A Little Library...
By Darla Bracken
“A little library growing each year is an honorable part of man’s history” —Henry Beecher. The existence of libraries has paralleled the history of writing, which began 5,500 years ago. The writings of mankind have taken on all kinds of forms since his earliest existence and encompassed all types of materials including: bone, clay, metal, wax, papyrus, silk, leather, paper, film, plastic and now cyberspace with electronic books. The most logical next step beyond the writings was collecting the writings and making them accessible to groups of people, i.e. the library.
The Dead Sea Scrolls for example, were written on animal skins, which in the dry climate of the area were nicely preserved and contain the oldest known manuscripts of the Bible. Papyrus, made from the papyrus reed plant, was a material used by the Egyptians to record writings from 500 BC to 900 AD but it was an extremely perishable medium. Not only were these scrolls extremely perishable, but also they were very laborious to create. Some scribes spent their entire lifetimes copying down information. And they were lengthy—one such scroll was 133 feet long—try reading that at night before you went to bed. Think how valuable each hand-copied scroll or “book” would have been. Certainly it would not have been in the hands of the common man—only kings or the very, very rich would have had any access at all. Sadly, most of the people could not read.
The Greeks continued scroll writing and produced the first Greek translation of the Holy Bible. Holy Scripture with divine inspiration was the driving force of the written word. Mankind’s ideas were also being written, but God’s word was the priority. The first government owned libraries were in Greece. Each ancient people contributed their own unique touch to civilization preserved not only in architecture and archeological evidence, but also in their writings.
Parchment, or thin skins, replaced and outlasted papyrus—and was folded not rolled as in the scrolls. The Romans continued in the tradition of the concept of the ‘library’ and Rome, during Julius Caesar’s time have 28 public libraries! Some of these buildings still exist. Mostly, these libraries were available to scholars and contained the accumulated written knowledge of the ages. Probably the most famous ancient library was in Alexandria, Egypt in 330 BC. It contained over 500,000 scrolls including a copy of every known existing scroll of the day. Although this library was destroyed by fire and none of it survives today; it is remembered well. Many times the suppression of knowledge has been the demise of both the spoken and written word—the reason our democracy esteems both so highly.
The ancient Sumerians had a Royal library in Babylonia of clay tablets that contain over 30,000 volumes. To put that into perspective, our library contains about 35,000 volumes. Imagine having to make and bake your own books! (A CD-ROM, in contrast, holds 250,000 words or an entire set of encyclopedias!) The goal of libraries from the beginning has been to be of maximum service to the communities they serve. They are a vital link in communication and education and play an important role in preserving society’s cultural heritage—imagine not being able to read the history of ancient peoples—what their lives were like and what their ideas, mistakes and successes were. They have been very important in making material available on the human culture and technology.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world with over 100 million items. Since 1870, the Library of Congress has received 2 copies of every book that is copyrighted in the United States. The Vatican Library of the Roman Catholic Church is also one of the largest libraries in the world today.
Libraries are complex organizations that require skill, experience and good people skills to operate efficiently. Public input is provided in the forms of boards that set policies on how to use the “publicly owned” institution. Libraries are one of the few institutions that serve from ‘cradle to grave’ serving all members of society in the pursuit of lifelong learning. Libraries are affected by the explosive growth of information and technology, seeking adequate financing in a competitive world, providing high tech security and protection from theft, fighting censorship in a free society, and providing and preserving multimedia formats. From the very smallest to the largest public libraries all play effective roles in their communities. Typically, in the 1990s communities spent between $15 to $35 per capita for library service. Our library is funded today at about $35 per capita. Libraries fight for survival along with every public service and maintain a strong commitment to helping people and providing library service. There are more public libraries than there are McDonald’s—think about that. We have had a library for 43 years now and we do not have and may never have a McDonald’s. Our community cares about you and making our resources available to everyone.
Recently, a group of us were remembering the Bookmobile. It was so nostalgic! We wanted to bring it back and operate our Book Shoppe like that. For those of you who might not remember, the High Plains Bookmobile operated in a cooperative effort by Bailey, Castro, Lamb and Parmer Counties began in the 50s and operated until about 1979. Books on wheels—a library committed to bringing resources to the people. Even though we had a public library at that time, there was just something about it that was very special. Bookmobiles were 100 years old in 2005. When I went to college at WT in 1969, that college library operated a ‘closed stacks, closed shelf’ system—that’s right, you did not browse the collection; someone brought you the book you wanted. Now you can browse libraries, including that one, from your home computer. My how times have changed.
High Plains Library Bookmobile
Friona Public Library around 1970