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Free books!
Jan. 10th, 2007 01:45 pmSilly me, I quite forgot to tell you that you can get Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town for free, here. You can also get Doctorow's other books here and here - they're all released under a creative commons license. [I particularly like the part of the license used here that applies to ( developing nations ).]
Of course, and this increasingly seems like a radical notion when I talk to people these days, you could go to a library. Much as I love Project Gutenberg (which has an australian site, too), and bookcrossing, and other such things, I think that libraries are really wonderful places. Project Gutenberg and Bookcrossing and creative commons works and all sorts of other books-at-large do cool things.
Project Gutenberg, for example, ensures that a lot of classics or out of print books survive and are still widely accessible. Of course it's useful and interesting for other reasons, too, but one of the best things about Project Gutenberg that I can see is that books about A visit to Edison laboratory or North American Indian games or Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings (to take a few examples) aren't lost forever just because they're not commercially viable. Or hidden away in one library or at the back of an antique bookstore, where they won't find a reader just because the person who would be excited about them is halfway across the world and will never even know they exist.
Bookcrossing, on the other hand, I like for different reasons. I don't mind passing on books that people request from my bookshelf, particularly if they're not likely to be in a library, but I like releasing books best. People who request books are already readers, already know about bookcrossing, and already know what they want to read. I like the idea of a book unexpectedly finding its way to someone who doesn't read much (or at all), or wouldn't think of reading this book, or hasn't heard of bookcrossing before. I like the thought that a book 'released into the wild' can open up a new experience for someone - be it reading, bookcrossing, a new genre, or even the idea that there are people who find giving stuff away incredibly nifty.
Libraries do something different, though. For a start, they're accessible to people who don't have easy access to computers and the internet (in fact, for a lot of people libraries are the only place they have access to these). They are, in a very real sense, a safe haven - a space with lots of information, lots of entertainment, but also shelter and toilets and free drinking water.* I believe it's vital that the value of this not be underestimated - libraries are not just a place to keep books. They're also a place to sit, write, meet people, sleep, hide, and probably a heap of other things I haven't thought of.
Also, putting information in books, and in a library, works very differently from putting it in some other form. Searching a library is not the same as using a search engine online. Browsing Project Gutenberg is different from browsing library shelves. These different ways of storing information are complementary, and changing your search method can have serendipitous results.
I'm not against re-imagining what libraries are for or using them in new ways. Putting computers in libraries is a great idea, digitising libraries' collections is awesome, I am all for the overlapping of virtual and material** spaces and information storage and use and so on.
But I think replacing libraries would be a terrible idea, not just on a societal level but also at the level of the individual. If you're not going to a library, you're missing out. Bookcrossing, Project Gutenberg, ebooks, and especially a bookstore cannot substitute. There are things you won't know and people you won't meet if you don't go to libraries, and spaces that you will forget to contribute to.
/rant
----
* Note: I'm talking about libraries in the developed world here, very aware that in a lot of the developing world there aren't public libraries.
** Realising, at the same time, that the line between the 'virtual' and the 'material' is blurrier than the terms imply.
Of course, and this increasingly seems like a radical notion when I talk to people these days, you could go to a library. Much as I love Project Gutenberg (which has an australian site, too), and bookcrossing, and other such things, I think that libraries are really wonderful places. Project Gutenberg and Bookcrossing and creative commons works and all sorts of other books-at-large do cool things.
Project Gutenberg, for example, ensures that a lot of classics or out of print books survive and are still widely accessible. Of course it's useful and interesting for other reasons, too, but one of the best things about Project Gutenberg that I can see is that books about A visit to Edison laboratory or North American Indian games or Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings (to take a few examples) aren't lost forever just because they're not commercially viable. Or hidden away in one library or at the back of an antique bookstore, where they won't find a reader just because the person who would be excited about them is halfway across the world and will never even know they exist.
Bookcrossing, on the other hand, I like for different reasons. I don't mind passing on books that people request from my bookshelf, particularly if they're not likely to be in a library, but I like releasing books best. People who request books are already readers, already know about bookcrossing, and already know what they want to read. I like the idea of a book unexpectedly finding its way to someone who doesn't read much (or at all), or wouldn't think of reading this book, or hasn't heard of bookcrossing before. I like the thought that a book 'released into the wild' can open up a new experience for someone - be it reading, bookcrossing, a new genre, or even the idea that there are people who find giving stuff away incredibly nifty.
Libraries do something different, though. For a start, they're accessible to people who don't have easy access to computers and the internet (in fact, for a lot of people libraries are the only place they have access to these). They are, in a very real sense, a safe haven - a space with lots of information, lots of entertainment, but also shelter and toilets and free drinking water.* I believe it's vital that the value of this not be underestimated - libraries are not just a place to keep books. They're also a place to sit, write, meet people, sleep, hide, and probably a heap of other things I haven't thought of.
Also, putting information in books, and in a library, works very differently from putting it in some other form. Searching a library is not the same as using a search engine online. Browsing Project Gutenberg is different from browsing library shelves. These different ways of storing information are complementary, and changing your search method can have serendipitous results.
I'm not against re-imagining what libraries are for or using them in new ways. Putting computers in libraries is a great idea, digitising libraries' collections is awesome, I am all for the overlapping of virtual and material** spaces and information storage and use and so on.
But I think replacing libraries would be a terrible idea, not just on a societal level but also at the level of the individual. If you're not going to a library, you're missing out. Bookcrossing, Project Gutenberg, ebooks, and especially a bookstore cannot substitute. There are things you won't know and people you won't meet if you don't go to libraries, and spaces that you will forget to contribute to.
/rant
----
* Note: I'm talking about libraries in the developed world here, very aware that in a lot of the developing world there aren't public libraries.
** Realising, at the same time, that the line between the 'virtual' and the 'material' is blurrier than the terms imply.