Mullings on Libraries, Bookstores, and Other Public Spaces… Attraction vs. Repulsion

A friend just posted something about how much he loves libraries, which initiated a whole string of emotions and memories of time spent in libraries. My reactions did not particularly involve “love.” I wouldn’t say they involved “hate,” either. My usual time spent in libraries, which have been mostly college and university libraries were highly focused on getting what I needed, maybe browsing a bit more widely while in a particular section, then getting out of there.

I also don’t like borrowing books. I always find that I want to highlight something or write some comments, and I just won’t do that in somebody else’s books. For some reason, books are more like family members. And, these family members are my mentors, my guides, my conceptual challengers, my inspirers, and so forth. My wife, who lives in libraries and reads a lot, is always bugging me about getting rid of some of my books. And, yes, I did get rid of about a third of my books when I retired. However, these books were like acquaintances and not even friends. They were the technical books of my profession that I used for reference and to lend to students, but really had very little to do with my core interests and passions.

I love my own library and I tend to love other people’s private libraries. I also love used bookstores, as long as I have enough money to spend. New bookstores tend to be out there with public or university libraries. If I go into a new bookstore, I’m usually looking for something specific and get out of there as quickly as possible. Gone are the days of the family-owned new bookstore to which I reacted differently. I could spend hours in these bookstores.

I think what I’m reacting to in terms of personal vs. public libraries and used vs. new bookstores has to do with atmospheric factors. I do not find public libraries and new bookstores to be particularly inviting. They have a cold and disconnected atmosphere. The quiet of libraries is almost morose, and certainly lifeless. Although the new corporate bookstores are not necessarily quiet, they do share in the lifeless quality. Both public libraries and corporate bookstores tend to be sterile and lacking in character, warmth, inclusiveness, and connectedness.

Walking into City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco or Strand Bookstore in New York City is like entering a new world that is stimulating, exciting, yet is warm and inviting. You can spend hours looking at books and reading. Years ago when my children were relatively young, we were looking through Strand’s. At one point, my younger son asked me where a restroom was. I had forgotten, but asked a middle-aged man sitting on a footstool reading a book, if he knew where a restroom was. He gave my son detailed instructions. I said something like, “you must spend some time here.” He said, “I practically live here. I’m here for hours almost everyday.”

In Arizona, there is a small used bookstore chain, which I still go to occasionally, but they went from a very warm and inviting atmosphere to one that was much more sterile and corporate. It lost its charm after their “idea” to upgrade. But, for many years, they maintained a great little place to hangout and explore. You could bring your dog (they always had treats), order and drink coffee, and sit in comfortable chairs, while browsing an ever-changing stock of used gems. They even carried some used musical instruments, electronics, albums-tapes-CDs, and DVDs. They still have a trading system, where you can bring in your own “stuff,” and get trade credit (or cash, but a lesser amount). But, this chain was still family-owned, and had some of that flavor.

But, this is the world we live in… a corporatized, sterile, disconnected, and cold world. As with libraries and bookstores, the same pattern of warmth vs. sterility is characteristic of the family-owned vs. corporate-owned restaurants, coffee shops, retail shops, auto repair shops, and businesses of all kinds. Unfortunately, most of the locally-owned businesses have disappeared as the corporate versions moved in. And, now, as online corporate entities have become more popular, they are even putting the local corporate chain stores out of business. Amazon treats their employees terribly, but have mastered the customer relations part of their strategy (e.g., making returns easy and usually with very little or no resistance). Personally, I have begun my own boycott of Amazon, unless there is absolutely no choice. I don’t buy into Prime any more. And, I’m finding small family-owned local or online businesses that offer the same or similar products for less money and cheaper or free shipping.

In addition to the library and business world of warmth vs. sterility, the same pattern applies to changes in schools, colleges, and universities. Over the past few decades, the process of corporatizing educational institutions has been changing these institutions from what were once warm and inviting (at least a fair number were like this) to what are now devoid of passion, compassion, warmth of any kind, character, and so forth. In fact, the windowless public schools look more like prisons and university classrooms look sterile, clinical, and lifeless. And, then online courses, put the world shebang of the teaching-learning dynamic into the garbage can. But, universities are making tons of money through online programs.

Windowless Elementary School… the new approach to subjugating children.

See my blog entries on online courses and related issues: