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A LONG WAY FROM BABEL
The moving picture has an enormous power to communicate beyond the mere word, spoken or written. The versatility of the power to combine motion, image, sound, and music has long since exceeded the vision of the Lumière Brothers. One of the most ballyhooed — and profitable — shifts in internet technology was the debut of YouTube and its countless imitators. These services make the sharing of short videos quick and easy for the tech savvy and novice alike.
The following video, available on YouTube, demonstrates that ably: it is a promotional video for the Bibliotheek Amsterdam, the modern public library in the heart of Holland’s greatest city. While the voice-over is entirely in Dutch, the graphic design and editorial choices made by the director makes it easy for any non-speaker to follow — film transcending language. I knew and understood what the video presented without understanding any of the narration. It is a triumph of design.
The video makes clear that the Bibliotheek Amsterdam is a forward-thinking library, ready to use the tools of the 21st century to provide better service to their users. It demonstrates the online tools provided by the library and its slick, modernist website — which is, incidentally, available in both Dutch and English.
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A READING ROOM
While this blog will largely be devoted to technology, it is always worthwhile to look at the past: there is both beauty and wisdom in the old ideas of our great institutions.
One of my favorite aspects of historic libraries is the grand, classical reading room with its soaring ceilings and walls clad in books. Few modern libraries have a public space so monumental, and so wholly devoted to quiet scholarship. The reader is impressed by his or her surroundings; it elevates their condition. I took this picture in the reading room of the New York Public Library:
Locally, I recommend the Doe Library’s Reference Reading Room, on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, for similar grandeur. Would you nominate any other grand spaces?
WELCOME TO THE PINAKES
Welcome to The Pinakes, a discussion of library technology, new and old, and how the two might meet. Your host is a second-year Masters Candidate in Library and Information Science with a passion for history, rare books and modern technology.
This site is named for the first known library catalog. The pinakes was the work of Callimachus of Cyrene, a scholar, poet and librarian of the third century BCE. Callimachus oversaw the famed Great Library of Alexandria at a time it housed all the known knowledge of the world. He is considered by many to be the father of bibliography.
The original pinakes was an index of all the world’s information, divided into eleven categories. I will use this blog as a tool for discovering, describing and indexing the latest tools for information-sharing — how many categories of technology will we discover? From papyrus to codex to pdf — it’s all information.
Your comments, thoughts and feedback are very welcome here.
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