<commit_before>This week, I want to nerd out about books. Specifically, I want to nerd out about places that *collect* lots of books—whether for sale or perusal.

* [This thread](https://twitter.com/MacResColls/status/913842397800534016) from the McMaster Rare Books official Twitter account is remarkable for its brazenness—who said librarians were shy?
	* Speaks to some of the great challenges faced by libraries and archives.
	* Led me to learn about the [Bertrand Russell Research Centre](http://russell.mcmaster.ca), including [its origin story](http://www.mcmaster.ca/russdocs/purchase.htm).
* Interested in studying LIS.
* Some of my favourite libraries:
	* LAC (visited several times for talks). The reference room is incredible, and its murals never fail to draw my eye.
	* The VPL main branch (visited this summer). Its height, its views, its reading desks.
	* LAC Gatineau (never visited, read about). They built it with a giant outdoor amphitheatre specially designed for screening archival films from their collection.
	* Dana Porter library at UW (visited a few times when I was younger). It taught me how exciting an institutional library can be; whenever I got the chance to wander there a while, I gladly took it. Its “tomes”, as I excitedly described them to my mom, inspired in me a great love for university libraries.
	* uOttawa’s Morrisset Library (visited often). With stacks stretching out in long, uninterrupted rows, I know the way to my favourite sections by heart. Such friendly staff, too. Not visually appealing, but Dana Porter taught me that a library’s appearance has little to do with its capacity to enchant.
	* WPL Harper Branch (visited often during summers past). The large glass wall, facing out on the farm fields and the conservation woodlot, always offered an interesting view in the event of a dry book.
	* WCI library (visited countless times over the lunch hour in high school). I never spent much time among the bookshelves, but time there spent with friends new and old showed me how a library can function as a space for community as much as one for books.
* Some of my favourite bookstores:
	* [Old Goat Books](http://www.oldgoatbooks.com) in Waterloo. Michael is such a pleasure to chat with, and I can always walk away with something unexpected.
	* [Twice Loved Books](http://twicelovedbooks.ca/index.html) in Elora. Went only once, this summer, but what a pleasure it is! An impressive selection, with prices far below other stores. Plus, Elora is a great place to spend an afternoon.
	* All Books in Ottawa. I almost inevitably stop by when I walk by—which is often, because it’s right beside my grocery store and movie theatre. Even if I don’t go in, I often peruse the extensive sidewalk sales, crates of books sitting on the sidewalk at drastically reduced prices. (I also made [a map with favourite or to-visit bookstores in Ottawa](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZBLsSKg4FZ1kOrL54KVrkWpFvFY&usp=sharing), perfect for a bookstore crawl. Book nerdery is the best nerdery.)
	* [The Bookshop](http://www.bookspenticton.com) in Penticton, BC. We spent an hour here this summer, and it wasn’t nearly enough. They estimate they have about a quarter million books in stock—only half of which are out on the floor. (Literally, in some cases.) [***add photo***]
	* [Swipe Design | Books + Objects](http://swipe.com) in Toronto. I wish there was a design bookstore like Swipe here in Ottawa. I’ve looked, to no avail. (The National Gallery bookstore is the closest thing, but it’s cut back its design section and its prices are silly.) Such a special place.
* Reflections on libraries, in the words of others:
	* Eco: «Although we sometimes go to the library to find a book that we already know exists, we often go to the library to find out *if* a book exists, or to discover books about which we have no previous knowledge.» (*How to Write a Thesis*, 54)
	* <NAME>, director of the National Library of Argentina, spoke on the role that archives play: as he put it, they reflect a society’s soul, its aspects both beautiful and ugly. He was speaking of his library’s project to document the “disappeared” of Argentina’s “Dirty War.”<commit_msg>reoder draft, extend a bit<commit_after>This week, I want to nerd out about books. Specifically, I want to nerd out about places that *collect* lots of books, and enable us to enjoy them well into the future.

