I can't even list all of the different activities we saw going on at the archive. We visited the map room, the reading rooms, the microfiche room, and the children's section. Have a look at the following article taking us through the theme Reflections on the public Library San Diego.
We stepped over art students making sketches of the building interior; we breezed through one of the two brilliant exhibitions curated by the archive's staff, we tip-toed through the archive's rooms for research fellows. Each of these places was full of human beings, doing-I doesn't know what. Perhaps one of them was there to look online for a job, and maybe one was researching a story from their family history.
What does it mean to honor libraries? I don't need to reinvent the wheel here; there are quotes carved into the wall all over the archive. To honor libraries is to accept democracy. It is to honor the equality of citizens-to respect and indeed create a meritocracy. It is to acknowledge the role of knowledge in society. It is to accept human potential.
Up until early 2000, high cost in education, price hikes of textbooks and references, are enormous obstacles for Indian youth and college students. Training for young citizens or the lack of it is every country's issue, affecting the economy and unemployment rate of each nation. India is one of the countries that has found a workaround and a possible solution to education issues, getting today's students the opportunity to learn, even with limited financial resources. How? Online Libraries.
A patron would find the book she wanted in the catalog and write it down on a retrieval slip. The retrieval slip would then be put into a capsule which would be transported to the appropriate floor via what was then a modern vacuum technology. A porter would receive the tablet, and fetch the book. This system had the added benefit of giving rise to an urban legend: that the teams retrieving books travel around the stacks on roller skates (not right, I'm sorry to report).
Another way to look at Maria's "libraries are like an ocean" comment would be to consider the intricate collection of actors required to make a archive run and be relevant-although perhaps we should call it an ecosystem. Private Citizens, government, technical experts in archive science, architecture, and technology, and of course the archive users-all of these groups need to be in the balance, to work in separate spheres but in concert with each other. This is a archive.
The tour of the NYPL is hugely inspiring; it was also both intimidating and affirming. While Maria has been working for 12 years and Maria's Libraries has been working for four years towards the completion of the archive in Busia, we continually realize that we're only just beginning. Since ML has been involved, we've spent two years working out our relationship with the government, two years settling the property rights issues on the plot of archive land, and now we've begun our negotiation process with the architects around the building plans.
We have yet to identify our local patron (if anyone reading this is the Brooke Astor of Western Kenya, email me!), and determining what is needed in the full archive collection is not even on the table yet. This process is slow and sometimes feels like a series of hurdles. And this it will continue to be, for as long as the archive is around.
We stepped over art students making sketches of the building interior; we breezed through one of the two brilliant exhibitions curated by the archive's staff, we tip-toed through the archive's rooms for research fellows. Each of these places was full of human beings, doing-I doesn't know what. Perhaps one of them was there to look online for a job, and maybe one was researching a story from their family history.
What does it mean to honor libraries? I don't need to reinvent the wheel here; there are quotes carved into the wall all over the archive. To honor libraries is to accept democracy. It is to honor the equality of citizens-to respect and indeed create a meritocracy. It is to acknowledge the role of knowledge in society. It is to accept human potential.
Up until early 2000, high cost in education, price hikes of textbooks and references, are enormous obstacles for Indian youth and college students. Training for young citizens or the lack of it is every country's issue, affecting the economy and unemployment rate of each nation. India is one of the countries that has found a workaround and a possible solution to education issues, getting today's students the opportunity to learn, even with limited financial resources. How? Online Libraries.
A patron would find the book she wanted in the catalog and write it down on a retrieval slip. The retrieval slip would then be put into a capsule which would be transported to the appropriate floor via what was then a modern vacuum technology. A porter would receive the tablet, and fetch the book. This system had the added benefit of giving rise to an urban legend: that the teams retrieving books travel around the stacks on roller skates (not right, I'm sorry to report).
Another way to look at Maria's "libraries are like an ocean" comment would be to consider the intricate collection of actors required to make a archive run and be relevant-although perhaps we should call it an ecosystem. Private Citizens, government, technical experts in archive science, architecture, and technology, and of course the archive users-all of these groups need to be in the balance, to work in separate spheres but in concert with each other. This is a archive.
The tour of the NYPL is hugely inspiring; it was also both intimidating and affirming. While Maria has been working for 12 years and Maria's Libraries has been working for four years towards the completion of the archive in Busia, we continually realize that we're only just beginning. Since ML has been involved, we've spent two years working out our relationship with the government, two years settling the property rights issues on the plot of archive land, and now we've begun our negotiation process with the architects around the building plans.
We have yet to identify our local patron (if anyone reading this is the Brooke Astor of Western Kenya, email me!), and determining what is needed in the full archive collection is not even on the table yet. This process is slow and sometimes feels like a series of hurdles. And this it will continue to be, for as long as the archive is around.
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