Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
It's all about image.
This week I had cause to travel to a nearby city for business, responding to a query I'd received about my conservation services. A small private educational institution had recently acquired a large collection of books of historical interest, and they wanted me to take a look at the collection and give them some kind of estimate on what the costs might involve. This is a fairly typical request, and I'm used to discussing these matters with the appropriate staff and administrators.
However, when I got to the appointed meeting, it quickly became clear that in the mind of the administrators, "conservation care" meant exactly one thing: rebinding all the books to look new. To make the collection all nice and pretty, like one of those fake bookshelf sets in some office or as a movie prop.
Huh? Why on earth would someone want to take books ranging back to about 1500, and turn them into this kind of visual wallpaper? I mean, this sort of thing was done by rich collectors who just wanted to show off their impressive personal libraries in the 17th and 18th centuries, without care for what the books really contained. Why would a learning institution want to do such a thing?
Because, as the Vice President for Institutional Development told me, it'd be easier to get big-money donors to contribute to something that would have a strong visual impact like that. The protection and care - even the USE - of the books themselves was entirely a secondary consideration. In fact, the sort of rebinding they were wanting, if done poorly or with machine efficiency, would damage the bindings of the books and make them less usable. But that wasn't what was important. The image of all those books in fancy cases was what was important. This, at an accredited school offering advanced graduate degrees.
They hadn't considered - weren't even aware that it was an option - the proper care of the books with an eye towards preserving their unique historical value as artifacts reflecting the time they were written and published, or the way those artifacts carried with them a record of their use and care over the centuries. They simply knew that the books were old, and could be just rebound to make them look "more impressive", and to use that to leverage money out of donors. This is all about image in their minds...the image presented to get donors. Since most people don't really give a shit about books (sad, but true), how they look on a bookshelf is more important than either functionality or even content.
So I talked with them for some length, opened up the whole new realm for them of actual conservation care. I have three bindings to work on to show them what I mean, and how it would save the historical character of the books. The chief librarian was all for my approach (no surprise there) and was relieved that it was the position I took. And I can get a couple of authorities on curatorial care of Special Collections to back me up, plus plenty of online sources. But I am somewhat skeptical that the necessary comprehension will sink in.
Still, I'll make a good faith effort to convince them, and save their collection from the horrors of just being turned into a photo prop. We'll see. I hate to see a real collection of books ruined.
And I hate to think what this says about the larger values of our society.
Jim Downey
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Some People....
All I can think of is the line from George Carlin, "think of just how stupid the average person is, think about it, then realize that half of them are dumber than that."
The sad majority of people are mindless lemmings. I don't think that will ever change. The stuff about music equipment reminds me of a friend who's a bit of an audiophile, we're in the middle of building one ridiculous amp. The original plan is hampered by the fact that he doesn't want to spend 300 bucks for a case that would hold it, and because he realized that his amp was going to weight twice as much as him, he's a little guy but still a 200+ lbs amp is a bit silly.
Hey Dirk, do you buy used equipment? My friend has some fairly nice stuff that he wants to get rid of because he's leaving for college, but most people don't know what it is and won't give him a reasonable price, he's willing to sell for fairly cheap at this point but won't let himself get screwed. anyway drop a comment at Quintessential Ramblings if you buy stuff and I can at least tell you what he's got.
Have a good one.
Speed not Power
Sorry friend. My most of my clientel fall into the lemming catagory and wouldn't even consider buying a used amp. My best advice for selling it is Ebay. Thanks anyway.
Why don't you take it? Some of the best audiophile quality equipment is made by tinkerers and engineers like your friend. Amps are a funny story in my business. Everyone wants mega wattage. What they fail to understand is that it is not about how powerful the amp is, it's about how fast it is. Think about a sound wave. A good amp reaches it's peak very quickly and resets to get ready for the next.
If you look at the market, everyone has 1, 2 or 3 hundred watt amps. Why the price differences? Speed. Pure and simple.
Good Luck.
Jim-
You might want to take this guy up on the offer. Your Denon amp is decent, but I guarantee you will hear a lot more detail in your music. A midfi (vs hifi) amp is not fast enough to reach the true peak of the sound wave and actually cuts off the top in order to reset itself for the next signal. Anyway, thats my two cents.
Sadly...
Not a bad suggestion, Dirk. But sadly, given my current situation as primary care-giver for someone with Alzheimers, it is *rare* that I use my system for anything other than listening to NPR news. Most of the time I have one ear tuned to the baby monitor sitting nearby, keeping track of the sounds coming from my charge. One of the reasons I don't obsess over the system like I would have when in college...performance really isn't an issue at this point.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Piracy.
"only to find out that there's some sort of region lock so you can't simply buy stuff freely (man, do I ever hate region locks on DVDs)."
Arr, matey, I have an answer be for that.
a useful phrase
I used to make archival copies of antique photos, often bringing out elements of the photos that were invisible to the eye, on the original. I also framed and preserved originals, and somewhere I picked up the phrase; "Never do anything to an antique photo that you can't undo." There are exceptions, sure, such as dry-mounting a photo that really was falling apart, onto cotton mat board but the phrase stood me in good stead when explaining to the owners why they shouldn't take their priceless Civil-war era tintype of their ancestor and try to have it laminated.