To start, here’s [a surprisingly fiery thread from the McMaster Rare Books official Twitter account](https://twitter.com/MacResColls/status/913842397800534016). Who said that librarians were shy? I like this thread, too, because it speaks to some of the great challenges faced by libraries and archives: though they collect essential traces of the past, they lack so much  of the support required to do so. (This thread also led me to learn about McMaster’s [Bertrand Russell Research Centre](http://russell.mcmaster.ca), including [its origin story](http://www.mcmaster.ca/russdocs/purchase.htm)—very cool stuff!)

At the Library and Archives last year, I attended a talk by <NAME>, director of the National Library of Argentina. Part of his talk touched on his library’s project to document the “disappeared” of Argentina’s “Dirty War.” In connection with that, he spoke on the role that archives play: as he put it, they reflect a society’s soul, its aspects both beautiful and ugly. As institutions dedicated to collecting traces of the past, they build a trove of evidence, waiting to be inspected. What a wonderful task!

In this spirit of loving libraries, I’d like to talk about some of my favourite ones:

* Library and Archives Canada. The reference room is incredible, and its murals never fail to draw my eye.
* Vancouver Public Library main branch. Its height, its views, its reading desks.
* WPL Harper Branch (visited often during summers past). The large glass wall, facing out on the farm fields and the conservation woodlot, always offered an interesting view in the event of a dry book.
* WCI library (visited countless times over the lunch hour in high school). I never spent much time among the bookshelves, but time there spent with friends new and old showed me how a library can function as a space for community as much as one for books.
* Dana Porter library at the University of Waterloo. It taught me how exciting an institutional library can be; whenever I got the chance to wander there a while, I gladly took it. Its “tomes”, as I excitedly described them to my mom, inspired in me a great love for university libraries.
* uOttawa’s Morrisset Library (visited often). With stacks stretching out in long, uninterrupted rows, I know the way to my favourite sections by heart. Such friendly staff, too. Not visually appealing, but Dana Porter taught me that a library’s appearance has little to do with its capacity to enchant.

* Interested in studying LIS.

To close, I’d like to share a quotation from <NAME>: “Although we sometimes go to the library to find a book that we already know exists, we often go to the library to find out *if* a book exists, or to discover books about which we have no previous knowledge.” (*How to Write a Thesis*, 54) This depiction of library, as a place for the possible—that’s my greatest draw.

* Some of my favourite bookstores:
	* [Old Goat Books](http://www.oldgoatbooks.com) in Waterloo. Michael is such a pleasure to chat with, and I can always walk away with something unexpected.
	* [Twice Loved Books](http://twicelovedbooks.ca/index.html) in Elora. Went only once, this summer, but what a pleasure it is! An impressive selection, with prices far below other stores. Plus, Elora is a great place to spend an afternoon.
	* All Books in Ottawa. I almost inevitably stop by when I walk by—which is often, because it’s right beside my grocery store and movie theatre. Even if I don’t go in, I often peruse the extensive sidewalk sales, crates of books sitting on the sidewalk at drastically reduced prices. (I also made [a map with favourite or to-visit bookstores in Ottawa](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZBLsSKg4FZ1kOrL54KVrkWpFvFY&usp=sharing), perfect for a bookstore crawl. Book nerdery is the best nerdery.)
	* [The Bookshop](http://www.bookspenticton.com) in Penticton, BC. We spent an hour here this summer, and it wasn’t nearly enough. They estimate they have about a quarter million books in stock—only half of which are out on the floor. (Literally, in some cases.) [***add photo***]
	* [Swipe Design | Books + Objects](http://swipe.com) in Toronto. I wish there was a design bookstore like Swipe here in Ottawa. I’ve looked, to no avail. (The National Gallery bookstore is the closest thing, but it’s cut back its design section and its prices are silly.) Such a special place.
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.05998403466757897, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0057019044360816515, 'mean_word_length': 4.474406991260924, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 6, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 6, 'https://': 4, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 6, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '2333268', 'n_tokens_mistral': 2339, 'n_tokens_neox': 2237, 'n_words': 1369}