Sarah Thomas at PMA

On Wednesday evening, I attended the Sarah Thomas library lecture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, "First Sell the First Folio." The title of the lecture was in reference to how, many years ago, the Bodleian Library at Oxford deaccessioned a first folio of Shakespeare's plays, not seeing the potential value of the 1st edition. Thomas used this analogy to make a leap to why the physical existance of libraries is still relevant, and how dismissing libraries as obselete in the digital age can seem as erroneous as a decision to get rid of a first edition of a potential future rare title.

Thomas made the argument that we can't digitize everything, especially if its analog existence doesn't have strict bibliographic control already. Even if it was digitized, there would be no access information. Digitization also means we would need to make choices about what to keep and allow access to -- and if we destroy materials after they are digitized we may be losing the future's equivalent to the First Folio. Likewise, if libraries only exist digitally, then our choices about what to digitize are as weighted as what to purchase, preserve or destroy -- if patrons cannot access the materials it is the same as choosing them to not be in the collection.

She referred to the traditional round reading room as the "center of the universe where one would consult the oracle." As libraries have been replaced as information hub by the internet, the library must shift from being a box of books to a suite of services. To remain relevant, the library must connect the information it stores to what is being created outside the library.

A nice change from a text-based lecture, Thomas infused her lecture with photographs of library architecture and rare books. Her words were infused with a sweet reverence for what she refered to as the "power of the artifact." The lecture was ended by bringing Anne d'Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to tears by lauding the newly redesigned library in the newly opened Perelman Building of the PMA. A touching and soothing experience, in praise of libraries of the past, and in argument, gentle and hopeful, for the libraries of the future.