Make the Library your own… Write in Books?
The design blog Core 77 is highlighting, with a special section called Hack2School, advice for students on how to get the most out of design school. Included in Hack2School is practical advice about taking advantage of such things as dorm rooms, classrooms, cheat sheets, etc. all from a design perspective. One section called Crash Course suggests making books your own by writing in them. By writing in the books you engage in a conversation with the texts and by some small extension the author. Writing in books makes the book usable to you by providing a context that you understand.
I am currently taking a graduate class: the Philosophy of Education. All the required texts for course were available in the library. As a librarian and a respectful patron, I am not going to mark up these books but at the same time I want to engage myself with these texts. I like to make notes, turn down pages, and highlight sections I find significant, but can I do this with a library book? Probably not.
This leads me to the greater concern about libraries. If we ask patrons to make libraries there own, make libraries spaces they want to use… are we sending a mixed message by not allowing library-users to use the books or computers the way they want to? Are libraries limiting their utility by not allowing the full-range of use of their ultimate product… books? Are passwords, filters, limited checkout times, computer limits on downloads, etc. making the library irrelevant to the extent that people would rather buy the book/internet access/article themselves? Is the competition that libraries feel from bookstores, Google, and Amazon a result of the limitations we impose on ourselves?
I don’t have the answers.
I really don’t… except for this small workaround about writing in books. I use those tiny Post-It tabs to mark sections of the book I want to come back to. I have also found that you can write on these tabs without leaving a mark in the book. So I can index, highlight, and mark sections of a library book how I want, and when I return it, just take these tabs out. The book is none the worse for wear.
More info:
Core77′s Hack2School: http://www.core77.com/hack2school/
Tags: access, books, coherence, context, convenience, design, education, knowledge, libraries, philosophy
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