Community & Libraries

Knowledge becomes wisdom through the individual’s life in community. As the individual communicates in the social experience, her knowledge becomes wisdom. And Libraries hold a central position in this process, by virtue of being the social memory. In the practice of librarianship, we play an active role in helping them along the path to wisdom.

Wisdom is founded on a wide knowledge and deep understanding of all the facets and events of life in a community, that is, on our relationships with living people, including the indirect relationships we have through books. And it is a curious thing that, while we may not be able to communicate our knowledge, we can, if we are wise, communicate wisdom because wisdom is, so to speak, the distilled essence of knowledge, and not the whole of it.

Librarians guide the search. They represent the collective knowledge of their community; they are the community personality, and epitomize its culture - its whole way of life. We are all shaped by the culture in which we grow up, and it is this social being which helps to shape our individual personalities. Without it, we cannot hope to attain to wisdom.

D.J. Foskett
Gerrards Cross, England

http://www.ualberta.ca/dept/slis/cais/foskett.htm