“If a book provides context for a document, a library provides context for all of human knowledge, knowledge that may be found in many documents and all types of information. If a book provides a sense of history of what came before and what is likely to come after the page being read, libraries provide a history of civilization.”
— Marilyn Gell Mason, “The Yin and Yang of Knowing” in Dædalus, Fall 1996.

The Impact of Technology on Culture: A Case Study from Eric Gill

“Up to the industrial revolution, as in Greece and Rome, however servile the condition of the labourer, he was at any rate a human being.

“And in the absence of miles of cheap drawing paper, architects, much against their wills no doubt, had to rely on the workmen as being possessed of a considerable deal of knowledge, initiative, sensibility, and responsibility.

“You had to leave a certain amount of responsibility to the workman simply because you couldn't draw everything out on paper.

“You couldn't draw everything simply because there wasn't paper enough.

“Rolls of ‘detail paper’ didn't exist!”

From: “Sculpture on Machine-Made Buildings”, 1936 (in It All Goes Together: Selected Essays by Eric Gill, 1944).

The current age of calm technology.

The current age of calm technology.
Originally uploaded by dam.