A visit to the library gnomes
Mar. 6th, 2003 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI stayed after hours at the library last night, to meet the gnomes. I first started suspecting they were there when I found a tiny penciled message on one of the slips of paper out for people to scribble call numbers on. The writing was so small, I couldn't imagine how someone wrote it, especially not with the golf pencils they have out next to the computers.
Once I started paying attention, though, there were lots of little signs, things hidden behind books, little crannies with well-worn paths...
It took some time, but I finally arranged a meeting. It turns out that the library is full of them, different tribes in different subject areas, distinguished by the Dewey Decimal system. I thought those in the travel section would be most cosmopolitan, so I made my appointment with them. Turns out, the travel tribe has souvenirs from the rest of the library, and a tendency to tell stories of their adventures in the long hours after closing.
I made myself as comfortable as I could on a library stepstool. Then the stories began. I heard stories of intrepid travel, over to Self-help (who are the most arrogant gnomes, thinking themselves more improved than anyone else), to Cookbooks (they bemoan the lack of fresh ingredients, yet manage to produce gourmet meals), even into the disorganized frontier regions of Fiction, and the dangerous Mystery section, where many scouts had been killed.
I heard of the concern that the library might change to the Library of Congress classification system, and the fears of tribal chaos that could ensue: most tribes knew only their nearest neighbors. There were some who were still afraid that computers would replace all the books, but they were in the minority. And there had been a recent spate of book-dust-triggered asthma, which no one had yet devised a treatment. Not an easy life.
Too soon, it began to be light, time for me to go.
Once I started paying attention, though, there were lots of little signs, things hidden behind books, little crannies with well-worn paths...
It took some time, but I finally arranged a meeting. It turns out that the library is full of them, different tribes in different subject areas, distinguished by the Dewey Decimal system. I thought those in the travel section would be most cosmopolitan, so I made my appointment with them. Turns out, the travel tribe has souvenirs from the rest of the library, and a tendency to tell stories of their adventures in the long hours after closing.
I made myself as comfortable as I could on a library stepstool. Then the stories began. I heard stories of intrepid travel, over to Self-help (who are the most arrogant gnomes, thinking themselves more improved than anyone else), to Cookbooks (they bemoan the lack of fresh ingredients, yet manage to produce gourmet meals), even into the disorganized frontier regions of Fiction, and the dangerous Mystery section, where many scouts had been killed.
I heard of the concern that the library might change to the Library of Congress classification system, and the fears of tribal chaos that could ensue: most tribes knew only their nearest neighbors. There were some who were still afraid that computers would replace all the books, but they were in the minority. And there had been a recent spate of book-dust-triggered asthma, which no one had yet devised a treatment. Not an easy life.
Too soon, it began to be light, time for me to go.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 06:16 pm (UTC)