paisleypiper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a library without the internet On Saturday, access to the internet was down campus-wide. I could not use the computerized version of the �card catalog� or the web-based databases such as MLA. Even though it was out of date, I fired up my trusty index fingers and sought assistance from the old dusty card catalog. I was not able to find what I needed � only because the card catalog was out of date. But still, it was fun to walk through the cards, glancing at entries and subject headings. As a tactile experience, I miss that. I then went to the stacks and just browsed. I looked at many, many books on Milton. In fact, our library has an amazing collection of Milton, due largely to the pull of the former Miltonian who recently retired. So I spent hours opening books that intrigued me, scanning the table of contents for interesting chapters that may �fit� my subject. This low-tech, time-intensive experience was just the sort that inevitably happens as the result in procrastination. And I did feel a bit like Satan thrown out of heaven and after a lengthy bit of justification proclaiming to the fallen angles that he intends to lead: �Hell/Receive thy new possessor: One who brings/A mind not be chang�d by Place or Time./The mind is its own place, and in it self/Can make a Heav�n of Hell, a Hell of Heav�n./ What matter where, if I be still the same,/ And what I should be, all but less than he/Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least/We shall be free.� It is dark and hot in the stacks. And the hallways are long and winding. From time to time one runs across cage-front lockers for serious graduate students. Shorts steps divide sections. Noises echo down the cement floor. It is gothic and a bit creepy late at night. Signs everywhere remind visitors not to leave belongings unattended. Sometimes I find what I need immediately, other times, I have to roam around, peeking down aisles and timidly flipping on lights. When I finally found the Milton section, carefully making my way forwards in time from the very beginning of English literature, to the middle ages, to the Renaissance,� when I finally reached Milton I felt such a calm. I pushed back all of the noise that clamored in my brain chanting about tasks, generating stress, and I began looking at books. It is such a joy to be alone with hundreds of books. From this situation which at first promised to really put me over the top, I had a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with a more intuitive way of going about research that was rewarding. It made me think about the digital divide. And about gravity and anti-gravity. Quinn asked me what I had faith in the other day and I said, without hesitation, �gravity.� Because that force that holds the universe together is the best metaphor I can think of for the presence of something greater. But even still, there is another force that is speeding up the opposite of gravity outside of the earth�s atmosphere. Speeding up the rate at which the universe is expanding. So it makes me wonder�. Isn�t it interesting the prevalence of opposing forces? When I approached the checkout desk, the clerks were writing down call numbers, titles and author for everyone in line. The average person had over 10 books, so it took ages. It is weird how reliant we are now, not just on computers � they still worked � but on the internet. I love the internet, but I also take it for granted. It is rarely a possibility in my mind that an entire university can be completely without the internet for over a day. And riots would not happen. Ah the nice people in the Midwest�.. 5:26 p.m. - 2002-10-08 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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