Libraries: The Unsung Heroes
Libraries, to say nothing of books, are getting short shrift.
I asked a serious question in a previous post — Are Books and Reading Extinct? — and have yet to get a serious answer, so I decided to delve into the world of libraries.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina -
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, or the Alexandria Library in Egypt’s second city, is a world famous landmark that came back to life after centuries of obscurity. It was the largest respository of knowledge in antiquity, was associated with scientific research and was frequented by scholars from all over the Mediterranean.
Although the old library was destroyed — the exact date is still debated among scholars — it represented civilization and the foundation on which arose the ancient University of Alexandria.
The modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina lies alongside the University of Alexandria’s Faculty of Arts, overlooking the sea. It’s designed as a simple circle inclined towards the Mediterranean and partly submerged in a pool of water. It represents the Egyptian sun that in contemporary terms will illuminate the world and human civilization.
The library collection is displayed over seven levels (11 floors) from the Roots of Knowledge to the New Technologies. The building houses several smaller libraries, including two for young people and children, an audiovisual, multimedia and music library, reading rooms, several museums, a planetarium and a conference center.
I enjoyed visiting it a couple of times years ago on separate occasions and was fascinated by an exhibition of literary tomes and copies of the Qurān (the Muslim holy book) written in exquisite Arabic calligraphy — consummate works of art.
Books and fashion -
Fast forward to 2025.
The hottest thing in fashion advertising? Books. So headlined the Wall Street Journal in a feature about reading.
“Fashion brands that long made bedfellows with art and music have lately been flirting with a nerdier muse: literature,” wrote Katie Deighton.
Well known brands such as J.Crew, Tiffany & Co., Prada and Yves Saint Laurent are hosting literary salons and hooking up with book clubs to promote wearables and readables ranging from Chloë Sevigny to Charlotte Gainsbourg and Marcel Proust, Deighton said, adding that some books are designed to be read and owned by a select few or presented only to guests at events in New York, Tokyo, Milan, Paris and London.
“It’s about demonstrating intelligence, demonstrating discernment and demonstrating the value of time, because to have your own time is one of the greatest luxuries in the world,” said James Denman, a brand consultant specializing in luxury and fashion.
“Reading — not being always online, not always being connected, not having the phone constantly next to you — has come to imply that you are just operating at a different level.”
But brands are also using books to keep up with elusive younger consumers, the article noted.
Gen Zers are interested in reading and acquiring books thanks in great measure to the influence of social media creations Booktok and Bookstagram with millennial celebrities, for their part, founding book clubs to reach their fans through Instagram, email and YouTube, Deighton said.
Some brands have spent years building literature into their core identities. Yves Saint Laurent himself was inspired by Proust his entire career, long before last year’s ad campaign hit YouTube. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was known to have rubbed shoulders with Jean Cocteau and Colette. Her eventual creative successor at Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, founded the bookshop and library 7L in Paris, which was acquired by the brand in 2021, two years after his death. The fashion house since then has held events dubbed “literary rendezvous” at the space.
It’s an interesting concept and worth exploring elsewhere if it leads to engaged readers who value books, want to acquire them, and build or expand their own libraries.
Byblos, home of our alphabet -
The Lebanese port city of Byblos, or Jbeil in Arabic, is credited with launching the alphabet. It’s one of the oldest continuously inhabited Phoenician cities and was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984, thanks to its rich layers of history dating back 7,000 years, according to scholars. Phoenician Prince Cadmos is said to have introduced the alphabet we use today to the Greeks, who, in turn, gave us the Greek alphabet. A statue honoring him faces the port.
We, authors and librarians, owe them a debt of gratitude.
Trailblazing Helsinki -
Finland’s open data ecosystem means everyone can access the city’s public data, including foreigners (provided they understand Finnish), unless the information relates to national security or may violate people’s privacy, and they can do that at the local library.
I found out about it during a 2016 workshop I attended at Helsinki Public Library #10 on open data and transparency and how journalists can turn data sets into meaningful stories. Libraries, whose role is to guarantee access to information, are the crown jewels of Helsinki’s public services.
“Only 25% of this library’s users borrow books, while 75% need other services,” Kari Lamsa, the director told us. “We have music studios, editing rooms, facilities to publish media; anyone can use the library for office space.”
The award-winning library hosts events like cultural exhibitions or dialogues, thanks to a Finnish policy that taxpayer-subsidized libraries, museums, and adult education are worthwhile.
What impressed me was not only the use of technology in making all that information readily available but the cherry on top was that children in Finland from a young age are taught how best to utilize it in a responsible fashion and how to enjoy learning in school, at the library, and at home, in a fully media literate environment.
Home libraries -
“A Home Library Can Tell Your Life Story,” according to The New York Times.
“Interior designers have strategies for creating personal spaces for reading, whether it is in a dedicated room or a welcoming corner in your house,” it said.
If you own a lot of books, it’s great to have a place to celebrate and enjoy them. That’s why a home library can be so appealing: It’s a welcoming retreat where you can appreciate and be inspired by volumes you’ve collected over the years.
I can certainly relate to that. My home library has expanded over the decades, and moved with me across continents — at great expense, I might add.
Unlike the “designed” home libraries in that New York Times article with beautiful settings probably costing rich Big Apple clients an arm and a leg, mine is simply a reflection of a love affair with books and publications.
Having a dedicated room for a home library is a wonderful thing, but space constraints don’t always allow for one. If you lack a spare room to turn into a library, one can be added to a space you might not have considered, like a wide hallway, an alcove or even an unused corner in a larger room.
