Exiled from books

It was startling to read a National Library staff member state the obvious truth that ‘‘libraries tangibly connect us to the wider world’’ and deplore that we have been ‘‘exiled in our own homeland’’ (Opening up worlds to us all, Nov 25).

Does Fiona Oliver actually work at the same institution that’s removing more than 400,000 books because they were published overseas and in the 20th century?

Oliver wrote about the delights of touching and viewing actual objects. Isn’t that also true for books?

Oliver even dares to question the quality of a digital experience as compared to direct contact with objects. Yet, the National Library is consigning the 400,000 books to be made available only digitally through the Internet Archive.

The disposal policy has upset many book lovers. We agree with Emily Dickinson: ‘‘There is no frigate like a book to take us Lands away.’’ Ironically, poems written by many poets will be ‘‘exiled’’ to ‘‘lands far away’’ unless the cull is stopped.

Dolores Janiewski, Highbury