Y'know I don't really know anybody who doesn't consider book burning to be some sort of crime. I mean, I've joked about it a few times with friends, saying things like "Wow, I've never thought of burning a book before, but man after reading Twilight I'm starting to reconsider." But I never really meant it. Even just the thought of destruction of literatue on a massive scale makes me physically ill.
So you can imagine my utter horror when I woke up and per my usual routine click over to Cracked.com, intending to find another 'top 10 list of shit that isn't really important but is somewhat interesting.' Instead I find this little turd nugget of an article. Go ahead, read through it. I'll wait.
The article's by a guy in Australia who actually works in a library and I'm willing to take him at his word. What I'm not willing to take is the bullshit he tries to spew out that this isn't as bad as you'd think. He tries to spin it around, to make it seem like this practice of destroying books is, if not a good
thing, then at least inevitable. Time marches on, and the new digital age that is upon us is replacing the old media. Why should libraries be immune to the new fad?
Well, I'll tell you why and *spoiler alert * it's a pretty fucking simple answer that's also somewhat obvious: You Shouldn't Destroy Books Because You Are Fucking Libraries. It's your job, your duty as libraries and librarians to preserve knowledge. Let me say that again, just in case you're too fucking brain dead to get it the first time: Your job. is to. PRESERVE KNOWLEDGE.
To be fair, the article's author does talk about how books are being preserved on microfilm and digitization, and how libraries are already at full capacity and don't have anymore room for books. And that most hardcore library users are students and university teachers who only come for the various academic and scientific journals that the library keeps. These are all valid points, and I can actually understand and sympathize with the plight of an understaffed, low budget building. Hell, I spent one of my university terms as a volunteer at the local archives, so I have somewhat of an idea of the tremendous effort it takes organize and categorize a literal labyrinthe of reading materials.
However...
However, that doesn't excuse the fact that libraries in question don't seem to be doing anything to ensure that the books they can no longer store are preserved in some fashion or another. When the logical question of why the books aren't just given away, there's some bullshit reasoning that it would take more effort to give books away then sell them for pulp. That somehow, by removing the whole library identification part of the book takes way too much time and effort. If they just gave them away, the article says, it creates a huge hassle since people inevitably return the books to the library. Oh, but not to worry, a lot of the books are being transferred to a digital medium.
You might be asking, well if the books are preserved on microfilm or digitized why's this guy getting so upset? Well, I can tell you with 100 % certainty that a lot of stuff being destroyed will be gone completely, without a copy, digital or otherwise, to be preserved. Remember when I was talking about my time at the archives? I saw first-hand what a fucking ardous and lengthy process it was to copy materials onto micro-film. There was always of back-log of materials that needed to be processed through and there was never enough time to go through the whole lot of it. Add in the fact that libraries are under pressure to make room for the "important stuff" like the aforementioned journals, and that they're understaffed, and you're going to see a lot of material that is being completely and utterly destroyed, with absolutely no traces of it left in any sort of medium, digital, microfilm or otherwise. It's not some sci-fi cliched barbarian horde of mutants or neo-totalitarian government that's destroying books, but in this case simple economics and bureaucratic apathy.
So what's my solution to all of this? Well, it took me all of a minute to think of it, but I think the root problem of it is this: libraries are underfunded, cash strapped and don't want the hassle of giving books away. That's why they sell the books for pulp. Therefore I've got two solutions for ya libraries. The first is to organize some pledge drives. I know in the article it said that nobody wants to fund libraries anymore, like it's aux passe or some shit, but just present if you present it in a way that makes it clear that lack of funding is literally killing books, then I'm sure people can throw in a little money. Everybody's strapped for cash in this economy, but nobody wants to see books destroyed because of it.
The second solution is to buy a stamp. Yep, you heard me. I know you're fucking familiar with stamps and stamping. The stamp will read thusly in big red letters: Available for private ownership. (Or something to that effect. I don't know the legalese but just put something on there that And you can use that to simply stamp any of the books you're going to dispose of or sell for pulp. If your staff doesn't have the time then set it up so that volunteers can do it. I'm certain that somebody'll do it for free, rather than going through the brain bleach inducing thought of books being destroyed.
Okay, alright to be fair I'm sure that there's probably a few ways you punch holes in the solutions above, but at least it's a start. Maybe somebody else has a better plan, and if so please let me know about it. Hell, let the whole world know about it. Because this whole practice has to stop. To paraphrase Craig Ferguson: It's the triumph of brute force and cynicism over intellect and romanticism. If there's any librarian or anybody all who's associated with a library who's involved in this practice that's reading this I have to say six words. You just didn't try, did you? You didn't even try to come up with a solution other than burning or destroying books. You just went along with a shrug and maybe tried to come up with some bullshit justifications to your actions like in the Cracked article. You're supposed to preserve knowledge, remember and if you can't do it using your own facility at least fucking make sure somebody else can do it at their own means. Instead, you just didn't care.
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