The library as a dangerous place

We always portray the library as a nice safe, warm and welcoming space don't we. Of course it is, but I sometimes wonder if we could look at it in a slightly different way. A library doesn't deal in books or artefacts, it deals in thoughts and ideas. It provides people with the opportunity to think through things, to challenge the status quo, to better themselves, to learn new skills and to improve old ones. A library provides people with a chance to think 'what if?' and to provide them with rebuttals to the statement 'you should'. A library gives people access to facts; pure, simple and unbiased. It also lets people look at bias, to examine hate, prejudice, racism, homophobia and anything else they wish, from any angle. A library can change people.

So a library can be a dangerous place. I've seen a lot of the ALA 'Read' posters, and they're great fun, with celebrities holding up books. They're fun and fluffy. But what do they actually tell us? That we can use a library to read books. I think we kinda know that already. I want to see posters that ask 'Why?' or 'How?' or 'Why not?' that show people the library is a place to think. I want to see posters like this one:

(If you want to see a copy on my Flickr page, it's here. If you want to buy one, it's on my Zazzle store.) It's also CC on Flickr, so feel free to copy and use to promote libraries.

I was really pleased to see a poem over at The library as incubator which linked to the following poem, 'If librarians were honest' by Joseph Mills.

If Librarians Were Honest
“… a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work….”
– Benjamin Franklin

If librarians were honest,
they wouldn’t smile, or act
welcoming. They would say,
You need to be careful. Here
be monsters. They would say,
These rooms house heathens
and heretics, murderers and
maniacs, the deluded, desperate,
and dissolute. They would say,
These books contain knowledge
of death, desire, and decay,
betrayal, blood, and more blood;
each is a Pandora’s box, so why
would you want to open one.
They would post danger
signs warning that contact
might result in mood swings,
severe changes in vision,
and mind-altering effects.

If librarians were honest
they would admit the stacks
can be more seductive and
shocking than porn. After all,
once you’ve seen a few
breasts, vaginas, and penises,
more is simply more,
a comforting banality,
but the shelves of a library
contain sensational novelties,
a scandalous, permissive mingling
of Malcolm X, Marx, Melville,
Merwin, Millay, Milton, Morrison,

and anyone can check them out,
taking them home or to some corner
where they can be debauched
and impregnated with ideas.
If librarians were honest,
they would say, No one
spends time here without being
changed. Maybe you should
go home. While you still can.

After all, if libraries were nice and simple, easy places to go and keep people quiet, would politicians want to close them down?

Comments

[Christopher Pipe]

Like that poem!

I once drafted a risk assessment for school libraries:

DANGER!
* pupils may enjoy themselves here
* pupils may read whole books
* pupils may think for themselves
* pupils may find information which is more reliable (or opinions which appear more trustworthy) than those of their teachers
* pupils may read fiction which deals with unpleasant or worrying themes
* pupils may lose mental equilibrium in the face of so many different sources of information
* pupils may encounter difficult words and concepts
* fake websites may mislead the unwary
* pupils may read the end of a book before the teacher reaches it in class
* anyone removing a shelf support may be thumped by a library monitor
* pupils may be so enthralled by what they are reading in the library that they are late for lessons and risk teachers' ire

And of course it is not only pupils who may find Health & Safety hazards in the library:
* inspectors may ignore the library, thus leading to a loss of self-esteem on the part of library staff
* cleaners may declare certain parts of the library outside their job description, thus leading to either unhygienic conditions or an overworked librarian
* parents/teachers/senior management may act as though they know better than the librarian how to run the library, thus endangering the librarian's health

[Peter Alsbjer]

I put the poster on my pin board at Pinterest, hope it was OK http://pinterest.com/peterals/alternative-librarianism/

[Rob Jarvis]

You can only find Edgar Alan Poe in a library!!! What could be more gruesome,morbid dreadful and macabre than he?