The librarian’s mission

On 20 May 1935, in the main lecture theatre of the University of Madrid, the philosopher José María Ortega y Gasset delivered the opening address at the Second International Congress of Librarians. The text of this speech, originally published in the Revista de Occidente under the title "La missione del bibliotecario", is now reprinted in this engaging little volume, superbly edited by Antonio Castronuovo. In 1935, Ortega y Gasset was fifty-two years old and was establishing himself as one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century Spanish culture. Five years earlier, he had published his famous essay La ribellione delle masse, which, as the editor notes in the Preface, fully reveals his enlightened, secular and humanistic conservatism, placing him in a critical stance towards both right-wing and left-wing ideologies—a decidedly original position that met with no small amount of scepticism. A staunch advocate of the great humanising value of culture, Ortega y Gasset is equally convinced that books form the backbone that sustains it. Hence the crucial importance of librarians and their role, to which the Spanish thinker devotes the dense and passionate pages of his essay. And it is precisely with regard to books that a new and, in some respects, disturbing phenomenon has emerged in the twentieth century: their overproduction. In the view of the Madrid-born philosopher, this calls for a profound rethinking and a decisive change in the role and duties of the librarian, who will be called upon to guide readers unable to navigate the vast sea of the countless volumes that are continually being printed and sent to bookshops. Thus, the librarian can no longer be merely an anonymous cataloguist and distributor of books, but must become a person with the very specific mission of advising and educating readers. The librarian – writes Ortega y Gasset – “has hitherto concerned himself chiefly with the book as a thing, as a material object. From now on, he must deal with the book as a living function: he must exercise a sort of vigilance and become the tamer of the enraged book’. This is no easy task because, as the author goes on to say, ‘not only are there now too many books, but they are constantly being printed in excessive numbers. Many of them are useless or foolish, and their presence and preservation constitute a further burden on humanity, already bent too low under the weight of other responsibilities”.

   

José Ortega y Gasset
: The Librarian’s
Mission, Elliot, 62 pp., 10 euros