Metafizika biblioteke

1. Uvod

Bibliotekarstvo i informacijske znanosti, kao razvijene djelatnosti i naučne oblasti, mogu se definirati na različite načine. Čak i prije institucionalizacije biblioteke kao ustanove sa jasno definiranim zadacima i svrhom, pojam biblioteke je podrazumijevao mnogo toga. Bibliotekom se nazivala svaka manja ili veća zbirka glinenih pločica, svitaka, kodeksa, knjiga ili bilo kakvih fizičkih “nosača” informacija i znanja, bez nužno prethodno ustrojenog reda. U arapskom svijetu su u 15. stoljeću tada postojeći katalozi nazivani bibliotekama, kao i enciklopedije prije nego što se u 18. stoljeću Denis Diderot ozbiljnije pozabavio radom na sastavljanju prve riznice svekolikog znanja poznatog svijeta i definirao enciklopediju u onom obliku u kakvom je poznajemo danas (usp. Stipanov 2010; Stipčević 1985).

U suvremenom informacijskom dobu opet, nerijetko svjedočimo (potpuno pogrešno!) opisivanju interneta kao velike, univerzalne digitalne biblioteke ili mjesta gdje je pohranjeno sve znanje svijeta i gdje se mogu više ili manje uspješno pronaći odgovori na sva pitanja koja moderni čovjek može zamisliti (usp. Gerc 2008, 232). Kakogod, neosporno je da biblioteka može podrazumijevati mnogo toga. To je ustanova koja ima zadatak da prikuplja, stručno obrađuje, čuva i korisnicima učini dostupnom svaku vrstu bibliotečke građe; bibliotekom se također nazivaju edicije neke izdavačke kuće, ali i zbirke knjiga uređenih po određenom sistemu. U isto vrijeme, taj pojam obuhvata i bibliotečko, stručno osoblje, koje opslužuje korisnika u cilju njegovog informiranja, naučnih istraživanja ili rekreacije.

Pa iako ih ima mnogo, niti jedna definicija nije, osim formalno, u stanju u sebi obuhvatiti cjelinu onoga što jedna biblioteka zaista jeste ili bi trebala biti. Ono o čemu danas imamo sve više izvora i o čemu se sve više promišlja (i to ne samo izvan naučnih krugova) jeste skrivena, metafizička, definicija biblioteke i način na koji se ona poima izvan svog “fizičkog okvira”. Biblioteke “bez zidova”, digitalne biblioteke, virtuelne, hibridne biblioteke, Bibliotheca Universalis, Projekat Gutenberg, Google Books... različiti su i mnogobrojni načini na koje se pokušava poimati biblioteka i ono kako bi ona u budućnosti trebala izgledati. Međutim, ukoliko se dokine postojeći koncept biblioteke, u smislu da je to sinonim za više ili manje monumentalne građevine, “hramove znanja” sa jasno definiranim prostornim odrednicama, ograničenjima i organizacijom, te se počne razmišljati o širem značenju pojma – tada dolazimo do ideja koje prelaze granice materijalnog i racionalnog, a njeni opisi spadaju više u domen fikcije. Takva biblioteka, prvobitno i sama stvorena zbog knjige i knjizi u čast, ponovo se vraća u knjigu, prvo kroz naučnofantastičnu književnost, da bi se potom kroz razvoj digitalnih tehnologija počelo promišljati o mogućnosti materijalizacije tih vizija.

Na tom tragu je i motiv za nastanak ovog teksta, koji za cilj ima zapitati se kakva bi to mogla biti Biblioteka budućnosti imajući u vidu sve izazove sa kojima se suočavamo u eri kompjuterske i informatičke revolucije? Jedan od načina da se približimo mogućem odgovoru jest ukazati na nekoliko interesantnih i indikativnih primjera iz fikcije te zapažanja nekolicine naučnika koji su se detaljnije bavili nekim aspektima ove teme.

