Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS HAGYOMÁNY – LIBRARY AND TRADITION

The Library of Libraries The ideal library should still be at a given location, a topographically fixed point in the continent of learning, partly because one of its future functions must be (must still be) to provide meeting points. So library architects of the future should plan an outer ring with telephones, fax and reprographic facilities, surrounded by coffee areas, snack bars, seminar rooms, a place for the visually handicapped with talking books and reading machines, communal studios for watching media, reading areas with newspapers and electronic news media, nooks for the chess buffs, and comers for other intellectual games, a multipurpose culture hall with concert facilities. An arena for interaction! Adjacent to the library there could be an indoor sporting complex, a swimming pool, sauna, solarium, snooker/billiard, restaurants, telephones, videophones telecommunications and CB radio facilities. The Library of Libraries, meaning: a very richly endowed large complex, could have all these, smaller places some of these, very small places one of these aforementioned extras. Why all these perks, paraphernalia, additional extras? MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO was a classical dictum. The Terme di Caracalla in Rome was a bath cum spa of stupendous proportions and owed half of its popularity to the habit of bathing, and the other half to its being a meeting place for chatting, and for unofficial business. Scrolls were read and messages were written in its chambers. Whereas a Roman citizen needed slaves to conduct his business and enhance its pleasure activities, the 21st century man needs a host of electrically/electronically propelled machines for the same purposes. In one respect we changed little: we need one another's company to achieve our own wellbeing. "The gods placed our own happiness in the wellbeing of one another" said György Bessenyei, a philosophical writer of the Hungarian Enlightenment. Discounting the recluse and the sick, the rest of us need society to act out our ambitions, to feel fulfilled and "complete". By the nature of things fulfilment itself is temporary as panta rei; everything moves on - so does one's society. So one needs to feel to be a member of society and needs to keep in touch with the relevant ring of that society. Furthermore, the microsociety, one's friends and business acquaintances are even more important, and it is their company one seeks out from time to time. A millionaire may arrange large parties and meetings of experts on his own premises. Yet even he cannot arrange creative chance meetings between people of the same interest. The Library of Libraries (the library of the future) will be - will remain - will endeavour to be just that. I am a frequenter (i.e. an occasional reader) of many large libraries around the world, and a user of the British (formerly British Museum) Library since 1957. I have made a host of acquaintances and several friends with readers in these libraries, normally in their vestibules, coffee rooms or restaurants. Companionship Gondolatok a könyvtárban " 75