A Biblioteca
A Biblioteca!
Uma segunda casa
There’s no concrete proof of the origins of libraries but would be possible to admit that they appeared just after the prehistoric era and in the beginning of the ancient history era when written records started to be preserved (Harris, M. H., 1999). Like Harris states, we can even point some locations were possibly earlier libraries existed, but there's no doubt that collections of graphic materials have indeed existed, approaching perhaps to what are today private libraries and later the public ones!
The reason for those written collections is due to the fact they were seen as sacred and that can be understood by the care involved to preserve them! So why do we preserve written documents by the millions?
If an individual would never read them all, and as put but here we are nowadays storing and preserving them for posteriority! Not taking in consideration the media, the ancient history era refers to the period where humans started to preserve records and writings. This is what set us apart from our prehistorian’s ancestors!
Textbooks, historical, technical, fiction, essays among other types of written documents they allow us today to understand our ancients. The records we now produce and preserve will enlighten our future societies, so they can better understand us!
I've to confess that I'm not a frequent customer from the local libraries, but during student years I would frequent the university library in a daily basis! Browsing the shelves and getting surprised by the amount of knowledge stored. Nowadays limited by the daily routines I fail to take the opportunity to invest more time on local libraries. I still read a lot, but I'm confident that I would save some money if I would loan books from this public service.
This book provided an engaging journey, and through the vivid descriptions by the author I visited 21 of the 303 Portuguese libraries using my imagination. The book would be enhanced with the inclusion of the best reading spots described by Manuel Coutinho. Inspired by the narrative, I'm motivated to increasingly utilize public libraries and even document my own explorations of northern Portugal's libraries on this blog!
I believe libraries should extend their hours to accommodate more visitors, including those working 9-5 jobs. Opening later a couple of days a week and on Saturday afternoons could attract more people for cultural events and a relaxing time reading.
Bibliography
Harris, M. H., (1999), History of libraries of the western world. Scarecrow Press.
