The clock points to a little over
eight o’ clock in the morning. At a time when a majority of UH students are
sleeping in their dorm rooms, the scholar at the Hawaiian Pacific collection
reading room is an agile mother falcon swooping through the forest to find her
hatchlings some fresh worms. In this case, the forest is the plethora of books
at the mercy of this focused scholar and the hatchlings are the reason they
came here instead resting before class starts. In this seemingly endless supply
of unnecessary material, the scholar is only focused on a few precious worms. He
soars through each aisle of books and only stop when he sees a book that catches
his piercing eyes.
However, scholars are not the only
ones here in Hamilton Library. The librarian seems to be a part of this ecosystem
too. However, she is not an intense falcon but rather a calm and collected owl.
She appears to be only concentrating on her desktop screen but anyone can tell
her gaze is penetrates through every crevice of this floor. She will know if
something disrupts the order of this territory she protects.
Other than that, there is just me,
an observer to this spectacle of activity. I start to question everything I
know about libraries. Ever since reading Allure
of the Archives by Arlette Farge, I no longer think of research as a
mundane task completed by boring people. Similar to the archive, the library
seems to be brimming with hidden life. You just have to look for it. Before
Farge, I had mistaken quietness for boredom. This is definitely no longer the
case. A thought crosses through my mind. The Recreation Center may be teemed
with physical sweat but in my opinion, it is the libraries that honestly feel
the most alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment