I once heard that images of beautiful libraries were like porn for librarians. Certain images aroused certain feelings in the heart of a librarian. And I certainly have drooled when looking at images of the new Alexandria library or the New York Reading Room. I've been known to furtively go scouting for library photos late at night. I own two beautiful books filled with pictures of libraries across the world which I flip through regularly: the aptly named "Most Beautiful Libraries in the World" and Candida Hofer's "Libraries". When Curious Expeditions provided images of the most beautiful libraries ever I swooned, then I bookmarked the site (all of the images here were on that list, along with hundreds more that are just as beautiful).
Library pictures just stir something in me. A longing to walk their quiet stacks and peruse the titles. A desire to reshelve books on their glorious bookcases. I truly want to walk into the picture and stand surrounded by books, breathing in that library smell.
What doesn't quite do it for me was this picture (below) that I found recently of a library in North Korea. This was on BBC News' Day In Pictures. This is the library at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea. This electronic library is just not drawing me in the same way that others do. This is the antithesis of library porn. It's the anti-library. And I'm sadly just not interested in it. I know that libraries are becoming more electronic, and honestly I'm fine with that. As long as there are still books, and stacks, and papers to browse. I'm not ready for a library without books, the same way I'm not ready for books without paper. Call me old fashioned that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment