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"Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport". Just the name makes you cringe. Digital, Media, and Sport is what a library is about avoiding. Its about dee

"Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport". Just the name makes you cringe. Digital, Media, and Sport is what a library is about avoiding. Its about deep thinking and healing through reading, not the mindless pleasure of the screen. How did these technocrats get in charge of such a precious institution?

incompleteness 7y ago
The upside I see is illegal online "libraries", which are free public printing presses. It's a revolution that went quite unseen, thanks to the copyright lobby's persistent noise about copied videotapes and bootlegging. May good health find their operaters, and may the next Library of Alexandria make it to the heat death of the universe.
kbenson 7y ago
> Its about deep thinking and healing through reading While that may be what a library is to you, it may not be what it is to other people. To me, a library is about public good and the storage and dissemination of knowledge for all (and the degree to which each of those is important depends on location). I'm sure other people think it differently as well. The important part is that while we have ideas about what it means to us, neither you nor I get to dictate what it is, as that could exclude any number of other people.
mellosouls 7y ago
While I understand your scepticism, in the age of the internet and digital content, technology - whether we like it or not - is fundamental to library services.
Tomte 7y ago
How about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Ministry_of_Transport_and_Digital_Infrastructure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Ministry_of_Transpor... Sure, it's all infrastructure, so it makes sense, but it still feels like "Information Highway? Transport Ministry it is."
matthewmacleod 7y ago
This is silly. For starters, books are media. More importantly, your idea of what a “library is about” is staid and pretentious.

incompleteness 7y ago

The upside I see is illegal online "libraries", which are free public printing presses. It's a revolution that went quite unseen, thanks to the copyright lobby's persistent noise about copied videotapes and bootlegging. May good health find their operaters, and may the next Library of Alexandria make it to the heat death of the universe.

kbenson 7y ago

> Its about deep thinking and healing through reading While that may be what a library is to you, it may not be what it is to other people. To me, a library is about public good and the storage and dissemination of knowledge for all (and the degree to which each of those is important depends on location). I'm sure other people think it differently as well. The important part is that while we have ideas about what it means to us, neither you nor I get to dictate what it is, as that could exclude any number of other people.

mellosouls 7y ago

While I understand your scepticism, in the age of the internet and digital content, technology - whether we like it or not - is fundamental to library services.

Tomte 7y ago

How about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Ministry_of_Transport_and_Digital_Infrastructure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Ministry_of_Transpor... Sure, it's all infrastructure, so it makes sense, but it still feels like "Information Highway? Transport Ministry it is."

matthewmacleod 7y ago

This is silly. For starters, books are media. More importantly, your idea of what a “library is about” is staid and pretentious.