Knowledge is Power. So, None for YOU

The University of Chicago's Regenstein Library is this month's winner for Worst Library Ever. Aside from being designed by the same hack who did the drawings for UIC (the Concrete Monstrosity--I speculate that Daley had a friend who needed to move about 800 tons of cement, so the Mayor founded a university), the Reg has the distinction of being the unfriendliest, least accessible library in the country. No one is really sure what goes on in the building--you can't get in. They give day passes (no borrowing!) to people who either: get an affidavit from an archivist at another major city library or who don't live in Chicago and are willing to surrender their ID for the duration of their visit. Even alumni have to pay steep fees to get beyond the security desk. May I ask if you noticed who is therefore excluded from visiting?

That's correct: residents of the city of Chicago. If you live here, you cannot get in the door. Non-residents, sure; residents? No. What the fuck?

The ironing, naturally, is delicious. Part of the Reg's collection is Frank Wakely Gunsaulus' rare book library, which the great man was good enough to donate upon his death. A famed theologian and collector of rare manuscripts at the turn of the twentieth century, Gunsaulus also persuaded J. Ogden Armour (of meatpacking fame) to bankroll the Illinois Institute of Technology, a trade school that Gunsaulus hoped would fill the educational void left by those institutions that fled the city to avoid the waves of eastern European immigrants who were then flooding Chicago. IIT still exists, right in the center of historic Bronzeville, and you can tour it by taking the green line south from downtown.

Gunsaulus, as a champion of public learning, would no doubt be quite dismayed that his prized collection, said to be one of the finest in the world, sits behind a barricade to the public, seldom accessed, seldom cited, and available to a smaller group of people each year.

The Joseph L. Regenstein Library--a true failure as a repository of knowledge.

*I should note that, as a kickass intellectual, I have access to the Reg. It was damn hard to get, I might add.