Sacking a Palace of Culture; New York Times, 4/21/12

Edmund Morris, New York Times; Sacking a Palace of Culture: "Mr. Marx says soothingly that all those dislocated volumes will be retrievable on request within 24 hours. I remember when you could call up a big old tome, speckled and redolent of the 19th century, in 40 minutes. I remember drawer after heavy drawer of card catalog, wherein you could see and feel with your fingers the comparative outputs of say, Daniel Defoe and Isaac Asimov — to the latter’s disadvantage. I remember when the library elected to spend its budget on the enrichment, rather than the impoverishment, of cultural resources."