Library: An Unquiet History - Matthew Battles

The Librarian, ca. 1566 by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

"Information is a valued commodity...both profit and power can be acquired if its dissemination can be controlled." (Richard E. Rubin)

 With what particular subject does the book deal? From the ancient to the modern, libraries across the world have always been subject to political upheaval and natural devastation. This book deals with libraries through time: their resurrection and destruction, their impact on society, and society's use (and misuse) of the information contained therein. How thorough is the treatment? Battles' gives his subject a thorough treatment, illustrating the concept that the control of knowledge is older than the Great Wall of China. His biographical sketches show the depth of his understanding of the people and cultures he examines, but his serious tone is broken up when he tosses out a serendipitous fact, e.g., the first card catalog was fashioned out of playing cards. The book's time-line begins in Mesopotamia and ends up in today's Widener Library at Harvard. Is the account given in broad outline or in detail? Battles' cyclical tome begins and ends in Harvard's Widener Library (the largest academic library in the world with it's 90+ school and department collections). His purpose is to seek "points of transformation...where readers, authors, and librarians question the meaning of the library itself." His treatment is both broad in scope (covering 5000 years of history), while detailing important turning points in the history of the library. His first stop on this written road is 5000 years in the past, at the library in Nippur, with its clay cuneiform tablets used in Mesopotamian libraries. He continues his quest, making detailed stops at libraries in Iraq (Nineveh), Egypt (Alexandria), China (Qin Dynasty), and Rome (Palatine Hill), where Julius Caesar conceived the notion of a public library. Mt. Vesuvius is the first (recorded) natural disaster to destroy a library, burying the Italian "Villa of Papyri" in Herculaneum. With the rise of Christianity, the author describes Italian monastic life, the Vivarium built by Cassiodorus (who saw the destruction of the last great Roman libraries--Palatine and Ulpian), and the invention of the codex. Between 800 and 1200, the rise of Islam fueled the yearning for knowledge, while Moses of Nisibis' collection of 250 manuscripts in a Syrian monastery led to the sketchy survival of the Syriac language. Cosimo de' Medici's nouveau riche attempt to buy respectability and a pedigree with his book collection is intertwined with the development of the Vatican Library. Battles next brings us to the founding of the original Harvard library in the 1600's, while revisiting Britain, where pamphlets are published and distributed in earnest, arguing both sides of what a library should be: a "storehouse of wisdom" (the stand of the "Ancients"), or a "garden of books in limitless colors and forms" (the Universal/Modern" library belief). Jonathan Swift's story of "The Battel of the Books, A Full and True Account of the Battel Fought Last Friday Between the Ancient and the Modern Books in Saint James's Library" is related in full detail.

Battel of the Books frontispiece of Jonathan Swift's 1710 edition The Industrial Age introduces the use of iron, steam, efficiency, organization, interchangeable parts, standardization of bookmaking, and a certain "Melvil Dewey" who will use these tools to codify and streamline the library system. Dewey, along with Justin Winsor and Frederick Poole, foster the concept of reading for social progress. The senseless destruction of a civilization's relics in both World Wars receives in-depth treatment for the Belgian Library in Louvain (destroyed twice), the Lithuanian ghetto library at Vilna, and German librarians who burned their own books to mollify the Nazi regime. In America, Richard Wright's 1920's experiences are used as an example of segregation of, and denial to, information to be found in libraries. The 1992 biblioclasms of the Bosnian National University and Library, and the Oriental Institute (which held 500 years of Bosnian history) are final atrocities covered before Battles addresses what happens at the end of a book's life. Many "believers of the WORD" believe that words go to Heaven. Finally, the author ponders the fate of his own book: when the Widener collection is weeded, will he find his book unopened with the spine intact since the day it was placed in the collection, or will it be dogeared, marked-up, and loved to death? What were the sources used? Battles uses many primary sources as well as a hefty number of secondary sources. His secondary sources fill out the framework of the history he's telling and he showcases the books themselves. His example of Richard Wright's struggle to obtain reading materials at a public library specifically mentions books that Wright wanted to read.

 Is the style that of reportorial writing, or is there an effort at interpretive writing? Battles writes in a combination of reportorial and interpretative styles. He relates the history and provides personal commentary on the topic. His exceptionally descriptive wording is complimented by his extensive record of reading; he incorporates many titles in the narrative. He talks about "the library's breathing [...] [s]o the library is like a body, too, the pages of books pressed together like organs in the darkness; " describes the Devil as, "less a horned imp than an oiled and weary flaneur" when he sidles up to Enoch Soames to take him to the future; and during the Industrial Age, book-makers at the Cliff Street Building in New York are "regulated by that cyclopean manifestation of modernity, the clock on the wall." At its heart, however, it is a history book, and Battles' prose presents a clearly written account of the events depicted, while allowing history to speak for itself via quotes from important and meaningful primary sources. Battles' confident style is more reportorial at times. Then he leaves values and ethics questions open to interpretation. What is the point of view or thesis of the author or authors? The author takes a practical look at the wealth of knowledge available throughout the ages, and reflects upon its expansion, its destruction, and its relevance. Each of the libraries Battles covers takes its personality from the political leaders of the time. The library has served two contradictory purposes: to exalt the canons of literature and to contain and control all forms of human knowledge. Is the treatment superficial or profound? Our group considers Battles' treatment to be fairly profound. He delves deeply into each subject and works through each idea before moving on to another. The book inspired our group in different ways: one member was reminded why and how much she loved libraries; another was moved to make a list of titles that the author cites, for further reading; and the third was impressed with the way Battles presents world civilizations through the library, by providing the political, scientific and religious landscape of each culture. A superficial book about books would not evoke these kinds of reactions. For what audience is the book intended (textbook, popular, scholarly, etc.)? While the subject matter makes it particularly interesting to LIS students, this book book would appeal to a broader audience: historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, bibliophiles, and scholars. It could be read for pleasure or academic study. There is nothing in Battles' writing to alienate a reader without an LIS background - he doesn't use special LIS jargon. Anyone who loves libraries and is interested in their lasting effect on society throughout history would enjoy this book.

