There's something weird that I've noticed lately. Recently I was inside the Providence Public Library on 150 Empire St. for the first time since a renovation/reconstruction they did a few years ago. It's a big library for the city, and it's still pretty well stocked. But the rather extensive reference section I remember isn't where I remember it being. As far as I can tell, it's not anywhere else either.
Much the same thing happened in the Rochambeau branch where I usually go. Their entire reference section is now the Oxford English Dictionary.
Some of this is understandable. Britannica and other encyclopedia concerns no longer produce multivolume hardcover editions. But there used to be all sorts of books that didn't circulate, but that were on display to the general public, who could freely look at them. Not having that anymore feels like something vital has been discontinued.
2 comments:
Libraries everywhere have undergone some major changes with the rise of the internet. What you've described about missing reference sections at your local libraries is likely true everywhere now because so much reference material can be found online. What's sad is that despite some information being more easily found on the internet is that physical almanacs, atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries and the like had their own characters that really can't be replicated by intangible media.
Unlike broad internet searches, there is a solidity to reference books that offer specialized background information, key dates, historical facts, and key terms, providing a solid foundation for the kind of deep reading that connects new information to existing knowledge.
The thing about all human knowledge being online is not really true. The Encyclopedia Britannica is on the internet, sure. But there are a lot of little things that either didn't get transferred to the net, or the webpages they were on expire, or they become non-searchable due to the relentless optimization of searches. Then there's the whole tactile character that you mention.
Neurologists and educators are finding out that people--and especially children--don't really retain information they get from screens as much as from physical media. To some of us this was pretty clear all along, but it was always dismissed as some kind of Luddite myth.
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