More Books Being Printed, Libraries Still Highly Relevant, Torch Club Hears
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Bob Cierzniewski speaks to the Saginaw Valley Torch Club.
Robert Cierzniewski is a bibliophile and a former librarian who has studied books and libraries over his lifetime. He told the Saginaw Valley Torch Club recently that libraries are more relevant than ever because more and more books are being produced.
"Libraries were the realm of the wealthy and intellectuals until printing became cheap enough," said Cierzniewski, who is retired from The Dow Chemical Company where he was librarian in the patent department.
Instead of making books irrelevant, he commented: "The computer has become an adjunct tool to help finding things in the libraries.
"Who would want to sit and read 800 pages of 'War and Peace' on a computer screen? If you want to read on the beach in the summer are you going to drag out your computer screen."
Cierzniewski sketched the history of books and libraries from one of the first libraries in Alexandria, Egypt, that was burned by barbarians.
Monks in Ireland "saved civilization" by copying ancient tomes that otherwise might have been lost, he said.
The first library in the United States was established by John Harvard in 1636 in Massachusetts; today the Harvard Library is the largest in the country.
Torch Club secretary John Van Looy pointed out that "we have better information on the Spanish explorations of the 1500s and 1600s than we do on the space exploration of the 1970s because the tape drives of the '70s don't work anymore."
Don Carlyon, retired president of Delta College, noted that experts 40 years ago predicted that television was going to "eliminate the need for faculty members." That reinforces the idea that books and libraries will be around a long time.
The Saginaw Valley Torch Club is one of nearly 80 clubs in the International Association of Torch. Debra K. Lutz, a Delta College finance administrator, is president of the local chapter. The organization is comprised of professionals interested in congenial social and stimulating intellectual activity. Members present papers on topics of interest.
Leonard Kerchner, former president of Torch International, said: "Torch means freedom for the original thinker, the conscientious scholar, the responsible critic and honest dissenter."
The association headquarters is in Norfolk, Virginia.###
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