Day 98
Well, I did it again … I missed a blog post. I do not have internet yet at the house and I arrived at the library (totally unaware that it was Saturday) and was greeted at the door with a friendly sign telling me to ‘enjoy my evening’. Rats.
I guess I should pay more attention to closing hours of public buildings! I guess I should pay closer attention to what day it is!
In any case – here I am again at the library. Reminds me of It’s a Wonderful Life … Jimmy Stewart asks Clarence (the angel) where his wife is and Clarence answers (in a creaky old voice), “She’s at the LIBRARY!” (Well, not quite those words, but you get the gist.)
So, though I am not Donna Reed, or a spinster librarian, I am once again … at the library.
I was doing some reading the other day – a break from unpacking and trying to figure out how to fit 23 more boxes of kitchen stuff onto the one shelf that is available – and came across a wonderful article about the Library of Congress.
The LOC was founded in (who knew?) 1800 and is located in Washington, D.C., and has roughly 3500 staff members! Wow! In ONE library system! There are actually three buildings – named after presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. It is the largest libary in the world, housing some 147 million items in 470 languages on 838 miles of shelving!
Glad I don’t have to cross reference that stuff. Thank you Mr. Dewey!
The Thomas Jefferson building, a crown jewel of America’s arts renaissance, houses books, maps, photos, manuscripts, prints and drawings, digital files, audio and video recordings, sheet music, unpublished works, comic books, muscial scores, plays, scripts and the world’s largest collection of legal materials. (Very cool!) It also is home to North America’s largest collection of rare books. Some 10,000 new items are added daily! (How is that even possible?!)
It makes this library, built in 1977, sans any frescos or opulence or extraordinary architectural features or painted ceilings (just acoustic tiles) seem rather bland … and yet it is cozy and functional and my lifeline to the world at this time. My connection.
And though I think I’d like to be in the Dartmouth library or the Jefferson building … I’ll be here … typing away and trying to stay as plugged in as possible in my given time allotted (9:22 left of my computer time!). Good thing I’m a speedy typist!
So, until my internet gets established or until further notice tell Jimmy or Clarence or anyone else that I will be … in the library!
See that’s what I am talking about….libraries are just so wonderful. I guess after attending 10 different universities and spending hours upon hours in the libraries of all kinds they begin to grow on you. It could be that a lot of that time I was suppose to be researching and writing I instead wondering the aisles and would discover amazing books on all kinds of topics (non of wh/I needed to write about ….but still wonderful all the same). Sometimes I wonder with all this technology will these old fashion “hard wired” libraries become obsolete one day??? Hope not I find them to be such a refuge from the rest of the world’s nonsense.