2. Borgesov bibliotečki univerzum ili moderna Bibliotheca Univerzalis

Kako je već konstatovano u uvodu, pojavom revolucionarnog izuma interneta kao globalnog neselektivnog repozitorija znanja, on se sve češće izjednačava sa bibliotekom. Tako površna poređenja, srećom, nisu preozbiljno shvaćena, iako je bilo ozbiljnih pokušaja da se digitaliziranjem svekolikog znanja sadržanog u fondovima bibliotekama širom svijeta napravi Bibliotheca Univerzalis na moderni način. Takvo nešto je, čini se, prilično smjela i “revolucionarna” ideja. Međutim, mnogo je realnije i izazovnije prihvatiti viziju koju je još pedesetih godina prošlog vijeka, svjesno ili nesvjesno, stvorio veliki argentinski pisac i jedan od najpoznatijih bibliotekara uopće – Jorge Luis Borges.1

O Borgesu nije ostalo mnogo toga da se kaže, a da već nije rečeno ili napisano. Pregršt je autobiografskih i drugih zapisa o tome kako i koliko je Borges cijenio i zavisio u svojoj strasti od biblioteke i čitanja, da bi se samo o tome mogla napisati cijela knjiga. Borges je još od najranijeg doba, zakoračivši u privatnu biblioteku svog oca, postao beznadežno zaljubljen u knjige i čitanje, a biblioteka će za čitav život biti njegovo prvo i posljednje utočište i komadić raja na zemlji. Svoju bibliotečku karijeru započinje kao pomoćnik u biblioteci Migel Kane, u predgrađu Buenos Airesa. Posao o kojem je maštao u početku se ne čini baš pretjerano privlačnim i djeluje obeshrabrujuće. Mala područna biblioteka bila je na prvi dojam za Borgesa samo sumorno mjesto prenapučeno drugorazrednim službenicima kojima su “knjige predstavljale samo hrpu materijala preko kojeg se zarađuje mjesečna plata” (Esteban 2016, 15). Borges ipak nije popustio pokušajima obeshabrivanja i predao se malodušnosti, nego se još više motiviran prepustio imaginaciji i pisanju, pa se čak smatra da je u nekim pričama poput Alefa ovjekovječio svoje dojmove vezane za ozračje i ljude sa kojima je radio u spomenutoj biblioteci. Udaljivši se od svih negativnih uticaja iz okruženja, svoj mir i inspiraciju pronalazi u samoći, među policama pretrpanim knjigama. Tada biblioteka Migel Kane poprima sasvim drugu dimenziju za njega, a on u jednom razgovoru sa Osvaldom Ferarijem kaže: “Kada sam napisao Babilonsku biblioteku, bio sam tu zaposlen i pomislio sam da je ta beskrajna biblioteka, koja obuhvata univerzum i sa njim se stapa, za mene bila i ta mala i gotovo skrivena biblioteka iz Almagra” (Esteban 2016, 14). Nakon što ju je napustio, pruža mu se prilika kakvu zaslužuje. Godine 1955. Borges posatje upravnik Nacionalne biblioteke Argentine. Njegov san se ostvaruje – našao se na izvoru obimnog i neprocjenjivog blaga koje mu je stavljeno na raspolaganje. Bilo je to za njega osamnaest godina potpune sreće i u toj privilegiji će uživati sve do pedeset i pete godine života kada je oslijepio. Međutim, ni to ga nije zaustavilo u čitanju i stvaranju.

Pa ipak, promišljajući o Borgesu, nameće se misao kako njegovo najveće dostignuće kada je u pitanju bibliotekarstvo možda i nije to što je i sam bio praktikant i dao doprinos kao uposlenik ili direktor najznačajnije biblioteke u Argentini. Nije ni to što je bio jedan od osnivača prve katedre za bibliotekarstvo u Buenos Airesu 1956. godine (Escuela Nacional de Bibliotecarios). Najveći doprinos je zapravo teorijski – proistekao iz njegovih fantastičnih priča, koje daju izvrstan šlagvort za promišljanja o metafizici biblioteka i njihovoj suštini. Mnoge njegove književne kreacije su inspirisale i potakle teoretičare bibliotekarstva da promišljaju kompleksne teme koje su relevantne i imanentne informacijskoj i bibliotečkoj znanosti, a koje uključuju propitivanje granica i mogućnosti informacijskih sistema i ljudskog uma.

U paraboli o Golemu i kroz njegovu usporedbu sa književnošću i općenito pisanom baštinom čovječanstva, Borges pretvara biblioteku u mitsko mjesto koje je najbliže, a opet tako daleko od nastojanja da čovjeka približi Bogu. “Ljudima je dato da stvaraju stvari vrijedne divljenja, ali da njima nikada ne dosegnu savršenstvo Tvorca, te da prihvate da su granice ljudskih stvaralačkih moći beznadežno udaljene od beskonačne stvaralačke moći Boga, ali svejedno teže da dosegnu te granice kako bi stvorili nešto što teži poretku, nesavršenom snu o poretku, biblioteci” (Manguel 2019, 77). Tu se opet nužno nameće slika Babilonske biblioteke kao metafore nedostižne ljudske težnje za sveobuhvatnošću. Borges ne poriče da univerzalna biblioteka postoji, kao ni Manguel: “Enciklopedija sveta, univerzalna biblioteka, postoji – i to je sam svet” (Manguel 2008, 84).

Nekoliko autora koji su se iz različitih uglova bavili ovom temom pronašlo je plodonosne metafore u pričama poput Alefa, Funesa pamtioca ili Babilonske biblioteke. Upravo za ovu posljednju priču sociolog Andrew Abbott, proučavajući sociološke aspekte bibliotekarstva, u jednom tekstu kaže da može biti iščitana kao ilustracija problema hiperprodukcije podataka (tzv. data overload) u modernom, zapadnjačkom društvu (Abbott 2013, 85). On primjećuje kako informacione tehnologije, kad je u pitanju pohranjivanje podataka, napreduju znatno brže nego što čovjek uspijeva poboljšati svoje sposobnosti da sažme, indeksira i pretražuje te informacije. Abbott za ovu priču kaže da je parabola modernog bibliotekarstva, jer ilustruje težnju biblioteka(ra) da hiperprodukciju i haos informacija koji se svakodnevno produciraju pokušaju dovesti u red ili “ustrojiti” kroz različite sisteme i katalogizirati uz pomoć shema koje bi trebale biti sveobuhvatne. Međutim, to im ne polazi za rukom i savršeni red ili mogućnost uređene sveobuhvatnosti ostaje mit i nedostižni ideal. Bibliotekari današnjice, i pored svih dostupnih tehnoloških alata, kataloga i sofisticiranih klasifikacijskih sistema, bivaju izgubljeni u labirintima borgesovske Babilonske biblioteke. Iva Seto smatra da arhitektura Borgesove biblioteke, koja se sastoji iz beskrajnog niza heksagona, simulira rizomatsku strukturu interneta (Asato 2008, 10). “Svemir (koji pojedinci nazivaju Bibliotekom) sastoji se od nepoznatog, pa možda čak i beskonačnog broja šestougaonih galerija... Sa svakog šestougaonika vide se donji i gornji spratovi, unedogled” (Borges 2018, 72). U toj i takvoj biblioteci “ne postoje dvije istovjetne knjige... Biblioteka je potpuna i na njenim policama su zabilježene sve moguće kombinacije dvadeset i nekoliko ortografskih simbola, to jest sve što se može izraziti, i to na svim jezicima. Ama baš sve... Kad je obznanjeno da Biblioteka sadrži sve knjige, isprva se svi budalasto zaradovaše. Povjerovaše da su vlasnici tajnog, netaknutog blaga” (Borges 2018, 77). Nakon uzaludnih pokušaja da ovladaju sveopćim znanjem i informacijama obuze ih malodušnost, a potom su se polako počeli privikavati na činjenicu da je “...biblioteka u toj mjeri ogromna da bilo kakvo sažimanje nanijeto ljudskom rukom bez razlike biva infitenzimalno” (Borges 2018, 79). Na kraju, opisavši nade, težnje i uzaludne pokušaje ljudi-bibliotekara da ovladaju tim Svemirom, Borges zaključuje: “Može biti da me starost i bojazan varaju, ali strahujem da je ljudska vrsta – jedina – na dobrom putu da iščezne i da će je Biblioteka nadživjeti...” (Borges 2018, 81)

Međutim, Borges nije usamljen u ovakvim maštarijama. Mnogi pisci fikcije, naročito naučne fantastike, bili su na sličnom tragu. Naprimjer, Adrienne LaFrance primjećuje da, kada autori naučnofantastičnog žanra opisuju biblioteku, to nerijetko čine iz perspektive korisnika, a što se može vrlo učinkovito iskoristiti za kreiranje vizije kako bi biblioteke mogle izgledati u budućnosti.

