I recently heard an interview with Alberto Manguel on CBC radio who has recently been appointed as the new director of the National Library in Argentina. In this interview he said, “The idea of copyright, the idea of originality is a 19th century invention. Before that we were much freer to use the universal library as if every page were ours.” His writing credits include a book called A History of Reading. He also is currently involved in a project with Robert Lepage in Montréal called Bibliothèque de Nuit, a project inviting visitors to virtually explore 10 of the most fascinating libraries in the world. It explores what libraries are from a social, philosophical, and architectural perspective.
This got me thinking about the Alexandria Library as well as a comment made by last week’s guest lecturer about the origins of the word pirating (the ships coming into port, being searched for books, the books being copied and the copies being returned – not the originals). The ambition of the Great Library to collect every authoritative book in the world and the painstaking work of the scribes to copy those books is breathtaking and incredible to me. Given the resources needed to copy all those texts, I think the Alexandrians would be very interested to learn about how quickly books can be copied by either by scanning or being copied from a “born digital” versions, and that the space needed to house the books would not be so much a physical building, but a server. The notion of materiality and textuality would be very much challenged in their minds, and it would certainly open up a very interesting conversation.
The library was destroyed in a fire some time during the first century of the Common Era and all those books went up in smoke. Luckily, there were other copies!
Interestingly, a rather analogous endeavour by Google was in the news a few years ago. An article in The Guardian published in 2009 called “Google's plan for world's biggest online library: philanthropy or act of piracy?” is an interesting example of a modern day attempt to amass the world’s literature into one collection. Google has run into Copyright issues and I’m not sure if they have abandoned the project or not. I don’t think the Alexandrians would not have stopped at copyright laws even if they had existed, but it is generally agreed that a commercial company should not be entrusted with a component of the world’s intellectual property.
Sources used:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-past-is-not-the-present-do-food-animals-have-rights-alberto-manguel-s-curious-mind-the-great-hunger-1.3497315/alberto-manguel-s-unquenchable-curiosity-1.3497648
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/aug/30/google-library-project-books-settlement
http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/phillips.htm
Awesome post - I have been waiting for a chance to discuss the Google Books project. Here is an article I read a few months ago that is relevant to this post and answers some of your questions:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/what-ever-happened-to-google-books
As far as I know, however, this project is still underway and Google is hammering out major copyright issues. I do want to comment that this endeavour doesn't fall into the 'google taking over the world' category rather, Google actually approached and partnered up with approx. 40 leading libraries to digitize their vast collections. These libraries include Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Oxford, Stanford, University of Madrid, and even the New York Public Library. I think this is a fascinating project (definitely super ambitious and problematic) but one that allows free and open access to resources that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
Take for example my fascination with Aljamiado literature of Andalusia (Medieval Spain) a lot of the manuscripts I have used to conduct my research have been made available through Google books. In other words, Google books has enabled me to pursue my scholarly interests without travelling to the Royal Library in Madrid or Grenada, Spain.
I'm so glad you discussed the Alexandria Library. One can only imagine how it looked. I remember reading somewhere that it was considered one of the largest libraries in the ancient world. - Raquel
ReplyDeleteI've logged on to submit my posts to BB today and am discovering comments! It would have been an amazing experience to be in such a space where there was such an obsessive quest for knowledge. I imagine it would have been very quiet escept for the sound of turning pages and the scratch of a pen.
ReplyDeleteThanks Raquel. Have a great post term.
Thanks for your comment, Madiha, and thanks for sharing the link to the article in the New Yorker. It's so true what you say and so easy to make assumptions that Google has ulterior motives. Like Alexander the Great and then Ptolemy after him, who both seemed to have inexhaustible resources, perhaps Google with equally inexhaustible resources and is genuinely interested in making all the books available in electronic form for the greater good. It's hard to shake off all suspicion, but when you have personally benefitted from it it is cause for pause. All the best, Laurel
DeleteThanks for your comment, Madiha, and thanks for sharing the link to the article in the New Yorker. It's so true what you say and so easy to make assumptions that Google has ulterior motives. Like Alexander the Great and then Ptolemy after him, who both seemed to have inexhaustible resources, perhaps Google with equally inexhaustible resources and is genuinely interested in making all the books available in electronic form for the greater good. It's hard to shake off all suspicion, but when you have personally benefitted from it it is cause for pause. All the best, Laurel
DeleteI've logged on to submit my posts to BB today and am discovering comments! It would have been an amazing experience to be in such a space where there was such an obsessive quest for knowledge. I imagine it would have been very quiet escept for the sound of turning pages and the scratch of a pen.
ReplyDeleteThanks Raquel. Have a great post term.