literature

Death of the Libraries

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Literature Text

They stand tall and looming, great halls with walls lined top to bottom with bookshelves, prominent displays of information, knowledge, and imagination.

They rest quaintly in tucked-away corners of schools or community centres. humbly but freely offering free knowledge.

They were once fountains of enlightenment: of reports and stories, of poetry and data. A paradise for passionate, wandering bibliophiles–a meeting grounds for chatty scholars. 

The keepers of these places knew every title that passed through their counters and into their shelves. They took their pride in protecting the stories, the tales, the ideas that were encased in each item. They enjoyed watching youth light up as they found that long-awaited sequel, smiling at children who gasped in horror and excitement during weekly storytime, aiding the elderly navigate their way through the dusty bookshelves.

But after a while, libraries became obsolete.

Information came in the form of lightning-fast electrons. Stories transported int he blink of an eye. You could house a 1000-page novel in a pocket-sized device AND check your email while reading it. The latest breaking news appearing in your device two seconds after it had occurred. 

It was all so sudden, the rise of the information superhighway. People sending, receiving, researching, creating, communicating, watching–instantly “connected” to each other through a mesh of instantaneous cyber-routes. Words became pictures became videos and passed from viral fame and popularity into digital oblivion within days.

Enormous virtual communities exploded into existence in the forms of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Tumblr.

And the Library could not compete with the commodity of convenience.

The checkout lines became shorter everyday. Books were returned by the hundreds each day, but even fewer were taken out. People opted for the comfort of their own homes with an electron-charged copy of the written word rather than trekking to the Library for a well-worn borrowed title.

The Library tried to keep up, desperately purchasing electronic items and putting them up for grabs, creating online loaning systems for the modern-day society. But no one noticed.

The Librarians had tried to stand fast against the electronic tsunami, clinging to their sentimental hardbound books and fading newspapers. But they too were soon pulled into its current.

And that was the final blow for the Library.

The great halls of imagination and ideas yawned with an aching silence, the corner libraries were abandoned, and the only sound to be heard in these forgotten places wasa the whispering rustle of a forgotten book accidentally left open and never quite shut.

They lay in quiet and abandonment.

And as humankind climaxed into an explosive technological renaissance, the printed words rested, dormant in their ancient shelves, waiting for a Reader to come.


I LOVE LIBRARIES. Please don't get the impression that I wrote this piece because I think they're going to go extinct. This is only a piece of my imagination, and it breaks my heart to hear people say that the above-written future will become reality. Libraries are more than just a place to house books - they're hubs of information, places of peace and tranquil, and so much more. From helping immigrants get jobs to teaching computer skills to senior citizens, they do so much for the community.

So SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!
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TheworldPhotographer's avatar
I think that's absolutely amazing! I really like the imagination, and the truth of that peice is a little disturbing, because its happening. I've got an electronic reader myself, but I'd prefer a physical book over it anyday. (though it is handy!)

A well written peice, well done :)