U svom tekstu Ljudski strah od potpunog znanja navodi primjere takvih, futurističkih biblioteka, pa ističe: “U ‘Sandmenu’ Neila Gaimana pojavljuje se biblioteka puna knjiga koje su nastale kroz snove. U nekoliko knjiga Isaaca Asimova spominje se galaktička biblioteka u kojoj se sveukupno ljudsko znanje digitalno indeksira u realnom vremenu. Jedna dvodijelna epizoda TV serije ‘Doktor Hu’ govori o djevojci na samrtnoj postelji čija svijest je sačuvana u kompjuterskom programu smještenom u biblioteci veličine planete, zahvaljujući kome ona dobija pristup svom sačuvanom ljudskom znanju. U svim tim slučajevima potrebno je platiti određenu cijenu radi pristupa značajnim količinama informacija. Mnogi zaboravljaju da je Supermenova Tvrđava samoće takođe i biblioteka. To je mjesto na kome se Kal-El skriva, a istovremeno predstavlja i skladište cjelokupnog znanja Kriptona” (LaFrance 2016).

Kada danas govorimo ili čitamo o bibliotekarima, knjigama i bibliotekama u savremenoj književnosti bilo kojeg žanra, trebamo i sami biti spremni odstupiti od njihovog stereotipnog i klasičnog poimanja. Svi oni mogu biti u izmijenjenom obliku, a sve češće i jesu, shodno tehnološkim i futurističkim stremljenjima svijeta, pa “nosilac” informacije i znanje više nije knjiga u prepoznatljivom fizičkom obliku već može biti kristal, čestica, neidentifikovan objekt. Biblioteka više nije biblioteka, nego kosmički prostor, fantastični informacioni sistem i nadzemaljska infrastruktura znanja, a bibliotekari postaju poput Tanka iz Matrixa okruženi monitorima – baratajući kojekakvim softverom ili anropomorfna i vanzemaljska bića poput onih iz Lovecraftovih (2018, 159) priča, sve do robotiziranih verzija savršeno ugođenih mašina za usluživanje korisnika. Upravo na tom tragu, teoretičari u ovakvim pričama nalaze ogledalo današnjice – kulturu i svijet pokoren Internetom, opsjednut digitalnim i virtuelnim.

3. Umjesto zaključka

U svijetu World Wide Weba čovjek se lako izgubi, pa bio on i informacijski stručnjak. On biva zaveden i skrajnut sa kursa, te prisiljen pronalaziti načine i instrumente za prevazilaženje prepreka i “zauzdavanje haosa” koji je, kako se čini, jedini izvjestan i održiv – idealni poredak. Semantička mreža odvlači/udaljava organizaciju informacija od hijerarhijske klasifikacije ka više holističkom tipu strukturiranja, a Borgesova univerzalna biblioteka upravo pretpostavlja mogućnosti takvog hipersvemira.

Kako se može vidjeti iz ovog kratkog teksta, biblioteka je prešla dalek put od pasivnog mjesta skladištenja i čuvanja znanja, do složenog i aktivnog komunikacijskog sistema za pohranu i manipulaciju informacijama. Sa pojavom hiperprodukcije znanja došlo je do usložnjavanja zahtjeva korisnika, te se uloga biblioteke sve brže i drastičnije mijenja. Čini se kao da će od svega što ona jeste bila do sada, zapravo ostati samo akcenat na sistemu koji će nužno, prije ili kasnije, poprimiti neki potpuno novi, futuristički oblik koji će prerasti sve dostupne alate i klasifikacijske sheme. Na koji način će se to desiti i kada, ostaje da se vidi. Na bibliotekarima i informacijskim stručnjacima je da iznađu način i prevaziđu nametnute prepreke. Pritom, magične sfere i beskonačni strukturirani haos Borgesove fikcije, pretenciozno ili ne, profetski ili ne, mogu poslužiti modernim teoretičarima bibliotekarstva i informacijskih znanosti da preispitaju važeće koncepte i dominantne paradigme struke i u njihovom tumačenju možda pronađu potencijalne odgovore na aktualne probleme i načine borbe sa hiperprodukcijom znanja i njegovim upravljanjem.

