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If you have dreams of being a writer working in a library can really get you down. There are so many books on so many topics, so many authors, so many stories. Or you can look at the bright side. In a library they will be saved, stored, preserved. It’s not like a bookstore where if it doesn’t sell it goes to the remainder table, and if it doesn’t sell on the remainder table it goes back to the publisher where it might be pulped to make other, possibly more profitable books. In theory a book will live in a library forever.
One morning I processed a handful of catalogs of new books published by the World Health Organization. It seemed strange to add a catalog, a document of what was published in the Summer or Autumn of a particular year and how much it cost, but any time I look at something and ask, “Who reads this?” a voice in the back of my head says, Someone, hopefully. The catalogs were from 1986. If they were people they could legally drink now. I’m not crazy enough to really think of the books as people, but if they were I’d say, “This way please, we have a spot reserved just for you.” If I were shelving the books I’d be tempted to say, “Someone will be I’m just a cog in a system that’s like an assembly line, but we’re not putting anything together. I’m just ushering things along. The House of Usher would be a good name for my department, especially since books occasionally come back from the mausoleum of the stacks we’ve sent them to, usually because someone did something wrong. Unlike Roderick, though, I’m not shocked when a book comes back. Occasionally I could, if the books were people, say, “Hey, I remember you!” Comments5 Comments so far |
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I work in a library. Lately I’ve been processing a lot of gifts, donations to the library which is interesting because there’s even more variety than usual. These books aren’t new; they’re almost all old. Some are very old, and they cover everything from a collection of panoramic photos to the Kennedy assassination to a 19th Century Colombian writer you’ve never heard of. Or maybe you’ve heard of Miguel Antonio Caro (1843-1909).
Some of the really old books have a variety of problems: the paper is deteriorating, there’s foxing, which is
caused when the iron in the paper rusts and discolors the pages, and in some book-worms have made perfect little holes in the covers, spines, and pages. There really is such a creature. Book-worms are larval forms of a species of the genus anobium, a kind of beetle. Other beetles, as well as silverfish, cockroaches, and even moths also destroy books. We’ve also been warned to watch for mold, which can be incredibly toxic. Some librarians have been sent to the hospital after mold exposure, so don’t let anyone tell you library work is for wimps.
with you shortly,” but I wouldn’t want to get their hopes up.
LOL. I can relate. I think we should make a “House of Usher” sign to put above our doorway. I often look over the books on the “New Books” shelf at the Central Library and see if I see any I processed. I rarely do.
This could be a book in itself - things that end up in an archive. Don’t you find some of this interesting though?
Some of it is really interesting stuff. It’s like anything else that comes into a library: a mixed bag of material. A library has three basic functions: acquisition, preservation, and access. Preservation is increasingly becoming one of the biggest jobs because, hey, nobody can access material if it’s turned to dust.
Funny stuff …I could feel myself getting emotional about the book no one picks up!
Yeah, I could too. I also have a terrible habit of reading books in the library. Since they don’t get checked out there’s no record of them being used, even though they are.