Libraries...
 

I absolutely love libraries. I am not sure if I am more comfortable in a factory, a work bench or a library...I swear its a tie!

Not sure when the last time any of you went to a library. I mean a serious library with leather bound volumes and mahogany. Stacks and stacks of the works from who knows who and that's where I'm getting at.

All those thousands and thousands of volumes. Who wrote all that? I just finished my 5th book and have 2 more coming out in 12 months and maybe another (Paul! SmileWavy).

I know hundreds and hundreds of people but not many authors. I don't know many folks at all that have written as many books. What is most fascinating is that there are thousands and thousand ...heck millions of books written yet who are all these folks producing? What were they like? Why did they write? Where are they now?

Mind you, the ones that authored the books in these pics are most likely all dead but they all have a story and it blows me away to think that each person that sat down and wrote in long hand, on a pad, on a typewriter, dictated, used a computer...they produced these. What were the feelings and ideas that were going on in their heads? What obstacles and elation did they experience?

When was the last time you were in one of these places?

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What did you think?

If we could choose a super power mine would be the ability to read a book by picking it up.

I'd go to every library on the planet and read every book in each one of them.

And imagine being able to retain everything you ever read and to be able to read it at near light speed? I guess it would be the difference between humans and the Amoeba. Having such ability would render humans Amoeba like in comparison?

How much would that change our perceptions? All that information ready to apply? Synthesizing it into action, reflecting to create wisdom? Is it so far fetched to think that in maybe the near future we could be plugged into a network of data that allows instant access to all written word and its up to us to process? What of mankind then?

Absolutely that is in our distant, distant future.

Futuretimeline.net has some cool reads.

The irony here is that most of all those billions and billions of written words are worthless because most of them are simply not relevant to anything.

Interesting to somebody maybe but probably useless with regard to improving the human condition. Such things as phrenology, astrology and alchemy come to mind. The percentage of exoteric knowledge contained in all those tomes seems to me to be so small that reading it (or somehow otherwise absorbing it) would be a waste of time, literally.

Libraries are awesome, librarians as well. First data science and first use of an indexed file system. Protogeeks! (and some of the wimmens are cute - at least you know they are smart too)

Not in the least.

If you truly want to know how we got to where we are today you need to know the history of everything.

I never discount where I might find a nugget that fills in a hole.

It could be an academic work, it could be a poem, or song that tells a tale from another time.

Yes. I would be a fool to argue against libraries. The reality though is that most of what is in these grand old libraries is not useful.

Well, you can't know that for sure unless, you've read it.;)

That would depend entirely on what one considers to be useful and useless knowledge. All knowledge can be useful, IMO. Just because something isn't useful to you, or is applicable only rarely, does not mean it is useless. Sometimes knowledge of one thing becomes useful only when applied to knowledge of another thing.

Stomachmonkey, your chosen super power isnt one I have ever heard before and never thought of. That is a great answer to that question. I'll trade you my invisibility anytime!

Wrong. The information in those books is a record of what has been thought, tried, and imagined. It is the foundation for where we are now.

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I love the look of a library. To have access to all that knowledge is just cool. As pointed out in the You-tube to fix things thread the biggest problem with the internet is all the crap and downright lies before finding the core of truth and accuracy. The same is true for a library. It is usually easier to tell a good reference from garbage in a book.

Stomach monkey you nailed it about books. I love books and not those electronic reader kindle things . However my literary route re libraries was slightly different. When I was young and at school I used to pretend to read. When I was older I used to go to the library and ogle the girls and attempt to chat them up. To get the real essence of libraries I actually dated a librarian. And now I am an avid reader. Yes libraries are great. I have come full circle. Chasing my tail so to speak. Good thread MD.:):D

I dated a librarian once as well. With no doubt she was the strangest lady I even knew. She was just different.

Well GH I tend to agree with you about the strangeness part. This librarian gal had a pet rabbit in her apartment. The rabbit must have been jealous coz it would try to bite me on a regular basis. The rabbit won out in the end. It was meant to be.:D

Funny, I'm the opposite. I was reading an unwieldy novel a couple of years ago when I saw a Kindle commercial. I had considered an ereader a couple years earlier, but they still didn't have the selection or price I desired. I ordered a PaperWhite with backlighting & haven't picked up a real book since.

It is great, I used to buy used books, but the kindle books are usually cheaper. I can read at night without disturbing my wife. I bought a 3G for my disabled Mom & now she can read anything she wants without any internet or trips to the library.

The last time I went to our downtown library, it was packed with homeless people.

Anyone know where it is? There is a lot of crap on the internet but generally if I am googling something factual or historical, I can find a wiki article in seconds!

