Morrison speaks on sanctity of libraries

Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities and a Nobel and Pulitzer prizewinning author, discussed what she calls "a reader's debt" to support public and private libraries Sunday afternoon at Richardson Auditorium.

Morrison spoke of the changes she has witnessed in her lifetime, begging with her childhood, when she remembers time, responsibility and expectations being measured differently — when it took an hour and a half to walk to the library, when you carried home the three books you were allowed to take out in your arms, and when an overdue fine of three cents was considered a household insult.

She also discussed how new technology, such as electronic resources and e-books, has affected the way we gain knowledge.

"So much is available now via computer screens that it has not been unthinkable in some quarters to dispense of stacks, reading rooms, even librarians, and to imagine the reader at home, undisturbed by other people," Morrison said.

The speech, on the continuing importance of libraries in academia and elsewhere, marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of Firestone Library. The Friends of the Princeton University Library invited Morrison to speak to University students and community members to celebrate the anniversary.

Though Morrison conceded that technology allows easier access to information and that she herself uses the Internet often, she expressed nostalgia and a longing to return to the days before the technological information boom. She said she has always had a profound love of libraries, of "discovering books on shelves or collections where you believe no one, or very few, have gone before."

In her hometown of Lorraine, Ohio, Morrison recently served as the inspiration for a renovation of the local library. She encouraged the construction of a reading room, which she said is now "a replica, in fact, of my experience in that small library, which made me a devoted reader for life and helped me become the writer I became."

After this project, Morrison said she began researching the architecture of public libraries, focusing on the Free Library of Philadelphia. She found that libraries were originally conceived of as holy places, and, while library architecture has become less theatrical, their hushed, museum-like presence persists.

Morrison closed her speech by commending the efforts of the University's Firestone Library. She said the University has understood the necessity for both innovation and preservation in Firestone and has been able to serve an increasingly diverse population.

Firestone, she said, strives "to satisfy the stunning, eternal appetite of the mind for the search for knowledge among strangers with similar views ... It is that vision which distinguishes true democracy from its counterfeit."

Princeton students were impressed by Morrison's speech and even her presence. "It was really nice to see her for once, to hear her speak," Blake Sercye '08 said.

Alex Roberts '08 said he identified with what she said. He enjoys being at Firestone and is surprised by how few people visit the library.

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"She really reaffirmed that libraries are central," Sercye said. "She was able to convey that because we now have so much information, in a way, it's wasted."