WHAT WAS A LIBRARY?

Libraries in Europe and elsewhere I hear are grappling with their roles for the future in the new light shed by the information age where information is available at @ the speed of light [1][1].

Here in Africa, we have to explain to our kids what libraries used to be – considering that Libraries in their present state or form are barely recognizable by some of us who came of age in the early seventies.

Let us ask ourselves again: What is a library?

A library is a place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending. A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged could be referred to as a library, so could a room in a private home for such a collection or an institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.

A library could also be a commercial establishment that lends books for a fee, a series or set of books issued by a publisher or a collection of recorded data or tapes arranged for ease of use.

Why do we need libraries?

Frankly, this is one of those questions about which it is said: "if you have to ask the question, you wouldn't understand the answer"

I will like to talk about a few libraries which molded my life and to which I owe a debt of gratitude.

The first library I remember was in the early seventies in my house. My Dad a civil servant with the ministry of education had bought 12 volumes of very heavy books which I could barely lift – bound in beautiful red cloth-like material. These books I have never forgotten and being a very considerate human being I managed to appropriate just 4 of the 12 volumes to myself and that only after the demise of my Dad. I thus left 8 hoping that they shine light into the willing head, heart and mind of some fortunate child or teen. Those books became even dearer to me when in my adult hood through an internet search I realized they had not been written for people of my ilk. Being a child, I'd failed to notice the subtle racist innuendos.

So much for my first library which imbued in me a lifelong love for leisurely, unforced studying. Memories of my next library are shadowy. This was in my primary school in Benin-City. We had a library and all I remember doing there was watching a demonstration of how to make ice-cream. I remember the gentleman whipping egg with a whisk so thoroughly that when he turned the bowl containing the egg upside down, the whipped egg defied gravity! I don't recall ever going into that library for anything else!

My next library was the State library on the Oba Market road opposite what was then the Kingsway store. I remember the very kind lady in charge of the library Mrs. Oronsaye probably because she had a son at Edo College where I schooled or maybe her genuine interest in kids made us like her. At that library, which we went to on Saturdays, when we were on holidays, I do not remember reading much there but I remember the joy I got watching old Black and White Laurel and Hardy comedy sketches. Ironically in this age of cable TV and internet, I do not recall ever seeing another Laurel and Hardy movie. Thus when John Kerry and John Edwards were referred to as Laurel and Hardy, I understood! A tiny inconsequential facet of knowledge but important all the same.

Before continuing with the Libraries of my life, I will like to go back to the question "Why do we need libraries? I will drop one answer right here: "We need libraries to speed up globalization. .." and if you need to ask what globalization is.....

Back to the great libraries of my life.

We had a lovely library at Edo College. Here I would bury myself and read about the stars and the celestial bodies. I read books by Robert Moore? I could check his name up in one second on the internet but will leave it at that. All I know was that his last name was Moore. This writer did more to fashion my sense of being and my relationship with the universe than probably all the preachers of my youth. I got to know a universe which responded and could be predicted perfectly by the laws of mathematics and physics. Whoever created the world was worthy of adulation. I often times would get so completely lost in this outer world that looking at the pictures of the earth from space, and determining the position of Benin-City, I would peer down to see if I could actually see men on the ground scurrying hither and thither seeking to do things big or small, good or evil and wonder what could be so important to people so inconsequential as to occlude the greater meaning of life. (Bribe takers and perverters of social justice beware!!)

The words of Christ had full meaning to me after this truly enlightening experience: "Be anxious for nothing" I never have been.

There was another library at Okhoro road – just adjacent to Eghosa Grammar school – this was a very important library in my life. It was government owned. I read for my JAMB exam there and borrowed several Buffalo Bill cowboy books. There was also the great Library at the then University of Ife. Here I read for my degree exams, made photocopies of relevant documents, used microfiche to search for documents and…very importantly was able to get lost in books from a section of the Library totally unconnected to my studies. For instance I read comprehensively about Cecil B De Mille the Hollywood mogul, several volumes I must add (while my Laplace and Leibnitz functions stood impatiently by – tapping their feet no doubt, probably with their arms akimbo!) I went with Cecil B De Mille through the ups and downs of his life, attended his wedding to the very beautiful Mrs. De Mille, and went on holidays with them; Cecil was a very handsome man and maintained his very good looks to the end. He had a very long and evidently very loving relationship with his wife. It was sad in the end to see such a beautiful woman looking so old, with hardly a trace of the great beauty she once possessed. Mr. Demille on the other hand remained handsome. It was also sad to return to the dreary life of mathematical functions and complex numbers……

One of my most beloved libraries was the University of Benin Library. Though never a student at that great library, I would visit the library during holidays and perfected a means of bluffing my way into the library – a practice I started in my own university at Ife – for I could be counted never to have in my possession my student identity card. Why people should be kept out of libraries I have never known – similar in my view to keeping people out of Churches. Why are churches locked at night??!!

At the UniBen Library, I read mostly Electrical Machines and guess what? I discovered to be the best book on this: an encyclopedia! !! I do not remember its name and will not mislead my readers but reading this book, I discovered that my university lecturer had a less than complete knowledge of the subject of electrical machines – but that's another story.

 Continued    Source: thewillnigeria.com - Thewillnigeria.com

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