Libraries Lost: Storage Bins and Robotic Arms

By FRED D. WHITE

On October 16, 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina -- the New Library of Alexandria, Egypt -- officially opened, although some prefer to think of it as a reopening, 2,000 years after the destruction of the legendary original Alexandrian Library, which was intended to be a universal archive and pre-eminent center of learning.

Shortly thereafter Santa Clara University, where I teach, announced plans that apparently reveal a decision to abandon those ideals: It wishes to transform its Orradre Library into a "library for the 21st century" -- or, to use another phrase dear to the hearts of today's librarians, "an information-resource center" incorporating state-of-the-art technology.