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Quotations about Libraries & Librarians
The dust and odour of ancient libraries, the gloom of those crypts of literature, have... all the charm of freshest images and freshest poetry. ~Alexandre Vinet (1797–1847)
But what is more important in a library than anything else — than everything else — is the fact that it exists. ~Archibald MacLeish
I dote upon librarians in general.... these missionaries of the gospel of literature... ~Robert Haven Schauffler, Foreword to Printed Joy, 1914
The great range of education in fine arts... belongs as properly to a library as to a museum... ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
I had dreamed of libraries, as every bookman has dreamed of libraries. ~Arnold Bennett (1867–1931), The Glimpse: An Adventure of the Soul, 1909
The library will always be the heart of a democracy. It's a place that is sort of a contemporary temple... Everything that you need to have a balanced life and great opportunities to discover yourself, your community, your friends, and your potentials can be found in a library. ~William Bruder, 2018 interview, architect of the Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix, Arizona [a little altered
For years librarians have been the caretakers of knowledge, from the first books before there were printing presses. And now librarians are not only the caretakers of knowledge but they're the navigators of knowledge... ~William Bruder, 2018 interview, architect of the Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix, Arizona
Indeed, a man's library is a sort of harem, and I observe that tender readers have a great prudency in showing their books to a stranger. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
And my experience with public libraries is that the first volume of the book I inquire for is out, unless I happen to want the second, when that is out. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Every time I go to the library — and I go more than once a week — I invariably make a beeline to the card catalog before anything else. It's the nucleus of any public library. ~James A. Michener & Billings S. Fuess, Jr., "How to use a library," from the 1979–1988 Power of the Printed Word advertising campaign by Ogilvy & Mather for International Paper Company, ogilvy.com, internationalpaper.com
Libraries and books are a big part of my life. Like a lot of inwardly drawn young people, I spent a lot of time in libraries.... There were no parents there, no one I knew, and the solitude was a great relief. ~Henry Rollins, "Empowerment Through Libraries," November 2013, LA Weekly [Swoon!
No book in any noble library is so interesting, so revealing, as the catalogue of it. ~Arnold Bennett (1867–1931), The Glimpse: An Adventure of the Soul, 1909
Library work cultivates all of the most important ingredients of a successful life: good health, honesty, love of humanity, intellectual curiosity, and a sense of fun, with the additional mingling of the celestial and diabolic which prevents a human atom from taking himself seriously. ~Althea Warren (1886–1958), in Wilson Library Bulletin, 1943
A library is many things. It's a place to go if you want to sit and think. It is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books. Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together—just the two of you. A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people—people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. ~E.B. White, letter to child patrons of the Troy Public Library (Michigan), 1971 April 14th, reply to request from children's librarian Marguerite Hart [A little altered. Full portfolio at troypl.org
Libraries rock!
paper and scissors
Shhh, don't talk!
~Terri Guillemets, "All–nighter non–sense," 2004
The library child seems unlike the school child.... I wish that I had time to tell you what I can recollect of the happiness that comes to a boy in his reading—that same boy who hated the school barracks with all the hate his little heart could hold. ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
"The library!" you say. "That's where my teacher sends me to do — ugh — homework." Unfortunately, I've found that's exactly the way many people feel. If you're among them, you're denying yourself the easiest way to improve yourself, enjoy yourself and even cope with life. ~James A. Michener & Billings S. Fuess, Jr., "How to use a library," from the 1979–1988 Power of the Printed Word advertising campaign by Ogilvy & Mather for International Paper Company, ogilvy.com, internationalpaper.com
[T]he library: home to the original information superhighway — the Dewey Decimal System. ~Young Sheldon, written by Chuck Lorre & Steven Molaro [S1, E2, 2017]
To students and lovers of books, the word library possesses a charm which scarcely any other can claim; and there are few associations so pleasant as those excited by it. To them it means a place where one may withdraw from the hurry and bustle of every-day life, from the cares of commerce and the strife of politics, and hold communion with the saints and heroes of the past; a place where the good and true men of bygone ages, being dead, yet speak, and reprove the vanity and littleness of our lives, where they may excite us to noble deeds, may cheer and console us in defeat, may teach us magnanimity in victory.... There we may listen to "the fairy tales of science," or to the voices of the poets singing their undying songs.
