Libraries everywhere
Sep. 17th, 2004 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dream_labyrinthThis morning was really funny.
I started reading the newspaper, and there, on first page, was the picture of somebody I know. Well, I don't know him personally, I have seen him and I have read quite a bit of his writing.
His name's Konrad Umlauf, he is professor for library and information science in Berlin. He's published a ton of articles and books. Mainly because he voices and publishes his opinion to each and everything going on in librarianship. He also believes that public libraries should serve only those who pay taxes or are going to pay taxes in the future, not to people who do not give anything to the community. Like disabled people, probably unemployed and senior citizens, too. This thought, I think, is not very widespread in librarianship, but still he's often treated like some kind of minor god.
Let's put it this way: Umlauf is the pope of librarianship. The school in Leipzig is protestant.
So anyway, he was in the paper.
And then there was this program on the radio that is called "we remember". They just pick an event from the past, political or sociological or whatever they find, and give some information about it.
This time it was the founding of the "Amerika Gedenkbibliothek" 50 years ago, a library in Berlin paid for by donations from America, organized like an American public library, and build so close to the border that for a long time people from East Berlin would use the library, too. After reunification, a lot of people came back, returning books they had checked out before the Wall was built and had not been able to give back earlier.
Pity, though. The library is now part of a larger organization, the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek, that also includes one other library. And they can't afford to have two buildings, so most likely the building of the AGB will be closed.
Here's a link to the text of the program, and you can also listen to it. All German, of course.
But the funny thing, usually libraries aren't menioned much in the media. Except when something really bad happens, like the fire at the Anna-Amalia-Library. But today, twice already. Made me smile.
Now I'll go and do some cleaning. Going to have stupid guests this afternoon.
I started reading the newspaper, and there, on first page, was the picture of somebody I know. Well, I don't know him personally, I have seen him and I have read quite a bit of his writing.
His name's Konrad Umlauf, he is professor for library and information science in Berlin. He's published a ton of articles and books. Mainly because he voices and publishes his opinion to each and everything going on in librarianship. He also believes that public libraries should serve only those who pay taxes or are going to pay taxes in the future, not to people who do not give anything to the community. Like disabled people, probably unemployed and senior citizens, too. This thought, I think, is not very widespread in librarianship, but still he's often treated like some kind of minor god.
Let's put it this way: Umlauf is the pope of librarianship. The school in Leipzig is protestant.
So anyway, he was in the paper.
And then there was this program on the radio that is called "we remember". They just pick an event from the past, political or sociological or whatever they find, and give some information about it.
This time it was the founding of the "Amerika Gedenkbibliothek" 50 years ago, a library in Berlin paid for by donations from America, organized like an American public library, and build so close to the border that for a long time people from East Berlin would use the library, too. After reunification, a lot of people came back, returning books they had checked out before the Wall was built and had not been able to give back earlier.
Pity, though. The library is now part of a larger organization, the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek, that also includes one other library. And they can't afford to have two buildings, so most likely the building of the AGB will be closed.
Here's a link to the text of the program, and you can also listen to it. All German, of course.
But the funny thing, usually libraries aren't menioned much in the media. Except when something really bad happens, like the fire at the Anna-Amalia-Library. But today, twice already. Made me smile.
Now I'll go and do some cleaning. Going to have stupid guests this afternoon.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 07:27 am (UTC)You're unemployed? OK, then don't bother calling 911 when your house is on fire and somebody stole your purse.