Section of Social Science Libraries

All the beautiful words in the many theoretical articles in library journals seem to belong to a world of virtual reality that has never tasted the daily sweat of making a bibliographical search, the utter despair of answering an unanswerable question, the anger over technical breakdowns.

To the librarian in the front line it is, to use a mild statement, a never-ending wonder to see how library managers forge ahead in implementation of technical 'newties', in launching grandiose plans in information technology, in information retrieval. With the newest catchword: "The quicker, the better."
If we were to stop for a moment. And Think. How then would we build a new library collection suited for studies in the social sciences?

A new library not for theology or the humanities, - theirs is a world of accumulation of knowledge, built layer upon layer, to be applied on the past, or the past in the present. But never the future.

A new library not for medicine or the technical sciences, - theirs is a world of application of physical skills, to be applied now or in the future. But never on the past.

We have a college with students in the social sciences. In this setting students are specializing in Development Studies. What kind of library do they need? What will be our collection development policy and how are our librarians going to guide them?

This paper will advocate a collection building based on extremely biased books with no standards of accuracy or quality. A collection with massive quantities of pretence and trivia and vulgarity. And it will advocate either shrewd of shallow-brained reference librarians adept in obstructing the students in their search for books with 'the truth'.

The main thesis behind this devilish scheme is that knowledge and truth in the social sciences is not to be found in a library. Knowledge and truth you find and develop in your mind; to be tested in the confrontation with the society whose development you are studying.