Food for the soul

IN PRAISE OF LIBRARIES

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

Marcus Tullius Cicero

My son and his family are on their way to Bali for a well-earned holiday. Before they left, my daughter-in-law asked me to return the above book to the library as she did not have time and it was due back. As she said, it was an expensive and beautiful book (I dipped into it) and she would never have bought it - but because we have wonderful public libraries she was able to borrow it for a while. I visit the library all too infrequently these days, but it got me to thinking about them in all sorts of ways. So not really a foodie post this - other than the coincidence of the book being about food - and the use of the word 'food' in the title of this post.

Disclosure - my last - and most desired career - was as a librarian. I say most desired because I really had always wanted to be a librarian and did try to become one on leaving university but I got into one of those catch 22 situations. The library school would not take me without library experience and the library said I was too qualified. Well I didn't try very hard.

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” Walter Cronkite

But I did love libraries. We were fairly poor (as a child) and books were expensive, and I just loved to read - anything and everything - like many small children. And so we were regular users of the public library. I read so many that the system could not keep up with me - I remember reading all my borrowed books one day and returning them to the library on the same day to get some more - but they could not oblige. Back then we had little tickets in pockets at the back of the book as a means of showing who had the book and the tickets did not get filed until the end of the day. I think it was also those little tickets that made me love libraries. There was something very appealing about them - and I think I played games with my own, very few, books by sticking in little pockets and making tickets to put in them.

“When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.” Rita Mae Brown

I also remember my mother pleading with the librarian to let me progress from the picture books (at the age of six) and on to things like Enid Blyton, because I had read all their picture books. I think they obliged even though technically I had to be eight years old. And look here is a picture of the very library at the very time that I was going there. It's amazing what you can find on the net if you look. These are the actual shelves I was seeking admittance to. I remember them.

As a teenager at school my Saturday pocket-money earning job was in the library. Most of my time there was out of harm's way either shelving books or covering them, but occasionally I was allowed on to the desk to file all those little tickets or find the right ones for the books being returned, or even help somebody find something. I also worked there one summer whilst at university - but this wasn't enough for the library schools.

Libraries are our most used cultural resource and are vital to the health of a nation - well I think so anyway. One of the greatest tragedies of the ancient world was the loss of the library at Alexandria. So many texts lost forever. And public libraries are only the tip of the iceberg. There are our modern day Alexandrias - The Library of Congress, the British Library - all the national libraries, the university an school libraries, the company libraries, the gallery libraries - every institution has a library or an archive tucked away somewhere, even if it's only a few documents and books. And no you can't find everything on the net - although it's ever more all the time. Eventually if you are a scholar of some kind you will have to use a library.

Librarians have a very poor image for some reason. Even now they are most often portrayed as grumpy, dowdy middle-aged women telling people off. And actually nothing could be further from the truth. The librarians it has been my privilege to work with have been some of the most inspiring, educated, funny, interesting people it has been my good luck to meet in my life. They are highly qualified, poorly paid and under appreciated. They are the information gatekeepers and many of them have moved into the organising the information on the net. It's an extension of their traditional role.

“Librarians are the coolest people out there doing the hardest job out there on the frontlines. And every time I get to encounter or work with librarians, I'm always impressed by their sheer awesomeness.” Neil Gaiman

If you can read - the whole world of knowledge is there for the taking. And libraries play a vital role here - particularly in areas where people cannot afford books, or computers, or magazines or newspapers. My brief visit to the local library today - which was very pleasantly busy had masses of computers for people to use however they wished, magazines, newspapers, and, of course, thousands of books. No family can possibly have enough picture books for small children - I could not have survived that period without a library. They are places to dream. My mother read almost exclusively travel books and she could never get enough. The library was her source. For she dreamt of travelling I think, but had to wait until her old age before she did. I often think that all those people who say that Shakespeare could not possibly have written those plays because he wasn't educated enough, forget that he could read, and that he therefore could educate himself. Alas there were no public libraries then, but he may well have had access to the libraries of the rich somehow. Just a thought.

Anyway - books - food for the soul - for dreaming, for learning, for escaping from the hum-drum world - and libraries - safe places in which to do it.

“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book." E.B. White