library

library (lì´brèr´ê) noun
plural libraries
Abbr. lib.
1.a. A place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending. b. A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged. c. A room in a private home for such a collection. d. An institution or a foundation maintaining such a collection.
2.A commercial establishment that lends books for a fee.
3.A series or set of books issued by a publisher.
4.A collection of recorded data or tapes arranged for ease of use.
5.Computer Science. A collection of standard programs, routines, or subroutines, often related to a specific application, that are available for general use.

[Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin librârium, bookcase, from neuter of librârius, of books, from liber, libr-, book.]

Library

Library, repository for recorded information in various formats, including books, microforms, magazines, phonorecordings, films, magnetic tapes, slides, videotapes, and electronic media.

Types of Libraries

Types of libraries include national libraries, such as the Library of Congress (established in 1800) in Washington, D.C.; research libraries, such as the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.; college and university libraries; public libraries, which generally contain literature, social services information, reference works, music, and recreational books and films; school libraries, which support the curricula of their school systems; and special libraries, designed to serve specific professional needs. Libraries of different types are often connected through cooperative lending arrangements.

History of Libraries

Libraries originated in the Middle East between 3000 and 2000 BC. The greatest library of the ancient world was established by the Greeks in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC (Alexandria, Library of). By the 2nd century AD public and private libraries containing Greek and Latin works had been established in Rome.

Many scientific and mathematical texts were copied and preserved in libraries by Muslim scholars in the 8th and 9th centuries. In Western Europe, literature was preserved in the libraries of monasteries. The rise of universities in Italy as early as the 11th century also stimulated the development of academic library collections. The 14th century was a notable period for the establishment of European libraries.

With the invention of printing in the 15th century, books became more readily available and reading increased, causing private libraries to expand. During the 17th and 18th centuries national libraries came into existence throughout Europe. The first public library designed for popular education was founded in Manchester, England, about 1850.

The first American libraries were the private collections of Massachusetts settlers. The first American academic library was founded in 1638 by English clergyman John Harvard, with a bequest of 300 books to Harvard college in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard University).

Other types of libraries developed during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including professional and historical libraries. Funds provided by American industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the 1880s and 1890s supported the construction of more than 1680 public libraries. Through the Library Services Act of 1956 and the Library Services and Construction Act of 1964, the federal government has supported the growth and extension of library services throughout the country.
 

Free public libraries in Canada date from the passage of the Ontario Free Libraries Act in 1882. The National Library of Canada, founded in 1953, receives a copy of every book published in Canada.

Modern Library Services

The modern American library usually divides its tasks into two categories, one relating to internal operations (called technical services), the other dealing directly with library users (public services). Technical services include the acquisition, cataloging, organization, and physical treatment of library materials.

The computer has brought about an important development in library cataloging: The Library of Congress, which receives a copy of every book copyrighted in the United States, now puts cataloging information on magnetic tape for use by other libraries in their computer systems. This cataloging information is distributed by several major networks.

Library Buildings

Roman libraries usually contained a single, large reading room, ornately decorated and lined with shelves for scrolls and manuscript volumes. In the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) European libraries usually were housed in monasteries, universities, or royal households. Beginning in the 1400s libraries expanded their reading areas and developed storage systems. Large, richly decorated, halls housed both readers and books or manuscripts. Drastic changes in library building took place in the 19th century with the emergence of a large reading public and an enormously expanding stock of materials. Until the early 20th century central reading rooms in larger libraries were fairly large, decorated, and furnished with rows of long tables and simple wooden chairs. Smaller rooms frequently housed special collections.

Today, library buildings are constructed so that they can be easily expanded or modified to accommodate changes in collections, formats, and user needs. The rapid expansion of information technology since World War II (1939-1945) has forced libraries to consider new methods of storage, such as compact movable shelving and the microfilming of materials. The decor of modern libraries is determined largely by practical considerations.

Library Education and the Library Profession

The first formal educational program for training librarians was established by American librarian Melvil Dewey in 1887 at Columbia University in New York City. Other universities followed, and individual libraries also sponsored training programs.

An influential report published in 1923 and sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation, criticized the emphasis on clerical procedures in library training and urged that it be more professionally oriented and lead to an advanced academic degree. During the next few decades the master's degree in library science became a normal requirement for professional library employment. Many library schools now also offer doctoral programs. The curriculum of library schools now usually incorporates elements of information science.

Librarians have established a variety of professional organizations on the regional, national, and international levels. In the United States there are state library associations, the American Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, and groups such as the Music Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries.