1. Introduction

Librarianship and information science as developed activities and scientific fields, can be defined in different ways. Even before the institutionalization of the library as an institution with clearly defined tasks and purpose, the concept of the library implied many things. A library was any small or large collection of clay tablets, scrolls, codices, books or any physical “carriers” of information and knowledge, without necessarily a pre-arranged order. In the Arab world in the 15th century, then existing catalogs were called libraries, as well as encyclopedias, before the 18th century, when Denis Diderot took more seriously the work of compiling the first treasury of all knowledge of the known world and defined the encyclopedia as we know it today (cf. Stipanov 2010; Stipčević 1985).

In the modern information age, again, we often witness (completely wrong!) the description of the Internet as a large, universal digital library or a place where all the knowledge of the world is stored and where answers to all questions that modern man can imagine can be found more or less successfully (cf. Gerc 2008, 232). Either way, it is undeniable that a library can mean many things. It is an institution that has the task of collecting, professionally processing, storing and making available to users every type of library material; the editions of a publishing house is also called a library, but as well, the collections of books arranged according to a certain system. At the same time, the term includes library and professional staff, which serve the user for the purpose of informing, scientific research or recreation.

Even though there are many of them, no definition, except formally, is able to encompass in itself the whole of what a library really is or should be. All the things about we today have more and more sources and what is being thought about more and more (and not only outside scientific community) is the hidden, metaphysical, definition of the library and the way it is understood outside its “physical framework”. Libraries “without walls”, digital libraries, virtual, hybrid libraries, Bibliotheca Universalis, Project Gutenberg, Google Books, etc. are different in many ways in which the library is tried to be understood and how it should look like in the future. On the other hand, if the existing concept of the library is abolished, in the sense that it is synonym for more or less monumental buildings, “temples of knowledge” with clearly defined spatial determinants, limitation and organization, and begins to think about the broader meaning of the term – then we come to ideas that cross the boundaries of the material and the rational, and its descriptions fall more into the domain of fiction. Such library, originally created for the sake of book and in honor of the book, returns to the book, first through science fiction literature, and then through the development of digital technologies, it has begun to engage in a reflection about the possibility of materializing these visions.

The motive for the creation of this text is on that trail, and has the goal of asking is what the Library of the future could look like, having in mind all the challenges we are facing in the era of the computer and information revolution? One way to get closer to a possible answer is to point out a few interesting and indicative examples from fiction, and the observations of several scientists who have dealt in some detail with some aspects of this theme.

2. Borges’ Universe as a Library or Modern Bibliotheca Universalis

As already stated in the introduction, with the emergence of the revolutionary invention of the Internet as a global non-selective repository of knowledge, it is increasingly equated with the library. Such superficial comparisons, fortunately, are not taken too seriously, although there have been serious attempts to make the Bibliotheca Universalis in a modern way by digitizing all the knowledge contained in the holdings of libraries around the world. Such a thing seems to be a rather bold and “revolutionary” idea. However, it is much more realistic and challenging to accept a vision created in the 1950s, consciously or unconsciously, by the great Argentine writer and one of the most famous librarians of all time – Jorge Luis Borges2.

