I spied similar patterns as a student and started collecting books I valued. As a consequence I have some not very valuable but rather rare items that I cherish

I spied similar patterns as a student and started collecting books I valued. As a consequence I have some not very valuable but rather rare items that I cherish and couldn’t read anywhere else, even digitally (at least at the time). One example, and probably highly controversial, is “The New Romans”—a collection of essays, poems, aphorisms, and other short writings by every major Canadian writer of the 50s-70s about America including bpNichol, Margaret Atwood, Farley Mowat, Michael Ondaatje, Irving Layton, Margaret Laurence, Dennis Lee (the list goes on and on) edited by Al Purdy (and personally signed by him and Bill Bissett each with a note to someone named Arlene. A monumental undertaking gathering from all of these writers for one edition at the height of their careers. You can still find copies, and affordable, but there was one printing in paperback in 1968 and never again. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23362827-the-new-romans https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23362827-the-new-romans * I’ve invested a lot of money, and lugged them and some vinyl records back and forth across the country with me. Still, I’m wary to pin that on libraries as a whole or as an entity as if the library itself was the problem. The problem is “move fast and break things” and digital maximalism (as the article itself ends up pointing to as a culprit). I’d point to the pressure to install “disruptive” management and those kinds of trend-chasing moves in organizational structure (it’s invaded publishing, too) It’s funny, my day job is working with computers and I love programming and putting computers to good use, but the more I learn and the more I grow the more I prefer the physical world to our new digital one. (As I curse my phone for autocorrecting the wrong words, but still persist in typing this comment) —— * Bonus, here’s a favourite poem from the book by John Robert Columbo https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/oh-canada https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/oh-canada