more on libraries

I tend to like the librarians I meet. They’re often omnivorous in their intellectual interests, and they are also supremely practical, forward-looking, and public-oriented in a way that is not always true of intellectuals in the departmental disciplines. You might expect librarians to be nostalgic book-hoarders, but if that was ever true in the past it’s certainly not true of the new, younger breed.

In any case, Diarmuid comments as follows on my earlier post:

“Just a thought on your recent fate-of-libraries post. I’ve worked in a university library for the past 3 years and even in that short period I’ve seen some incredible changes… What might be coming to your library soon? Well, in the most recent refurbishment we dispensed with so many print books and journals (a consequence of the immense popularity and accessibility of e-resources not to mention their increased fiscal importance in the budget) that, in the space previously occupied by book stacks, the library now houses more computer clusters and group study areas than anywhere else on campus, a cafe, a careers center, the university bookshop and an independent archive. Unconfirmed rumours that the next refurb will see the inclusion of a Chucky Cheese, a go-cart track, a cinema, a petting zoo and two Tescos.”

I assume the final sentence is tongue-in-cheek, but stranger things have happened.