Bogwitch

libraries ↘↖

What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. … Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

— Carl Sagan, who passed away 16 years ago today, on the power and magic of books (via explore-blog)

(Source: , via littlehouseontheprisonfarm)

23 December 2012 • reblog: explore-blog • books library libraries time travel book people history

Neil Gaiman: Why Libraries Again...?

neil-gaiman:

From: http://www.metafilter.com/112698/California-Dreamin#4183210

…

“Undoubtedly libraries are a good thing. The access and training that we provide for technology isn’t offered by any other public service (largely because public services are rapidly becoming a dirty word in this gilded age of decadence and austerity), and without our services it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would be a significant dimming.

“If you can take yourself out of your first world techie social media smart-shoes for a second then imagine this: you’re 53 years old, you’ve been in prison from 20 to 26, you didn’t finish high school, and you have a grandson who you’re now supporting because your daughter is in jail. You’re lucky, you have a job at the local Wendy’s. You have to fill out a renewal form for government assistance which has just been moved online as a cost saving measure (this isn’t hypothetical, more and more municipalities are doing this now). You have a very limited idea of how to use a computer, you don’t have Internet access, and your survival (and the survival of your grandson) is contingent upon this form being filled out correctly.”

…

Not just books, public services too.
I’m lucky to work for such a good system.

19 February 2012 • reblog: neil-gaiman • libraries culture

Browsing is the opposite of “search.” Search is precise, browsing is imprecise. When you search, you find what you were looking for; when you browse, you find what you were not looking for. Search corrects your knowledge, browsing corrects your ignorance. Search narrows, browsing enlarges. It does so by means of accidents, of unexpected adjacencies and improbable associations. On Amazon, by contrast, there are no accidents. Its adjacencies are expected and its associations are probable, because it is programmed for precedents. It takes you to where you have already been—to what you have already bought or thought of buying, and to similar things. It sells similarities. After all, serendipity is a poor business model. But serendipity is how the spirit is renewed; and a record store, like a bookstore, is nothing less than an institution of spiritual renewal.

—

Leon Wieseltier (via wesleyhill)

I am obliged to repost this because, libraries. 

And regarding this statement:

…a bookstore…is nothing less than an institution of spiritual renewal.

I know these ladies would agree.

4 February 2012 • reblog: wesleyhill • libraries television Portlandia

dixiechicken: liveinrainbow: fatvirginsuicide: joy-joyous: Badass motherfucker of the century. THIS KID GIVES ME HOPE. I never thought I’d be giving huge props to someone named Nekochan, but if that’s the environment she’s in, even having a mild catgirl interest in Japanese culture is kind of a success. Yeah, it’s ok.  ;)

dixiechicken:

liveinrainbow:

fatvirginsuicide:

joy-joyous:

Badass motherfucker of the century.

THIS KID GIVES ME HOPE.

I never thought I’d be giving huge props to someone named Nekochan, but if that’s the environment she’s in, even having a mild catgirl interest in Japanese culture is kind of a success.

Yeah, it’s ok.  ;)

(via dixie-chicken)

1 September 2011 • reblog: joy-joyous • literature libraries education