LIBRARY NOTES
Mark Piel
Going On-line
Wednesday, July 1, 1998
A steady stream of members and visitors used the Library this year. Membership topped 3000, with the main categories being household and students or teachers, schools, profit and non-profit organizations. Apart from these recognized divisions, there are countless others one can think of, but they all share one characteristic: they are readers. This is what Virginia Woolf writes about this select group in "How Should One Read a Book," from
The Second Common Reader:
"I have sometimes dreamt that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards -- their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble -- the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading."
The Library's most significant watershed has been the installation of the computer
system. Nineteen-ninety seven saw the final preparations for our computerized services and online catalog terminals. Apprehension about this is unfounded. You probably read the recent New York Times article about toddlers and computers. They can hardly speak, they are still in diapers, but they are learning to push computer buttons. Recently, a member brought us a donation of Peter Drucker's two most recent books, saying "You're not up to date, you don't have these books." It turned out we did have the books. Although there was no information in the catalog cards (as they had not yet been filed), the computer indicated the call numbers.
The terminals are now installed on Stack 1, the Reference Room, the Children's Room, and the Microfilm Room on the fifth floor. While the system does not yet reflect the circulation status of a book, readers can use the catalog to carry out subject, author, title, or series searches -- or all four simultaneously. Soon we will be able to tell you not only if a book is here but if the Library already has it on order. You may find out precisely what books you have out, something we couldn't tell you before.
To paraphrase Cole Porter:
Teenagers do it.
Toddlers do it.
They say in Boston that the Athenaeum does it.
Let's do it.
Let's use the terminals.
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