Janghun Yang

My research question as of now is:

1) what holds back digitization? What are the drawbacks?

^though that could be a long paper and maybe a big questions to tackle, it might be worthwhile for me to attempt providing some insight as to where I think digitization of things/books/libraries is headed.

I think I could look at blogs and news regarding digitization, perhaps a book later when i have more sense of what specific information I’d like to acquire.

I could talk about the copyright issues these digital libraries face, what the maintenance of this digital files look like.

Through this research paper I want to see if I can provide somewhat of an “answer” as to what digitization is and why it is happening, and why it might not be happening as fast.

In class we talked about the merits of both digitization and traditional libraries and if there is a room where both could work together. One of the things that challenged the idea that digitization is all-good is that we still don’t have the appropriate technology to fully implement our ideas about how libraries and digital copies of books would work together. With my essay being on the digitization of borges library and its limits in digitized form, I hear constantly here and there the limitation of todays technology. Though I think there is truth in this, that limitation of our technology limits our ability to create the fantastical library, I think that the past also plays a huge role in limiting us. The pre-existing networks, copyright etc all contributes to why we cant really “change” as drastically as we hope/or don’t hope.

I realized that my tag based system comes to close to reality to provide any excitement.

Changes :

My imagined library will, theoretically, collect all sorts of banned books from each century beginning from when the banning of books started. This idea came out of the realization that there are too many books and resources that is approved by our standards, and there are too many books and indeed, it could feel like a “universe”. I feel as though by approaching what most libraries do in an opposite direction, I want to have a banned library where only banned books live.

More conceptualization involving questions like “how would the digital archive look different than the actual library?” or “in what kind of shelves and where are these banned books located in the library?” or “is there place for social interaction” could help polish the image of the library.

“The most profound enchantment for  the collector is the locking of individual items within a magic circle in which they are fixed as the final thrill, the thrill of acquisition, passes over them. Everything remembered and thought, everything conscious, becames the pedestal, the frame, the base, the lock of his property. The period, the region, the craftsmanship, the former ownership- for a true collector the whole backround of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia whose quintessece is the fate of his object”.

Reading this paragraph, I was brought back to my younger days, thinking about the ways I “collected” toys, cards, etc. I remember the way I cherished this “disorder and order” and how I was so proud of this collection,

Though it seems as though putting an emphasis on the importance of the books background and its physicality is in a way inevitable and that paperback books are much better option as opposed to e-books/text files, I found that this matter isn’t so black and white. I remember collecting my favorite genres of e-books back in 6th grade. Not the most common way of getting into “e-book collecting”  but I got into e-books because I wanted to read Korean Sci-Fi novels from the United States. I had recently moved to the States then, and I was not enjoying reading books/novels in English.

I remember certain e-books were much harder to find than others, and for some it took hours if not days. These books were mostly in a txt file, and was attached to a blog owned by someone. Though these weren’t hard copies, I did not feel any less attached to them than I did with my other hard copy books. Though I knew having 100 txt files in my electronic dictionary(I know right?) make it look less “special”, but  Organizing these text files and reading them, I can say that I grew to enjoy collecting these books, as much as reading them.

Though my experience attests to the fact that digital copies of books can still provide ownership and that joy of collecting them, it may be the case that hard copies with their physical copy may have its edge on this department still. However, I feel as though the appeal e-book collecting has for collectors are the ease of organization and carrying. It was easy for me to collect 100+ books online and organize them and carry them; I couldn’t say the same about hard copies.

 

 

 

 

August writes in his work “Charles Recht in the New York Times in 1908 similarly linked the utility of the New York Public Libraries to the moral power of habitat”.

He notes that the “mission of reading rooms” were indeed,burrowing Charles Recht’s words,  “to be the study room of ambitious poor men who’s homes in the crowded tenements are filthy, noisy, and dark. Here, after the day’s hard work, could come the eager workingman and find the books he needs and desire and learn to live instead of merely existing”

Though to say library save these men’s life and gave them hope when they had nothing might be an overstatement(maybe not for some),I was still amazed by how a simple installment of libraries may have actually given some men “hope” and a purpose to live. Perhaps libraries did not give these men a purpose to live but at least something to look forward to, something that made them feel limitless and free.

Maybe  I am reading too much into this brief example of how in 1908 there was this sense of poor men finding hope or some medium in which he or she may have felt free(from poverty, from condescension etc).

This simple transformation of library from just a place that stores information/books to something more spiritual/ deeply personal shows the attraction of learning. Quenching the thirst for knowledge/ having curiosity at heart should not be undervalued. As library become more public and social like we read, it becomes popular, shared by people. This ubiquitous thing(Libraries), may offer guidance and a place to indulge in passionate learning. In that sense, library could be a church where all books are supposedly bibles(not that we adhere them completely but that we value knowledge/facts/opinions or purely just books) and we ourselves stay faithful to our own curiosity.

It was in our small group discussion that somebody brought up the idea that knowledge is power and those who control books control knowledge. This sort of direct relationship between book and power came up while we were going over our Harry Potter excerpt we had read for class that day. Though in this case Harry, Hermione and Ron were denied just by a single Librarian( perhaps a little more) our group decided to try finding real life examples of this lack of access to information perpetuated by someone powerful.

We talked about the classification of files regarding JFK’s assassination and our real life example seemed to be mostly related to government secrecy, something we always have suspected. It was mentioned in the bigger group discussion that Area 51 is also another example of this. Though Area 51 is not exactly a library, to say that it may hold information(just like a library) which may prove to be of “power” is not wrong.

This train of thought struck me again when I was reading about ancient libraries, including the great library of Alexandria. Casson, though isn’t as direct in his wording as Battles(regarding the relationship between book/power and government/some agent), gives us a narrative of early days of the great library of Alexandria that gives me the impression that these rulers and authorities had a pretty direct influence on the maintaining of the library and the books/scrolls they stored. It seemed as though it represented something more than just “knowledge”, as Casson describes how Ptolemy I and his son and his grandson all with help of others, guided the library to their likings. Battles does not see other authorities, specifically Ptolemy, to be so innocent in their admiration of knowledge. He notes ” Ptolemies made the library in to a think tank under the control of the royal house. The strategic implications of monopoly on knowledge- especially on medicine, engineering, and theology…”. In all, it seems as though this tension between the authorities in charge of managing and preserving knowledge/book and the masses were always present throughout history, and it will always haunt us.

I came into Bobst library, looking to “pick a spot” to write about for this class. Looking around the library again in a glimpse, I noticed multiple levels of the library that surrounded me on four sides. The thought of going through each floor seemed like a systematic way of finding the “spot”, but then I realized that this common area(not sure what it’s called exactly) that I was in many ways was an essential part of the library, though it did not have any books.

This area is the first thing I step my foot into, after passing the gate where students coming into the library swipes their card. There couches and people talking,looking in to their phone, or sitting around anxiously as if they are waiting for someone they planned to study with. In all, this area came to remind me of something we talked about in class; social and communal aspect of libraries.

Though it seems that it might be more efficient to have this area removed and fill it with more books if you are aim as a librarian is to have the most amount of books or “knowledge” in your library. However, it seems as though it is advisable for libraries to have these sort of spaces, or at least some varying types of spaces to make the library more welcoming, and more of an experience.