WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE

I LIKE going to libraries and browsing books. I also do some of my writings inside them since I have ready access to books that could have relevant contents for my topics. However, there are some constraints when we consider the opening skeds of libraries. 

The UP libraries are closed at lunch except for, according to a new friend of mine at the Bible Studies Foundation and who works with the UP Archives,the main library I really do not understand that at all. Students are students the whole day. Ergo, libraries should be accessible during those hours. 

Public libraries are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. 

I used to go toe the Goethe Institut library near our house way back in the early millenium years but now it has gone to Makati, where intelligence is high, where the people can afford books and CDs all the time, etcetera.

What is the purpose of a library, to serve only minds and not to consider the social conditions of the reader? John Dewey, Rousseau, Simone de Beauvoir, and many other writers would not like that very much. Books, CDs, VCDs, DVDs should all be accessible at most times, not only when it is convenient for some institutions to provide them. 

Intelligence is one problem of our country. The heated debates, the sensitivity of officials to criticisms, the violence attendant to arguments, all these reflect a lack of, fear of, and even disgust for intellectual defense, which is the bedrock of democracy. 

I think that if we are going to bring up people of high intelligence, libraries should be open everyday, up to 10p.m. Why 10 p.m.? Because professionals could be off by 7p.m. and they might want to go to the library at that time, to borrow or return a book. They couldn't possibly absent themselves from their work simply to do that just because the library sked is limited. Schools and universities should open their libraries all day when the students are there. (Faculty also should have unhampered access to them, of course.)

Moreover, some schools have done away with card indices. I think they should be restored. Some computers for searching books are not functioning properly. I even suspect, the people -- management information system of the institutions have the tendency to hack those computers if only to distract some radical students and faculty, especially at the social work and  community development offices. 

Also, I hope that all libraries would have computers that would require low fees, something like P15 per hour, instead of anything higher since Knowledge should be freely given or at the least cost to everyone. 

Without knowledge, there would be no morality. Without morality, what is life?