Opening Remarks at the 8th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium: 21st Century Libraries: Changing Forms, Changing Challenges, Changing Objectives ; November 3-4, 2008: http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2008/6086

Garrett, Jeffrey

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8th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium: 21st Century Libraries: Changing Forms, Changing ChaHengesJ Changing Objectives Opening Remarks by Jeffrey Garrett, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois USA I'd like to begin with a passage from Voltaire, who in his Dictionnaire Philosophique observed that "une grande bibliotheque a cela de bon qU'elle effraye celui qui la regarde." ("A great library has the quality of  frightening those who look upon it.,,)l There has always been-and still is today-something inherently terrifying about entering a large library and engaging it for the first time or, for that matter, anytime. German cultural historian Nikolaus Wegmann, in fact, devotes an entire chapter of  his recent book Biicherlabyrinthe to the threatening nature of  the library: "The Library as Moloch.,,2 He marshals Immanuel Kant as his witness in this discussion. In The Critique of  Judgment, Kant, continuing an aesthetic discourse begun by Plato and Aristotle, explored the delicate balance that exists between our delight in the experience of  monumentality and abundance-and our fear of  being overwhelmed or crushed, as it were, by the great library, a place that is simply too vast to comprehend. Comfort, confidence, even delight in the face of  the colossal and the motivation to stay and to explore arises only when we can, in some anticipatory way, "grasp" the library, that is, encompass the whole with our minds. Ifthis need of  the mind is attended to, Kant writes, then all is well: "The magnitude apprehended may be increased to any extent provided imagination is able to grasp it all in one whole.,,3 The effect of  monumentality coupled with a unified concept that gradually reveals itself to the viewer through architecture is exhilarating and even cathartic. The problem confronting library architects, then, is to present the vast mass of  library information in a way that makes it mentally and emotionally manageable for individual users. Architects of  library space must deal with the danger of  monstrousness and the reactions of  "fear and loathing" that monstrousness elicits. Library space planners must work to create images in the mind of  the beholder that merge to form a context of  action in which the user negotiates the space in which he or she finds himself or herself. Ifthis process is successful, then the library user does not experience intimidating walls of books or dizzying arrays of  electronic resources but, rather, a glorious "aggregation of  ideas," a place of "wonderful treasures"--ofwhich, as we all know, there can never be too many.4  . What are today's solutions to the problems described by both Voltaire and Kant? That is what we hope to learn from our speakers during the next two days.5 1 Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique. London [i.e. Geneva], 1764. "Bibliotheque." Online at http://www.voltaire-integral.com/HtmI/17/bibliotheque.htm. Quoted in Nikolaus Wegmann (2000), p. 122. (See following note.) 2 Wegmann, Nikolaus. Biicherlabyrinthe: Such en und Finden im alexandrinischen Zeitalter. Cologne: B6hlau, 2000, p. 47ft. 3 Kant, Immanuel. Critique of  Judgment. Translated by James Creed Meredith. Oxford: Clarendon, 1952, p. 100. 4 Wegmann, op cit., p. 70. S These remarks are adapted from my article "The Legacy of the Baroque in Virtual Representations of Library Space," The Library Quarterly 74, no. 1 (2004), p. 42-62. 

Opening remarks : 8th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium: 21st Century Libraries: Changing Forms, Changing Challenges, Changing Objectives ; November 3 - 4, 2008

Opening remarks : 8th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium: 21st Century Libraries: Changing Forms, Changing Challenges, Changing Objectives ; November 3 - 4, 2008

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