Wandering alone in the library started out as a project aimed at seeing and exploring as many rural libraries as possible. I had been to quite a few rural libraries in the state of Colorado, and have grown up in a rural community, close to the library. I found some very interesting and very useful information about libraries and their study in this endeavor, especially in a volume titled ‘Maps and Stats: Driving Through the Commons’ by Walter C. Dawson, which was a collection of writings and pictures about libraries and the need for these glorious institutions. It included an essay by Umberto Eco and one titled ‘Steinbeck Country’ by Anne Lamott, in which she writes “When people don’t have access to books then communities are like radios without batteries.” These public institutions are cornerstones of Democracy and uphold intellectual property, intellectual freedom and every ideal in information reliability.
I also love finding wonderful books, such as Norman D. Stevens compilation of a volume of library humor and history of information science called ‘Bibliotechal Mischellany: Library Humor’. This volume talks about Dewey Decimal system and the implementation of Machine Readable Catalog (MARC) in very strange and innovative ways, and has inspired a lot of my writings, here. My intent in writing this blog is to share information and interesting things that I have found and written about Wandering Alone in the Library. I hope you enjoy and feel free to check out my other blog if you’re interested:
Amelia Michelle Nicol, ameliamichellenicol@gmail.com, amelianicol@riseup.net, @ameliamnicol on instagram
Wandering Alone in the Library 