Libraries

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books. Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the book-worm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Lecture, 31 Aug. 1837, delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard University (published in Nature, Addresses and Lectures, "The American Scholar," 1849).

Libraries

What is more important in a library than anything else- than everything else- is the fact that it exists.
Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), U.S. poet. "The Premise of Meaning," in American Scholar (Washington, D.C., 5 June 1972; repr. in Riders on Earth, as "The Premise at the Center," 1978).

• A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a "silentium."
• Abdul Kassam Ismael, Grand Vizier of Persia in the tenth century, carried his library with him wherever he went. Four hundred camels carried the 117,000 volumes.
• Lao Tzu  was appointed chief librarian at Luoyang by the emperor himself.
• The famous Casanova (Giacomo Casanova) was a librarian for many years before he died.
• CYBRARIAN: Computer Net-oriented information specialist. [Jean Armour Polly, 1992]
• At Stanford University, "Green" means the Cecil H. Green Library. 

although i never realized it until recent years, my life actions have been to build a personal library of everything.  a good number of people find satisfaction in collecting things.  the process of obtaining them, the care in which the collections are preserved.  on a mass scale, this can become tedious.  what i wanted to do was document my travels, and create meaning out of the endless task of collecting and keeping track of "things".  this notion is a big part of what this web site might be about (i still am not sure what this web site is about).  this whole structure is more of a process than a thing in itself.  it is nonlinear, and modular.  current limitations of server space, bandwidth, etc. prevent me from fleshing it out more (i.e. real mp3 streams, streaming home videos, commercials, movies, etc...) but as the breakthroughs come it can easily be implemented as i go along.  i think the trick to the idea of libraries is to not get EVERYTHING, but to obtain things that "hit you" in a certain way.  interest is quickly lost when things become too easy.  you come into a lot of money, and you move away from the "mundane" things and spend thousands, millions on rare items that are valued by the shared perceptions &  attention given to it.  to me this is a dead end.  again, money seems to corrupt the sheer love of the process and the challenge (i.e. art collectors).  what i'm after is not to obtain everything, but to obtain things that make sense as an add-on to my current center of being.  this isn't a race.  it's a quest for meaning.

 - @Om* 7/11/00

• galleries
• museums
• collections
• storage
• permanence
• Anomalog:
• Librarians Join p2p War
• A Great Team - Open Source & Libraries
• Feds & Libraries Under The "patriot act" - Workarounds
  • Patriot Act Revolt
  • Asscroft On The Ropes

Michael Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer are the directors of the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library in San Francisco, the only library in the world exclusively devoted to the literature of mind-altering drugs. Michael Horowitz was Timothy Leary's archivist and is coauthor of _The High Times Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs_.  Both edited Aldous Huxley's essay collection _Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience_ (1931-1963).
Palmer and Horowitz live in northern California.  Their daughter is Winona Ryder, and Tim Leary was her godfather.
  

"we're not really biological creatures anymore... most of what we pass on to our children is culture, libraries." - Hans Moravec, director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh

In 1815 Thomas Jefferson  sold his 6500-volume book collection to the federal government as the nucleus of the restored Library of Congress, which had been destroyed during the War of 1812 (1812-1815).

• when i was old enough to understand and utilize libraries, i daydreamed and fantasized that i would live and breathe the library of congress because it just seemed like a wonderland of infinite information.  i just wanted to consume knowledge at this point.  i was the only one i knew that would spend an entire day at the public library.   little did i know that i never had to go to such a library, as the library came to me in the form of the network.  it seems patience brings all things towards you.  it has nothing to do with laziness, as i spend a great deal of energy laboring w/o monetary reward.  i think the key is to visualize your ideal, and open up enough to let it come through.  keep punching holes into those ideal parallel universes and let it come pouring through... afterall, it's just information... - @Om* 7/6/02

track _Remember_ MP3 by Deep
samples:

• "We are here.. it is our intention, to assist you in creating a new vision, a vision that inspires you to live and love on planet earth...  like a priceless jewel, buried in dark layers of soil and stone, earth radiates brilliant beauty into the caverns of space and time... We ask you, as keepers of the great stories, to proclaim an allegiance to earth, pledge the transformation of yourselves, which is the journey to light and dark, and honor earth's momentous role in setting you free...";
• "We appear to exist from without as a collective of Pleiadian energies, calling to you from the future... we also exist within you.  we are your ancestors existing within you, as well as without... we are you.  on the golden spirals of time.  cycling the epics of existence... calling to you yourselves, to reconsider all you thought holy.  we ask you to re-evaluate the purpose of your life.  to redefine the forces that rule you.  to resurrect the codes of consciousness within your being.  it is time for you to reclaim your knowledge as the creator through thought, to recall the purpose as the living library of earth... to restore beauty through value of life, and to remember, remember, remember, who you are..."

