the new and old reading challenges: will 'tomorrow' really be different than...
TRANSCRIPT
The new and old reading challenges: will
'tomorrow' really be different than 'yesterday'?
Dr. Ineta Krauls
Institute of Library and Information Science
Faculty of CommunicationVilnius University
Content of presentation
• Trial by jury: librarians vs readers (yesterday and today),
• Accusations:- Low reading culture,- Reading “bad” books,- Hooking up on anything else but the
Book,• What is reading in itself?• Conclusions: guilty or not?
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
The future was also better in the past…
Karl Valentin (Bavarian comedian)
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Low reading culture
• Francisco José de Goya (1746 – 1828),
• Los Caprichos (1799).• Capricho No. 29 “That
certainly is being able to read”. (“Esto si que es leer?”).
• “I get combed, I get shaved, I sleep and study. Nobody will say that I have wasted my time” (“Le peinan, le calzan, duerme y estudia. Nadie dirá que desaprovecha el tiempo”).
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Low reading culture (Lithuanian context)
Throughout the 20th century:-undisciplined (library) readers,-low formal aspects of reading,-library and information illiteracy,-narrow reading interests,-non reading (typical age gaps, social situations, etc.).
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Reading “bad” books
“Fiction song”, Anonymous librarian, USA, 1890
“Here are thousands of books that will do you more good
Than the novels, oh, novels, oh, novels!You will weaken your brain with such poor
mental foodAs the novels, oh, novels, oh, novels!Pray take history, music, or travels, or plays.”
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Reading “bad” books
“A librarian may talk till he’s black in the face
And may think that with patience he may raise the taste
He may talk till with age his round shoulders are bent
When he hands his report in, still seventy per cent
Will be novels, oh, novels, oh, novels!”The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Reading “bad” books
Kaunas city municipality library reading room, 1930’s – newspapers were mostly popular reading materials.
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Reading “bad” books: 20th century interwar period
Kaunas city municipality public library (1931):Content of collection : Fiction and textbooks (42%), Social Sciences (14%), History, Geography, Biographies (9 %).Lending and reading data: fiction and textbooks (62%), newspapers (18%), Social Sciences (5 %), History, Geography, Biographies (3 %).Central national library (Šiauliai city department) (1931):Content of collection: Fiction (29%), Social Sciences (11%), History, Geography, Biographies (18,4%).Lending data: fiction (85,7%), Social Sciences (3%), History, Geography, Biographies (3,5%).
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Reading “bad” books: today
Most popular authors and titles in Lithuanian libraries (2010, data by LATGA-A (a collective copyright management association), collected from 62 libraries):
Irena Buivydaitė-Kupčinskienė ir Elena De Strozzi – authors of female fiction,
Melvin Burgess „Junk“ – most popular international bookRomualdas Granauskas „Gyvenimas po klevu“ - most popular
Lithuanian book.Translations are more popular than the original books!
http://www.knypava.lt/2011/07/13/paskirstytas-autorinis-atlyginimas-uz-knygu-ir-kitu-leidiniu-panauda-bibliotekose-uz-2010-metus/
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Hooking up on anything else but the Book
Holland house library, London, wrecked by a fire bomb,
1940.
• Manuel Castells on “network society”:-technophilia, or technology for the sake of technology,-book reading vs bytes reading,-space and time are basic categories,-real virtual culture,-globalization.
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Hooking up on anything else but the Book
• “Multiliteracy” (David Bawden),• Reading in the quiet / reading in the
noise,• Reading a paper book: therapy,
vacation, meditation, a relic of a bygone era, etc.
• … and not least: paper is expensive!
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarianshttp://www.flickr.com//photos/38294645@N02/sets/72157624273335683/show/
Reading in itselfWhat is reading (now and then)?Why people read (now)?What do they get from reading (now)?
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Reading in itself
• “Not just an abstract operation of intellection: it is an engagement of the body, an inscription in space, a relation to oneself and others” (Roger Chartier),
• “Reading is not in itself a uniform technology or practise that is indentical from place to place, moment to moment, or person to person” (C.F.Kaestle, J.A.Radway),
• Reading as informational, careeristic, practical life project.
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Instead of conclusions: the
final judgement•Being aware of some eternal and original sins of the readers,•Understanding the character and reasons of reading “crimes”,•Being open to reading alternatives and the future,•Not holding on to the “paper”, but to the “reading”.
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians
Thank you for your attention!
The 9th Congress of Baltic Librarians