The Library Is... (1968)

[Music] morning and the Sun that scattered the Stars to flight some hours later strikes Omar's turret with a shaft of light the same son whose beams reflect from the hubcaps now great Traditions rest on daily attentions daily energies the daily reopening of the gates to the accumulated knowledge of all the ages even our [Music] own mindful that she is Keeper of the flame so to speak the librarian May sometimes Ponder the dim beginnings of collected wisdom of the early archives of Babylon and Phoenicia of the Minoans and the Myans or perhaps of The Splendid collection of cfor texts at Nineveh the library began in the sense of wonder of magic of divine power that early men associated with the written word where parchment and Papyrus were there was a holy place a sacred grove older even than academ Warriors may sing of Hector and Lysander but Librarians chant however rarely of Plato and epicurus and rightfully enough of the peripatetic School founded by Aristotle thus beginning an epic of scientific research whose end is not yet in [Music] sight Athens was active in the book trade private collectors included ureides xenophon pus plutar beneath the acropoli heights a Greek librarian carved this Legend over his door The Medicine Chest of the soul in those days books and tablets Papi and parchments were placed on shelves by willing slaves working for a pittance in the ancient library at Alexandria a librarian named kimus created the first biographical catalog of the authors whose Works were preserved there he never alas became head of the library that being several thousand years before Horatio aler but he is known today as the father of all Librarians this great library is the same one that Julius Caesar partially burned and other men entirely destroyed several centuries later this was not to be the last time that men burned books although one hopes the book burner and the sensor will one day be gone but War however damaging to libraries has at least been a Spur to literature for the library is part of the human tradition but we have said so much to one another put so much of ourselves upon parchment first and paper later that no man-made structure on Earth could comprehend it [Music] all to be a librarian then is to choose to select to say in effect that this place sums up the world with the help of the librarian it sets forth in that direction to cope with all the people set down from age to age [Music] the Romans Cicero and plini tell us had great private collections of books and the cities of the Empire gathered them together from Greece before to us afterwards but the Romans looked a scance at books from conquered Carthage Asia Minor Syria and Egypt thus blotting out an unmeasured treasure from our classical [Music] Heritage after Rome the writing copying and keeping of books devolved upon the [Music] monks the Codex or typical book form took over from the Pagan Papyrus [Music] role the renewed popularity of books required that they be chained to the very shelves that gave them [Music] shelter Gutenberg spawned what mcluen called his galaxy in the 15th century thus beginning in a small way what some have called the medeia explosion if you would see gutenberg's Monument climb out from under [Music] the chain volumes are gone now Library gates open up to a wider world with bookcases built unto the very ceilings balconies for easy access to the upper shelves books emerging from reading and study areas the long long rectang angular Trails into the very core of this benign Labyrinth the caverns measureless to man biblo democracy in action books within the reach of [Music] all within reach that is if you can find the books to be a librarian then is to organize to look at the entire range of human learning and to categorize it Sir Francis Bacon came up with a chart of learning little knowing that a certain Melville Dewey would put it into decimalized terms whose format May reflect a valid point of view surely to distinguish between the useful and the Fine Arts is to propound some sort of philosophy consider to the Library of Congress system which also pays tribute to Bacon's chart of all we know or ever need to know that the Library of Congress puts bibliography and Library Science Under the Z category could be further proof that Librarians are perhaps more modest than they should be cataloging goes on and on like a river seeking the sea but while men can categorize human knowledge they have not yet found its limits which is one reason why Librarians work hard to keep up with the flow [Music] to put a book in the position where reasonable people can find it in reasonable time is not the least of the [Music] Arts among the problems of putting books in their place is what to do with those that are too tall for the shelves that happen to be where dewy cutter and decided they should be with the very Furniture of the library becoming an added factor in the calculation today the book has become a resource along with many others records and tapes films and film strips magazines and newspapers but they are only packages of ideas to work with them whatever their size and shape whatever their merits is to work with the mind of the world let these resources be found let them be used to be a librarian is to promote to Quicken the interest to point the way to encourage the young to apply for this magic card that opens books and doors Norman Cousins said a library is not a shrine for the worship of books it is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or one's Devotion to the bound book is expressed in ritual a library to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas a place where history comes to life in terms of the ebb and flow of books and people the time has come when Man's Best Friend does not bark he hums and whs and flashes little lights the work goes on the librarian's place in the universe is as assured as that of the rest of mankind as assured as those who write the Books go little book said Saudi from this my solitude I cast thee on the waters go thy ways and if as I believe thy vein be good the the world will find thee according to thy worth go little book in faith I send thee [Music] forth the faith of writers is buttressed by the honest Enterprise of Publishers who lavish praise upon the books they print quantity May sometimes overwhelm but the thought and the spirit of books and the libraries that send them forth widen the view outward and inward these two directions whose panoramas have limits perhaps but we have yet to reach them in the library prince Andrew still lies wounded at aitz seeing in the skies above the greatness of the world and the smallness of Napoleon down a Mississippi that is ours forever more hu and gy see the world not only as it was but as it must always be here grow gardens as idealized as Eden here the Vroom Vroom in the mind may be Adventure enough or it may not be for there are many wheels to turn before with [Music] through here the Moon is diversion or if you will destination men and women with a more nearly perfect city state nation and World in mind think better when they know what others have to say on the subject relief not merely from the common cold but from The Killing Pains of disease not quickly from existing pills but in God's good time if man could learn enough the Library of Medicine vast though it is it could be much much larger if enlarged by the yet Unwritten volumes of what we still have to learn at the library the young cast off little by little some of the unfelt but quite real limitations of Youth here wisdom is at least a possibility here the old take arms against the onrush of time the past is no mere figment of our imagination as it lives so we live life flourishes while men can still learn here for all the seeming silence our much commented upon Human Condition cries out for recognition [Music] and from the shelves men cry for worlds that are far far better than any we have ever known still they bid us enjoy this one while we have use of it thus the library like man himself it is always under construction [Music]