The great library tradition – Ashley de Vos’s National Trust lecture

Ashley de Vos will deliver this month’s National Trust lecture on ‘The Great Library Tradition as a Repository of Knowledge’. The lecture will be delivered

online at 6.30 p.m. on Thursday, November 26.  

Those interested could use the following links to join the lecture

Zoom: https://bit.ly/36FLC8w

Website: https://thenationaltrust.lk/news/(which will provide the link)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-National-Trust-Sri-Lanka(which will provide the link)

From time immemorial man has documented what he saw, observed, drawn on the wall of the caves. This changed when man learnt to write.  The memorised word was now committed in writing.  First clay tablets were used, inscriptions on stone, and later on specially prepared leaves, on animal skins, on parchment, on papyrus, on ola, on palmyrah, on bamboo, on cloth, on silk, collected into grouping called manuscripts.  After the Chinese invented paper, a limited number of books appeared and this led to a restricted spread of knowledge.  Books were still valuable as they were mostly written and illustrated by hand.  It was the printing press that was responsible for the extension and ultimate spread of knowledge across the continents.  Books were stolen, acquired, read, discussed, criticized, accepted or rejected and much of this material ended up in institutions called libraries.  This is in fact where our story begins.  Unfortunately or fortunately we have now come to the final stage of this spread of knowledge. 

Deciphering correct and fake knowledge is becoming impossible, there is so much out there, it has become a complex task.  Will we ever known what is correct and will knowledge as we know it cease to exist?  Will man eventually vegetate to a mass of matter that will only indulge to a pre-programmed bidding?

Deshamnya Vidyajothi Ashley de Vos is the Senior Vice President of The National Trust.  Trained as an architect, landscape architect, in conservation and heritage management and in urban renewal, he is a Fellow of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects and Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects for 46 years.