Sunday, May 8, 2011
That New Book Smell
For the third post of the Equity Project, I went back to the Alameda County Library. I have not been able to go for a while, and was almost expecting to be reprimanded for my no-shows. Surprisingly, I was greeted warmly by Marta, the head of volunteer services at the library, and went straight into the work I would do for another two hours. Like last time, I had to process books, but this time I was able to process brand new books. While the process was similar, this time I had to also place a color-coded sticker on the side of the books that you see in the library. Something that I really appreciated about working this time around was being around new books. After Border's began to close down all over the Bay Area, no one has really been around a new book for a long time. I think the fact that the library began to process new books for people to enjoy was admirable since many people are switching over to ebooks like the Kindle or those on the iPad, and hardly anyone gets to enjoy the physical turning of a new page or the initial stiffness of the spine. I think the library is important in preserving a pastime that might be considered obsolete nowadays, since many future generations might not even experience the joys of holding an actual book, and I am glad to be a part of the preservation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I think its a really good thing to preserve the books. In my experience we got to pack potatoes for the homeless. Yeah helping the homeless is great and everything but I didn't get to experience the gratefulness of that persons face. I can imagine Leo was pretty happy when he saw the newly printed books. Considering we can't see that as people anymore. Unless you want to order it off of amazon and wait a few days for it. But it doesn't give you the same type of feeling.
I never thought of working at the public library for this project but after reading this, I'm thinking about trying out. Maybe for the extra credit volunteer post we could do. It's refreshing to know that small jobs like what you had gives you that admiration for things that people take for granted. Which in this case are books. I'm really looking into hopefully volunteering somewhere new and this could be the place!
Volunteering for the library was a great idea. I do agree with you that the beauty of have the real book and pages is fading and everything is beingndone through electronics. Helping preserve books seemed to really give you satisfaction, and I think that it's a great thing to do.
Your experience sounds really great. I've been wanting to go here but the Alameda County Library has been filled with volunteers from what I know and they do not need any more volunteers! I agree with you that books are really important. Technology is really taking over, but books are sometimes more useful and reliable. Books will never shut off on you or break. What happens if you don't have your Kindle charger! I guess you're out of luck! That is why books are very important to have around.
I totally get what you mean by that new book smell. Don't hate but I'm a bookworm and Kindles are cool and all but having something physical is way better for me. Like seeing by the thickness how much you've read/have left, and not having to charge anything, just going to your bookmark/fold and diving in.. alright I'm sounding weird now but you get my point. I was absolutely disappointed in all humanity when the Barnes and Noble closed down because that was forreal my spot. Then the Borders which I didn't like all the much but went to sometimes closed down and I was hopeless, so I get what you mean by preserving the books. I'm glad you enjoyed your hours there, and after reading this I might volunteer there for my regular service hours. I haven't been to the AC library in what seems like forever anyway so I need to pay a visit regardless.
Post a Comment