Tin Tức

Without a doubt, information has become more accessible than it ever was in the past. Virtually everything now is a click of a button away, provided that the user is able to input the appropriate prompt. However, to go as far as to say that such accessibility to information has rendered libraries obsolete is likely an exaggeration. While it is true that the uses of information online do in a lot of ways overlap with those of physical libraries, and that the ease of access to information online has indeed reduced the number of trips to the library overall, there are still many values brought about by libraries that are unique to libraries alone. 

Few could justifiably claim to truly know what their local library holds. The sheer breadth of topics and content covered by the books present in the literal nooks and crannies of any given library is often only known to librarians and perhaps the most passionate library visitors, and still, it is often underestimated. Libraries are often home to text that does not exist anywhere else, be it historic text exclusively kept in a certain location that has become too fragile to undergo digitisation, or text on obscure topics that has simply found its way to that specific library. These materials are, more often than not, unavailable in online databases. To close a library would be to rob these precious materials of a safe place where they could survive the flow of time that has caused the loss of so many other materials. After all, libraries serve far more than merely its patrons. They also serve as an archive to preserve human knowledge and wisdom, for once a piece of information is lost to time, it essentially is considered to have never existed. It is, then, no exaggeration to say that the existence of libraries is a service to society itself. 

Aside from its practical purposes, libraries are a place of great cultural value, as well as sentimental value to many a visitor. To tourists, libraries, along with museums, could be the only place where they learn about the city they are visiting. To our forefathers, libraries may be the only place where records of the foregone era in which they lived still exist. To researchers and university students, libraries are often the only place they could hope to still have that highly specific and obscure piece of information that online databases failed to contain. To people unaccustomed to continual usage of digital or devices, or those simply looking for a moment of respite from the endless hours of working with a computer screen, libraries may be the only place they can do so. One could argue that even then, aside from the functions mentioned in the previous paragraph, libraries are by no means a necessity. However, one must then consider whether it is actually necessary in the first place to condemn libraries for not being truly and irrefutably essential, for if that was the case, there are plenty far less meaningful establishments still in existent today at any given location. Should we or should we not conduct the purge in the same manner to these establishments?

At the end of the day, so long as libraries continue to function as both an archive to our history and wisdom and a retreat for people who seek the values they bring, no one could justifiably claim libraries are no longer necessary. Digitisation of books has been, without a doubt, a great step towards information accessibility for people all around the globe, but it is only just that, a means of access. Libraries, however, are much more than that, as has been explained in the text above. 

VOCABULARY:

accessible (adj): dễ tiếp cận

sheer (adj): hoàn toàn

breadth (n): bề rộng

obscure (adj): khó hiểu

patrons (n): khách hàng quen

sentimental (adj): về mặt tình cảm

foregone (n): dự tính trước, biết trước

respite (n): sự trì hoãn

condemn (v): chỉ trích

archive (n): sự lưu trữ