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A New Look at an Old Library

2/13/2015

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In the midst of a Middle Eastern desert, travelers can find the remnants of a centuries-old City of Libraries.
http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/05/14/the-lost-desert-libraries-of-chinguetti/
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Newspapers and Community

5/27/2012

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“When I took that first issue out after the hurricane, people were walking around in shock. When I handed out that newspaper that first day, grown men cried. I knew how important the paper was to the community but I didn't know how much until then.”
                                                                            ~Randy Ponter

Several large communities in Alabama, including Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Huntsville, were notified this week that their daily newspapers would only be printed and distributed on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.  Other days the citizenry will be forced to receive their news from the internet or TV...yikes!

Am I the only person who is appalled and disappointed by this decision?  Certainly, the local paper has been losing subscriptions and advertisers since the before the great recession.  But their failure to recover has been hastened by their own disinterest and lack of leadership.  

I grew up with a daily paper and have been enjoying the habit for half a century.  When I was still at "home", one of the highlights of the week was when my dad would go to the drug store for the Sunday edition of the Kansas City Star.  And, as I have often said,  I hardly see a reason even now to get out of bed unless there is coffee and a newspaper (in the past, I would have included a cigarette as part of the morning ritual) waiting for me. 

In my mind, a newspaper is symbolic of the community's unique heritage and existence...
without a local, print newspaper, our community has lost its unique and collective voice. Instead we have become just another piece of a larger "global" community. 

But in addition to the dismay I personally feel, I worry about others in the community. 
I am not a technophobe and I am fortunate to have access to the internet at home and at work...but there are many within our community who do not and will not have access to a computer, let alone the internet.  This is not limited to the "older generation" but applies equally to those of any age who do not have the financial resources to obtain it.  The argument that it is widely available and easily accessible is a pipedream.  Try telling a housebound 80-year old to run on down to Starbucks or the local library for their daily news fix!  These, by the way, are the same people who can't afford the $70 monthly cable bill or 'smartphones'.
 

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Notes for Summer Reading

5/26/2012

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Carolyn Haines:  The Bonefire of the Vanities
Ken Follett:  The 2nd book in his series on the World Wars

Two more must-reads on the summer reading list...

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Nicholas Basbanes and my summer reading list

5/26/2012

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As I wrote earlier about Patience and Fortitude, the very famous Lions at the New York Public Library, I thought about a book by Nicholas Basbanes entitled The Splendour of Letters.  An unapologetic bibliophile, Mr. Basbanes takes on the subject of libraries, culture and the significant role that books, reading and knowledge play in the health of society in this final book in a trilogy that included another volume entitled Patience and Fortitude. 
Some of the stories are heartbreaking...
the purposeful destruction of irreplaceable antiquities in Afghanistan, the burning of libraries in Bosnia, Louvain, Sarajevo, Cambodia, Tibet and during the  Division of Poland, and the stories of holocaust victims who attempted to restore their written heritage by burying diaries in empty milk cans buried under their concentration camp floors.
Basbanes is a master of the written word, with an astounding vocabulary, and a concise grasp of knowledge, culture, and the ever-present and malicious threats of destruction.
As a new "non-student', two books I am adding to my summer reading list are the other two volumes in this trilogy.
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    Deanna Medsker Day, MLIS

    A business and marketing professional by experience.  A librarian by choice.

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