Italian Libraries

Like most things in Italy, convenience is not a priority at libraries. Because Italy is home to such ancient literature, with so much intellectualism packed into a country smaller than the state of California, they have a very interesting archive system at the libraries. In america, (at least from what I knew of libraries) most of the resources you may need in a library, you just find in the shelves and can take it home with the right card and no late fees. Here, they have these huge informational crypts, Mass storage of books under ground. In order to have access to these books, you have to have the book number, submit a written request on a little peice of paper, and every half hour all the requests are taken downstairs and library workers come up with piles of books to deliver to eager-waiting students and intellectuals.

I haven't even managed to get a book out yet. I've been trying to locate all the books I need for this semester, and each library in bologna has different open hours, different delivery times, and different request submission deadlines. Not to mention that with so many decentralized libraries its annoying to have to walk all over the city to dig up these ancient greek and german philosophies I need to study. However the process interested me immensely.

I think its really interesting that so much of this country's story is underground. I don't know if any readers remember, but I went over 200 feet underground in Italy at the end of the summer to these incredible underground cavern and that was solely a natural phenomenon in the ground. But the rest of the country is littered with Roman ruins, entire cities, layers of culture and civilization under the ground. the modern city thrives above, and under ground the memories of old societies still exist. But the weirdest thing to me is how much *information* actual manuscripts and theories and philosophies are underground. Not that it would really be any different if they were above ground, I suppose its just a question of space, but the idea that these ancient books (and some not so old) are buried underground just makes me think about how separated they are form our reality. I guess the other reason it gives me a strange sensation is because with my incredibly high level of interaction with the internet and digital text, its hard for me to fathom underground CRYPTS of books, just words upon words, information... i guess all libraries are amazing for that reason, but these just seem so separated since they don't even enjoy the same air we do above ground....

Rant. sorry