• Library of Congress
• 1814 - British forces destroyed the United States Library of Congress along with the 3,000 books it contained
• Library of Alexandria
• "biblio" means "library" in Nadsat, the languge used in the film _A Clockwork Orange_ (vhs/ntsc)(avi)(665.9megs) (1971 )directed by Stanley Kubrick
   

• film _Gattaca_ (vhs/ntsc): The Gattaca building (interiors and exteriors) is, in reality, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, CA. It was designedby American  architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957. The largest Wright design ever constructed, it was largely built after his death in 1959. The central dome (prominent in the roof-cleaning scene) contains the county library.
• track _I Am The Sub-Librarian_ MP3 by Piano Magic off of _Low Birth Weight_ on Rocket Girl (1999)
• urban folk track _The Librarian_ MP3 by Hefner
• track _At The Library_ MP3 by Green Day off of _39/Smooth_ 12" on Lookout!

 

• Rudolph Steiner Anthroposophical Library located in an alley in Pasadena, California
• Theosophical Library located in Pasadena, California
• Huntington Beach Library
•  (Los Cincos and a bunch of bands played there)
• Art Center School Of Design Library
• librarian Stephen "shansonuk" Hanson
• Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens located in San Marino, California
• 800 year old library among the ruins of Angkor
• Nag Hammadi Library
• Trithemius of Wurzberg
• Canterbury Library - downtown Christchurch, New Zealand

If I go to a library, take a "copyrighted" book off the shelf, go to the Xerox machine, pay money to Xerox Corporation and the city that i live in (membership fee for the library), make a copy of a few pages (or all pages) of the book, and take it home with me, how is that any different from logging onto a peer to peer network, paying money to the phone company, ISP, and hardware manufacturers to be able to do so, then taking music, pictures, software, or video off the shelf, making copies for myself and bringing it "home" to my computer...?

if i don't have to "seek permission" from the author to copy materials from the library, then i shouldn't have to "ask permission" to use anything else published (book, web, tv, etc.) if an author doesn't want his/her information circulated, then they shouldn't release it.  don't expect me to give you money for something you want to be seen.  it's a PRIVILEGE to be seen, and to draw MY attention - it is not your right to push crap into my face and expect to get money from it (like tv, radio, music, film, and entertainment industries).  most of the crap out there is noise, bad art, boy bands, hollywood industry movies, etc.  cluttering my personal life.  if i like something, it'll be good, pure, and expressive, and i found it by seeking it out.  i'll pay some money for THAT, but on my own terms, not "the artists'".

so please feel free to make exact copies of the content of this site.  it's a library.  do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  none of it is mine anyway, except for a few bits here and there, and i don't care...

"stealing" is defined as taking something away.  you can't take away information, you can only replicate and reproduce it. everything is information (including biology and in the near future, things like food - so you CAN eat information).  the only ones losing out are those trying to make money off of it.  so be it. - @Om* 8/25/01

film _Waking Life_ (avi parts 1 & 2)(360megs total)/(vhs/ntsc)directed by Richard Linklater

 (A girl and a boy are sitting in a library)

What are you writing?

A novel.

What's the story?

There's no story. It's just people, gestures, moments, bits of rapture, fleeting emotions. In short, the greatest story ever told.

Are you in the story?

I don't think so. But then, I'm kind of reading it and then writing it.

From 1939 to 1946 Jorge Luis Borges was a municipal librarian, but he was fired from his post by the Péron regime.

The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts between, surrounded by very low railings. From any of the hexagons one can see, interminably, the upper and lower floors. The distribution of the galleries is invariable. Twenty shelves, five long shelves per side, cover all the sides except two; their height, which is the distance from floor to ceiling, scarcely exceeds that of a normal bookcase. One of the free sides leads to a narrow hallway which opens onto another gallery, identical to the first and to all the rest. To the left and right of the hallway there are two very small closets. In the first, one may sleep standing up; in the other, satisfy one's fecal necessities. Also through here passes a spiral stairway, which sinks abysmally and soars upwards to remote distances. In the hallway there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates all appearances. Men usually infer from this mirror that the Library is not infinite (if it were, why this illusory duplication?); I prefer to dream that its polished surfaces represent and promise the infinite ... Light is provided by some spherical fruit which bear the name of lamps. There are two, transversally placed, in each hexagon. The light they emit is insufficient, incessant.

- Jorge Luis Borges, _The Library Of Babel_

Telex External LinkInternal LinkInventory Cache