Richard Ovenden the Oxford librarian made it his business to attack the stereotypes of libraries and librarians. As he said, “One of the stereotypes of libraries is that they are remarkably calm and safe places. Dull. Boring even. And that librarians have easy jobs withdrawn from the so-called real world.”
As a member of the board of the Steinbach Public Library for about a decade, including a number of them as chair, I know from personal experience that this stereotype badly misses the mark. Ovenden said “That stereotype isn’t true and has never been true and of course isn’t true today.” He gave a dramatic example of a personal experience he had as a librarian that showed exactly how far from the mark that stereotype was.
I am glad we never had anything as exciting at the Steinbach Public Library as he had when he was Director of Collections at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland where they had a manuscript called the Jami’ al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles by Rashid al-Din). This manuscript is one of the finest items owned by the University and one of the supreme masterpieces of Persian book painting and is considered one of the most important medieval manuscripts in the world by some scholars. It was written by the historian and vizier to the Ilkhanid court, Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl-allāh Ṭabīb Hamadānī (ca. 1247-1318 C.E.), and copied in Tabriz by the author’s own scribes and illustrators. Unfortunately, however, one of the images in the book contained a figurative description of the Prophet Muhammed. At the time such work was not uncommon among Muslims, but later was rejected by some parts of the Islamic world. Hence the manuscript attracted the unwelcome attention of certain fundamentalists of that society.
One day Ovenden received a telephone call demanding that he take the manuscript out of the library and burn it or dire consequences would be inflicted upon him and his library. That did not provide him with a quiet or serene life as a librarian. Far from it. He feared for his life and that of his beloved library.
Are Libraries Dull and Boring? Absolutely not. They are exciting places where ideas challenge us to be the best that we can be.
In fact some times libraries are too exciting.