Losing the Library

First of all, please be reassured, the title of this photo is metaphoric, not literal. We are not truly losing our library.

I am a high school "media specialist". I suppose that might be considered a high falutin' word for librarian. And yes, I am the tender of this literary place filled with books. But more and more it seems, novels take a lesser place in the world of students, replaced instead by technology -- the Internet, or iphones, and video games galore. I am the gatekeeper for these emerging technologies as well and I suppose I love new electronic gadgets as much as the next guy. I am an old techie.

But for many a young person, the paperback has lost its luster and YouTube, like the sirens of the ancient Oydessy, draws them nearer. Most of my checkouts are, alas, textbooks; most of the novels read are part of assigned reading for English class. And if not for vampire and werewolf romances and the occasional reader of fantasy, there would be little independent reading at all. Texting and twittering have replaced the desire to write the next great pulp fiction. It is hard for many to even write a coherent sentence as they never allow themselves to read Hemingway or Poe, or please please, just a little Twain or Steinbeck, some Charles Dickens or Jane Austin, nothing too heavy, yet worthy of a look.

Yes, indeed, we are losing the library, but it is not for a lack of things to read. The shelves are full, the card catalog beckons. The library withers from within, and sad so sad it be, that someday it could be truly lost.