Goodbye to a library advocate, and physicist Via Molly and Dana

The great physicist John Archibald Wheeler died earlier this week at the age of 96. There are plenty of fond memories in the science blogosphere (see for example, those at CosmicVariance), but I wanted to give broader voice to his support for libraries as evidenced by his commencement speech at the library school at UT entitled: Selling Library Service.

What can I say to you who have done so much, worked so hard, and are about to go forth to give the world so much? My message is a simple one. It is not enough for you only to give library and information service to those who know enough to ask for it. You will only occupy the place of leadership in the community that rightly belongs to you if you go out and sell the idea of library and information service to those as yet untouched by it.

Nothing does more than information, rightly grasped, to open the doors of the world to a better tomorrow; and no agency does more than the library—in today's new and wider sense—to provide the most reliable information, the best thinking on the whole sweep of human concerns. The library is the university of the people.

(as an aside - it's not the scientists who are anti-library - it's the management/administration- who think that the next generation doesn't need the help finding, organizing, and acquiring information that they did. IMO library schools, alongside professional associations are paramount in defending and publicizing libraries... the study of information is not enough, we need libraries!)  ¶ 9:17 AM| |cites (technorati) |