Nov
15

They Are Coming for the Library.

Pardon the pun, but it’s the oldest trick in the book. Viking invaders pillaged Irish monastic libraries; Alexander the Great built his library using the seized collections of others; the British burned the infant Library of Congress during the War of 1812;  the Nazis bombed and emptied museums all over Europe; and the United States and the United Kingdom willfully permitted the destruction of Iraqi cultural institutions. If an invading force wants to demoralize and humiliate a people, the first thing to do is erase their cultural record. It may seem like a quaint concept in an age where we believe that everything is electronic and therefore permanent, but witness the outrage this morning as people learn that one of the casualties of the eviction of Zuccotti Park was the 5,000 volume People’s Library. It is an effective tactic, whether the destruction is purposeful or not.

It is appropriate to be infuriated by a crime against information and speech. But make no mistake: One way or another, failing a plan to counter them, the police were always going to destroy that library. As long as the relationship between law enforcement and the protestors was tense, as long as the right of the people to inhabit that park was contested, that library was a target. The librarians, as students of their profession’s history, should have known what the police were going to do even before the police themselves realized it.

Read more…

  • Posted on November 15th, 2011
  • Posted by rainabloom
  • 15 Comments »
  • Filed under: libraries, occupy wall street
  • Tags:
Go back to top
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.