"The Future of Futures:  Designing the Future"

from Library Journal; 18 SEP 16

An article about a potential future for libraries...

And, ultimately, that’s the library mission. “As a leader, you’re always looking ahead; you scan the horizon,” says Sandlian Smith. “But I also think that it’s our job to help communicate the vision of the future or provoke that conversation with our community and our staff and our board, to look at trends, to listen, to do an analysis of the patterns, and project what lies ahead…. That vision of what could be translates into the hard work of making something realistically happen.”

The Secret Libraries of History

from the BBC

--by Fiona Mcconald

19 August 2016

The Vatican's Secret Archives

"After news emerged about an underground reading room in Damascus, Fiona Macdonald discovers the places where writing has been hidden for centuries."

"Hidden libraries" were discovered within Medieval book bindings.

Beneath the streets of a suburb of Damascus, rows of shelves hold books that have been rescued from bombed-out buildings.  Over the past four years, during the siege of Darayya, volunteers have collected 14,000 books from shell-damaged homes.  They are held in a location kept secret amid fears that [they] would be targeted by government and pro-Assad forces, and visitors have to dodge shells and bullets to reach the underground reading space.

The Library Cave at Dunhuang, 1908

It's been called Syria's secret library, and many view it as a vital resource.  "In a sense the library gave me back my life," one regular user, Abdulbaset AAlahmar, told the BBC.  "I would say that just like the body needs food, the soul needs books."  -- READ MORE 

Maybe Ancient Civilizations Knew More Than We Do

What do you determine to be the value of your local library?

It seems that we are increasingly so casual about our libraries--sometimes, even doubting their worth--that it's difficult for us to understand how important libraries were in the worlds of the ancients.  In fact, in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, the sizes and contents of libraries were both indications and sources of a king's power, wealth, and importance.  The ancients understood that knowledge really is power.

Competition to have the largest, most inclusive library was fierce, with rulers even "drafting" the most important scholars as assets to increase the competitiveness of their libraries--similar to how our sports stars are drafted to increase a team's standing.   

This old librarian finds this interesting!  If you do, too, read more about it:

The Fierce, Forgotten Library Wars 

of the Ancient World

The dark trade of collecting books used to get really messy.

--from AtlasObscura

"In the Hellenistic Era—that's 323 BC to 31 BC, for all you numbers fans—the Library of Alexandria, Egypt was a research hub of high prestige. But while certainly the largest of its time and the most famous, the Library of Alexandria wasn’t the only institution of its kind. Libraries throughout the ancient world competed to be the best Greek library, in rivalries that proved as dangerous and unscrupulous as actual wars. "  ...READ MORE.