Now to your point, if I am googling a how to on how to fix my coffee maker, that can be tricky...

The public library; where Socialism goes for acceptance. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/pyth.gif

_

oh hell yes!! was she rocking that sexy eye glasses and skirt thing..you know where she takes off her glasses..unties her hair bun....

oh..what were we talking about?

Kindle readers are great! I have over a hundred books on mine that I have read and it's easy to carry in your pocket when traveling. The print is easy to read outdoors in full sunshine and no need to change pages..just press the edge..done.

I love libraries, the quiet, the smell.

And I was very happy when I read that the usage of printed books is on the rise again, at least here in Germany and among the younger. Libaries have more visitors again. Some hope for the humans.

great thread. pictures are spectacular.

Sometimes the internet fails to find what you're looking for, books can be great.

Who was the first man to launch into orbit from the 'pad with a mustache grown out and not shaved? I found it easier to figure that one out from books.

Search engines will try to point you awray with that question, as there was a person who accomplished a separate first that had a very prominent mustache. He was the third. Search engines will also make this difficult, as the words Mustache, astronaut, Chris Hadfield, space, and orbit will occur together a lot. :)

And if you do find the answer, please do not post it, its a fun question to ask people who believe their smartphone can find the answer to everything.

Trinity College, Dublin.

45+ Of The Most Majestic Libraries In The World | Architecture & Design

I'm old school, I still prefer a paper book or magazine. It just seems like a more tangible experience. Libraries are cool, finding exactly what you are looking for is almost like finding a buried treasure. Also hard to beat the smell and the quiet.

Love libraries as well. Especially those from the early 80's with the semi industrial look, dark tinted windows, dark brick, acres of carpet and nice cool a/c. those are the places as a kid I most loved.

My mother would take me and turn me loose. I would take forever deciding which fun stuff I was going to check out. I loved everything from kids mystery series (Three Investigators) to books full of big color pictures of the universe. It was better than Toys R Us honestly. Everyone in the library was an equal and socio-economic status mean exactly zero. Just a wonderful place.

Here, the libraries, especially in the winter, are the daytime habitat of men who are homeless by choice.

The 'smell' is medieval.


The burning of the Library at Alexandria was truely a devastating event. Think what must have been there on papayrus scrolls.

That is the difference between an expert and an author.

If it (non-fiction) contains more footnotes than original thoughts or ideas, it's most likely academic garbage.
IMHO of course.

True - academics use footnotes like a hack furniture carpenter uses nails - a true furniture carpenter will use dovetails and glue. Good non-fiction authors use references and if they are really good, not many. Book sales are fine but the true measure are citations.

If you ever meet an author, don't ask how many books have been sold, ask how many citations they hold.

When I go a library, the first thing I seek out is the oldest section of literature they have.

It always amazes me to hold books written over well 100 years ago. To have access to this is humbling. Many of them, even have penciled in markings from their long dead owners/readers. This is especially true in old bed and breakfasts with libraries. A scribbling from a kid on 1893? For me- Amazing!

There is one bed and breakfast, relatively close by, which Erwin Rommel visited pre- WWII to study civil war battlefields in Virginia. Although no books in it's library reference him, he was there, and a lot of the books are school books from the family that grew up there.

Even though a lot of the stuff is obsolete, it is still captivates me. I remember reading literature on shipbuilding from circa 1900. The math was incredible- as they had very complex calculations to determine hull flexion over waves and such.

Ever stuck in a library? Hit the archives!;)

Every day. Though not quite so grand.



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the town i grew up in had an original carnegie library. wonderful place.

Denver has 8 or 9 Carnegie Libraries. Most are still Libraries.

Colorado got 35 or so, I think.

My significant other has a nice room just perfect with really high ceiling. I told her I'd build it out for her with dark bookcases and one of those classic roll-around, almost vertical ladders on rails with brass fittings and stuff.

She said no, thank God.

In the the authorities are closing libraries like they are going out of fashion,;wait a minute,what am I saying, that is what's happening.
My grandfather wrote about 40 books before the war, on law, all destroyed by the Nazis. After the war he used a pseudonym for the few books he then wrote, and had one unfinished when he died aged 88. Actually my dad hunted and hunted and eventually found 1 tatty book dated 1926 by my grandfather, on contract law, but its written in what I think is a High German font and I cannot make head nor tail of it.
Thing about law books, as I know from the 5' high pile my lawyer daughter abandoned at my house when she bought her own flat,is that they become out of date real quick.

As an aside you have an interesting heritage with a grandfather from Germany. I have a grandmother that was buried in Leeds. I remember looking at the gravestone back in the 1950's. Will have to come over to Leeds one of these days. I also have a pic of a house she lived in on Vinery Road, Leeds.

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