The Library is Our Species on its Best Day

LEIGHANN LORD AT THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. PHOTO BY HUNTER PERESS

When I realized that my Library Card had expired, I panicked. It changed my plans for the evening. In New York, you can't renew your Library Card online. You have to physically walk into a branch and do it in person. I guess they need to put eyes on you. Luckily my local branch is walking distance and I caught them before closing. Why the panic? Nostalgia? No. The Library was Google before there was Google. And should the cloud be down, it's comforting to know that there's a physical repository of knowledge that we can still avail ourselves of. The Library is our species on its best day. 
 
I also felt compelled to renew my card because as we stand witness to the real-time decline of deep thought, I know I cannot afford to be disconnected from a foundational (read: old school) source of information. None of us can.