Every man should have a library. The works of the grandest masters of literature may now be procured at prices that place them within the reach almost of the very poorest, and we may all put Parnassian singing birds into our chambers to cheer us with the sweetness of their songs. ~William E.A. Axon, October 1867
Library work changes with every fluctuation of the seasons. It goes up and down inversely with the economic lift and fall of the community. It rises highest in hard times. It reacts to the national throb of the decades. The earthquakes and eruptions in other parts of the world affect it instantly. ~Althea Warren (1886–1958), "The Satisfactions of Librarianship," a talk given at a staff meeting of the Los Angeles County Public Library, 1947 March 12th
Beauty, gentleness, kindness, cleanliness, good manners and the sweet amenities of life have proved themselves, over and over, to be better than a police squad or a penal code in conducting a library which shall aspire to any place in a scheme of education. ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
To the public you are the library. ~Althea Warren, speaking to librarians of their importance, "Desk Contacts in a Public Library," 1935
There are days, after I've missed some sleep and forgotten my vitamin B, when the discovery of some new book losses sends me into a fury. But the next day when things may look a little brighter, I smile sadly and consider that the loss is really a form of non-recurring circulation, and a heavy-handed compliment to my skill in book selection, so I reorder the missing titles in an unending effort to fill the demand. ~Gerald Raftery, "Why Kids Steal Books," in Library Journal, 1959
We have our duty with the scholar and the bibliophile, but I waive the consideration of them here. The educational future of the library and of librarianship lies in the service to the people—all the people. ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
If you haven't owed a library fine at least once in your life, you're not a real reader. ~Terri Guillemets
The two white lions of the library
Who guard by night and day the doors that lead
Into the house where beauty waits our need;
Who guard — and know not to what end, for whom —
All the world's wisdom in a narrow room —
The two white lions of the library
Look out and wonder at the thing they see;
They who have known but students, shabby, lone;
They who have known
But poets, eager, tense, with a rapt air
Looking beyond the gray crowds, and the white
Great doors, to a far perfect goal somewhere;
Women, alight
With thanks, for the holiday from little cares
That in this house is theirs:
And old, calm men, who find no better thing
In life, than a dead book's companioning
When all else fails;
And children, coming to read fairy-tales;
And all the weary ones who wish to spend
A piece of life for dreams...
~Mary Carolyn Davies, "The Recruiting Station at the New York Public Library," The Drums in Our Street: A Book of War Poems, 1918
What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all the souls of all the writers, that have bequeathed their labours to these Bodleians, were reposing here, as in some dormitory, or middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom of those sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard. ~Charles Lamb
Knowledge lives at the library, and the nice people there always let us take some home. ~Terri Guillemets
To those who visited the old Library of Congress at the Capitol he will always be associated with it — a long, lean figure, in scrupulous frock, erect at a standing desk, and intent upon its littered burden, while the masses of material surged incoherently about him. A figure of absorption and labor; quaint indeed in mode and expression, yet efficient; immersed in the trivial, yet himself by no means trivial, imparting to it the dignity that comes of intense seriousness and complete sincerity. Grave in the task of infinite detail upon a mass of infinite dimension: grave but never dour. Cheerful rather, even buoyant. A lover of Nature, too, as booklovers often are: and pursuing her on occasions with deep breath and long stride. ~Herbert Putnam, of librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825–1908), 1908, wording slightly altered
I advise you to go to the library when you want to find out something. I think just plain going to the library and getting out a book is a swell thing to do. It's something to do, when you've got nothing to do, all by yourself. It's a thing I still do when I've got nothing special to do. I just wander around until I find a book that looks interesting; let's say, a book about shipbuilding, or rockets, or a story by some author I've never heard of before.... [M]aybe you'll go to your library... and get out a book about elementary physics, and that'll be one other nothing you can do with nobody. ~Robert Paul Smith (1915–1977), How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself, 1958
What now seems most necessary to increase the Happiness of a Country, possessed of so many Advantages, is the promoting of Knowledge and Virtue, that the Inhabitants may know how to esteem those Advantages as they ought, and appear not unworthy of them. To which End, the Erecting a Publick Library in this City, we hope may in some Measure contribute. That Virtue, Learning and true Religion, may increase and flourish, under the Encouragement and Protection of your honourable House, is our earnest Wish and hearty Endeavour. ~Joseph Breintnall, letter to John Penn, 1735
A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them. ~Mark Twain, letter to the Millicent Library of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 1894 February 22nd
I was a classroom teacher myself before I chickened out and went to library school. ~Gerald Raftery, "Confer with sages here!," in The Wilson Library Bulletin, September 1961
A well-ordered library and a well-ordered mind are gratification for yourself alone if your third enthusiasm is not a spontaneous delight in people. ~Althea Warren (1886–1958), "The Satisfactions of Librarianship," a talk given at a staff meeting of the Los Angeles County Public Library, 1947 March 12th
See'st thou our youth? and dost thou hear them plead?