There is not much left to say about Borges without it already being said or written. There are a handful of autobiographical and other records of how and how much Borges valued and depended in his passion from the library and reading that only a whole book could be written about it. From the earliest age, Borges, stepping into his father’s private library, became hopelessly in love with books and reading, and the library will be in his entire life, first and last refuge and a piece of paradise on this Earth. He began his library career as an assistant at the Miguel Cané Library in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. The job he dreamed of at first doesn’t seem very appealing and seems daunting. For Borges, the small branch library, at first glance, was just a gloomy place overcrowded with second-rate employees, to whom “the books represented just a pile of materials through which a monthly salary is earned” (Esteban 2016, 15). Borges, however, did not give in to attempts at discouragement and did not gave in to despondency, but was even more motivated to indulge his imagination and writing, and it is even believed that in some stories like Aleph, he perpetuated his impressions of the atmosphere and people he worked with in the mentioned library. Moving away from all the negative influences from the environment, he finds his peace and inspiration in solitude, among the shelves full of books. Then the Library Miguel Cané takes on a completely different dimension for him, and he says in a conversation with Osvaldo Ferrari: “When I wrote The Library of Babel, I was employed there and I thought that this endless library, which encompasses the universe and merges with it, for me was also that small and almost hidden library from Almagro.” (Esteban 2016, 14) After leaving that library, he is given the opportunity he deserves. In 1955, Borges became the director of the National Library of Argentina. His dream is coming true – he found himself at the source of the vast and priceless treasure that was made available to him. It was for him eighteen years of utter happiness, and he would enjoy that privilege until the age of fifty-five, when he went blind. However, even that did not stop him from reading and creating.

Even so, thinking about Borges, the thought arises that his greatest achievement when it comes to librarianship may not be that he himself was a practitioner and contributed as an employee or director of the most important library in Argentina. Also, it wasn’t because he was one of the founders of the first department of librarianship in Buenos Aires in 1956 (Escuela Nacional de Bibliotecarios). The greatest contribution is actually theoretical – derived from his fiction stories, which provide an excellent headword for reflections on the metaphysics of libraries and their essence. Many of his literary creations have inspired and encouraged theorists of librarianship to consider complex topics that are relevant and immanent to information and library science, and that include questioning the limits and possibilities of information systems and the human mind.

In the parable of the Golem and through its comparison with literature and in the general with written heritage of mankind, Borges turns the library into the mythical place closest to, and yet so far from, the effort to bring man closer to God. “People are given to create things worth admiring, but never to reach the perfection of the Creator, and to accept that the limits of human creative powers are hopelessly distant from the infinite creative power of God, but still strive to reach those limits to create something that strives for order, an imperfect dream of order, a library” (Manguel 2019, p. 77). Here again, the image of the Library of Babel necessarily imposes itself as a metaphor for the unattainable human aspiration for comprehensiveness. Borges does not deny that a universal library exists, nor does Manguel: “The encyclopedia of the world, the universal library, exists – and it is the world itself.” (Manguel 2008, 84)

Several authors who have addressed this topic from different angles have found fruitful metaphors in stories such as Aleph, Funes the Memorious, or The Library of Babel. For this last story, sociologist Andrew Abbott, studying the sociological aspects of librarianship, says in one text that it can be read as an illustration of the problem of data overload in modern, Western society (Abbott 2013, 85). He notes that information technology is advancing much faster when it comes to storing data than man is able to improve his ability to summarize, index, and search that information. Abbott for this story says that is a parable of modern librarianship, as it illustrates the tendency of libraries / librarians to try to organize or “structure” the hyperproduction and chaos of information produced on a daily basis through different systems and catalogue them with schemes that should be comprehensive. However, they do not succeed and perfect order or the possibility of regulated comprehensiveness remains a myth and an unattainable ideal. The contemporary librarians, despite all available technological tools, catalogues and sophisticated classification systems, are lost in the labyrinths of the Borgesian Library of Babel. Iva Seto believes that the architecture of the Borges library, consisting of an infinite series of hexagons, simulates the rhizomatic structure of the Internet (Asato 2008, 10). “The Universe (which individuals call the Library) consists of an unknown and perhaps even infinite number of hexagonal galleries (...) From each hexagon, the lower and upper floors could be seen, in perpetuity (...)” (Borges 2018, 72). In these libraries “two identical books do not exist (...) The library is complete and all possible combinations of twenty or more orthographic symbols are recorded on its shelves, that is everything that can be expressed, in all languages. Absolutely everything (...) When it was announced that the Library contained all the books, at first everyone was foolishly happy. They believed they were the owners of a secret, untouched treasure.” (Borges 2018, 77) After useless attempts to master universal knowledge and information, they became desponded, and then they slowly began to get used to the fact that “(...) the library is so vast that any compression inflicted by human hand without distinction becomes infinitesimal.” (Borges 2018, 79) Finally, describing the hopes, aspirations, and futile attempts of human librarians to master this Universe, Borges concludes: “I may be deceived by age and concerns, but I fear that the human race – the only one – is well on its way to extinction and that the Library will outlive it. (...)” (Borges 2018, 81)