 What did you find surprising about the material introduced in this book? Battles makes a personal connection with the reader to make the history of the library interesting. He draws connections between very different societies and weaves a common thread between them. In addition to the history narrative, the author drops surprising trivia throughout the book: the Library of Congress receives 7000 books every day; Hitler destroyed over 100 libraries; Henry VIII was really a bibliophile who drew elaborate "cuffed, pointing hands" in his book margins; and the Library at Alexandria was the model for our modern university, as well as the first "think tank." Books were prized during the Crusades when "books from Toledo and Cordova...flowed into Europe as the booty of war." The reader discovers that budget crunches are not unique to the 21st century; even the librarians at Alexandria had limited resources and faced hard choices; "manuscript scrolls were costly and time-consuming to produce, and the scribes' precious labor could not often be lavished on minor texts." Just as the de' Medici family used their collection of books as way to publicize their wealth and status, so today do universities boast the number of volumes their libraries hold. Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he or she achieve this? Battles liberally uses personification and vivid metaphors. The online catalog is described as that "grotesque tentacular database which has the capacity to turn even the coolest of scholarpatrons into a gibbering fool." He draws parallels between different historical periods (the scholars of Mouseion, in Egypt, "ate together and held property in common, much as medieval scholars did in early universities in Europe"), and includes details to contextualize the subject he is addressing. Since its discovery by a Chinese farmer in 1974, an entire generation is aware of the 6000 terracotta soldiers in a great tomb, but how many could recall the person enshrined there was named Shi Huangdi? Or that he was responsible for China's Great Wall? Battles emphasizes the library as being a part of society instead of just being a repository for books; he gives us a framework to give history a human voice. When talking about the Lithuanian ghetto in Vilna, he follows the library director, Kruk, and uses Kruk's voice to explain the Jews' experience. Battles' primary sources shine and make the connection between the reader and these past lovers of books and libraries. That fact that people gravitate to the library--even under horrendous living conditions--is the focus in this example. As an author who could be pre-judged as living in the "Ivory Tower" of stern, Harvard academia, his sense of humor is evident: when speaking about the lateral strength of books he remarks, "It always seemed to me the greatest loss of the game Clue that one could never do it to Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the book."

 If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides of the debate? Does he or she seem to have a bias? Battles' book is all about debatable issues facing librarians from the beginning of recorded time. Should books be used as status symbols or for the knowledge held within? Should the Catholic church have control over access to learning or should Renaissance Humanism prevail and build libraries for the general public? Should the library contain secular or sacred texts? Universal (Modern) or Parnassan (Ancient) content? Which should a person believe: Newton's theories of a cold, clockwork-driven universe or a creative, personal God? Should knowledge be disseminated to the "middling sort of person" with little formal education, or be controlled by a "professional class of emerging academics?" Should librarians accept Dewey's second-class status as re-shelvers and custodians, while leaving the selection and evaluation to "learned, intellectually strong scholars?" Is quality of information to be sacrificed to the need for speed? How has reading this book changed your view of libraries, librarianship, or the role of information in society? This book, in combination with recent discussion board topics, has made us conscious of the heavy use of censorship throughout history and sympathetic to those who want access to information. We can appreciate our society where information is available and accessible at a public library. It reaffirms our belief in the second ALA Code of Ethics statement: "We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources." What have you learned about the information professions or the history of library and information science that surprised you or that you didnt know before you read your chosen book? It should come as no surprise that history tends to repeat itself with the rise and fall of political power. Battles' book is the embodiment of Rubin's statement that, "Information is a valued commodity...both profit and power can be acquired if its dissemination can be controlled." There is an inextricable connection between expansion and contraction (or destruction) of knowledge and political power. Rubin also reminds us that "as the value of information increases, there will be more and more stakeholders, each trying to maneuver governmental information policies to serve their needs." Every era can produce a Ptolemy or Google attempting to acquire knowledge and (possibly in Google's case) hoard it, a Hernan Cortes or Slobodan Milosevic destroying irreplaceable cultural artifacts due to religious zealotry, or a Cardinal Girolamo Sirleto or Nazi Joseph Goebbels burning books to control propaganda which would undermine their causes. Information has always been considered important to the victors in war.

References

Battles, M. (2003). Library: an unquiet history. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co. Rubin, R. (2004). Foundations of library and information science (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.