LIBRARY BASICS
As a Christmas gift this past year, I received a gift of three-thousand books!
Fortunately, they are all contained on one CD disc. Otherwise, I would never have found room for them since I have long been a book addict and have a plentiful stock on shelves, in cabinets and in random piles here and there as it is. Three thousand more bound volumes would have more than done it for this house. The fact is, since we are getting older, we are faced with the sensible need to get re-located in smaller living quarters. The main, if unstated openly, question for me has been, and is,"what will we do with all our books?"
The Library of Congress, which celebrated it's 200th Birthday just last year, was started with only 6,487 books. We know the date and the number of volumes because Thomas Jefferson's personal collection was moved from his home "Monticello" in Albermarle County, Virginia to D.C as the basis for the new national library - the old collection having be burned by the British during the War of l812.
In glancing down the list of the titles of the three thousand books I have just acquired,I could not help but reflect upon the fact that, since they are all public domain publications, many of them are the identical works included in the Jefferson collection of l814. His library included Greek, Roman, Latin, French, and Greek works... one in Russian. I have heard. It includes general works such as those of Shakespeare, Pope, and others. The works of major poets are included as well as numerous technical and scientific. Or course, the CD brings us hundreds of novels and many types of writing unknown in Jefferson's time but it is founded on the same basic works Jefferson considered so vital in forming what has been called "America's oldest cultural institution."
President Thomas Jefferson appointed the first two librarians of the Library of Congress when it was set up in 1802. It was located in the Capital building itself. Some accounts speak of Jefferson as having "donated" his books to the new library, others mention a modest payment eventually made to him, but it was an act of great importance in our history. It has grown to be one of the world's finest collections of books, publications of all kinds,plus historical papers, the massive Matthew Brady collection of Civil War Photographs as well as musical compositions by Bach,Beethoven, Brahms and moderns, of course, such as Leonard Burnstein and others.It has three perfect copies of the famed Gutenberg Bible and a priceless collection of Stradivarius violins.
My lonely, little CD pales as we talk about the great library the fundamental collection of books Thomas Jefferson's for the national national library. It started with just over 6,000 book - twice the number I now hold in one hand on the CD - and I stand in wonder at the miracle of it all!
A.L.M. January 16, 2003 [c501wds]
