This idea just came to me-I don’t have any proof and haven’t done any actual research, but when I was searching for books for my 3 papers due this week, I found something disturbing.
Libraries are institutionalized forms of dissenting information and education, correct? People are influenced by the type of literature available on the bookshelves, whether they are books that are actively promoted/advertised or searched out for. The types of novels, non-fiction, help people form an image and opinion of the world, and which ones they agree with. So currently I’m taking some non-conventional Arts courses in which books are not available en masse. Thus, if you have a class of 40 being assigned papers to write, some who raid the libraries and get arm/shoulder workouts after, some people may have beaten you to the punch. Hence, other sources are sought. Imagine my shock when I turned to alternative (ie: outside of UBC) libraries to find resources. I could not find any! I even typed in a simple keyword describing my topic and could only find fiction glamourizing it. This has led me to evaluate this particular library. How, despite housing thousands of books videos, movies, documentaries, CDs, etc, is actually quite shallow. When I reflect on it, there isn’t a lot of diversity-most of the material promotes a one-sided, Western (or Asian) capitalist point of view. The library can afford to spend millions of dollars on purchasing material teaching, and disseminating information on how to “fit into” Western, capitalist society (ie: Gossip Girl DVDs) while not even bother buying books on influential, classical revolutionary writers/leaders?
I’m offended.
In other news, I’m currently sick (one of the worst times ever to!), FAACT has sadly ended (with lots of great memories and friendships made!), and I’m moving onto other things next year. I think I will be appearing to take a step backwards next year, but it will be for the better. I’ll still stay with UBC Blogsquad, though!
The Blog/Wordpress hasn’t adjusted to Daylight Savings Time yet, Carman
One more thing…CONGRATULATIONS TO HENRIK SEDIN FOR WINNING THE ART ROSS TROPHY!! 😀 In non-hockey language, it means he’s the top scorer in the NHL.