From my memory’s beginning, I had been an avid reader. When I was a kid, the ultimate adventure and pleasure would be a weekend trip to a bookstore. My aunts would let me freely roam the store, browsing different subject shelves for a few hours until I was either exhausted or my hands full with books. We would checkout and I would carry the books back like a homesteader carrying firewood from the forest. To me, a bookstore is like a zoo, with all sorts of exotic species you’ve never encountered before. Every visit ventured me into a new subject, with a treasure hunt map unfolding in front of me showing all the distant lands, waiting for me to explore. It’s both like a teleport machine and a candy shop, always colorful, varietal and enticing!
Thus I deeply resonate with the book Hidden Library, which showcases all sorts of libraries people improvised across the globe to solve a real problem - the crave for information and the need to pass down knowledge. Not only will bibliophiles find joy in virtually visiting so many locations in this book, but those looking for ideas to build communities will pick up an idea or two, as many of these libraries serve as a common space for people to mingle, chat and find a sense of unity.
Let’s visit the different types of hidden libraries!
Mobile libraries for those in faraway corners
Very devoted volunteers run vans or animal carriers so people living in helmets will be tethered. For example, in Hawassa (Ethiopia), kids wait for horses to carry their books and librarians to them for a reading party. Kids in Magdalena (Colombia) and Garissa (Kenya) rely on donkey and camel respectively as their moving libraries.
Garissa library is operated with camels. Photo credit: Hidden Libraries book
In remote Hebrides Islands (Scotland), a mobile van is the only way residents can connect with a real person (librarian) and hold in their hands some fresh outside ideas, and read books in their own language (Gaelic).
In Basilicata (an isolated mountaineous region in Italy), an old gentleman drives a van 1000km to deliver new books to a few children in each village, motivated by the fear that the next generation will not read anymore. The part that touches me the most is that in addition to reading to them, he asks them to write stories collaboratively. He will have the first town’s kids write the first chapter, then he passes it on to the next town’s kids who will continue the plot. As he completes the circuit, a new story is born from collective creativity. In this way, kids feel connected to something bigger outside their isolated dwelling.
mobile library in Basilicata. Photo credit: BBC
Solidarity during difficult times
In World War 2 London, an underground bomb shelter in Bethnal Green had both a theater and library to serve the mental need of those who are in trauma. It also gives them hope and pleasure to go through such a dark (literally and psychologically) period.
library in a bomb shelter. Photo credit: Historia Magazine
Build a Community
Libraries are often used as a common space to strengthen the community. This can be seen in the Levinsky Garden Library in Tel Aviv, where an open library in a community park serves multinational immigrants and promotes cultural events and interaction. The Magdeburg Open Air Library in former East Germany converts a desolute area into community space to revitalize the neighborhood, giving residents a sense of hope for future.
Magdeburg Open Air Library. Photo Credit: ArchDaily
Inform and Transform
Some libraries were born out of a fierce love to share knowledge with others. Hernando Guanlao runs the “Reading Club 2000” in Manila (Philipines) to share surplus books to bring changes to people. Likewise, Raul Lemesoff runs the “Weapon of Mass Instruction” in a tank-like vehicle in Buenos Aires (Argentina) to play parody to state violence in the 70s dictatorship era. A car that was typically used to abduct dissents is now deployed as a channel to educate and empathize, thus resisting propaganda and violence.
Weapon of Mass Instruction in Argentina. Photo credit: Hidden Libraries book
Keep history alive
In many locations rural or city, people are determined to preserve manuscripts passed down by family over centuries, despite threats from religious fundamentalists, ideological governments and extreme weather. These are usually historical towns that flourished as an exchange of trades and information. The book illustrates Djenne Mosque (Mali) hosting the Timbuktu Manuscripts, Chinguetti (Mauritania in the Saharan desert) found in 777CE as a station for Mecca-bound pilgrims to gather and debate, as well as the St Catherine Monastery Library (Sinai, Egypt), which is hidden in the mountains with 4th century text.
Djenne Manuscript Library. Photo credit: official Facebook page
My reflection
It’s hard not to compare the libraries with my local library that is merely a 4 minute drive away with bright and easy access. I can pick up books from not just a local system but also request items from across the country. Even though the difficulty of access is different, I assume the underlying drive for knowledge is very similar. The reason I prefer reading over other media is that I can control the pace and surrounding. Depending on the nature of the content and my goals, say if I am reading to gain technical knowledge, my pace will be totally different from reading a book on sociology or psychology to understand humanity better. My pace can be altered to fit my need, and I can jump back and forth after viewing the TOC to build my own navigation path in an unknown domain. Viewing a video is more confined to the delivery, pace and structure of the presenter. Not many give you a timed TOC to navigate so it’s hard to construct your own mental map by consuming pieces in your own path.
Reading long-form content such as a book also let me experience and trace the thought process of the author better. I am able to see how an idea is conceived, developed, tested and validated. In contrast, short-form content only presents the conclusion for easy digestion, leaving no room to understand the context and develop your own argument for or against it. Long-form content also makes it easier to integrate it into an existing knowledge system, as it provides more data points for you to connect to existing dots. This makes analogy, comparison and inference easier.
Books also comfort me when I am down, cheerleading when I am in doubt, and give me inspirations and directions when I am lost. It expands my perspectives and helps me understand people or things that are vastly different from my background. It x-rays phenomenons and let me understand the true nature of things. With my physical and virtual libraries, I can transcend my little burb to explore the places and minds of miles away. Thus I deeply appreciate the WW2 London underground library offering intellectual breakways during hardships, something that I had first-hand experience when I was seriously ill 2 years ago.
Hayao Miyazaki said in his essays that every encounter with a book is a cherished moment. I think it is like ichigo ichie, the once in a lifetime meeting where serendipity brings unexpected joy, when someone’s idea flips a switch in your mental world.
In the book, the architect for Kurkku Fields Underground Library (Kisarazu, Japan) analogies reading to plants getting help from soil and microbe to grow. I can’t agree more, as I think knowledge is nutrient likes soil and microbe, nourishing and growing us so we reemerge as a better/new/healthier being after reading.
Kurkku Fields Underground Library in Japan, Photo credit: Hidden Libraries book
I look forward to my next trip when I can venture into one of these hidden libraries, and see through a new lens to some unknown world. I am sure it will rekindle my fond childhood memory of an untiring explorer, looking both far and close to savor the taste of new knowledge!