They long for knowledge, but no books to read
Then found a Library, rich, choice and free.
Sure all will join in such Philanthropy,
And thus these youth much Knowledge will obtain
And wiser be when future years they gain.
~Samuel Woodhull, 1830
Do but inform the people & they will not injure themselves. I have sent some books to the college very serious for every book has its merit & few from which knowledge may not be obtained & every thing is acceptable to a publick library. ~T. Brand Hollis, letter to John Adams, 1789
A word also as to the cost of carriage: This is at present so high, whether the means be mail or express, that we may properly set it down as the chief obstacle to the free development of inter-library loans. ~William Warner Bishop, "Inter-Library Loans," 1909
I hate computers for replacing the card catalog in the New York Public Library. ~David Sedaris, "Nutcracker.com," Me Talk Pretty One Day, 2000, davidsedarisbooks.com
Lifelong professional library workers have an appetite for reading. There is the exhilaration of living in a perpetual snowstorm with the books and magazines of the world piling around you; seeing the publisher's new spring catalogs; having access to the unbroken files of the thoughts and discoveries of the past; talking every day with people to whom writing and reading are supremely important. It's a nourished life living on a printed diet. ~Althea Warren (1886–1958), "Vocation Without Regrets," 1943 [a little altered
To be successful and satisfied in library work, the librarian must have what Gelett Burgess called the "educated heart." It must bring the same triumph to find an elusive quotation or to produce the directions for building an outdoor fireplace as it does for the nurse to break a fever, or for the life insurance salesman to safeguard his client's old age. ~Althea Warren (1886–1958), "Vocation Without Regrets," 1943
Our whole scheme would be melancholy indeed without a full heart happy with the very life-stuff we store in our libraries and which should, in some way, gladden the worker who sees no beauty in his furrow and who needs our help... ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
Shera's Two Laws of Cataloging: Law #1, No cataloger will accept the work of any other cataloger. Law #2: No cataloger will accept his/her own work six months after the cataloging. ~Jesse Shera, c.1976 [Agreed!
...Please bury me in the library
With a dozen long-stemmed proses...
~J. Patrick Lewis, "Please Bury Me in the Library," 2000
Librarians are the heroes who love books and the human beings who read them... ~Margaret Renkl, "Great Books Will Always Be Their Own Best Defense," in The New York Times, 2023, nytimes.com, margaretrenkl.com
I think that we need a teachers' librarian as well as a children's librarian, and we shall not stop there. We need a father's librarian and a mother's librarian that we may enter into the complete service of education and, somehow, get this message of enthusiasm to them, that they may feel that this great plan of education is of the heart, from the heart to the heart. There are yet others, each waiting for his librarian. The worker, the daily-bread man and the by-the-sweat-of-his-brow man. ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
Library work is far too pleasant to be grossly profitable. ~Althea Warren
I did not come here to tell you how to charge books to a teacher who needs them in her school; that may be done with an empty heart. You have enough of centimeters, date stamps and systems and you have probably solved the routine of library science in your particular library. The thing that I should like to have you think upon is the new call for help from the public institutions in this enthusiastic crusade that would make all knowledge flow from a heart that is full of interest in human welfare and the deeper things of life.... I wonder... if it might be true that the new-fashioned librarian has lost sight of the people as they are.... We of all men and women will reach our journey's end with an enthusiasm which can never in the service the people look for in our establishments, and while our hearts may be full of many things, we shall not fail the people in this new thirst for knowledge which is of the heart and for the community and the state. ~Joseph F. Daniels, "The Empty Heart" (A Paper Read on the Educational Future of Libraries before the Library Section of the Colorado Teachers' Association, 1908 December 29th)
And I like libraries so much that I married a librarian. ~James A. Michener, "How to use a library," from the 1979–1988 Power of the Printed Word advertising campaign by Billings S. Fuess, Jr. at Ogilvy & Mather for International Paper Company, ogilvy.com, internationalpaper.com
Library fines are my favorite charitable donation. ~Terri Guillemets
Library work is now in its lusty youth with a future expanding hopefully into the 1950s. It ramifies into business, the arts, education, religion and the sciences. In the United States there is still a third of our territory unserved and waiting for the pioneer. The film and the record are new implements which must be developed to reinforce print. Those of us who are ending our years in library service will choose it again if we are reincarnated. ~Althea Warren (1886–1958), "The Satisfactions of Librarianship," a talk given at a staff meeting of the Los Angeles County Public Library, 1947 March 12th
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