However, Borges is not alone in such fantasies. Many fiction writers, especially science fiction writers, have followed similar path. For example, Adrienne LaFrance notes that when science fiction writers describe a library, they often do so from a user perspective, which can be used very effectively to create a vision how libraries might look like in the future.

In her text The Human Fear of Total Knowledge indicates examples of such, futuristic libraries, and points out: “A library full of books created through dreams appears in Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’. Several books by Isaac Asimov mention a galactic library in which all human knowledge is digitally indexed in real time. Two-part episode of the TV series ‘Doctor Who’ is about a girl on her deathbed whose consciousness is preserved in a computer program housed in the planet sized library, thanks to which she gains access to her preserved human knowledge. In all these cases, it is necessary to pay a certain price in order to access significant amounts of information. Many forget that Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is also a library. It is the place where Kal-El is hiding, and at the same time it is a repository of all the knowledge of Krypton” (LaFrance 2016).

When we today talk or read about librarians, books and libraries in contemporary literature of any genre, we should be ready to deviate from the stereotypical and classical understanding of the same. All of them can be in a changed form, and more frequently they are in accordance with the technological and futuristic aspirations of the world, so the “carrier” of information and knowledge is no longer a book in a recognizable physical form but can be a crystal, particle, unidentified object. The library is no longer a library but a cosmic space, a fantastic information system and an extraterrestrial knowledge infrastructure, and librarians become like the Tank from the Matrix surrounded by monitors – handling some software or anthropomorphic and extraterrestrial beings like those from Lovecraft’s stories (Lovecraft 2018, 159) all the way to robotic versions of perfectly tuned customer service machines. Exactly on the very same path, theorists in such stories are finding the mirror of today – a culture and world conquered by the Internet, obsessed with digital and virtual.

3. Instead of a conclusion

In the world of the World Wide Web, one is easily lost, even when she / he is also an information expert. She / he is seduced and removed from the course, and forced to find ways and instruments to overcome obstacles and “rein chaos” which seems to be the only known and sustainable – ideal order. The semantic network distracts / distances the organization of information from a hierarchical classification to a more holistic type of structuring, and Borges’ universal library exactly presupposes the possibilities of such hyperspace.

As can be seen from this short text, the library has come a long way from a passive place of storage and preservation of knowledge, to a complex and active communication system for storing and manipulating information. With the phenomenon of hyper-production of knowledge, user requirements have become more complex, and the role of the library is changing faster and more drastically. It seems like from everything it has been so far, in fact, only the emphasis on the system will remain, which will necessarily, sooner or later, assume some brand-new futuristic form, which will outgrow all available tools and classification schemes. How this will happen and when, remains to be seen. It is up to librarians and information professionals to find a way and overcome the imposed obstacles. At the same time, magical spheres and the endless structured chaos of Borges’s fiction, pretentious or not, prophetic or not, can serve modern theorists of librarianship and information sciences to reconsider valid concepts and dominant paradigms of the profession and in their interpretation may find potential answers to current problems and methods of dealing with knowledge overproduction and its management.

4. Bibliografija / Bibliography

Stipčević, Aleksandar. 1985. Povijest knjige. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Matice Hrvatske.

Stropnik, Alka. 2013. Knjižnica za nove generacije: virtualni sadržaji usluge za mlade. Zagreb: HKD.

Vilariño Picos, Teresa. 2011. “The Library and the Librarian as a Theme in Literature” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13 (5): 7. http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol13/iss5/.