Collection as Conclusion and Beginning: Jorge Luis Borges

Mark Edwin Peterson
CSA Conference, GMU
June 3, 2023

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Outline

1. Jorge Luis Borges, Librarian
2. The Concept of Library
3. Cataloging Collections
4. Libraries &
   Culture: Conclusion or Beginning?

Borges, Librarian

9 years as city librarian
1939-48
Head of National Library
1955-73

• “Shih Huang Ti destroyed the books because he understood that they were sacred books, in other words, books that teach what the entire universe of the mind of man teaches.”
• “Each in his own way imagines Paradise; since childhood I have envisioned it as a library. Not as an infinite library, because anything infinite is somewhat uncomfortable and puszzling, but as a library fit for a man. “

What is a Library?

The Universe?

Library Depicts Knowledge

• Delightful
• Vulnerabile
• Rigidly Structured

Cataloging Creation

The Roles of Librarians

The Borges Collections

• University of Virginia
• University of Texas
• Michigan State University
• University of Pittsburgh

Culture

• libraries hold history & culture
• uncertain, incomplete, exploited

The Library of Babel

“the Library–enlightened, solitary, infinite, perfectly unmoving, armed with precious volumes, pointless, incorruptible, and secret–will endure.”

Conclusion

1. Jorge Luis Borges, Librarian
2. The Concept of Library
3. Cataloging Collections
4. Libraries & Culture
   paper
   bibliography
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