No one really likes change. And pretty frequently, when faced with change they take to the pen (cell phone, computer, typewriter) to complain. As I’ve searched through the New York Times newspaper archive, I’ve realized that people have been complaining about change in libraries just about forever.
I’ve been finding so many fun and ridiculous letters that I thought it would be fun to share!
Today’s Library Curmudgeon in History is Professor Jevons, who believed that novels were causing moral decay in the youth of America.
“school boys who took to novel reading to any great extent never made much progress in after life. They neglected real practical life for a sensually imaginative one and suffered accordingly from the enervating influence”
cough video games cough
“Time was when the paper duty and various cunningly devised stamp duties were supposed to save the common people from the demoralizing effects of literature”
cough internet cough
Anyway, things never really change do they?