If image is all that important, maybe you could hammer on the value of original-looking documents as visual evidence of long tradition and connection to the history of The Church™. Hope they come around.
Hippocratic oath.
Yeah, that has been the standard mantra in book conservation for several decades now, and was drilled into me early on in my training. My mindset on these matters now is that I am just part of a line stretching back and into the future of people helping these items survive. If I can do good treatment to help a book last another couple of centuries, without causing some future conservator problems with the techniques I chose, then I have succeeded.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Alternatives
"Don't judge a book by its cover"? If all they want is a selection of bookcovers to impress with, why not just put those covers on common books? If anyone questions why the covers don't match the books, then they can bring out your carefully conserved version which is "too valuable to be left on show".
Subject
I had a similar thought. Why not just create fake, empty, (impressive looking) bindings for these books to put on the shelf for donors to look at and put the real books somewhere else (properly cared for). If anybody pulls one out and questions the lack of contents they can be shown the actual books themselves in all their conservated glory.
Bose
Jim,
I wish you the best, but I doubt your position will win out. I sell consumer electronics (specifically home theater stuff) for a living. People always want the shiny junk they see in advertisements. I often mention that for the same $4k they are going to give me for the Bose system they saw on tv, I could get them a very nice system that blows away any Bose system in performance and detail. Alas, most of the time I might as well be speaking to a wall. Most people just want the brand name and really don't care accuracy or natural resonance. Oh well, I make the same profit either way.
industry humor-
It's a Bose, theres no highs and no lows.
Good Luck
I know exactly what you mean
Although it's as a gamer rather than an electronics sales person. There are a bunch of people that will look at something like the PS3 and see that it's big, shiny (very shiny, the kind of shiny that says "get fingerprints on me please") and has high graphics capabilities and not take into account that it's the games that ultimately matter.
Funny thing...
Heh. My main system is all fairly high-end Denon components, about 15 years old. I wouldn't part with it.
Funny thing, most of the institutions and individuals for whom I do work, and who have been at this for a while, want exactly the kind of services I offer. They get it. They understand that it isn't just a matter of image, or even just the information, but that books are an artifact which conveys lots of information about the culture which produced it.
I think the problem with these folks is that they're not in the business of selling (or preserving) culture, they're in the business of selling doctrine.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
15 years old? Oh my. That
15 years old? Oh my. That was before surround sound (5.1) no? Surround is not important if you really only listen to older music. Everything used to be recorded in stereo, but almost everything today is recorded in surround (especially movie soundtracks).
If you ever get the itch to upgrade, I will hook you up, or at least give you some expert guidance.
Rock music.
Yeah, I just listen to old rock music on it...the kind made by people banging rocks together. Nothing else had been invented yet. ;)
As I've said before, I'm a late-adopter of tech. Once I have something I like, I don't feel the need to upgrade until it no longer works. This is only the third computer I've owned...since 1984.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Yay for books!
..but yeah, it was an evangelical seminary.
Hmph. Go figure.
I wish you all the luck in trying to convince them to do the right thing. I'm a book person. I'm not like a hardcore collector/conservationist/etc...I only know what I know from working in used book stores and trying to repair and conserve what's been sold to us to resell. But personally, I love books. Like...the books themselves. I like their shape and function, the block of pages between two covers and a nice, sturdy spine. I like the smell of new books...and old books. Aw, hell, I just really dig on books. I'll take them over TV and the Internet any day.
Good luck!
"Please don't beat Teddy." - Teddy, Night of the Seagulls
Megatrends
In the book called Megatrends which I read a very long time ago the author talked about "high tech' vs 'high touch' and speculated that electronic text would never replace things like books which you could hold just because of our tactile nature. You certainly make the case for that, but I wonder if the day isn't coming that some hand held electronic display with a wooden (or some other attractive and tactile) case doesn't finally make books obsolete. This is shortly before all information is delivered directly to the brain using our neural implants of course.
The Borg are our future. Resistance is futile.
*twitch*
...but I wonder if the day isn't coming that some hand held electronic display with a wooden (or some other attractive and tactile) case doesn't finally make books obsolete.
*twitch,twitch*
"Please don't beat Teddy." - Teddy, Night of the Seagulls
Agreed.
Remember this?
Will information transfer evolve with new tech? Sure. And there will be a role for "readers" containing digital books, I'm certain. But that will not render existing books obsolete, and there will likely continue to be a niche for "artist's books", et cetera, for centuries.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
books won't vanish for a while
I'm pretty sure books aren't going to be discontinued for a while for a few very simple reasons.
Anyone whose ever tried to read those backlit display screens during the day knows they look muddy when outside in daylight, whereas books look better as ambient light increases.
Personally, I'd look forward to digital books breaking down some of the barriers (such as how difficult it can be to find an old, out of print book or you find an artbook but it's only available in Japan), only to find out that there's some sort of region lock so you can't simply buy stuff freely (man, do I ever hate region locks on DVDs).
And don't tell anyone...
..but yeah, it was an evangelical seminary.
*sigh*
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.