About Libraries and Librarians

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About Libraries and Librarians
By Dana Weyhing Library 160 Fall 2003
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A library, to modify the famous metaphor of
Socrates, should be the delivery room for the
birth of ideas-a place where history comes to
life. --Norman Cousins (1915-90) American
editor, writer, author
http//flightline.highline.edu/library/
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If past history was all there was to the game,
the richest people would be librarians. --Warren
Buffett
http//www.spl.org/
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A library is an arsenal of liberty. --Unknown
http//www.lib.washington.edu/
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The librarian's mission should be, not like up
to now, a mere handling of the book as an object,
but rather a know how (mise au point) of the book
as a vital function. Mission del Bibliotecario
Jose ORTEGA Y GASSET (1883-1955)
http//www.loc.gov/
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Here, then, is the point at which I see the new
mission of the librarian rise up incomparably
higher than all those preceding. Up until the
present, the librarian has been principally
occupied with the book as a thing, as a material
object. From now on he must give his attention to
the book as a living function. He must become a
policeman, master of the raging book. A
translation of OyG's address to the International
Congress of Bibliographers and Librarians in
Paris in 1934. Jose ORTEGA Y GASSET (1883-1955)
http//www.kcls.org/
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Librarians are almost always very helpful and
often almost absurdly knowledgeable. Their skills
are probably very underestimated and largely
underemployed. The Social Audit Consumer
Handbook, Macmillan, 1978, p. 41 Charles MEDAWAR

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"Mary Kay is one of the secret masters of the
world a librarian. They control information.
Don't ever piss one off." The Callahan Touch
Spider ROBINSON
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Library Here is where people,One frequently
finds,Lower their voicesAnd raise their minds.
Light Armour. McGraw-Hill, 1954. Richard
ARMOUR
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There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the
earth as the Free Public Library, this republic
of letters, where neither rank, office, nor
wealth receives the slightest consideration.
Andrew CARNEGIE
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I've been drunk for about a week now, and I
though it might sober me up to sit in a library.
The Great Gatsby, chapter 3 F.Scott
FITZGERALD (1896-1948)
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My experience with public libraries is that the
first volume of the book I inquire for is out,
unless I happen to want the second, when that is
out. The Poet at the Breakfast Table Oliver
Wendell HOLMES (1809-1894)
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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
Groucho MARX
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For him that stealeth a Book from this Library,
let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend
him. Let him be struck with Palsy, and all his
Members blasted. Let him languish in Pain crying
aloud for Mercy and let there be no sur-cease to
his Agony till he sink in Dissolution. Let
Bookworms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm
that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his
final Punishment, let the flames of Hell consume
him for ever and aye. Curse Against Book
Stealers Monastery of San Pedro, Barcelona
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A university is just a group of buildings
gathered around a library Shelby Foote
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A good library is a place, a palace where the
lofty spirits of all nations and generations
meet. Samuel NIGER (1883-1956)
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In my day the library was a wonderful place....
We didn't have visual aids and didn't have
various programs...it was a sanctuary.... So I
tend to think the library should remain a center
of knowledge. Cited in American Libraries,
July/August 1980, p.411-412 Norman MAILER (1923-
)
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Libraries are not made they grow. "Book
Buying". Obiter Dicta. Augustine BIRRELL
(1850-1933)
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It does not matter how many books you may have,
but whether they are good or not. Epistolae
Morale Lucius Annaeus SENECA (3 B.C.-65 A.D.)
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Libraries are the wardrobes of literature,
whence men, properly informed may bring forth
something for ornament, much for curiosity, and
more for use. William DYER (1636-1696)
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The medicine chest of the soul. Inscription
over the door of the Library at Thebes.
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A library represents the mind of its collector,
his fancies and foibles, his strength and
weakness, his prejudices and preferences.
Particularly is this the case if to the character
of a collector he adds - or tries to add- the
qualities of a student who wishes to know the
books and the lives of the men who wrote them.
The friendships of his life, the phases of his
growth, the vagaries of his mind, all are
represented. Sir William Osler, 1919
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Libraries are as the shrines where all the
relics of the ancient saints, full of true
virtue, and that without delusion or imposture,
are preserved and reposed. Libraries Francis
BACON (1561-1626)
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Library is not a luxury but one of the
necessities of life. Henry Ward BEECHER
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• New Laws of Librarianship
• Libraries serve humanity.
• Respect all forms by which knowledge is
  communicated.
• Use technology intelligently to enhance service.
• Protect free access to knowledge.
• Honor the past create the future.
• Michael GORMAN (American Libraries 9/95)

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I have always imagined that Paradise will be a
kind of library Jorge Luis BORGES (1899-1986)
"As a general rule, librarians are a kick in the
pants socially, often full of good humor,
progressive, and, naturally, well read." 
        Bill Hall          (As quoted in
American Libraries, January 2002, p. 44)
"I think that librarians get a bum rap. They're
constantly represented as these staid do-gooders,
hair in a bun, glasses on the nose. In fact,
librarians have better eyesight than most
professionals."        Alan Kurzweil        
("Fresh Air" interview (NPR), 20 October 2001)
"In fact a few simple mathematical calculations
reveal that if reference librarians were paid at
market rates for all the roles they play, they
would have salaries well over 200,000."
        Will Manley         (The Truth About
Reference Librarians. McFarland, 1996, p. 30)
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"In the nonstop tsunami of global information,
librarians provide us with floaties and teach us
how to swim."         Linton Weeks        
(Washington Post article, 13 January 2001, p. C01)
"The eternal conflict of good and the best with
bad and the worst is on.The librarian must be
the librarian  militant before he can be the
librariantriumphant." -Melvil Dewey, "Relation
of State to Public Library," 1898, published
in_American Library Philosophy An Anthology_,
selected by Barbara McCrimmon,Hamden, CT The
Shoe String Press, 1975.
"A librarian is a person who helps people -- and
dinosaurs -- at the library."         Mark S.
Bernthal         (Barney and Baby Bop Go to
the Library. Lyrick, 1999)
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"Librarians are librarians they are not
caregivers, nurturers, social workers, surrogate
parents, welfare agents, or therapists. When all
is said and done, their role is straightforward
they gather stuff, impose some order on said
stuff, and make the stuff available to the
public."        Blaise Cronin        
(Library Journal column, 15 May 2002, p. 66)
"Librarians, Dusty, possess a vast store of
politeness. These are people who get asked
regularly the dumbest questions on God's green
earth. These people tolerate every kind of crank
and eccentric and mouth breather there is."
        Garrison Keillor, "Lives of the Cowboys"
        (Submitted by Kathy)
"Libraries are brothels for the mind. Which means
that librarians are the madams, greeting punters,
understanding their strange tastes and needs, and
pimping their books."        Guy Browning
       (The Guardian column, 18 October 2003.
Submitted by Lynette in Queensland)
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"Show me a computer expert that gives a damn, and
I'll show you a librarian."         Patricia
Wilson Berger         (Quoted in Chicago
Tribune article, 29 June 1990, Tempo section, p.
1)
"There are only two kinds of people who believe
themselves able to read a MARC record without
referring to a stack of manuals a handful of our
top catalogers, and those on serious drugs."
       Roy Tennant        (Library Journal
column, 15 October 2002)
"You honor your reservations you go to your
meetings so we can clean the rooms you're
relatively quiet and you drink more than the
American Legion."         Anonymous hotel
official, on why he liked the ALA annual
conference         (Quoted by Patricia Wilson
Berger in Chicago Tribune article,          29
June 1990, Tempo section, p. 1)