2012-06-09
post/24756309679
quote 18:49:09
“ It would seem the most obvious thing in the world to say that the reason why the market is not an efficient solution to libraries is because the market has no use for a library. But it seems we need, right now, to keep re-stating the obvious. There aren’t many institutions left that fit so precisely Keynes’ definition of things that no one else but the state is willing to take on. ”
Zadie Smith in The North West London Blues, a post at the The New York Review of Books blog.
2012-05-29
post/23980337478
photo 05:30:30
From page iv of the Catalogue of the San Francisco Free Public Library, 1888 additions, abbreviations for “the more common masculine and feminine fore-names”.
2012-03-18
post/19501984332
photo 07:15:05
Another reason to love iPhone autocorrect.
I think this works because it’s picking up on the artists in your library, not because of some metal fan making sure the in-built dictionary is appropriately umlauted.
That said, however it works, it seems to be making you happy.
2012-01-24
post/16418780837
quote 19:51:06
“ A library is not simply the books and the computers and the resources, but it’s actually a place where there aren’t four or five conversations going on. It’s a place where children can read and be on their own, and that’s invaluable. But they want to turn our library into some sort of retail outlet. ”
Alan Bennett, quoted in the Paris Review: Alan Bennett on ‘Smut’, by Jonathan Gharraie.
2011-07-25
post/8049524587
quote 19:13:45
“ One knows that designers seldom read, but they don’t have much knowledge of Inca civilisation either or the Puritan settlement of New England and yet they seem to cope perfectly well reproducing them. An agglomeration of books as illustrating the character of their owner seems to defeat them. ”
Alan Bennett in a piece for the LRB: Baffled at a Bookcase.
