On Libraries

13th floor of the Brown Sciences Library

When you really think about it, libraries are miracles. Within each of their countless volumes lies information yes, but also an author's livelihood.

Some books are written in just a year, while others may take a lifetime. The pictured shelf includes thesis' from 1980 up to 2008. For each volume, there was a Brown student who spent eight years studying and writing deep into the night to produce it.

Did they do it for recognition in the academic circles? Perhaps it was just for a degree or monetary success? Though my cynical side tries to manifest itself, the reality of what towers before me leaves me speechless and in awe.

The end result of all their work is that I can simple walk on in and open a book. For a university student, such an act is like breathing, or drinking water. But that doesn't change the fact that the ability to do this is miraculous. Through the years these thesis' have been moved around, reprinted in newer bindings, borrowed, and returned. This was all so I can take those eight years of study in a physical form, and (attempt to) learn it more quickly.

Above all, what strikes me most about this room is the sense of legacy I feel. These students all walked the same halls and studied in the same libraries as I do now. Here before me stands an academic ancestry. It's now my generation's time to carry on this human thirst for knowledge. We may be spread across many different universities, departments, and homes, but in this curiosity we are united.