From the legendary ancient library in Alexandria to the medieval monastic library at Melk to the Library of Congress to the new fully digital library at Florida Polytechnic University, how we imagine, remember, and construct our libraries is indicative of how we narrate our cultural identity. In modern fiction, texts such as Jorge Borges’ “The Library of Babel,” Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, and the Harry Potter books use libraries to speculate about our world using the organization of great fictional libraries from the past and the future as metaphors for human thought. To imagine a library is to ask: What is worth preserving? Who has access to certain information? How do we organize this information? In addition to actual and imaginary libraries, class topics include the history of the book and of reading, the concept of scripture, theories of the archive, and the significance of new media and digital technology.
Main Content
Lebec Reading Room at Bobst Library
Lebec Reading Room at Bobst Library: I spent lots of time here at the end of first semester because of the 24/7 library hours; I really, really like the library at night and nobody was here after roughly 2 A.M. usually, so you almost have the entire 14 floor library to yourself, and you really […]
Post-Human Libraries
In class, I wrote mostly about my dad’s library and grandpa’s library, and their interest in collecting; I’ve included my unedited class writings underneath. But, for an imagined library, I would hope for something better than what humans are limited to think of; for example (note: I’m not certain if this is true or not, […]
Are Libraries Obsolete?
In Palfrey’s “Hacking Libraries,” I was interested in “data rot” and the concept of “many librarians have come to see their primary job as serving people at various stages of their lives:” “libraries will continue to be helpful guides.” While I was reading this, tones of self-defense and self-preservation lingered in my head. The problems […]
Instructor
Gregory Erickson
gte1@nyu.edu
1 Washington Pl, 417
212-992-7767
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