Hotel and Condo Complex) is going to be unveiled today. It isn’t exactly a library anymore. Says Enrique Norton, architect of the plan:
“It has become more like a cultural space, which is about gathering people, giving people the opportunity to encounter each other,” Mr. Norten said. “It’s not really about just being a repository of books.”
Library: a place for gathering people, giving people the opportunity to encounter each other….
Well, there you have it. Another 3,000 year old institution killed by the web.
Library of Alexandria? Oh yeah, that’s where all those ancient Egyptians and Romans got to encounter one another.
Is this the future of all brick and mortar institutions? Will The New York Times building one day be seen as a place for ‘gathering people’ so that they can ‘encounter one another?’
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s novel of the dystopian future, (and also an excellent film by Francois Truffaut (1966)), Oskar Werner plays Montag, a ‘fireman’ whose job is to burn books.
We seem to have bypassed all that nasty burning stuff.
But the result is pretty much the same.
Copyright Michael Rosenblum 2013
12 Comments
jj July 28, 2015
Oops…look like you were one of those that made a faulty prediction. http://www.alternet.org/books/all-those-techies-who-predicted-demise-public-library-were-wrong
jj July 25, 2015
Wow. You really don’t get it. Maybe you get your information from Wikipedia, too? Nice, but lots of misinformation there, just like there is in your opinionated article. “Google It” is a fun term and Google is handy, but it’s just going to lead you to paid and highly-visited sites, not necessarily the best ones. Looks like you need to learn how to really use the internet. I am so sorry for you. When the new library opens, hotfoot it down there and find out just what they have–it will open your world!
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Julie Zamostny May 14, 2013
As a librarian, I’m going against my collegial flock by saying that I appreciate hearing your perspective. It’s been my experience that we who work in libraries are more comfortable having conversations in echo chambers where all we hear is how valuable and indispensable we are when what we really need to be discussing are the threats and weaknesses (other than financial concerns) that show the opposite side of the coin, which is exactly what your post did. I’m not sure why libraries feel the need to be loved and adored by all but I think we need to come to grips with the fact that there are folks out there, you being one of them, who do not have a need for libraries and who, in turn, do not recognize their value – and that’s OK. A connection needs to exist in order for there to be value, yes?
I do believe that libraries exist to do more than to “get the poor online” because I’ve seen it firsthand. I’m a big believer in lifelong learning and self-directed education across all age groups and I see a lot of that happening everyday in the libraries within which I work. But that’s my experience and perhaps you haven’t witnessed the same, and that OK too.
Plus, I gotta give you credit when you ask, “Is this the future of all brick and mortar institutions? Will the New York Times building one day be seen as a place for ‘gathering people’ so that they can ‘encounter one another?'”
Ironically enough, for the past couple of years, there has been a big push around libraries (at least in my state) developing community connections and providing spaces where people can do exactly what you say above – where they can gather and encounter. I believe the Makerspace movement in libraries is also another way we’re promoting our spaces as gathering/encountering places where people and ideas and skills encounter each other in order to learn and create new and wonderful things. Plus, what about all the talk about humans interacting more virtually than in person nowadays? We’re going to need these spaces to encounter physical humans if we’re destined to remain functionally social – at least in the physical realm, yes?
Tim May 13, 2013
Hi Michael,
Are you interested in engaging with readers about what a library is and is not?
For a greater perspective please see A Library Is | Eduhacker and A Library is Not | Eduhacker.
Best,
Tim
Stacey Wicksall May 12, 2013
Mr. Rosenblum your post is provocative. You are right in your assessment that libraries have changed. Libraries are going beyond books because technology has pushed through the limitation inherent in books being the sole means of knowledge acquisition, sharing and growth. Libraries are places where people may choose to congregate to share ideas in person or through virtual means.
The philosophical reason for the existence of libraries is rooted in the dynamic nature of knowledge. As such, libraries must be dynamic places in and of themselves. The ideal library must reflect the time of its existence as well as the needs and interests of the people living within that epoch. No two libraries will look or function in exactly the same way because no two communities are exactly the same. The service, space and resources available are directly related to the members of the library. And the members of the library guarantee the library will not become extinct.
Libraries will continue to thrive so long as human beings have a need to evolve, create, socialize and innovate. Or, as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs so succinctly illustrates, humans have an innate need to have their curiosity both piqued and sated. This self-actualization cannot be realized entirely via virtual means. There is a need for humans to bond and virtual bonding cannot compete with face to face contact. Virtual bonding is a superficial, two-dimensional encounter. Real-life encounters are deeper and more meaningful. There are nuances that no virtual meeting can begin to simulate. An encounter in the flesh has no substitute.
The survival of humanity will not occur because of the existence of the Internet. The Internet is a tool that can help to make ideas circulate around the world faster. Libraries are the places that can offer humans a place to consider, relate, and communicate their thoughts, reactions and ideas in relation to the ideas presented both online and offline and in their neighborhood or across the globe.
You see, Mr. Rosenblum, libraries are places where ideas are like the seeds sown in a garden. The seeds do not all come in the same containers, but they all offer humanity an infinite array of possibilities. They sustain our curiosity, our need for socialization and our ultimate goal of self-actualization. Libraries are places of learning. The books are not burning, but there is a blaze. It is an incredible inferno of ideas being fueled and fanned at libraries around the world. It is spectacular. It is awe-inspiring. It is one hell of a video story.
This is the story of being a member of the human race. Join us around the campfire, Mr. Rosenblum. It must be rather chilly where you are.
Violet Jones May 11, 2013
This article is incredibly out-of-touch and bourgeois. In a nation where one in five adults reads below the eighth grade level; Mr. Rosenblum would cast aside the one institution that is dedicated to the transformative power of literacy to change people’s lives — all people — and lift them from ignorance. In a nation where more and more low-income people are struggling just to put food on the table with nothing left over to buy expensive internet devices and connections, Mr. Rosenblum would say that since he personally doesn’t need the library, then no one else needs one. And then to top it all off with a glib, almost gleeful reference to burning books? Shame on you, Mr. Rosenblum. Books and libraries built this civilization that has enriched your existence so. Shame on you! — http://www.booksarebetter.org
Michael Rosenblum May 12, 2013
Dear Violet
It would seem that in the aftermath of the Internet Revolution the whole purpose of a library has changed. It is now a place where the poor can get online, apparently. Well, this is indeed a justification I suppose, but it is also a massive shift in what a library once was.
Violet Jones May 12, 2013
Thanks for the response, but all it does is try to shift away from the real problem with your piece, which is that it shows a total disregard for people who are less fortunate than yourself and who need libraries: people who can’t afford to buy books for their children, people who can’t afford expensive internet devices and connections, people who can;t read and need to learn how — pretty much anyone who isn’t just like you, i.e., middle class, educated, internet-addicted, and white. When confronted with this, you rather disingenuously try to shape-shift the conversation by saying that your article is somehow a poignant commentary. But in fact your piece is just typical self-centered jeering at people and places that don’t conform to your own well-to-do, internet-addled world view. Very disappointing, indeed, especially given the things that are happening with libraries in NYC right now. Enjoy the internet attention, I hope you get everything you want out of it.
Michael Rosenblum May 12, 2013
no press is bad press, but more to the point, in your opinion, libraries are the to serve the poor. This may be the case, but if so, this is a big shift from their pre-internet function. Also, you seem to have a very unhealthy fixation on money.
JoFuck Yourself May 13, 2013
For an asshole that lives in a $4 million condo, someone has absolutely no concept of what it is like to live without money.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/building/museum-tower
ingrid abrams May 12, 2013
Again, I urge you to read the Center for an Urban Future’s report on libraries. http://nycfuture.org/research/publications/branches-of-opportunity
Yes, “the poor” can get online at libraries, but we offer so much more. My invitation to meet me at my library stands.