From the President
 I
like to read-a lot. That is, I read a lot and I like it a lot. Fiction,
non-fiction, magazines, newspapers, online, hardcopy: you name it, I like
reading it. A good many of you reading this probably do too. For me at
least, it helps me be who I am. For you too, I suspect.
Very little I have read in the last five years has affected my thinking
more profoundly than Stewart Brand's The Clock of the Long Now: Responsibility
and Time (Basic Books, 1999)-and nothing, perhaps, as profoundly as
its chapter entitled "Burning Libraries." Why, Brand wonders,
do people (from Shih Huang-ti in the third century B.C. to Hitler in the
twentieth century A.D.) burn libraries? In order to wipe clean the slate
of history, he concludes, noting: "Burning libraries is a profound
form of murder, or if self-inflicted, suicide. It does to cultural continuity-and
hence safety-what destroying species and habitats does to nature's continuity,
and hence safety." (75)
"Cultural memory" provides society with continuity, a mechanism
for preserving the knowledge of generations past and present for those
to come. Cultural memory resides not only in the products of civilization
(such as books or art), but also in myriad communication channels and
processes. Brand's book depicts the increasingly complex task of preserving
cultural memory in an era whose "pathologically short attention span"
may compromise a long-term perspective. In a time when information permanence
is increasingly in question, how do we shape and sustain the legacy of
our culture? And where do libraries fit in this process?
With generous support from Firma Otto Harrassowitz in Wiesbaden, Germany
and Basic Books in New York, the ALCTS President's Program 2004 will explore
the dimensions of cultural memory and the roles libraries can and should
play in preserving for the future the artifacts and processes of the past
and present. Speakers Doug Greenberg (President and CEO of The
Shoah Foundation) and Bill Ivey (Director of The
Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy), and Moderator
Abby Smith (Director of Programs at CLIR, the Council
on Library and Information Resources]) bring rich perspectives to
bear on both the practical and policy aspects of cultural asset management
for the long term.
Won't you join us in sunny Orlando for what promises to be a very thought-provoking
program? I look forward to welcoming you all!
|