I’m lucky I have space but also had floor to ceiling bookcases built in a bedroom turned into an office, and in a glassed-in balcony, in addition to bookcases in other bedrooms, a hallway, a living room and a dining room (all packed solid), side tables stacked high with publications, and, a few drawers in chests meant for other uses.
Like the designer home libraries, I’ve also filled my shelves with photos, crafts and works of art from different parts of the world I was lucky to visit, and with gifts I received. They’re all very comforting and feel like part of the family.
I’m not sure if Gregorio Catarino is a real person, but he posted a very cute illustration on X dubbed “Cat in the library” by Jean-Jacques Sempé (1932–2022) with the feline in question comfortably seated on a ledge staring out of a window and surrounded by walls covered with books.
My kind of hangout.
Someone else posted the following on X about the late Italian novelist, cultural critic and political/social commentator Umberto Eco above a picture of the scribe:
Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had this to say about home libraries:
“It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones.
“There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion.
“If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That’s why you should always have a nutrition choice!
“Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it.
They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity.”
I came across a short video of Eco walking through long corridors filled with bookcases and passing by rooms of his private library. He finally reached a particular room to pull out a book from one of countless shelves adorning his floor-to-ceiling bookcases.
A veritable treasure trove not necessarily fashioned by big name designers.
Library of Congress, the Morgan and Austrian National Library -
One of my favorite book repositories is the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, D.C. I used to go there often to check out references and take visiting family members and friends on tours when I lived in the city.
According to Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the LOC is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. It’s also the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office, she wrote in a welcome message on the LOC website.
The main reading room is beautiful, impressive and imposing. It was very cleverly captured in the Watergate scandal movie “All the President’s Men” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, which I often showed my trainees in investigative journalism workshops.
On a brief business trip to New York City a few years ago I discovered the Morgan Library and Museum, was so enchanted by it that I spent five hours walking around the various rooms and sections, and later blogged about it.
The Morgan is named after the late Wall Street financier and banker J.P. Morgan who built this “private retreat” near his Manhattan villa to house his rich collection of books, paintings, sculptures and other treasures.
I wish I’d spent time discovering the Austrian National Library in Vienna. My only visit to it was on a chilly night in November 2002 to attend a concert in the magnificent State Hall as part of a multi-day celebration organized by the International Press Institute.
Emperor Karl VI commissioned the construction of this jewel of secular Baroque architecture for his court library. Built in 1723, the magnificent hall with its 200,000 works of art from 500 years of book printing conveys the authentic image of the Baroque universal library of the 18th century.
The library’s website says the State Hall is almost 80 meters (262.4 feet) long and 20 meters (65.6 feet) high and boasts a beautifully designed and decorated dome, numerous frescoes and four stunning Venetian globes measuring more than a meter (3.2 feet) each in diameter.
But a 45-minute guided tour of the State Hall doesn’t come cheap: 16 Euros for adults and 3.30 Euros for children. The library’s reading rooms also need a budget. An annual ticket costs 35 Euros while a one-day pass is 4 Euros.
What I’ve since discovered is that in addition to the museum-like State Hall, the library has five other areas where fascinating permanent presentations and exhibitions are displayed: the Literature Museum, the Papyrus Museum, the Globe Museum, the Esperanto Museum and the House of Austrian History. I’ll definitely visit the library and its museums on my next trip to Vienna.
Libraries and TikTok -
“L’une des milleures manières de recréer la pensée d’un homme: reconstituer sa bibliothèque (One of the best ways to recreate a man’s thought is to rebuild his library),” the late Belgian-born, French novelist and essayist Marguerite Yourcenar, who became a U.S. citizen in 1947, is quoted as saying.
But what if that library is built on TikTok?
“‘TikTok generation’ revives classics,” is a catchy headline to a feature I read in the pan-Arab daily Ashraq Al-Awsat about how young readers are discovering literary greats through social media platforms.
The article quoted British publishing experts as saying social media vehicles like TikTok and Instagram can bring fame to things, people, places and books.
It said the world had changed after the internet, notably sites like TikTok with its short videos becoming a basic source of information for young people and with BookTok a prime example of readers’ literary recommendations in brief and spontaneous posts leading to the discovery of books and a passion for reading.
It pointed to a jump in sales of “White Nights,” a short story by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, which rose to number four on the bestseller list in the UK in 2024.
Mobile libraries/bookmobiles -
A great idea that should become ubiquitous and that’s been adopted in different countries is the mobile library. Pulp Librarian posted pictures on X of libraries in American, Argentinian and Italian vehicles, on a Pakistani camel, Mexican donkeys and a Hungarian cart.
It’s not a new concept.
A traveling library often used to provide books to villages and city suburbs that had no library buildings, the bookmobile went from a simple horse-drawn cart in the 19th century to large customised vehicles that became part of American culture and reached their height of popularity in the mid-twentieth century.
According to the Smithsonian magazine, one of the earliest recorded bookmobiles was the Perambulating Library, a horse-drawn cart, in 1859 England.
The article linked to another charming feature in Messy Nessy entitled “To the Bookmobile! The Library on Wheels of Yesteryear” with a series of archival pictures from the U.S., Ghana, the Netherlands, Myanmar and Tasmania.
So what happened to the beloved bookmobiles, the author asked?
While there are still a few libraries around that have managed to find a budget for a modern-day bookmobile, sadly, most of the oldies have ended up rotting away in a (sic) junkyards or eventually disappeared altogether.
On another note, literally and figuratively, American singer, song writer and guitarist Jesse Welles, a/k/a Welles who’s known for his folk and protest songs, posted a catchy ditty on YouTube called “Books.”
“I can travel around never leave my seat, tell you something buddy reading books is pretty dang neat…take a short book just to get your feet wet and you’ll be reading big time in no time I’ll bet,” he strummed on his guitar.