Oliver Sacks’ On Libraries has been written in praise of intellectual freedom. In the essay, the writer considers libraries as a gateway to knowledge and freedom. He says that libraries offer intellectual freedom to an individual i.e. the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. So, “On Libraries” has been written in praise of physical libraries.
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Summary of the essay “On Libraries” by Oliver Sacks
The writer begins the essay “On Libraries” by describing his childhood. As a child, his favorite room at his home was the library. The library was well structured. It was a large oak-paneled room. The four walls of the room were covered by a bookcase. There was a table for writing and studying in the middle of the room. The library belonged to his parents. His father was a Hebrew scholar. The writer spent most of the time in the library. The writer read adventure and history books belonging to his three older brothers. His mother had her favorite books in a separate bookcase in the lounge. Medical books were kept in a special locked cabinet during my parents’ surgery. But the key was in the door, so it was easy to unlock.
The oak-paneled library was the quietest and most beautiful room in the house and so it was his favorite place to be. He spent several hours reading books in the library. Whenever he was late for lunch or dinner he could be found in the library. The writer learned to read when he was three or four years old.
The writer, then, talks about the local library named Willesden Public Library. He visited the library in his growing-up years. The library was a five-minute walk from his house. It was the library where he received his real education.
The writer said that he didn’t like receiving instruction and information at school. In fact, he disliked schools. He wanted to read the subjects of his interest that suited him the best. At school, he was not good a good student as the world judges a good student. However, he was a good learner. In Willesden Library and other libraries that he went in his life offered him to read the book of his choice freely.
As he grew older, his interest in reading shifted towards astronomy and chemistry. When the writer was twelve years old, he was admitted to St. Paul’s School. There was a general library named Walker Library. The library was full of history and political books. But the writer had no interest in them. One of his teachers offered him access to the library of the Science Museum where he read science books.
When he went to university, he had access to Oxford’s two great university libraries: the Radcliffe Science Library and the Bodleian. In the library, he read books by Theodore Hook. His book inspired the writer to write a sort of biography of him. The library he most loved at Oxford was their own library at the Queen’s College. The magnificent library building itself had been designed by Christopher Wren. The Queen’s library introduced him to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature of the writer John-son, Hume, Pope, and Dryden.
The writer, after that, came to New York City in 1965 from London. In New York City, he had a horrid, little apartment in which there were almost no surfaces to read or write on. He wanted spaciousness. Fortunately, the library at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where I worked, had this plenty of space for reading. At the library, he sometimes discovered unexpected books and knowledge that the books offered. Since everyone in the library had similar desires, there was a sense of community and intimacy among the readers.
However, a shift was occurring by the 1990s. Although the writer continued visiting libraries and sat in front of many books, students increasingly ignored the bookshelves, accessing what they needed with their computers. The students hardly went to shelves. The students didn’t pay any concern to the physical books. Since the majority of users were no longer using the books themselves, the college decided, ultimately, to dispose of them.
The writer was disappointed with the changing scenario of the libraries, particularly with the idea of replacing the books. When the writer noticed that the books were being thrown out, he felt that a murder, a crime had been committed. He objected to what was happening and expressed his dissatisfaction with a librarian. The librarian reassured him that everything “of worth” had been digitized. The writer thought of how the library once valued “old” books, had a special room for old and rare books; and how in 1967, searching through the stacks, he had found an 1873 book, Edward Liveing’s Megrim, which inspired the writer to write his own first book.
On Libraries by Oliver Sacks Class 12 Exercise and Question Answer
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
Reference to the context