May 3, 2000

Avoid ignorance. Seek knowledge. Visit the library

I've found taking things for granted saves a lot of time. Still, as an old boss often told me, "Never assume a thing." He usually said that just after I'd made one assumption too many.

Libraries are one of the things I usually take for granted. Like fresh air and sunshine (and the soft whispers of drifting fog) I've been around libraries most of my life, and especially when I needed them. The test of a community, a school, or a civilization is in its libraries. The Library of Congress is the world's greatest library. That may have helped substantially to make us the greatest country. Fittingly, it began with the purchase, at bargain prices, of the library of Thomas Jefferson, perhaps our most erudite president.

To be a good library user, first find a good library. The good user makes the library his own, by learning what's available, and how to use its treasures, both on the shelves and from the library's resources. You don't need to know everything. Just know how to find out what's important to you. If you don't know how to find it yourself, ask the reference librarian.

Scientists, and these days, millions of folks on the Internet, use computers for information retrieval. It's getting easier and easier to learn some facts, and on the Internet, a lot of nonsense as well. The ability to differentiate between sense and nonsense is more essential than ever. A librarian can help.

Libraries still use the Dewey decimal system, though one librarian explained to me a quarter century ago it was already "creaking." It does creak, but it's still highly useful, after a century and a quarter. Melvil Dewey was a genius, as any man must be to devise a system which categorizes all knowledge and systematically files it in a logical fashion for easy retrieval. His system has been revised many times, because of the vast explosion of knowledge since 1876. As recently as 1942 no one knew about personal computers, the Internet, transistors, the big bang, billions of galaxies, or plate tectonics. Few believed in continental drift. Those who did couldn't fathom the mechanism. A ten year old child today can know more about some subjects than the most erudite professor in 1942. Every adult needs to read regularly, just to keep up with knowledge that continues at an ever accelerating pace. Libraries are more important than they've ever been.

Librarians are the most civil of civil servants. Something of their surroundings must rub off. Pacifica's librarians labor under unusual burdens. There is unrelenting pressure from those who would eliminate one of our libraries.

With only one library, the average Pacifica resident would have to travel farther to get to a library than most of the other urban residents in the county served by the county system. If we're forced to get along with only one library most Pacificans will be short changed, deprived of information, pleasure, and the many other benefits available only from a public library. Our libraries are worth fighting for. Don't take them for granted.

Paul Azevedo has been enjoying the benefits of libraries since he was eight and reading every Horatio Alger novel ever written. His taste has improved since then. His e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net