University of Miami’s University Librarian
Miami Herald journalist Margaria Fichtner makes what William Walker, University of Miami University Librarian, does in his job sound incredibly exciting. The Otto G. Richter Library is supposedly so popular, the students call it Club Richter and some hang out there until 1 am. One of the collection rooms even has rocking chairs.
He shares some really interesting thoughts on libraries, collections, and library materials.
He talks about how collecting policies of some institutions formed hundreds of years ago and haven’t changed much since. "One of the things I came to appreciate enormously at New York Public’s research libraries was how important primary-source material is, letters, manuscripts, underground-press materials, and Miami, because it’s a nexus for the Caribbean and South America, offers extraordinary opportunities for building collections in ways that I think are pretty untapped."
"Walker also clings to the graceful, antiquarian notion that something magical occurs when you take hold of a book, a pamphlet, a piece of paper filled with words, ‘when you turn pages and discover things for yourself. . . . If you’ve got a box of Lillian Gish’s love letters, . . . the fun is opening the box, smelling the paper, thinking maybe nobody’s touched the box for the past 14 years, and you alone have seen this letter from Noel Coward.’"
My penpal sent me the print version of this profile so I could see the pictures, which are totally fabulous. I love the one of the guy with his dog! Thanks!
By the way, when I read some articles at work, I often leave them out on my desk and read a little bit when my computers are loading or something. I got the article in the mail on Monday and left it out overnight. When I walked in on Tuesday morning, I realized the page next to the article’s jump is a bunch of personal ads. Not exactly the kind of thing I should have on my desk … ha ha ha
November 18th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
The metaphor also falls apart at its very premise. On the whole, wine does not get bette with age. Only a statistically neglible amount of wines (about .03% of total production annually) will show any sign of increased commplexity via aging.