Sunday, April 04, 2004

The Anarchist in the Library

I was looking at the AALL 2004 conference proceedings, and noticed the first keynote speaker is Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of The Anarchist in the Library . Since I hadn't heard of him before, I googled the book title. I came across an interesting interview with him in this blog archives from last year: [Eyeteeth: A Journal of Incisive Ideas]. The interview starts about halfway down the page.

I quite like this quote from Vaidhyanathan:

"Libraries are considered to be dangerous places and librarians are our heroes. This is something that we really have to emphasize. The library is also not just functionally important to communities all over the world, but a library itself is the embodiment of enlightenment values in all the best sense of that. A library is a temple to the notion that knowledge is not just for the elite and that access should be low cost if not free, that doors should be open. Investing in libraries monetarily, spiritually, intellectually, legally is one of the best things we can do for our immediate state and for the life we hope we can build for the rest of the century."

The Anarchist in the Library is expected to be released in Canada April 22, 2004.

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